SYSTEM TOOLS
System Cleaner
DITCH CCleaner www.ccleaner.com
CCleaner was once one of our – and probably your – favourite free programs, providing a quick and easy way to remove junk from your computer. But, as we’ve often reported, since it was bought by Avast five years ago, CCleaner has suffered a string of security and privacy flaws, been blacklisted by Microsoft for bundling potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) and annoyed millions of users with its nags to install other Avast tools.
The free edition now teases you with useful features such as Software Updater and Driver Updater, only to inform you – after carrying out an initial scan – that you’ll need to pay $31.95 for a Professional subscription to use them, and its formerly free start-up manager also now requires upgrading.
REPLACE WITH BleachBit www.bleachbit.org
Like CCleaner, BleachBit can remove junk from your PC, free up space and protect your privacy by quickly deleting sensitive files. There’s no paid-for edition, so you won’t see any adverts or nag screens, and its developer doesn’t make any other software, so bundled junk isn’t a problem either. Because it’s open source its code is carefully monitored to ensure nothing dodgy is sneaked in.
BleachBit automatically detects which popular programs are installed on your computer, to provide the relevant cleaning options. You can expand this list by clicking the menu button in the top-left corner, Preferences, then ‘Download and update cleaners from community’ (see screenshot below).
Data Wiper
DITCH Eraser www.snipca.com/41011
Eraser used to be our free program of choice for securely wiping files, folders and drives. But while writing our feature on safely disposing of old storage media, we discovered it isn’t the tool it used to be. First, we were warned by Unchecky ( https://unchecky.com) that Eraser tried to install a PUP, when previously it had been free of junk. Then, on opening the program, we found that the only way to wipe a drive is now to create an ‘erase schedule’, add the drive as a task and choose ‘Run immediately’, which is needlessly convoluted for a quick deletion. So sadly we’ve decided to erase Eraser itself.
REPLACE WITH Permadelete www.snipca.com/41012
Disk Wipe ( www.diskwipe.org) is our preferred tool for wiping drives and partitions in a way that makes their data unrecoverable, because it’s completely free to use and offers a choice of ‘erasing patterns’. However, it’s not designed for shredding individual files and folders, so for that task we recommend Permadelete.
There are three ways to use this tiny free tool: either drag and drop files and folders to its main window; click the Shred Files or Shred Folders buttons on its toolbar; or right-click an item and choose ‘Send to Permadelete’. Select the number of ‘passes’ – how many times Permadelete should overwrite the data – from 1 to 10, and click Shred. Permadelete is also available as an app from the Microsoft Store ( www. snipca.com/41014). It hasn’t been updated for a few years, but works fine in Windows 11.
Driver Updater
DITCH IObit Driver Booster www.snipca.com/41001
IObit software regularly appears on our ‘Named & Shamed’ page, and Driver Booster is one of the company’s worst offenders. Essentially a bunch of adverts masquerading as a driver updater, it’s bundled with optional ‘offers’ (including iTop VPN and Advanced SystemCare), and constantly nags you to upgrade to its Pro version for US$22.95 – implying that by not doing so you’re putting your system at risk. Although you can scan your hard drive for outdated drivers for free, many results are locked unless you pay. Similarly, the program’s impressivesounding Boost and Action Center tabs just contain links to buy other IObit products.
REPLACE WITH Snappy Driver Installer Origin www.snipca.com/41002
Your device drivers should be updated automatically through Windows Update, which means you don’t need a third-party updater. But if you don’t trust Microsoft, or you want a second opinion, then Snappy Driver Installer Origin (SDIO) is your best bet.
Free to use and free of junk, it lets you download either a huge collection of driver packs so you can update drivers offline or just get the indexes required to identify outdated drivers and select which ones to install. SDIO lets you create a system restore point (see screenshot below) in case you encounter any problems. You can also customise its interface to make the information easier to read – we’ve chosen the Coax theme in our screenshot.
Note that Microsoft Defender SmartScreen may flag the program as ‘unrecognised’, but it’s safe to use – check its VirusTotal results at www. snipca.com/41003 – so just click ‘More info’ then ‘Run anyway’.
Disk Defragmenter
DITCH Auslogics Disk Defrag www.snipca.com/41020
Promising to “make your files whole again”, Auslogics Disk Defrag’s website features plenty of praise for the program, but ignores the most
common complaint. Namely that when you install the free defragmenter, it tries to foist unrelated software on you, and much of its interface, including an Auslogics Store tab and list of ‘Also see’ suggestions, is devoted to promoting its paid-for products. Although SSDs don’t need defragging, there’s an option to optimise yours, but clicking it merely prompts you to upgrade to the Pro version – so why bother including it?
REPLACE WITH Defragment and Optimise Drives in Windows
Windows 10 and 11 defragment your hard drives automatically, so there’s no reason to install a third-party program. Type defrag in the search box in the Start menu of either operating system and select ‘Defragment and Optimise Drives’ to access the built-in tool.
This may lack the slick design of Auslogics Disk Defrag, but it offers all the features you need, including the ability to change the frequency of your scheduled defrags and the option to optimise your SSD. The Windows tool also works much faster than the Auslogics program, perhaps because it focuses on the job, rather than looking impressive and trying to get your money.
System Information Tool
DITCH Speccy www.snipca.com/41015
Like its Piriform stablemate CCleaner, we were once big fans of Speccy, but since the company was bought by Avast, it’s been sadly neglected. Whereas CCleaner has received regular updates, poor Speccy hasn’t been touched since May 2018 ( www.snipca.com/41016).
Many programs keep working smoothly long after their last update, but when the purpose of a tool is to provide in-depth information about your computer’s components, it needs to be as up-to-date as possible to ensure accuracy and device compatibility. When we clicked the ‘Check for updates’ link in the most recent version of Speccy (v1.32.740), it merely prompted us to pay $34.95 for Speccy Pro.
REPLACE WITH CPU-Z www.snipca.com/41017
Compared with Speccy’s friendly design, CPU-Z looks dry and technical, but at least it is actively being developed. Version 2 of the program was released earlier this month.
CPU-Z scans your PC and installed hardware to generate a detailed report containing everything from your processor type to the speed of your internal clock. You can explore this data by clicking tabs such as Mainboard, Memory and Graphics, and save the report as a text file.
CPU-Z is invaluable when you need to upgrade specific components and lets you ‘validate’ your specifications (see screenshot left) to compare them with other PC users. You can combine it with sister tool HWMonitor ( www.snipca. com/41018) to check your hardware’s voltage and temperature.
Program Uninstaller
DITCH Revo Uninstaller www.revouninstaller.com
Revo Uninstaller was once the most efficient way to remove unwanted software from your PC but, like many tools we’ve covered here, some of its best options are now limited to its Pro version, which costs US$24.95. It’s particularly frustrating that the free edition only lets you uninstall one program at a time and doesn’t delete remnants of previously removed software. We like Revo’s large-button design, and its handy Hunter Mode for quickly selecting programs to uninstall, but if you want its full benefits you need to pay.
REPLACE WITH BCUninstaller www.bcuninstaller.com
With its handy ability to uninstall multiple programs at once (by holding down the Ctrl key as you select them), BCUninstaller was incredibly effective at removing all the rubbish we downloaded in the course of writing this feature. We like the way it uses appropriately sized blocks to show you which software is taking up the most space, and that you can forcibly remove tools that don’t provide their own uninstallers.
Unlike Revo Uninstaller, BCUninstaller lets you thoroughly wipe leftover registry entries and other junk files, and its Quiet mode (see screenshot below), which you can activate by pressing Shift-Delete, uninstalls programs (and optionally creates system restore points) without you needing to click anything to confirm.