What’s the best free PC clean-up tool?
Ccleaner was driving me nuts so I uninstalled it. Is there a better (preferably free) alternative for performing PC clean-ups? I’m sure you’ve covered this subject before, but I can’t find it in an old issue. Neil Dunford
Like many former Ccleaner users, we’ve been disappointed by the program’s decline over the past few years, though we know it still has many fans. Particularly annoying are the ads it now displays for its paid-for Pro edition, the Ccleaner Browser and products from Avast (which bought Ccleaner’s developer in 2017).
Our favourite Ccleaner alternative is Bleachbit ( www. bleachbit.org), an open-source program that works in much the same way, but is free to use – with no nags to upgrade to a paid-for version, and none of the bundled junk that has plagued Ccleaner. Bleachbit lacks some of Ccleaner’s features, such as a registry cleaner and startup manager, but Windows handles these tasks perfectly well by itself.
Bleachbit is very easy to use: simply browse the list of options on the left-hand side of the program window to view details of what they are and the benefits of cleaning them. Select all the items you want to delete (which include data from one of our favourite browsers, Brave) and click the Preview button ( 1 in our screenshot) to see how much space you’ll save. Click the Clean button 2 to proceed with the clean-up, then click Delete 3 to confirm you want to permanently wipe the files (you can click Abort to cancel while deletion is in progress). Bleachbit will remove the unwanted junk, free up disk space and speed up your PC.
Do you need our advice on what software to use? Just email us at letters@computeractive.co.uk