When you use a computer every day, you get a feel for its
abilities, rhythms, and idiosyncrasies. So it always comes as a bit of a
surprise when—after months or years of use—the device that previously zipped
along like a puppy on speed seems to have slowed, now a geriatric hound no
longer interested in chasing the ball. But as you install stuff and fill the
hard drive and use more precious RAM until the eventual corruption of the
operating system, especially in the Windows registry, where all the
instructions and settings used by everything on the computer are stored.
We've
focused here on PC slowdowns that you can fix. Most of these are problems for Windows users,
but we found a couple of helpers for Mac OS X users, too. The one universal truth of
computers is they get slow and messed up over time. These utilities will help
keep your desktop and laptop running smooth and fast.
CCleaner
The
latest version 4.10 (it updates regularly) tackles cleanup of so much stuff on
a PC: The Windows registry; all the crud left behind by browsers like IE,
Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari; and of course the detritus of Windows
both purposeful (the Recycle Bin) or not (temp files and log files and
more). There's
a Mac version for OS X 10.5 to 10.9 that also goes after the browsers'
left-over rubbish as well as Mac OS X and System Application leftovers. There's
even an integrated application uninstaller tool.
Everything
is logged so you can analyze it before deleting, if desired, but CCleaner is
well regarded for seldom steering customers wrong. (It will zap your cookies if
you're not careful, though, so you may have to sign into websites again.)
Piriform the owner of CCleaner guarantees
the software to be 100 percent free of spyware and adware—not something you see
from every vendor. You can upgrade to a Pro version for $25, which throws in
automatic updates and real-time monitoring for all user accounts at once, if
inclined.
SlimCleaner
SlimCleaner
comes with no restrictions on how many PCs you use it. How it differs is in
aggregating the collective data of many, many SlimWare customers, so it has a
much better idea of what to delete, what to keep, and how to optimize a Windows
PC for the best performance. On top of those socially powered improvements,
SlimCleaner also includes a duplicate file finder, a disk defrag, a disk
analyzer so you get a visual idea of a hard drive's contents, and a wiper that
cleans over the data you thought you deleted (but didn't really, due to the way
hard drives work.) It even works with solid-state drives. And it's portable:
you can run SlimCleaner from a USB drive and take it from PC to PC
without having to re-install it each time.
WinUtilities
Free Edition
It
packs in a lot of optimization for Windows in one package. It's got the usual
cleanup tools including those for browsers, disk defragmenting, and much more,
but all with one clear interface. Users can customize it to run just what
tools they want. There's even a task scheduler to set it up to run as needed
without user input. If you want to clean up even more, the Pro version will set
you back $30 a year for a single computer license.
OnyX
for Mac OS
OnyX
is not a standard cleaning app—Macs don't need standard cleaning. No, it's for
accessing mostly hidden features of the operating system. But it does have a
"cleaning" tab that will help you delete caches, clean up cumbersome
files, and other functions to help performance and peace of mind. OnyX comes in
different flavors for each version of OS X, so download the right version for
your Mac.
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