CCleaner 6 Professional

Perhaps we're all somewhat familiar with machine slowdowns, one way or another. With use, it's not uncommon to have programs accumulate on your drive and hamper the performance of your computer: more often than not, reinstalling Windows is the go-to solution, but is it really needed to do something so radical?

As it turns out, certain software can make quick work of the things slowing down your machine. CCleaner Professional is a well-known solution, and the newly released v.6 seeks to boost computer performance in multiple ways: clean your registry, erase your browser's cookies, update your drivers, and manage other system-related tasks — all in the name of performance.

With all that's provided here, it's surprising to see everything being so tightly compartmentalized. This leads to an intuitive experience, whereby any type of user, casual or otherwise, can get a lot of use out of such a program. As a starter, the Health Check tab keeps you on top of your system: privacy, space, speed, and security are all analyzed by the tool, and all it takes to correct any deficiencies is pressing of the "Make it better" button.

If you're more particular about your stuff, head over to Custom Clean and tweak things to your liking: delete your browser's cache, cookies, and download history, erase your machine's temporary files, clean your logs, network data usage, and so forth. This effectively allows users to customize the way the cleaning process is to be handled: for instance, if you don't want the tool to tamper with your memory dumps, you can modify that.

To make life easier, the newly-introduced Performance Optimizer menu seeks to take a more active role in supporting the performance of your computer: upon analyzing the apps running in the background, the software calculates their overall impact on the system's performance. Those processes can be put into sleep mode automatically, allowing system resources to be more readily prioritized for other tasks, as well as waked back up when they are needed.

To further harness the power of your components, as well as ensure that everything is running as intended, the Driver Updater menu offers users with a one-stop shop for their driver needs: anything that needs to be updated will be displayed there, along with the relevant download links. The Software Updater works similarly, offering users to get their apps to the latest version with just a few clicks.

There's a lot that CCleaner Professional can do, and perhaps the most notable bit is how it manages to bring together such a comprehensive toolset, all while remaining accessible to anyone.