14 DAY TRIAL // System maintenance tools for Windows OS are no longer scarce. On the contrary, their number just keeps getting bigger and the suites keep adding more instruments to improve performance to the max. Although CleanMyPC is a new entry in the category, the developer has been in the business for a few years with a similar product for Mac users.
It may be at the beginning of the road but the application already comes with a mature price: 14.95EUR for 6 months or double the fee (29.95EUR) for a lifetime license. You can use the trial edition to check the benefits it brings to the system, but you won’t be able to test all its features because of a bunch of limitations applied to certain modules.
The bundle includes tools for cleaning up areas of the system where unnecessary files generally reside and thus free up space on the disk. Cache data of gathered by your web browsers is also targeted; all major web navigators (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Chrome) are supported.
Besides its cleaning abilities CleanMyPC brings to the table a set of utilities designed to maintain the performance of the system on a steady line as well as improve it a notch. You benefit from an uninstaller that also checks the registry for leftovers, a registry cleaner, a manager for startup items and one for gadgets and browser extensions.
CleanMyPC’s cleaner is not an elaborate tool and it can very easily be handled by beginner users. Its action affects areas storing caches and logs of web browsers and the operating system, help files available in any application’s installation folder, software language files and junk data that accumulates during system usage (temporary items and old restore points).
We managed to successfully remove all cache data of the aforementioned web browsers. Unless you have one of the browsers opened the application will run its cleaning routine nice and smooth.
On the other hand, in the case of help files CleanMyPC detected only CHM items. The problem is that this type of data is gradually replaced by more visually enticing alternatives. On our test system, despite the plethora of software installed, many of which had their help file in CHM format, the cleaner managed to detect only one. This occurred because the search was not performed in all the folders of the installed app, but only in the first sub-folder.
As far as restore points are concerned, the bundle will not eliminate all of them from your hard disk in its chase for more free space. Its code instructs to preserve the latest restore point instead of a larger bunch. However, it would be nice if users could have a say on this one, at least for flexibility’s sake.
One extremely important aspect that needs to be mentioned is the fact that it will not create backups of your modifications so that you can revert the system to its previous state in case something goes awfully wrong. This would not be too big of an issue in the case of temporary data and cache, but when it comes to help files and languages a safety net would be nice to have.
After running the cleaning routine we managed to increase the amount of free space on the system drive from 18.3GB to 21.2GB. The entire operation took less than three minutes to complete and the suite successfully purged all the folders it targeted.
At the top of the list in Utilities module is the file shredder. It is a simple tool built to wipe beyond recovery files and folders. It sports three wipe algorithms, all of them rewriting the file with zeroes before removing it from the disk. As you up the security level the number of rewrites increases, three being the maximum.
Unlike other similar tools, the file wiper in CleanMyPC does an awesome job without appealing to famous algorithms such as Peter Gutmann or Bruce Schneier. We were not able to recover a shred of information of the wiped data as the app corrupted the content to a high extent and also renamed the items and their extension.
The uninstaller available in the bundle is not the regular tool that runs the uninstall routine of every application. It also scans the registry for left over data for a more thorough job. This is a good measure and increases the chances of a clean software removal, but as our tests showed the process will still miss plenty of entries.
Your registry can also get a scrub with CleanMyPC. The cleaner for this part of Windows seems to be very well built, apparently with clear instructions to stay away from dangerous sections, since none of the entries we analyzed presented the slightest threat to the stability of the system. Most of them were in most recently used section and plenty were just empty keys as a result of inefficient uninstall procedure.
However, as a precaution, all respectable registry cleaners on the market come with a backup plan which allows restoration of the system to a previous state. CleanMyPC does not offer such an option, setting it a bit behind the Windows trend regarding this matter.
The startup manager in the suite is as simple as can be, providing an extremely short number of options. You can use it to either enable or disable the listed entries to run after the operating system loads. Other than this there are some brief details about the entries: application name and publisher (if available) and path to the executable file.
Last in the utilities section is the Gadgets and Extensions Manager. According to its description it should help you create a cleaner environment by eliminating some Windows components you do not require. In our case CleanMyPC rooted out Microsoft games, Windows Media Player (which, oddly enough, I do use), Windows DVD Maker and Tablet PC Components.
Additionally, browser extensions are also displayed in this section, so if you have a toolbar that hinders your web navigation in any way, or a plug-in you no longer use, feel free to remove them as this would also up the performance of the web browser.
CleanMyPc has just been released, but it shows a sturdy frame and development, with no module acting in disagreement with the purpose of the application. The only thing missing from the suite are more functions and a few features absolutely necessary when performing maintenance actions on Windows, such as a backup option that would allow you to revert the system to its previous state should something go wrong.
Despite featuring only three security levels the file shredder does an awesome job. The uninstaller is better than most on the market as it also checks for left-overs, and in plenty of cases it manages to uncover and eliminate them. Also on the downside is the price, as it does not accurately reflect the current set of features and options available in the suite. Support for drag and drop in the Secure Erase would make working with the utility a much comfortable process. The price is a bit high at the moment, but the one-time fee for a lifetime license could prove a very sweet deal the moment the set of features expands.
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