14 DAY TRIAL // Cleaning your computer every now and then results in increased computer performance. And more than often, you will free up some space by erasing the junk files and the obsolete files. Temporary folders just keep accumulating data and many users do not even know where these are located in order to perform a manual cleaning.
So a software solution comes in handy for less experienced users, especially when it is strapped with all the help one needs for successfully carrying out the operation. There are many applications capable of "sweeping" the junk files and temporaries stored in hard to reach places.
Clean Center seems to be a good compromise between functionality, good looks and price. However, the options area is not as rich as it should, considering that similar applications, with the same price tag offer more and are highly flexible. Of course, the looks have nothing to do with the functionality, but this aspect has to be taken into consideration when it comes to the price.
The presentation of the code lines constituting Clean Center is absolutely stunning. Everything is in its place (menus running down in the left side and the actions in the right). Pretty unusual for a software that places the buttons in this sort of way is that the first one is About menu. Its traditional place is at the end of all the options as it is the least important of all. Users do not pay too much attention to the developer and would rather test the functionality and ease of use of the application.
As the application will not start scanning everywhere by itself, it needs to know the locations that the user wants to be cleaned. This can be achieved in the Path menu. Eerie enough is the fact that the drives detected on your computer are not labeled and you can recognize them only by their size. This comes as a drawback as some users partition the hard drive in drives very close in size (and sometimes there are several drives with the exact same size) and displaying at least the letters if not the name would be of much help in such cases.
The flexibility Clean Center displays allow adding folders to be included in the scan (if the user does not want to scan the entire drive) or excluded. The Control Panel on the right provides the appropriate option for that.
The Filter area contains a total of 60 filters. Nevertheless, the software is not limited to this and the user can either change, delete or even some personal extensions to be included in the cleaning process. A brief description and the type of the filter are provided in the window for avoiding the semi-darkness in the Path menu. Unlike the common conception when it comes to adding filters in computer cleaning softwares, Clean Center lets the user add the filter and decide if excluded or included in the wiping operation.
Scan button permits the user to check the system for the files defined in Filters. In order to delete them the user has to go to Clean section and choose the areas of the computer that should be cleaned. The list is impressive enough for a newbie, however, an advanced user knows that there are some other parts of the computer that should be checked and cleaned like the traces left behind by user's softwares.
The developer knows that some cookies are important to the user so a cookie manager has been provided so that cookies for some websites be preserved at users' wish. Filter additional options (Options menu in the top right corner) include configuring the software to look for invalid shortcut files and empty folders and delete them.
The Good
Clean Center looks very good and users should not have a problem working with it. During our testing nothing unfortunate happened. The Cookie Manager is highly appreciated as it allows you to keep some of the cookies you use on a daily basis (e.g. email user account and password).
From the first installation you have 45 days to decide upon buying it or not. During this period you can use the program fully featured.
The Bad
Implementing an option that gave the users the possibility of adding special locations in the registry to be cleared would greatly increase the value of the application.
The Truth
All in all, Clean Center is a good application with which to do your computer sweeping. It is reliable, only that the price is not the best one considering the lightness of the options.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
