14 DAY TRIAL // Crashing programs, lack of disk space, fatal errors, blue screens.......everyone's nightmare. Computers have become a part of our everyday life. Shopping, movies, music, culture, games and - for an increasing number of people - work, all of these depend one way or the other on the PC. And what is the purpose of all this if our second nature is failing. What would it be like if your plate disappeared while you eat or to have some money to spend but the malls to vanish? A great problem I'm telling you. In the our world, that didn't happen, yet; except for the mysterious Philadelphia Experiment. Unfortunately, in computer world, it kind of happens every single day.
This should not be such a problem if the computers were for games and entertainment of all kinds only. But things go pretty bad when more of us get their wages from working with a computer. Companies lose lots of time (therefore bucks) in restoring the PCs, the employees smoke lots of cigarettes during all this waiting time, the ozone layer grows thin because the service assistance drives their way to the problem and there you have the long disputed global heating. And because of what? A small program who, installed on a neglected computer, crashed. This, of course, is an exaggerated scenery, but with all those lazy and uninterested computer users, we're getting closer to it day by day. Therefore, something had to be done. If not to get people to be more organized, at least to do their jobs.
Some software developers focused on creating small but powerful applications; if they couldn't solve the entire problem, at least fight its main causes. For Internet access we have firewalls and antivirus programs, for saving energy we have power-off schemes, for saving precious data we have CD's and lately DVDs up to 16GB of storage. For our operating systems, the developers offer us built-in "cleaning lady" and, if not satisfied with it, one can only appeal to complementary softwares such as Disk Washer.
For its 20$ price, Disk Washer does a hell of a job not just by cleaning your unneeded files but also by allowing you to choose where and most of all what you want to delete or not. It is better for you to close all your savable applications because Disk Washer is somehow unable to make a difference between types of temporary files. When you first open this application, you are presented with the default areas that the software detected as possibly "dirty". These areas are split in four major categories: folders and files, miscellaneous, Internet Explorer and Firefox for those who prefer faster and easier browsing.
From Files and Folders the application can clean your "trash can" (Recycle Bin option), active setup temporary folders that is all temporary files (all of them indeed), content indexer folder, user-defined files and folders meaning that you can previously choose what files and folders you want it to clean.
Residual printer and memory dump files can also be safely deleted by this application for they are no longer in use. All in all, this wonder "vacuum cleaner" is able to delete all your unnecessary files including temporary, recent opened files (only their links), dead (shortcut) links, zero-byte files (extreme caution is required for some of these files may contain necessary information), and the job won't be done without asking you first.
Miscellaneous is all about "covering tracks". Besides the default set of plugins, that is a set of files and registry entries of a particular application, information that can be used or not by the software in question, there are several default plugin-checks for programs such as Winamp, WinAce, WordPad or ZoneAlarm, but you can always remove or add other plugins (warning: do it at your own risk). The developer cannot assume any responsibilities for any data loss that may result from adding other plugins, for he ensures that the default is free from any damage inflicted to your computer. And speaking of "stealth" Disk Washer cleans up all MS Office ('97, 2000 or XP) history, Windows scratch pad (clipboard), install from history, Windows Find and Run History for no one and no software to be further able to follow your steps. It is especially useful if you securely saved all you have previously done.
Internet browsing also leaves a series of tracks that can be easily followed. Some of those mean viruses and their creators use these leftovers to harm your computer. Therefore this software is suitable to prevent all these by deleting your temporary Internet files (most of the files that compose a site: images, web pages), cookies (files created by a web site that are used to be read back), history files, typed URL's (Uniform Resource Locator) and offline web pages. Another place where Disk Washer performs its duties is in the downloaded ActiveX/.ocx folder, files that can be the starting line of various malware.
For Firefox things get a little wider because it does some extra tasks like saved form information (everything you typed in web environment), save passwords (designed for instant login) and manage your downloads (records every file you have downloaded). I'm sure that none of these features are meant only to come in your favor but, if you are addicted to privacy, Disk Washer can easily please you by clearing up all this unwanted information.
This application does a little bit more than cleaning and that is allowing you to manage your computer at your free will. Besides a scheduler it has a built-in Startup manager, a programs remover, a file association window where you can connect most file extension to a certain program or task, an orphan search tool with which you can easily find all those not linked or invalid files, shared dll's, help files, application paths and ActiveX control references. It also includes a file explorer and an Internet Explorer manager that enables you to view, modify and even delete favorites, Internet options and temporary Internet files (cache).
The Good
It is a very useful application, with lots of options, and what is more important, it is fully customizable. It runs on little memory and most of all it is extremely fast and accurate.
The Bad
The developer could take into account the looks of the software. Just the looks.
The Truth
Disk Washer is a powerful cleaning tool who does a little more than it appears to be doing and it does a great job.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
