14 DAY TRIAL // Disk cleaning utilities are a must on everybody's computer. Cleaning your disks will make your computer perform better and you will save a lot of time as your machine will search through your files faster.
The more you use your computer the slower it will get. This happens because Windows applications create temporary files and store them on your computer. At the termination of the application the files should be automatically removed, but there are some "lazy" ones that stay behind.
I found a utility on the Internet that claims to clean my disks of obsolete files, duplicates and broken shortcuts. Its name is Giant Desk Cleaner and the developer is Giant Matrix. The producer gives the users the chance to evaluate the software before deciding to buy it. The trial period is of 30 days and the full version costs $34.95.
I was pretty impressed by the looks of the application when I first opened it. What can I say, everything is in order, drop-down menus to the left, submenus to the right, beautiful colors and very nice icons. The professional aesthetics made me think I am dealing with an extremely useful utility that works fine and will not create any problems if properly configured.
Let's browse through the features of Giant Disk Cleaner and see what it is all about. The three menus on the left of the application window are Disk Cleaner, which includes deleting obsolete and duplicate files, broken shortcuts and files shredder. The Backup menu is the second one in line, followed by the Settings menu.
We will not linger too much in the Backup menu as it does not have anything special. The single option it includes is the Restore Backups one. Activating it, displayed a blank window where I could do absolutely nothing. Turning to the Help menu I discovered that "From the Giant Disk Cleaner restore screen you can select to restore earlier operations from all backup and zip files created during previous cleaning processes. If you have cleaned files from your system using the 'Backup Files first, then delete' or 'Zip Files first, then delete' options, you can use the Giant Disk Cleaner Restore feature to restore these files back to your computer."
OK, so I proceeded to the Disk Cleaner menu. The Options in here include a series of three wizards that will help you get rid of the junk on your computer. For obsolete and duplicate files you get to choose the folders and drives you want to clean and the next step is press the Search button. The software does a swift scan of your machine and will display the files it considers trash. Choose all those you want removed and go to Erase Options.
The user can select to send the files to Recycle Bin or Erase Permanently. Some other options are Secure Erase using 3 passes, Gutmann method (35 passes), the NSA guidelines (7 passes) or the Russian GOST (5 passes). The other two options in here are backing up or zipping the files before getting rid if them.
I forgot to mention that if you right-click on one of the junk files you will be provided with a menu allowing you to select all of the obsolete files, remove them from the list without deleting, see the file's properties, or filter the results by typing in the extension of the file or its name.
The Duplicate files wizard functions in the same way. The Files Shredder's menu purpose is dragging in its window the files you want to delete from your computer. The same Erase Options preserve for each of the submenus.
The Settings menu covers the configuration for all the menus and submenus of the application. The user can add files that s/he considers junk or remove some formats that the software includes as default. Program Settings will give you the chance to set Giant Disk Cleaner to load with Windows or request a confirmation before any erase is being performed.
The Good
The good looks are not the only thing that can be mentioned in this section. The user can also use the erase functions for permanently delete the obsolete files or any other file on the computer (Files Shredder).
The Bad
There used to be a minor bug that did not allow you to erase anything, but that has been fixed already.
Compared to similar softwares the price is a little higher than I expected. But that is just my personal opinion.
The Truth
I talked to the developer of the software regarding the inclusion of all the erasing methods the software is equipped with. Personally I do not find very much use to them, but if by any chance you want to erase a file and never retrieve it again, then these methods come in very handy.
If the support team will answer the users as fast as they reacted to this review, than the software is almost worth all that money.
Take a look at Easy Cleaner, you may be surprised.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
