Beginner Builder series 75% done! will probably never be finished. :(

Monday, January 19, 2009

EasyCleaner: The name describes it all.

EasyCleaner is a very handy freeware that helps with disk cleanup, disk space management, registry cleaning, startup manager, and more, all contained in a tiny 3.5mb program. Ok, maybe not so tiny, but for doing so much, I'd say it's worth it.

So some features:

-Registry Cleaner: Simply put, a very comprehensive registry cleaner. Find, then delete either one by one or all, and you can print or save the results. It's actually more comprehensive than CCleaner. You'll notice that EasyCleaner always picks up more entries, but I have never had one problem, so I'd say it just does a better job.

-Uninstaller: Not listed above, but it does have an uninstaller. It's not as thorough as Revo Uninstaller, but a little more complicated than CCleaner's. You actually are able to edit and delete entries. But for uninstalling, it's just the Windows uninstaller. Oh, you can also save or print this as well.

-Duplicate finder: Like a DoubleKiller built in, but less advanced. There are both include and ignore filters, but you can only select one folder on each drive. And again, you can save or print these results.

-Unnecessary files finder: Like CCleaner, but less advanced. Mostly does cookies, temp directories, and temp files (TMP files). It does have a filter, which CCleaner doesn't have. And you can save or print the results.

-Dead shortcut finder: Second most useful part, in my opinion, behind the registry cleaner. This searches the entire computer for shortcuts whose target is incorrect, or gone. This MAJORLY helps with the start menu and desktop. It also shows if the folder is empty after you delete the folder, so you can delete it as well.

-Space Usage: Like i.Disk, but really less complex and smooth. It does have a pie chart, but it's so small it's not very handy. You can zoom in to a folder and it shows the contents and their sizes and such, but to me, it's just much more clumbsy than i.Disk or other programs like it. (Did I mention that you can print or save the results?)

-Startup manager: Probably one of the most handy startup managers I've seen, but it is a little different. Instead of switching things on and off, it shows you if there are invalid or questionable items int he startup. It lets you delete entries as well. And you can save or print the results.

-IE options: To be honest, when you open EasyCleaner, it looks overwhelming, but three of the seventeen options have to do with IE (which I don't use), and they're just one click. You can clear IE temporary files, cookies, and history with the touch of a button.

-Clear MRU: Just like the above, except not IE. Click it to remove the Most Recently Used program list in the start menu.

-Undo: An option that I don't use as much, but is good. EasyCleaner automatically saves everything that you do to the registry. If you do something wrong, just go into EasyCleaner, go to Undo, find your registry entry, and click "Undo". This is a nice feature that CCleaner doesn't have. CCleaner has the option of backing up your registry changes to a hive file (REG filetype), but you can't easily view what's inside them, whereas EasyCleaner backs it up to a REG, but then also keeps track of them for you.

-Updates: Though it might look like an old program, EasyCleaner is actively supported by ToniArts, with the latest update in 2009 (today being January 18.)

Lastly, EasyCleaner has a bunch of Options that you can tweak for every feature listed above.


So that's the features, but here's some other things that make it good.

-Portable: Very handy to take from PC to PC. Since EasyCleaner is kind of like a cleaup suite, it might be the only app you need when cleaning a friends PC. You can also trim it down to probably about 2mb if you ditch the Undo feature and get rid of the languages and help files.

-Fast: Most of the features are very fast, which makes it very handy.


So when it comes to EasyCleaner, I like to say this: for most of the features, there are programs that do a bettere job, like CCleaner for disk cleanup, Revo Uninstaller for uninstaller, DoubleKiller for double finding, i.Disk for a small disk analyzer, and etc. However, I would have to say, if you want one program that does a good job on all of those things, get EasyCleaner. I recommend EasyCleaner anyway in addition to those, partly because, to me, the registry cleaner and shortcut finder makes it worth it and all the other stuff is just extra. But if you want to install as few programs as possible (like I am on my EEE PC 901), use EasyCleaner.

*I did not make the icon at the top. It was made on this site, and I do not clame credit for it.

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