software utilities

[jmh474]

Ok so i dont know if this is the usual type of question yous normal get on here, i run a small electrical repair business eg phone repairs like screens and other parts, i do laptop's and computers as well only like screens keyboards and other hardware i just wanted to ask you opinion on some software like driver updater and pc cleaner iv looked at software like Advanced System Optimizer, SystemSuite 12 Professional and driver booster, i just wanted to know what other people use or would suggest thanks oh i only really deal with windows most of the time

 

[trents]

I would stay far away from those optimizer/driver updater utilities as they are often a front for bundled malware. One optimizer that I do trust is CCcleaner. Recent versions of Windows already check for driver updates and do things automatically like defragging on a regular basis as do security packages like Norton 360.

 

[EarthDog]

I use nothing.

All driver updates are manual for me. I do not trust nor need system optimizers.

 

[jmh474]

so best just to go on computer website and update drivers and clean up manually what about registry cleaning??

 

[EarthDog]

I don't touch my registry at all... ever. lol. Then again, I have images I restore to if I have a problem...

But these are things that I used to do a decade ago... but as time goes on, I do less and less...

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

+1 for Ccleaner.

I also like Defraggler, from the same company.
Ccleaner is very useful plus you can secure erase the cookies and other things it finds.

I also have Glary Utilities, but I prefer Ccleaner.

Ccleaner cleans out the registry too.

 

[c627627]

CCleaner is good for quickly cleaning cookies / web browsing history, a lot of us don't use it to "clean" the registry since we've established that registry cleaners in 21st century are what snake oil was in the 19th century.


But to quickly clean your browser cookies/history, CCleaner is great:
Copy the program shortcut to another location > Right click on the program shortcut > Properties > Next to Target:
"C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner64.exe" /AUTO
> OK
to create a new shortcut that would start the program, clean all, then close the program.


Words to live by are:

Personally I don't trust any third-party registry cleaning programs, especially from unknown sources, for determining that my registry has errors that need to be repaired or deleted. If you were to do a registry scan w/ ten different so-called registry cleaning / repair programs, you'd get ten different scan results. So being that the results would be different based on the program, which one would you trust to clean your registry?

A guy posted here some time ago that used the built-in registry cleaner in CCleaner, after which on reboot Windows refused to load either to normal mode or safe mode. He hadn't made a backup beforehand, and had important data on the drive that he couldn't afford to lose.

If 'optimizers' are not snake oil then what do they remove from registry that measurably improves performance? What were the symptoms of broken PCs, what did they do/not do after being repaired by programs which removed registry entries?

CCleaner has a nice /AUTO switch to clean your web browsing history/cache/recycle bin, but allowing anything to blindly remove registry entries it sees fit is risky business.