Even with today’s huge hard drives, it’s not hard to fill them up, and an excessive number of files on your computer can affect both your available drive space and the efficiency of Windows.
Along comes Fast Cleaner, an extremely easy-to-use program that identifies nonessential files and presents them to you for deletion, thereby freeing space and reducing the size of the file table. The latest release (4.7) also includes Clean Assistant, which clears your Internet cache, cookies, and history, as well as other files not identified by Fast Cleaner. (The ratings in this review relate only to Fast Cleaner, as it is the primary target of the review.)
Fast Cleaner is thorough but cautious—it identifies files generally safe to delete, such as zero-byte (empty) files, temporary files used by programs, and memory dumps from a system or program crash. It automatically excludes system files, ensuring it won’t interfere with Windows operation. As a precaution, Fast Cleaner also examines your system as it removes the files and won’t delete any it thinks might be in use.
By default, Fast Cleaner lets you immediately delete (move to the Recycle Bin) the files it identifies by pressing the Clean button or view them by selecting the Details button on the initial search display. Click the Details button, deselect any files you wish to exclude, and then, with a single click of the Clean button, move the rest of the files to the Recycle Bin.
Fast Cleaner offers some nice bonus features, including the ability to select different file types for eradication. (All are generally safe for deletion, although a few, such as search results files, might be files you wish to keep.) From this display (click the Options button), you can also opt for immediate deletion of identified files or change Fast Cleaner’s confirmation prompts. As an odd though beneficial bonus, Fast Cleaner lets you change the default programs that Windows opens for viewing files, exploring your hard drives, and drive checking and defragmenting.
On our first run of Fast Cleaner, it found over 3,600 files consuming nearly 200MB of drive space. It is not as thorough as other system cleaners, as it doesn’t make recommendations about items such as incorrect system settings and bad Windows Registry entries. The upside of this is you don’t have to fret about which recommendations are safe.
Fast Cleaner’s new partner, Clean Assistant, isn’t as helpful or user-friendly as Fast Cleaner. By default, Clean Assistant dumps your Internet files without interaction from you. Because the Fast Cleaner dumps cookies (including those from favorite sites with extensive customizations) and cached Web sites, you might want to review the files first (there is an option for this).
Clean Assistant lets you exclude files you want to save, but the process is rather torturous. If you do not want to dump all the files Clean Assistant finds, you have to individually select files to delete rather than selecting all the files and then unselecting the few you want to save. Optionally, you can select only to clean a single category, but you cannot select multiple categories (history and cache, but not cookies, for example).
Clean Assistant also offers the options to empty your Windows temporary folder (all items not used since a date you specify) and program history files, but these functions are even more restricted. You cannot view the files before deletion, and these are files that might affect system performance—or at least your ability to work efficiently.
Consequently, if you want to use Clean Assistant for these tasks, we recommend you change the default settings for temporary folder cleanup from three days to 30, have Fast Cleaner move those files to a backup folder (an option but not the default), and review the list of program history file categories it wants to delete. Optionally, you may want to skip this program altogether. by Jennifer Farwell About Smart Computing Magazine:
Smart Computing Magazine helps users of all skill levels stay up-to-date and improve their PC productivity. It provides easy-to-follow tutorials that cover hardware, software, internet, and troubleshooting issues. Each issue of Smart Computing contains product reviews and much more, all in a plain-English writing style that you won't find anywhere else. Please click here to visit Smart Computing Magazine Website! Please click here to subscribe to Smart Computing Magazine! |
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