Best free PC cleaner of 2022

Although some PCs come with built-in optimizers, they aren’t really effective and still leave your system slowing down. Using a free PC cleaner is equally not advisable as most of them have hidden spyware and ransomware that could infect your computer.

The best PC cleanup tools easily remove junk, delete duplicate files, caches, cookies, and browsing histories, and remove unnecessary processes. Luckily, you can find optimization tools as part of a premium antivirus suite. In addition to speeding up your PC, you also get 100% real-time protection against threats.

I tested 20+ PC optimizers and handpicked the ones with the best performance. Although every antivirus on my list does a great job at cleaning your PC, I found that Norton performed the best.

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1. Norton — Best Overall PC Cleanup and Optimization Tools

Key Features:

Norton has the best PC cleaning and optimization tools. It offers the most advanced cleaning and speedup features that remove clutters and improves system performance. In addition to speeding up my PC, Norton also provided a superior malware protection engine. It detected all forms of malware like adware, viruses, bloatware, and unwanted programs slowing down my PC.

The Startup Manager feature allowed me to disable or delay startup programs affecting my PC boot time. I also found Norton’s Disk Optimization feature pretty helpful. It rearranged file fragments scattered across my PC, improving its performance.

The Norton File Cleaner feature also helped remove clutter, temporary files, and folders, speeding up my system in just a few minutes. I also like how the Graph dashboard shows all changes Norton makes on my PC, monitors processes and their CPU usage, allows me to optimize my boot time, get firewall notifications, and much more.

All these cleanup features are available on all Norton 360 subscriptions. However, if you want to delete browser cookies or shred sensitive files, you will need to add the Norton Utilities Ultimate plan to your antivirus subscription during sign-up, which comes at a low price. This add-on allowed me to search specific folders, remove junk and duplicate files, clean up my browsing history, and restore mistakenly deleted files. However, the feature I like the most is the automated PC care that works even when my PC is idle.

Norton has basic and advanced antivirus plans like the Norton Antivirus Plus, Deluxe, and Ultimate Plus. I prefer the Ultimate Plus plan because it is the most feature-rich plan which can quickly clean and optimize your PC while keeping you protected from all types of malware. You can try Norton risk-free for 60 days using its money-back guarantee.

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2. McAfee — Improve PC Performance and Speed Up Web Pages

Key Features:

McAfee is another antivirus with impressive PC cleaning and optimization features. It offers multiple cleanup features that improve PC performance and even the websites you visit.

During my tests, its QuickClean feature scanned my PC  and removed over 2GB of cookies, junk, and temporary files, freeing up space. Additionally, it provided a report after each scan, showing all the detected junk files as well as a 1-click option to remove them all.

I also found McAfee’s Shredder feature quite helpful. Ordinarily, when you delete a file from your PC, it doesn’t automatically go away. Even if you empty your recycle bin, it can still be recovered. The shredder feature permanently deletes files you choose by overwriting them multiple times, ensuring your file is gone forever.

McAfee has 3 shredding methods — basic shred, safe shred, and complete shred. Basic shred overwrites a file twice before deleting, safe shred overwrites a file 5 times before deleting and finally complete shred overwrites the file 10 times before deleting. You can also shred whole files in the recycle bin at once.

The Shredder lets you choose which files you want to destroy and how thoroughly you want them eliminated

McAfee’s Web Boost feature speeds up your browsing by automatically stopping the auto-playing of videos on the pages you visit. I was surprised that my browsing speeds and battery life noticeably improved when enabled. The only downside is that Web Boost is only available as an extension on Google Chrome for Windows 8 and 10. While McAfee doesn’t match the excellence of the Norton antivirus engine, it worked pretty well in preventing ransomware and other harmful malware that could slow down my PC.

McAfee offers a wide range of subscription plans depending on how many devices you want to protect and optimize your PC. However, the cleanup feature is only available for the Premium and Advanced subscription plans. The Premium plan is very affordable, but I prefer the Advanced plan because it has extra features like identity protection. Luckily, all McAfee plans are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can trust that it will work for you, and you can get a full refund if it doesn’t.

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3. TotalAV — Multiple PC Tune-Up Tools With User-Friendly Interface

Key Features:

TotalAV offers one of the easiest-to-use PC cleaning and optimization tools. The System Tune-Up tab has multiple PC cleaning tools like the Junk Cleaner, Duplicate File Finder, Application Uninstaller, Startup Manager, and Browser cleaner, which provide an easy way to remove unwanted files/programs and speed up my PC. TotalAV’s antivirus engine also detected and blocked all forms of malware that could infect my PC and slow it down.

I like the Startup Manager feature, which helped me control the apps that load upon startup. Such apps usually delay your device’s boot time, and TotalAV’s Startup Manager surprised me with a long list of all the apps that do this on my computer. With a simple toggle switch in the Startup Manager, I could disable them from auto-starting.

The Junk Cleaner feature worked flawlessly during my tests, removing 1.01GB of junk files. Similarly, the Duplicate File Finder also detected and removed about 1.84GB of duplicate files, which freed up space and made my PC faster. I also liked TotalAV’s Smart Scan feature, which provides an all-in-one PC optimizer and malware scanner.

Smart Scan shows several ways to optimize your device and browser performance

The App Uninstaller is one of my favorite features. When you uninstall a program on your PC, it leaves registry files and other residual data that could slow down your PC when they accumulate. However, when I tested TotalAV’s App Uninstaller, it removed all the residual files from my PC.

The browser clean-up feature removed browser history and cookies to ensure my privacy. Advertisers usually use trackers to monitor your internet activities and serve you ads. Fortunately, the Browser cleaner feature removed all cookies from all my browsers simultaneously.

TotalAV’s apps are very intuitive and make cleaning your PC seamless. All TotalAV’s plans come with the System Tune-Up tools that optimize your PC quickly. However, I recommend the Total Internet Security plan as it gives you additional features like a VPN and an ad blocker.

The Total Internet Secuirty plan covers up to 6 devices and ensures all-around protection for your system. You can try all TotalAV’s plans risk-free using the 30-day money-back guarantee.

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4. iolo — Comprehensive and Feature-Rich Cleanup Tools

Key Features:

iolo offers tons of excellent PC cleaning and optimization features. iolo System Mechanic Pro offers multiple optimization tools, including the PC cleanup tools that remove junk files and apps, a startup optimizer that improves PC boot time, speed-up tools for improved PC performance, and a drive scrubber that permanently removes files on drives.

The PC Cleanup tab allowed me to clean different types of junk, including browser history and cookies, registry files, unwanted files, and broken shortcut links. I like that I could remove specific kinds of junk and fix registry issues individually or simply use the 1-click button to remove all the unwanted files on my PC at once, which allowed my system to run faster and more efficiently.

The PC Cleanup took less than a minute to find and remove 200 junk files

I also like iolo’s startup optimizer feature. It analyzed the programs on my PC to determine which programs start automatically when I turned on my PC and gave me the option of stopping unnecessary programs from starting. By switching off items like Adobe Reader, email monitoring, and an automatic updater for a rarely-used program, iolo reduced my PC’s startup time from 30 seconds to less than 15.

In addition, iolo offers another set of speed-up tools that optimize my CPU and RAM utilization by diverting power away from unnecessary processes. I was particularly impressed by the Memory Mechanic, which took seconds to run and recovered almost 1.5GB of RAM.

iolo System Mechanic Pro has some pretty good PC cleaning and optimization features that puts your PC at peak performance. The System Mechanic Ultimate Defense plan, which is the best plan, offers more than just speed-up tools. You get extra features such as antivirus, password manager, and privacy protection. Yet, its price is much higher than competitors like Norton and TotalAV. iolo’s edge is that it covers unlimited devices and has tons of unique speed-up tools. You can try iolo risk-free using its 30-day money-back guarantee.

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5. Bitdefender — One-Click PC Optimization Tool

Key Features:

Bitdefender has a simple one-click disk cleaner, but it isn’t as comprehensive as the other tools on this list. The one-click disk cleaner removes junk files, eliminates temporary files, disables browser cookies, and fixes registry issues. During my tests, Bitdefender removed 3.89GB of junk files in just a few minutes, after which I noticed that my PC performance improved significantly.

While the one-click optimizer is good, it isn’t as customizable as the other options like Norton, TotalAV, and iolo. I prefer a PC cleaner that allows me to choose the specific types of files I want to remove. Moreover, the one-click feature doesn’t have a Startup Manager that would help to speed up my boot time by preventing some programs from starting when I start my PC.

The OneClick optimizer freed up over 3GB of junk files from my PC

Bitdefender has a robust antivirus engine that provides 99.7% real-time protection against all forms of malware, including adware, spyware, and bloatware, which could slow down your PC. Also, Bitdefender’s anti spam feature conveniently connects to Outlook or Thunderbird and filters out junk mail.

Bitdefender has various plans, but the one-click PC cleaner is only available on the Total Security plan, the most feature-rich plan. You can try the Total Security plan risk-free using Bitdefender’s 30-day free trial. It should give you enough time to try the optimization tool and other features like a password manager, VPN, and parental control tools.

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1. Avast

I don’t recommend using Avast to speed up your PC at any point. Using an antivirus to speed up your PC or protection from malware doesn’t have to put your data at risk. Unfortunately, Avast has been caught stealing customers’ private data and sharing it with advertisers.

2. AVG

Avast acquired AVG in 2016 and integrated it entirely into its ecosystem. Avast’s poor reputation for selling customers’ data leaves less to be desired for privacy-conscious users like myself. To keep your data private and safe, avoid AVG.

• PC Cleanup and Optimization features — Ensuring that your PC achieves peak performance is essential. That is why I selected the best PC Cleanup and optimization tools that offer the best features for totally removing junk files, improving boot time, and providing privacy by removing browser cookies. All the tools in my list meet these conditions and effectively speed up your PC.
• Malware protection — After optimizing my PC, I also wanted to stay protected from malware. Some malware like adware, spyware, and viruses affect your PC’s performance by slowing it down. A regular PC cleaner and optimizer won’t fix that. I chose software that provides malware protection alongside PC optimization tools.
• Ease of use — An intuitive PC Cleaner and Optimizer makes speeding up your system seamless. I chose the tools that offer fast cleanup time, easy-to-use apps, and can work on multiple devices.
• Value for money — Getting a trustworthy PC Cleaner and Optimizer doesn’t have to break the bank. This is why I focused on shortlisting the most affordable tools that offer good value for money. I also ensured that I only tested the PC cleaners that offer free trials or money-back guarantees and allow you to test the features risk-free.

Do PC cleaners and optimizers actually work?

Yes, the ones on my list do! They work by removing junk files, improving system boot-up times, and removing browser cookies and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs). However, some third-party cleaners do act as viruses or spyware. PC Accelerate Pro is an example. So, it is vital to use a trustworthy PC cleaner and optimizer like Norton, which offers a much better way to keep your PC at peak performance.

Furthermore, when you use an average PC cleaner, it might not work because the slowdown might be caused by malware that has infected your PC. In addition to removing junk files, a PC cleaner and optimizer should have an antivirus program that removes dangerous programs and malware that could inhibit the performance of your PC. Norton and McAfee have an advanced antivirus engine that provides real-time protection against all forms of malware.

Are PC cleaners safe?

Yes, the ones I have tested and listed are safe. However, not every PC cleaner software on the market is safe. Some are actually malware designed to steal and sell your data. PC Accelerate Pro is one of such. It is essential to use a reliable and trustworthy PC cleaner to protect your data from getting into the wrong hands.

You need a PC cleaner that doesn’t sell your data and protects you from harmful malware. If a PC cleaner doesn’t have an antivirus suite as part of its offering, I wouldn’t recommend going for such. I tested 20+ PC cleaners within an antivirus suite to help you find the best ones that will keep you safe.

Will a PC cleaner or optimizer better my gaming experience?

Yes! PC cleaners can optimize your computer by removing excess files and unwanted programs, freeing up system resources. When gaming, you need less strain on your CPU and RAM to avoid slowdowns and lags. Some of the best PC cleaners like Norton and TotalAV, beyond removing junk files and optimizing boot time, allow you to stop the processes on your PC with considerable CPU utilization, thereby helping it stay at peak performance for gaming.

Malware also affects your gaming experience by slowing down your PC by consuming substantial memory. A regular PC cleaner wouldn’t pick up malware infestation and as such, won’t improve your gaming experience. Luckily, all the PC cleaners and optimizers on my list offer reliable protection against all forms of malware that would have brought your PC to a crawl.

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If your PC constantly suffers from slowdowns, it’s most likely due to junk files, unwanted programs, or malware. It’s frustrating when you want to use your PC for different activities only to wait for minutes for your PC to boot, load a program, or access a service. This doesn’t have to be so when you use a PC cleaner and optimizer software to improve the performance of your PC.

The best PC cleaners and optimizers scan and remove junk files, temporary files, caches, browser cookies, and unwanted programs, and fix registry issues. However, malware could also be responsible for your system slowdown, which a regular PC cleaner won’t be able to fix. This is why it’s crucial to have a PC cleaner that has an antivirus package as part of its offering to help you remove unnecessary files, including all forms of malware that affect your PC’s performance.

I tested over 20 PC cleaners and optimizers to shortlist the best ones that can speed up your PC and protect you from malware. After testing for junk removal abilities, speed of scans and removal of unnecessary files, malware protection, ease of use, and value for money, I can confidently say Norton 360 is the best PC cleaner and optimizer on the market. Luckily, you can test Norton’s features risk-free using its 60-day money-back guarantee.

Summary — Best PC Cleaners for Optimizing Your PC in 2022

Rank

Provider name

Our score

Price

Top Choice

1.

$39.99 / yearSave 27%

2.

$49.99 / yearSave 41%

3.

$29.00 / yearSave 41%

4.

$23.99 / yearSave 57%

5.

$19.99 / yearSave 44%

One of the greatest pleasures of unboxing and turning on a new PC is the quick boot times and operations. The success, however, will inevitably fade away with time. Any computer eventually slows down, whether gradually or abruptly. In such cases, you can purchase a PC cleaner.

On a well-worn Windows 10 PC, we evaluated all of the PC cleaner utilities on this list. It’s worth noting that Microsoft’s latest operating system includes several built-in tools for optimizing your computer’s performance, and we have included Microsoft’s tool in our list so you can see how it compares.

8 Best PC Cleaners

These are the top PC cleaning apps of 2022, ranked according to features, safety, and performance.

1. CCleaner

CCleaner is a powerful registry and hard disk cleaning app for Windows. It frees up precious hard disk space by removing redundant files from your machine, enabling Windows to run faster. Additionally, it cleans records of your online activities, including your Internet history. It also comes with a full-featured registry cleaner. One of the best part about this PC cleaner is that it’s very fast.

• Performs disk defragmentation
• Safely cleans the Windows registry
• CCleaner can forcefully stop applications to free up additional resources and system RAM
• Consistently removes browser history, cookies, temporary files, system cache files, etc.
• Supports scheduling of scans and system maintenance

Read our full CCleaner review for more information.

2. IObit Advanced SystemCare

Advanced SystemCare is a comprehensive cleaning tool for Windows. It has gained its popularity primarily from being one of the simplest methods of cleaning a PC. It has a lot of other features in addition to cleaning. This software device features an uncomplicated and uncluttered user interface. It runs short scans to clean the computers. Additionally, security is very impressive and robust.

IObit Advanced SystemCare is a PC optimizer that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to clean, secure, and speed up your system. It’s a simple piece of software that scans your computer for the resource-hogs that are slowing it down. Not only that, but it also cleans up your registry and browser garbage (Cache, Cookies, etc.).

3. iolo System Mechanic

One of the most widely used PC cleaner is iolo System Mechanic. For the last two decades, tool has improved the efficiency and speed of Windows computers. It has fixed over 80 million computers, and users have a high level of confidence in it. This software application is optimal for the smooth and error-clean operation of high-quality video editing, streaming applications, and gaming.

• iolo System Mechanic can fix over 30,000 PC problems.
• Quick scan and deep scan modes.
• Performs disk defragmentation
• Also blocks malware, malicious websites, and spyware to keep your sensitive data safe.

iolo System Mechanic is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and later versions of the operating system. The standard version of iolo System Mechanic is $49.95 per year and iolo System Mechanic Pro is $69.95 per year.

4. AVG TuneUp

AVG TuneUp enables you to effectively speed up, repair, and clean your PC. This is a powerful cleaning app to help you get the most out of your PC. It has a lot of features and speeds up your computer, including a new Sleep Mode feature that improves your computer’s efficiency and speed.

AVG TuneUp is a good option that frees up disk space and browser history in addition to improving overall speed.

5. CleanMyPC

CleanMyPC is the perfect tool to keep your PC running at its best. It allows you to remove items that slow down your computer and get rid of unwanted files with just one click. CleanMyPC can also schedule your computer for regular cleaning, and can even update your software.

6. Avira System Speedup

Avira System Speedup is a Windows application that optimizes PC performance quickly. It can defragment, remove unnecessary files, free up memory on the machine, and more. Additionally, it will repair and remove malware from your PC and avoid future infections. It can control all of the programs that start up with the device and allows you to uninstall the ones you don’t need. System Speedup can also improve the speed of your Internet connection. The software features an intuitive interface and a straightforward wizard to configure the optimization options.

7. Wise Care 365

Wise Care 365 is capable of removing junk files and maintaining a clean registry on your computer. When some programs attempt to make changes without your permission, it reacts quickly. It will detect and terminate any processes that attempt to alter the Windows registry in an unauthorized manner. Wise Care 365 is a great option.

This PC cleaner is a sophisticated and respectable system maintenance application. It includes all of the tools you’ll need to keep your PC running smoothly, as well as to speed it up, optimize it, and clean it up. Wise Care 365 is an all-in-one PC maintenance utility. It’s a set of useful resources packaged into a small package. Wise Care 365 will assist you in keeping your PC in tip-top shape.

8. Microsoft Total PC Cleaner

Microsoft Total PC Cleaner is a popular open-source PC cleaner for Windows. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows 10 as well as Xbox. Microsoft Total PC Cleaner remove system junk and various forms of cache files from your computer. This Windows cleaner is bare-bones and stripped down, but it is a solid and dependable free option for those that need one.

Why do I need a PC cleaner?

All computers inevitably lose their luster, becoming sluggish, unresponsive, and, in the worst-case scenario, unreliable. When applications are installed and uninstalled, the operating system becomes bogged down with outdated drivers, abandoned cache files, and other system clutter. Their hard disks fill up with data we’ve forgotten about, stored in folders we’ve forgotten about. Programs create massive caches in the background that we are unaware of. Eventually, our overburdened storage devices slow down the operating system. Drivers that are no longer supported stop working properly. Plug-ins and toolbars can significantly slow down our browsers. It makes no difference how attentive you are or what kind of productivity program you use to maximize your time if you have to sit around waiting for your machine to catch up.

Many users also consider purchasing new computers because their PC’s have become so compromised by usage and misuse that everything from web browsing to video streaming starts to seem slow. However, buy a new computer is a drastic solution that is frequently unnecessary if a good PC cleaner is used.

Conclusion

If you need something free, stick with Microsoft’s Total PC Cleaner. It’s not bad, even if not completely thorough, and it’s a safe option to load on your computer.

If you are considering purchasing a PC cleaner, be sure to still with well-known names in the industry. Because Windows cleaners have to dive deep into system settings and can potentially delete something ciritical, you want to be using software with a long track record of being safe as well as effective.

PCs and laptops remain trusty stalwarts of the technology world but they will inevitably slow down and get clogged up over time, especially if they are in daily use and have been in service for a few years. It happens to all of us but you can fix it with minimal fuss, time or expertise.

Even if you’re not running low on storage space, there are lots of ways these clever bits of software can seek out why your machine is running slowly from registry items to start-up programs.

Windows has some built-in tools to help you clear unused files and programs, but for the best results, you’ll want to use dedicated PC cleaner software. There are many apps available, but those we’ve tested here are all relatively inexpensive while offering a comprehensive service.

We used a laptop that’s been used for over three years with an almost full C: drive (80GB in capacity). All the applications have been tested with identical conditions, controlled by creating a system image before any testing was conducted and restoring this for each new piece of software. 

This means each one had the same set of files, registry entries and settings to deal with. We simply installed each one and let it do its job to see how well it could do. You can also check out the best antivirus software.

Best PC Cleaner Software 2022

1. CCleaner Professional – Best Overall

Pros

• Affordable
• Solid performance
• Plenty of tools

Cons

• Medium control of file removal
• Not the best user interface

A stalwart of the PC cleaner world, CCleaner Professional is still the best option for an all-rounder starting with a cheaper price than the other rivals here. There’s no option for 10 machines, but Plus works on three which may be enough for most people anyway. 

Despite this, it managed to clean more total space from our test laptop than any other so performance is top-notch. We’d just like a little more control over what is deleted. 

The interface is perhaps a little dated and can take time to learn but it’s serviceable and there are plenty of tools on offer here to get various tasks done as well as automatic cleaning and scheduling.  

Read our full CCleaner Professionalreview

2. IObit Advanced SystemCare – Best User Interface

Pros

• Clean & stylish interface
• Solid performance
• Wide range of tools

Cons

• Limited selection of files to delete

Advanced SystemCare 14 Pro has the modern user interface that CCleaner Professional is lacking so it’s great for new or experienced users. 

Performance is solid, freeing up a decent amount of storage and also RAM, too. Like CCleaner, though, some more user control over which junk files are deleted. 

Furthermore, there’s a comprehensive set of tools available for various other tasks you might want to carry out. All of this comes at a reasonable price making it a great option for a PC cleaner app. 

Read our full IObit Advanced SystemCare 14 Proreview

3. Ashampoo WinOptimizer – Best for Multiple Machines

Pros

• Modern interface
• Easy to use
• Packed with tools

Cons

• No single license option
• Single scan didn't find everything

In contrast to CCleaner and IObit, WinOptimizer 19 is better for users that want PC cleaning software on a larger number of machines. There’s just a 10 PC option rather than three or one. 

It is good value if this fits your needs though, especially if you don’t want an annual subscription like rivals. 

The software has a user-friendly interface and if you’re a novice the 1-Click Optimizer will solve a lot of problems with minimal fuss and it has lots of other tools for the more tech-savvy customer. 

We found performance to be good, although it took a couple of scans to find everything that could be cleared up. 

Read our full Ashampoo WinOptimizer 19review

4. AVG TuneUp – Best for Multi-Platform

Pros

• Easy to use
• Great performance
• Decent tool selection

Cons

• Expensive if purchased direct

Like its antivirus software, AVG TuneUp has a simple interface that’s easy to get your head around in a short amount of time.  

It does the main job of making your machine faster and cleaner and also has other features such as automatic maintenance. Performance is second to CCleaner when it comes to freeing up hard drive space. 

It’s a good option if you want to use it on other platforms than Windows, like iOS and Android. The main downside is the high cost but you can find better prices if you don’t buy directly from AVG. 

Read our full AVG TuneUpreview

5. Norton Utilities Ulitmate – Best Toolset

Pros

• Comprehensive toolset
• Easy to use
• Real-time hardware optimisation

Cons

• Poor space freeing performance
• Expensive

If you want the most amount of tools and features then Utilities Ultimate, as the name suggests, is packed to the brim making it a great choice for the kind of user who wants a technical deep dive. 

The user interface is slick and one of the features is real-time optimisation of your CPU and memory which is unusual. And there are loads of other tools to get stuck into. 

However, it under performed with cleaning up junk files and registry issues, too. Considering the high asking price and lack of a single PC option, you might want to look elsewhere. 

Read our full Norton Utilities Ultimatereview

6. MacPaw CleanMyPC – Most Flexible Plans

Pros

• Simple interface
• Speedy scan

Cons

• Limited cleaning
• No registry scanning

CleanMyPC is quick and easy to use with a simple interface which is a good start and we like the option to pay annually or a one-time fee giving you flexibility. 

Prices are reasonable and the software takes up minimal space making it handy if your drive really is full up.  

Performance isn’t up to the level of some rivals, though, with a middling amount of space freed up as it couldn’t access some files to delete and it also couldn’t do any registry cleaning. Other available tools are good but you can typically do the same things just as easily with Windows.

Note: CleanMyPC is no longer being developed. You can still buy and use it, but you will only receive critical bug fixes and support won’t go beyond Windows 11.

Read our full MacPaw CleanMyPCreview

Decluttered your PC but it’s still running slowly? Check out how to speed up Windows for more suggestions. 

Booting up a brand new computer for the first time is always fun. It runs fast, everything is snappy and responsive, and it opens up a whole new set of possibilities for work and play. You’re going to be more productive, get more done, and have fun doing it – or at least that’s how it feels at the start. After a few months, things seem to start slowing down. The computer doesn’t boot as quickly, and your favorite programs take longer and longer to load.

Sound familiar? It’s the whole premise that the ‘PC cleaning’ software industry is based on. In fact, it could almost be a sales pitch for our two favorite PC cleaning apps.

AVG PC TuneUp is intended for the more advanced user who is comfortable digging into the inner workings of their operating system but doesn’t always want to spend hours optimizing when they could be using their computer. AVG also bundles in a number of extra features such as performance optimizations and additional disk management tools.

CleanMyPC is a better choice for the more casual user who doesn’t need – or wants – to tinker with the details. It has a streamlined interface that makes cleaning your PC easy, and good background monitoring tools to keep things running smoothly in the future.

We’ll dig into both more thoroughly in a minute, but we’ve got a few other things to go over first.

Using an Apple Mac machine? Also Read: Best Mac Cleaning Software

Why Trust Me for This PC Cleaner Review

Hi, my name is Thomas Boldt, and I’ve been a PC user since the days of Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS. Admittedly, there wasn’t much you could do with Windows back then (and I was a kid), but starting that early has given me a broad perspective on what’s possible with the PC environment and how far we’ve come since the early days.

In more modern times, I build all of my desktop computers myself from individual components, and I apply that same meticulous care to make sure they operate at peak performance on the software side of things as well. I use my desktops both for work and for play, and I expect the very best from them no matter what I’m doing.

I’ve tried a range of PC cleaning and optimization apps over the course of my hobby and my career, with varying degrees of success – some are useful, and others are a waste of time. I bring all that knowledge and experience to this review so that you won’t have to spend years learning everything you’ll need to know to separate the good programs from the bad.

Note: none of the companies mentioned in this review have provided me with special consideration or compensation for writing this roundup review. All the opinions and experiences are my own. The test computer used is relatively new, but has been in heavy usage and has not been cleaned recently.

The Truth About PC Cleaning Apps

There is a fairly large industry built around programs that claim to speed up your PC by cleaning out old files, registry entries, and other miscellaneous junk that supposedly builds up over time from normal daily computer use. It makes a certain amount of logical sense on the surface, but do the claims really hold up under investigation?

The fact is, your PC doesn’t slow down because your hard drive has become ‘cluttered’ with miscellaneous, unknown files. If you’re experiencing slower than usual boot times and unresponsive programs, there are other culprits that lurk behind the scenes causing these frustrating issues.

Registry cleaning is one of the major features of many PC cleaners, but it has never really been proven to do anything to speed up your PC. Some people, including the excellent anti-malware developer MalwareBytes, have even gone so far as to call registry cleaners “digital snake oil”. If you use a low-quality registry cleaner, there’s even the possibility of completely ruining your operating system and having to reinstall everything from the ground up. Microsoft used to make one, discontinued it, and eventually issued a statement about them:

“Microsoft is not responsible for issues caused by using a registry cleaning utility. We strongly recommend that you only change values in the registry that you understand or have been instructed to change by a source you trust, and that you back up the registry before making any changes. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the use of a registry cleaning utility can be solved. Issues caused by these utilities may not be repairable and lost data may not be recoverable.” – Source: Microsoft Support

Despite that warning, all of the major PC cleaners include some type of registry cleaning feature, but we also recommend that you do not use these tools no matter who developed them.

As if that wasn’t enough to make you wonder about PC cleaners in general, there’s also the fact that the marketing hype often tries to sell you on having a computer that ‘runs like new’. Unfortunately, this is mostly an exaggeration – you can’t usually have a computer that runs like new and still has all your files and software installed on it. Part of the reason they run so well when they’re brand new is that they’re a blank slate, and as soon as you start installing programs and customizing things, you’re asking it to do more work.

That doesn’t mean that PC cleaning apps are useless, though – far from it! It’s just important to manage your expectations. Even though the marketing hype is usually over the top and very dramatic, you can still do a lot to improve your PC’s performance. You’ll definitely be able to free up some storage space and speed up your Windows loading time with the right program, and many of the apps come with some other great features such as privacy cleaners, duplicate file checkers, and secure delete functions.

Who Will Benefit from Using a PC Cleaner

This is a bit of a difficult question to answer because people use their PCs in very different ways. Some people are comfortable using system tools, command lines, and editing registry entries, while others are content to check their email and watch cat videos without knowing (or caring) what a command line is.

If you’re a casual user who browses the web, checks email/social media, and does a bit of basic word processing, you might not find much benefit from an expensive PC cleaning app. It might be useful for helping you free up some storage space and ensuring that you’re not leaving any personally identifiable information on your computer, but you can usually accomplish the same thing without having to pay for it.

That being said, it can be much easier to have a single program that handles all the little maintenance tasks easier for you. If you’re uncomfortable tracking and managing all the different areas to clean yourself, it can be very useful to have a single program that brings all of your cleaning options together in one spot.

If you’re someone who likes to tinker with things, uses a PC professionally or you’re a seriously dedicated gamer, you’re probably going to get some more tangible benefits. Ensuring that you have plenty of free space on your main operating system drive is very helpful for scratch space and page files, and ensuring that your old hardware drivers don’t cause problems with the next update can save a great deal of time in advance. Almost all of these PC cleaning app functions can be handled using other aspects of Windows, but it is still helpful to have them all in one place.

If you’re someone who constantly installs and uninstalls new programs (such as a software review writer, for instance), you might even find that there actually are some leftover ‘junk’ files from previous program installations!

Best PC Cleaner Software: Our Top Picks

Best for Casual Users: CleanMyPC

($39.95 single computer license)

CleanMyPC is one of the few Windows apps produced by MacPaw, a developer who typically makes apps for (you guessed it) the macOS environment such as CleanMyMac X and Setapp. It offers a decent set of cleaning features such as free space, startup program and uninstall management wrapped up in an easy-to-use interface. It also throws in browser extension management and privacy cleaning, as well as a secure delete feature.

As you might expect from a developer who works primarily with Macs, the interface design is simple and clean, and it doesn’t overwhelm users with too much detail. A quick click on the ‘Scan’ button, an optional review of the content, and a click on the ‘Clean’ button and you’ve freed up some space.

The rest of the tools are just as easy to use, although it’s debatable whether or not the Registry Maintenance section will really do any good. It’s a common claim among PC cleaning apps that it will help, and all of them seem to include it in one form or another, so I’ve decided not to hold it against any of them.

In addition to offering on-demand cleaning, CleanMyPC also has some excellent background monitoring options. It keeps track of space being used by your Recycle Bin and whether or not a new program adds itself to your Windows startup sequence. Many programs don’t ask for permission before adding themselves, and it’s nice to be able to easily keep tabs on in this automatically when you install a new program.

CleanMyPC is available as a free trial, and as you can see in the screenshots, MacPaw doesn’t try any scare tactics to get you to purchase the full version. Instead, they simply limit the amount of free space you can clear to 500 MB while letting you test out the other features. It’s also regularly updated and compatible with Windows 7, 8 and 10, ensuring that it will run smoothly on any modern PC. If you’re still using Windows Vista or XP, you’re going to need to do a lot more than run a PC cleaner!

On the downside, it’s a bit expensive, especially if you want to use one program to clean an entire household full of computers. However, it’s also one of the simplest programs to use that includes the most important features of a good PC cleaner, making it perfect for the casual home user who wants to do the occasional maintenance. You can read our full CleanMyPC review for more.

Best for Enthusiast Users: AVG PC TuneUp

($49.99 yearly for unlimited Windows/Mac/Android licenses, on sale for $37.49 per year)

AVG first rose to prominence with their much-loved free antivirus software, and they have since expanded into a full range of PC system tools. AVG TuneUp offers an impressive set of features in a simple, well-designed interface centered around the various tasks that you might want to perform: Maintenance, Speed Up, Free Up Space, and Fix Problems. Each of these sections runs a number of tools automatically for you, while the ‘All Functions’ section offers you a breakdown of all the tools available for individual use.

AVG PC TuneUp offers everything you’d expect from an enthusiast-level cleaning app: startup management, disk management tools, and program management. There are also the obligatory registry tools, although again, there is little data to suggest that these help much on their own and they can actually do harm.

AVG has also packed in secure delete features, browser cleanup options, and a set of live optimization modes. This is a great feature that is primarily intended for laptops, allowing you to manage your background applications and connected devices on the fly with a single click.

If you’re trying to squeeze every last compute cycle of performance out of your device, you can disable background apps to keep the focus on the task at hand. If you’re worried about every last nanosecond of battery life, you can set the optimization mode to Economy, disabling powered connected devices and programs that chew through your battery in the background.

Unfortunately, the slick grey interface disappears once you get down into the detail views of each of the tools, but they still provide an excellent level of control, as you would expect from an enthusiast-level app. Even on a basic free space cleanup, it probed impressively deep into my file structure, uncovering issues such as leftover Steam redistributable that even I didn’t know about.

AVG doesn’t use any dodgy scare tactics to get you to purchase the full version subscription, and TuneUp has an impressive level of compatibility. One of the best features of AVG TuneUp is that you can install it on as many devices as you like, including all versions of Windows from XP onwards, macOS and even Android smartphones and tablets – all using the same subscription! No other program I looked at had that level of compatibility and unlimited licensing, and it’s a big part of what makes AVG TuneUp the best enthusiast cleaner. You can learn more from our full AVG TuneUp review.

The Awkward Runner-Up: CCleaner

(formerly owned and developed by Piriform, free.)

CCleaner has been one of the most widely-used free PC cleaning apps for over a decade, but despite its popularity and capabilities, I can’t include it in the final winner list with a clear conscience. The CCleaner team had a major security and PR disaster in September 2017, when it was discovered that the version of the program available on the official download server had been infected with Floxif trojan malware.

For those of you who don’t know the story, my teammate has written a comprehensive overview of the situation available here.

It’s important to point out that the CCleaner team did everything right when it came to fixing the problem – they announced the vulnerability and quickly patched the program to prevent future issues. When you compare that response to companies who experience data breaches but don’t inform affected users until months or even years after the fact, you can see that they reacted as well as they could have.

That being said, it’s still hard to recommend it until the developers make certain that their security procedures have been improved to prevent this from happening again.

Other Good Paid PC Cleaning Software

Glary Utilities Pro

($39.99 yearly for 3 computer license, on sale for $11.99)

If you’re an enthusiast user who doesn’t mind taking the time to learn a program, Glary Utilities Pro might be for you. It’s got an impressively comprehensive set of options, and each one can be deeply customized to fit almost any situation. In addition to some of the more standard cleaning tools like startup program management, registry cleaning, and complete management for uninstalling programs, there are a huge number of other tools packed in here.

The one thing that I find most deeply frustrating about this program is the interface. It’s got excellent capabilities, but they are buried in one of the most confusingly-designed interfaces I’ve seen in a long time. Three separate menus – along the top, along the bottom, and in the ‘Menu’ button – all lead to similar places, but with slightly different variations. There’s no logic to what goes where, or why it goes there, and each tool opens up in a new window without indicating how to go back to the main dashboard. Amusingly enough, this is their ‘new and innovative’ interface.

If you can get past the interface issues, there’s a lot to like about this program. It’s regularly updated and is compatible with all versions of Windows from Vista onwards. They don’t use scare tactics to get you to buy the pro version, and in fact, they even offer a free version which we included in the ‘Free Alternatives’ section. If the interface was updated to something more rational and user-friendly, it would be a much stronger contender.

Norton Utilities

($49.99 for 3 computer license)

Norton Utilities provides an excellent range of features in an easy-to-use interface. 1-Click Optimization makes it extremely simple to keep your PC clean, and they have bundled together with an impressive number of additional features, from duplicate file checkers to lost file recovery and secure deletion.

I did notice that after running the 1-Click Optimization all caching on my browser had been temporarily disabled, and all of my cached CSS files had been removed. These files are not exactly space-hogs, so I’m not sure why they would be included in an automatic cleaning process. This had the side effect of breaking every website I visited until I did a hard refresh to fix them, but the broken web pages might have confused an inexperienced user.

There are a couple of other things that keep Norton out of the winner’s circle. It’s one of the more expensive cleaning apps in this review, at $49.99, and you’re limited to installing on just 3 PCs. This means that it’s not exactly right for the winning the enthusiast category, as enthusiasts usually have at least 3 PCs in the house, and it’s a bit too complex for winning in the casual user category. It’s still an excellent choice from a feature standpoint, though, if you’re not a fan of our chosen winners – or if you want to avoid a yearly subscription fee!

Note that Norton no longer offers a free trial on their website.

Comodo PC TuneUp

($19.99 per year subscription)

Comodo PC TuneUp is a bit of a strange entry in the list. It covers some of the more basic PC cleaning functions such as searching for junk files and the obligatory/useless registry fixes, but it also includes a malware scanner, a Windows event log scanner, and a rather vague ‘security scanner’. Comodo also includes a duplicate file scanner, a registry defragmenter and a unique ‘force delete’ tool that allows you to defer deletion of files that are in use until your next restart.

It’s been fairly amusing to see what the different cleaning programs consider to be problems. Comodo didn’t find any issues with my Windows registry, despite the fact that the other programs I tested did. I never run any of the registry tools (apart from scanning) and you shouldn’t either, but it’s worth pointing out that there is evidently some disagreement about what causes problems.

Even more amusingly, the two security scanner results were both from entries in the registry, despite the fact that the registry scanner said everything was fine. I’m not sure what to make of that, but it doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence in its cleaning abilities. It also found the least amount of junk files at 488 MB, a sharp contrast to the potential 19 GB found by AVG PC TuneUp.

While it has good Windows compatibility, regular updates and a streamlined interface, the strange mix of tools and lackluster search performance means that this tool isn’t quite ready for the spotlight just yet.

iolo System Mechanic

($49.95, licensed for all computers in a single household)

iolo has received a lot of recognition for its PC cleaner app, but my experience didn’t really live up to the expectations. I almost removed it from the review entirely, but so many people recommend it that I thought it was worth sharing my experience. It has a fairly standard set of options for managing PC cleaning and offers a range of ‘boosts’ intended to optimize everything from CPU speed to network speed, although it’s quite vague on how exactly it accomplishes this.

These issues are overshadowed by a much larger problem, however, as before I could even finish testing I ran into some trouble. Regular updating is one of the criteria we used to assess the available PC cleaners, and System Mechanic actually received an update while I was in the process of testing it. I thought it was a perfect change to test how well it handled updates, so I let it go ahead. It automatically uninstalled the old version, restarted my computer, and installed the new version, but I ran into a problem immediately:

I was only using the trial version, so I’m not exactly sure how it could possibly think that I had violated any license. I thought I could solve the problem by uninstalling and reinstalling, but when I tried to use the trial activation key that iolo emailed me, it told me that it was not valid for that program and was intended for another – even though I was just following its own update process!

It’s possible that your mileage may vary, but I wouldn’t trust my PC maintenance to a company that messes up its own product launches. Let this be a cautionary tale about the importance of choosing a quality software developer, even among those that have been recommended by others!

Some Free PC Cleaner Programs

In most cases, free software alternatives don’t offer quite the same level of comprehensive cleaning options or automatic management as paid software, but they can still be very useful.

Glary Utilities Free

This is one of the exceptions to the rule, of course. Glary Utilities Free provides some excellent features that make it a great choice for those who don’t have the budget or the need for the Pro version. Most of what’s left out of the free version has to do with automatic maintenance and “deep cleaning”, although unfortunately, both versions share the same bizarre interface.

Many users who are considering the Pro version will probably be satisfied with the Free version, and they both share the same regular updates and extensive Windows compatibility.

Duplicate Cleaner

DuplicateCleaner is firmly at the very basic end of the PC cleaning spectrum, as it really only does what the name suggests: search out duplicate files. This can be a major help when it comes to freeing up storage space, especially if you’re using a new laptop with a relatively small solid-state drive. Running out of storage space can dramatically reduce the speed of your computer, and duplicate file searching is one cleaning function that isn’t built into Windows.

BleachBit

The open source PC cleaner BleachBit is sort of a balance between the two previous free options, offering a range of disk space cleaning tools and secure delete options. Like most free software that doesn’t have a paid counterpart, the interface for BleachBit leaves a great deal to be desired – but at least you can’t call it confusing.

It doesn’t really offer the same functionality as any of the more comprehensive options, but it does have decent support and regular updates. It also is the only program we looked at that has a Linux version, as well as a few additional tools that are only available in the Linux environment.

BleachBit is available for download here.

How We Tested and Selected These PC Cleaner Apps

With so many different ways to “clean” a PC, it was important to standardize the way we looked at the programs involved. Here’s a rundown of the criteria we used to make our final selections:

They need comprehensive options.

Many PC cleaning apps claim they can speed up your PC dramatically, but the reality is that there are usually several small issues that can be fixed and monitored. Individually, none of them are that serious, but when they all start to have problems at once, your PC’s performance can really start to be affected. That makes it essential for a PC cleaning app to cover a wide range of options, from managing your startup programs to helping maximize your available storage space. Having a few extra functions like duplicate file checking and full uninstallation management can be very useful too!

They should be easy to use.

Windows already lets you manage most (if not all) of the functions offered by PC cleaning apps, but it can be finicky and time-consuming to handle things that way. A good cleaning app will bring all those functions together in a single place, and make the whole process easy to manage. Otherwise, you’re better off saving your money and learning how to do it all yourself.

They should get updated regularly.

Since your computer is constantly being updated (or at least it should be), it’s important that your cleaning app gets updated regularly too. Some more basic functions like duplicate file searching and free space recovery won’t change much from version to version, but if your PC cleaning app also has virus scanning or driver management features, regular updates are necessary to keep things running smoothly and effectively.

They must not try to scare you into buying them.

A lot of PC users aren’t very comfortable with the technical details of how their computers work. Some shady software developers try to take advantage of that fact by scaring users into thinking something is going desperately wrong unless you buy their software this very second. This is the equivalent of an unreliable auto mechanic piling repair charges onto your bill that you don’t really need. No good mechanic would do that, and no good software developer would either.

They must be affordable if you decide to purchase.

Most PC cleaning apps don’t need to be run regularly unless you’re using your PC constantly every day. Even then, they’ll probably still do a great job if you only run them a couple of times per year. That means that affordability is key and that any developer trying to offer users a yearly subscription to their program might not be offering the best value for money. Some dedicated developers do regularly update their programs enough to make a subscription model worthwhile, you just make sure that you’re getting enough benefit to make the ongoing cost worthwhile.

They must be compatible with all recent Windows versions.

Windows has gone through a number of different versions lately, and many people are still running Windows 7, Windows 8 or 8.1. Since upgrading can be expensive, the same household will often have multiple computers running different versions. A good PC cleaning app that offers a multi-computer license should support all the recent versions of Windows (including Windows 10 and Windows 11) so that you don’t have to buy a different program for each computer.

An Important Note About Security

Most software developers are interested in creating the best possible program, but not everyone is so admirable. Some developers are merely interested in making money, and a few try so hard to make sales that their tactics wind up uncomfortably close to the tactics used by scammers. Whenever you’re downloading a new piece of software, you should always scan it with your trusty (and updated) antivirus/anti-malware security program to make sure it’s safe to install.

During the course of my testing, several of the programs that I considered reviewing were flagged by Windows Defender and/or Malwarebytes AntiMalware. There was one that wouldn’t even finish downloading before Windows Defender blocked it! But don’t worry – all of the programs included in the published version of this review passed all available security scans. It just goes to show you the importance of having good security practices!

A Final Word

PC cleaning apps have come a long way since the early days, even though some of the tools they’ve included are a bit dubious (I’m looking at you, registry “cleaners”!). When you’re selecting and using a PC cleaner, be sure to remember that they are all designed to make you feel like you’d be lost without them. When they tell you that you’ve got 1729 issues to be corrected, don’t get frantic – they’re usually just counting every single file that could be deleted, not saying that your computer is about to break down.

Do you have a favorite PC cleaning app that I left out of this review? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll take a look!

Why Do You Need A PC Cleaner Software?

Nothing can beat a brand new PC which performs all the tasks swiftly and with ease. And, that’s because it is a clean slate. But, then as time passes, it accumulates all sorts of junk files, drivers start to get outdated and malware starts to creep in. And, that’s not it, there are several other issues too which can take a huge toll on the speed of the computer.

10 Best PC Cleaner For Windows in 2022

1. Advanced System Optimizer

Advanced System Optimizer is a feature rich and powerful optimization and cleanup tool for your Windows PC. It easily takes care of all the optimization needs of your computer.

It has a disk optimizer and cleaner which helps in removing junk files from PC and allocating data in a better manner, thereby defragging the hard drive. The same module even helps prevent unexpected slowdowns and crashes too.

Another aspect that could be slowing your PC down are the privacy and security issues. With this PC cleaning utilityyou can delete all those cookies and browsing histories which might put your privacy in jeopardy.

Advanced System Optimizer is a Windows PC Cleanerthat also doubles up as a game optimizer as well and it significantly improves the gaming performance of your PC. Last but not the least, there is also a backup and recovery option where you can restore and recover accidently deleted files.

2. Piriform CCleaner

CCleaner’s interface is the one to look out for. It is well designed and lists all the elements of Windows optimization at a glance which you might not find in native Windows.

It has for long been hailed as the best PC cleanerforWindows 10. It deeply cleans all the nooks and crannies of your PC that many other cleaner appscannot. It frees up disk space and it is extremely easy to use.

If you opt for the premium version you get additional features such as scheduling cleanup as per your desires and real time protection. Although, you get most features with the free version as well. With the free version you can remove temporary files, unwanted cookies and browser caches too.

3. CleanMyPC

If there is one full fledged Windows PC cleanerthat stands above the rest, it has to be CleanMyPC. It deeply scans your entire Windows PC and cleans all log and cache files, thereby increasing the speed of your PC.

One of the best aspects of this PC is that once you have installed the cleaner app, it cleans all the residues that occur when you uninstall an app. Additionally, it even clears unwanted registry and manages startup items as well.

Other than that it even permanently cuts down on unnecessary extensions, erases files securely in a way that they can’t again be retrieved and protects your online privacy and even manages your web privacy.

4. AVG PC TuneUp

AVG is a brand that needs no introduction. It helps in enhancing the browsing speed, increase PC performance and comprehensively cleanup disk all in just 1 click. To begin with it empowers you to clear up more than 200 apps.

It has a browser cleaner that helps remove all the browsing traces with the help of which you can prevent your online privacy from coming on stake. It has a dedicated disk cleaner that deep cleans your hard drive.

Apart from removing junk, AVG PC TuneUp automatically clears unwanted registries. Knowing that system needs to be updated, you won’t have to worry about manually updating your system, AVG PC TuneUp would do it for you.

5. AusLogics BoostSpeed

This PC cleanerfor Windows 10takes a whole different perspective when it comes to cleaning Windows. It performs tasks in such a manner that not just the junk is cleaned but the speed of the PC is also enhanced. It also ensures that the PC is optimized in such a manner that there are no crashes.

AusLogics BoostSpeed works on a real time basis. It encounters temporary files, unused error logs and other junk files in real-time and removes them to keep the system running at the top speed.

One thing that makes this Windows PC cleaner stand apart is the fact that it offers automatic processor and memory management tools. While on one hand it works as an astounding cleaner appon the other it removes all the browsing cache and traces which otherwise can open gates to web miscreants.

6. Ashampoo WinOptimizer

Another great PC cleaning utility is Ashampoo WinOptimizer that uses every trick in the hat to optimize your PC. If you wonder why to have another junk cleaner for PC, that’s because junk cleanerlike AshampooOptimizer enlists all the optimizing functions in one menu itself.

What differentiates Ashampoo WinOptimizer makes you totally aware of the issues that are there in your PC. It takes it up a step further and explains to you what exactly the issues are and what needs to be done to resolve those issues. It cleans broken registry items, browser cookies and other junk files that can easily clutter your PC.

Apart from completely cleaning your PC. WinOptimizer also includes modules to manage startup process and defrag harddrive so that storage can be allocated well.

7. PC Booster

Comes with both free and paid features. Once you have installed, the PC booster automatically scans your PC for all the junk and other performance issues. While the free version enables you to scan just 10% if you wish to do a complete scan you will have to purchase the full version.

The junk that PC booster cleans and quickly scans comes in the form of cached records, junk and temporary files, registry entries. Apart from that, your PC even collects residues when you perform activities. PC Booster even helps you get rid of such entries.

The PC cleaner for Windows 10comes with deep and quickly scanning options, startup manager, a duplicate finder and the best part is you can see the menus, settings and other aspects in your own language as it comes with 20 languages.

8. Norton Utilities Premium

Norton Utilities Premium is undoubtedly one of the best PC cleaning utilitiesavailable for Windows. It has been magnificently engineered to take care of all the cleaning and optimization needs of your PC which make it perform nicely.

First, there is an uninstaller which helps you keep a track of all those files, folders and programs which are redundant and which your PC no longer needs. It has smart algorithms that help fix all the issues which could be causing crashes or slowdown.

9. IObit Advanced SystemCare

IObit Advanced SystemCare is an easy to usejunk cleaner for PCwhich comes loaded with some of the best tools to clean the junk out of your PC and take care of its several optimization needs.

To start with this windows PC cleaneris highly customizable. You can install programs that you want and discard all those which are not required. As for cleaning up the temp files, cache, broken registries and all the unwanted residues of files and folders, there is an Auto cleaner.

It corrects all the errors on your hard drive with the help of its slick yet simple dashboard.

10. iolo System Mechanic

iolo system mechanic helps clean junk and repair over 30000 problems which can lead to a slow working PC. It lists out all the problems in greater detail and then recommends the fixes. In turn it renders a PC which has a spectacular boot time and improved and updated drivers and top performing RAM.

As a PC Cleaner Software it detects all those unwanted startup items that could be slowing down your PC. It also optimizes the various internet settings tweaking which can increase your browsing speed multifold. Talking of browsing, it wipes of all browsing cache and patches that can make your PC vulnerable to attacks.

Conclusion

A PC cleaner software doesn’t just make your life easy by cleaning excess junk from your computer but does a variety of other tasks like optimizing your PC for best performance and removing malware and viruses as well.

Booting up a brand new computer for the first time is always fun, best pc cleaner. It runs fast, everything is snappy and responsive, and it opens up a whole new set of possibilities for work and play. You’re going to be more productive, best pc cleaner, get more done, and have fun doing it – or at least that’s how it feels at the start. After a few months, things seem to start slowing down. The computer doesn’t boot as quickly, and your favorite programs take longer and longer to load.

Sound familiar? It’s the whole premise that the ‘PC cleaning’ software industry is based on. In fact, it could almost be a sales pitch for our two favorite PC cleaning apps.

AVG PC TuneUp is intended for the more advanced user who is comfortable digging into the inner workings of their operating system but doesn’t always want to spend hours optimizing when they could be using their computer. AVG also bundles in a number of extra features such as performance optimizations and additional disk management tools.

CleanMyPC is a better choice for the more casual user who doesn’t need – or wants – to tinker with the details. It has a streamlined interface that makes cleaning your PC easy, and good background monitoring tools to keep things running smoothly in the future.

We’ll dig into both more thoroughly in a minute, but we’ve got a few other things to go over first.

Using an Apple Mac machine? Also Read: Best Mac Cleaning Software

Why Trust Me for This PC Cleaner Review

Hi, my name is Thomas Boldt, and I’ve been a PC user since the days of Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS. Admittedly, there wasn’t much you could do with Windows back then (and I was a kid), but starting that early has given me a broad perspective on what’s possible with the PC environment and how far we’ve come since the early days.

In more modern times, I build all of my desktop computers myself from individual components, and I apply that same meticulous care to make sure they operate at peak performance on the software side of things as well. I use my desktops both for work and for play, and I expect the very best from them no matter what I’m doing.

I’ve tried a range of PC cleaning and optimization apps over the course of my hobby and my career, with varying degrees of success – some are useful, and others are a waste of time. I bring all that knowledge and experience to this review so that you won’t have to spend years learning everything you’ll need to know to separate the good programs from the bad.

Note: none of the companies mentioned in this review have provided me with special consideration or compensation for writing this roundup review. All the opinions and experiences are my own. The test computer used is relatively new, but has been in heavy usage and has not been cleaned recently.

The Truth About PC Cleaning Apps

There is a fairly large industry built around programs that claim to speed up your PC by cleaning out old files, registry entries, and other miscellaneous junk that supposedly builds up over time from best pc cleaner daily computer use. It makes a certain amount of logical sense best pc cleaner the surface, best pc cleaner, but do the claims really hold up under investigation?

The fact is, your PC doesn’t slow down because your hard drive has become ‘cluttered’ with miscellaneous, unknown files. If you’re experiencing slower than usual boot times and unresponsive programs, there are other culprits that lurk behind the scenes causing these frustrating issues.

Registry cleaning is one of the major features of many PC cleaners, but it has never really been proven to do anything to speed up your PC. Some people, including the excellent anti-malware developer MalwareBytes, have even gone so far as to call registry cleaners “digital snake oil”. If you use a low-quality registry cleaner, there’s even the possibility of completely ruining your operating system and having to reinstall everything from the ground up, best pc cleaner. Microsoft used to make one, discontinued it, and eventually issued a statement about them:

“Microsoft is not responsible for issues caused by using a registry cleaning utility. We strongly recommend that you only change values in the registry that you understand or have been instructed to change by a source you trust, and that you back up the registry before making any changes. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the use of a registry cleaning utility can be solved. Issues caused by these utilities may not be repairable and lost data may not be recoverable.” – Source: Microsoft Support

Despite that warning, best pc cleaner, all of the major PC cleaners include some type of registry cleaning feature, but we also recommend that you do not use these tools no matter who developed them.

As if that wasn’t enough to make you wonder about PC cleaners in general, there’s also the fact that the marketing hype often tries to sell you on having a computer that ‘runs like new’. Unfortunately, this is mostly an exaggeration – you can’t usually have a computer that runs like new and still has all your files and software installed on it. Part of the best pc cleaner they run so well when they’re brand new is that they’re a blank slate, and as soon as you start installing programs and customizing things, you’re asking adobe xd offline installer Free Activators to do more work.

That doesn’t mean that PC cleaning apps are useless, though – far from it! It’s just important to manage your expectations. Even though the marketing hype is usually over the top and very dramatic, you can still do a lot to improve your PC’s performance. You’ll definitely be able to free up some storage space and speed up your Windows loading time with the right program, and many of the apps come with some other great features such as privacy cleaners, duplicate file checkers, and secure delete functions.

Who Will Benefit from Using a PC Cleaner

This is a bit of a difficult question to answer because people use their PCs in very different ways. Some people are comfortable using system tools, command lines, and editing registry entries, while others are content to check their email and watch cat videos without knowing (or caring) what a command line is.

If you’re a casual user who browses the web, checks email/social media, and does a bit of basic word processing, you might not find much benefit from an expensive PC cleaning app. It might be useful for helping you free up some storage space and ensuring that you’re not leaving any personally identifiable information on your computer, but best pc cleaner can usually accomplish the same thing without having to pay for it.

That being said, it can be much easier to have a single program that handles all the little maintenance tasks easier for you. If you’re uncomfortable tracking and managing all the different areas to clean yourself, it can be very useful to have a single program that brings all of your cleaning options together in one spot.

If you’re someone who likes to tinker with things, uses a PC professionally or you’re a seriously dedicated gamer, you’re probably going to get some more tangible benefits. Ensuring that you have plenty of free space on your main operating system drive is very helpful for scratch space and page files, and ensuring that your old hardware drivers don’t cause problems with the next update can save a great deal of time in advance. Almost all of these PC cleaning app functions can be handled using other aspects of Windows, but it is still helpful to have them all in one place.

If you’re someone who constantly installs and uninstalls new programs (such as a software review writer, for instance), you might even find that there actually are some leftover ‘junk’ files from previous program installations!

Best PC Cleaner Software: Our Top Best pc cleaner for Casual Users: CleanMyPC

($39.95 single computer license)

CleanMyPC is one of the few Windows apps produced by MacPaw, a developer who typically makes apps for (you guessed it) the macOS environment such as CleanMyMac X and Setapp. It offers a decent set of cleaning features such as free space, startup program and uninstall management wrapped up in an easy-to-use interface. It also throws in browser extension management and privacy cleaning, as well as a secure delete feature.

As you might expect from a developer who works primarily with Macs, best pc cleaner, the interface design is simple and clean, and it doesn’t overwhelm users with too much detail. A quick click on the ‘Scan’ button, an optional review of the content, and a click on the ‘Clean’ button and you’ve freed up some space.

The rest of the tools are just as easy to use, although it’s debatable whether or not the Registry Maintenance section will really do any good, best pc cleaner. It’s a common claim among PC cleaning apps that it will help, and all of them seem to include it in one form or another, best pc cleaner, so I’ve decided not to hold it against any of them.

In addition to offering on-demand cleaning, CleanMyPC also has some excellent background monitoring options. It keeps track of space being used by your Recycle Bin and whether or not a new program adds itself to your Windows startup sequence. Many programs don’t ask for permission before adding themselves, and it’s nice to be able to easily keep tabs on in this automatically when you install a new program.

CleanMyPC is available as a free trial, and as you can see in the screenshots, MacPaw doesn’t try any scare tactics to get you to purchase the full version, best pc cleaner. Instead, they simply limit the amount of free space you can clear to 500 MB while letting you test out the other features. It’s also regularly updated and compatible with Windows 7, 8 and 10, ensuring that it will run smoothly on any modern PC. If you’re still using Windows Vista or XP, you’re going to need to do a lot more than run a PC cleaner!

On the downside, it’s a bit expensive, especially if you want to use one program to clean an entire household full of computers. However, it’s also one of the simplest programs to use that includes the most important features of a good PC cleaner, making it perfect for the casual home user who wants to do the occasional maintenance. You can read our full CleanMyPC review for more.

Best for Enthusiast Users: AVG PC TuneUp

($49.99 yearly for unlimited Windows/Mac/Android licenses, best pc cleaner, on sale for $37.49 per year)

AVG first rose to prominence with their much-loved free antivirus software, and they have since expanded into a full range of PC system tools. AVG TuneUp offers an impressive set of features in a simple, well-designed interface centered around the various tasks that you might want to perform: Maintenance, Speed Up, Free Up Space, and Fix Problems. Each of these sections runs a number of tools automatically for you, while the ‘All Functions’ section offers you a breakdown of all the tools available for individual use.

AVG PC TuneUp offers everything you’d expect from an enthusiast-level cleaning app: startup management, disk management tools, and program management. There are also the obligatory registry tools, although again, there is little data to suggest that these help much on their own and they can actually do harm.

AVG has also packed in secure delete features, browser cleanup options, and a set of live optimization modes. This is a great feature that is primarily intended for laptops, allowing you to manage your background applications and connected devices on the fly with a single click.

If you’re trying to squeeze every last compute cycle of performance out of your device, you can disable background apps to keep the focus on the task at hand. If you’re worried about every last nanosecond of battery life, you can set the optimization mode to Economy, disabling powered connected devices and programs that chew best pc cleaner your battery in the background.

Unfortunately, the slick grey interface disappears once you get down into the detail views of each of the tools, but they still provide an excellent level of control, as you would expect from an enthusiast-level app. Even on a basic free space cleanup, it probed impressively deep into my file structure, uncovering issues such as leftover Steam redistributable dslr remote pro 3.11.4 crack even I didn’t know about.

AVG doesn’t use any dodgy scare tactics to get you to purchase the full version subscription, and TuneUp has an impressive level of compatibility. One of the best features of AVG TuneUp is that you can install it on as many devices as you like, including all versions of Windows from XP onwards, macOS and even Android smartphones and tablets – all using the same subscription! No other program I looked at had that level of compatibility and unlimited licensing, and it’s a big part of what makes AVG TuneUp the best enthusiast cleaner. You can learn more from our full AVG TuneUp review.

The Awkward Runner-Up: CCleaner

(formerly owned and developed by Piriform, free.)

CCleaner has been one of the most widely-used free PC cleaning apps for over a decade, but despite its popularity and capabilities, I can’t include it in the final winner list with a clear conscience. The CCleaner team had a major security and PR disaster in September 2017, when it was discovered that the version of the program available on the official download server had been infected with Floxif trojan malware, best pc cleaner.

For those of you who don’t know the story, my teammate has written a comprehensive overview of the situation available here.

It’s important to point out that the CCleaner team did everything right when best pc cleaner came to fixing the problem – they announced the vulnerability and quickly patched the program to prevent future issues. When you compare that response to companies who experience data breaches but don’t inform affected users until months or even years after the fact, you can see that they reacted as well as they could have.

That being said, it’s still hard to recommend it until the developers make certain that their security procedures have been improved to prevent this from happening again.

Other Good Paid PC Cleaning Software

Glary Utilities Pro

($39.99 yearly for 3 computer best pc cleaner, on sale for $11.99)

If you’re an enthusiast user who doesn’t mind taking the time to learn a program, Glary Utilities Pro might be for you. It’s got an impressively comprehensive set of options, and each one can be deeply customized to fit almost any situation. In addition to some of the more standard cleaning tools like startup program management, registry cleaning, and complete management for uninstalling programs, there are a huge number of other tools packed in here.

The one thing that I find most deeply frustrating about this program is the interface. It’s got excellent capabilities, but they are buried in one of the most confusingly-designed interfaces I’ve seen in a long time. Three separate menus – along the top, along the bottom, and in the ‘Menu’ button – all lead to similar places, but with slightly different variations. There’s no logic to what goes where, or why it goes there, and each tool opens up in a new window without indicating how to go back to the main dashboard. Amusingly enough, this is their ‘new and innovative’ interface.

If you can get past the interface issues, best pc cleaner, there’s a lot to like about this program. It’s regularly updated and is compatible with all versions of Windows from Vista onwards. They don’t use scare tactics to get you to buy the pro version, and in fact, they even offer a free version which we included in the ‘Free Alternatives’ section. If the interface was updated to something more rational and user-friendly, it would be a much stronger contender.

Norton Utilities

($49.99 for 3 computer license)

Norton Utilities provides an excellent range of features in an easy-to-use interface. 1-Click Optimization makes it extremely simple to keep your PC clean, and they have bundled together with an impressive number of additional features, from duplicate file checkers to lost file recovery and secure deletion.

I did notice that after running the 1-Click Optimization all caching on my browser had been temporarily disabled, and all of my cached CSS files had been removed. These files are not exactly space-hogs, so I’m not sure why they would be included in an automatic cleaning process. This had the side effect of breaking every website I visited until I did a hard refresh to fix them, but the broken web pages might have confused an inexperienced user.

There are a couple of other things that keep Norton out of the winner’s circle. It’s one of the more expensive cleaning apps in this review, at $49.99, and you’re limited to installing on just 3 PCs, best pc cleaner. This means that it’s not exactly right for the winning the enthusiast category, as enthusiasts usually have at least 3 PCs in the house, and it’s a bit too complex for winning in the casual user category. It’s still an excellent choice from a feature standpoint, best pc cleaner, though, if you’re not a fan of our chosen winners – or if you want to avoid a yearly subscription fee!

Note that Norton no longer offers a free trial on their website.

Comodo PC TuneUp

($19.99 per year subscription)

Comodo PC TuneUp is a bit of a strange entry in the list. It covers some of the more basic PC cleaning functions such as searching for junk files and the obligatory/useless registry fixes, but it also includes a malware scanner, a Windows event log scanner, and a rather vague ‘security scanner’, best pc cleaner. Comodo also includes a duplicate file scanner, a registry defragmenter and a unique ‘force delete’ tool that allows you to defer deletion of files that best pc cleaner in use until your next restart.

It’s been fairly amusing to see what the different cleaning programs consider to be problems. Comodo didn’t find any issues with my Windows registry, despite the fact that the other programs I tested did. I never run any of the registry tools (apart from scanning) and you shouldn’t either, but it’s worth pointing out that there is evidently some disagreement about what causes problems.

Even more amusingly, the two security scanner results were both from entries in the registry, despite the fact that the registry scanner said everything was fine. I’m not sure what to make of that, but it doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence in its cleaning abilities. It also found the least amount of junk files at 488 MB, a sharp contrast to the potential 19 GB found by AVG PC TuneUp.

While it has good Windows compatibility, regular updates and a streamlined interface, the strange mix of tools and lackluster search performance means that this tool isn’t quite ready for the spotlight just yet.

iolo System Mechanic

($49.95, licensed for all computers in a single household)

iolo has received a best pc cleaner of recognition for its PC cleaner app, but my experience didn’t really live up to the expectations. I almost removed it from the review entirely, but so many people recommend it that I thought it was worth sharing my experience. It has a fairly standard set of options for managing PC cleaning and offers a range of ‘boosts’ intended to optimize everything from CPU speed to network speed, although it’s quite vague on how exactly it accomplishes this.

These issues are overshadowed by a much larger problem, however, best pc cleaner, as before I could even finish testing I ran into some trouble. Regular updating is one of the criteria we used to assess the available PC cleaners, and System Mechanic actually received an update while I was in the process of testing it. I thought it was a perfect change to test how well it handled updates, so I let it go ahead. It automatically uninstalled the old version, restarted my computer, and installed the new version, best pc cleaner, but I ran into a problem immediately:

I was only using the trial version, so I’m not exactly sure how it could possibly think that I had violated any license. I thought I could solve the problem by uninstalling and reinstalling, but when I tried to use the trial activation key that iolo emailed me, it told me that it was not valid for that program and was intended for another – even though I was just following its own update process!

It’s possible that your mileage may vary, but I wouldn’t trust my PC maintenance to a company that messes up its own product launches. Let this be a cautionary tale about the importance of choosing a quality software developer, even among those that have been recommended by others!

Some Free PC Cleaner Programs

In most cases, free software alternatives don’t offer quite the same level of comprehensive cleaning options or automatic management as paid software, but they can still be very useful.

Glary Utilities Free

This is one of the exceptions to the rule, of course. Glary Utilities Free provides some excellent features that make it a great choice for those who don’t have the budget or the need for the Pro version. Most of what’s left out of the free version has to do with automatic maintenance and “deep cleaning”, although unfortunately, both versions share the same bizarre interface.

Many users who are considering the Pro version will probably be satisfied with the Free version, and they both share the same regular updates and extensive Windows compatibility.

Duplicate Cleaner

DuplicateCleaner is firmly at the very basic end of the PC cleaning spectrum, as it really only does what the name suggests: search out duplicate files. This can be a major help when it comes to freeing up storage space, especially if you’re using a new laptop with a relatively small solid-state drive. Running out of storage space can dramatically reduce best pc cleaner speed of your computer, and duplicate file searching is one cleaning function that isn’t built into Windows.

BleachBit

The open source PC cleaner BleachBit is sort of a balance between the two previous free options, offering a range of disk space cleaning tools and secure delete options. Like most free software that doesn’t have a paid counterpart, the interface for BleachBit leaves a great deal to be desired – but at least you can’t call it confusing.

It doesn’t really offer the same functionality as any of the more comprehensive options, but it does have decent support and regular updates. It also is the only program we looked at that has a Linux version, as well as a few additional tools that are only available in the Linux environment.

BleachBit is available for download here.

How We Tested and Selected These PC Cleaner Apps

With so many different ways to “clean” a PC, it was important to standardize the way we looked at the programs involved, best pc cleaner. Here’s a rundown of the criteria we used to make our final selections:

They need comprehensive options.

Many PC cleaning apps claim they can speed up your PC dramatically, but the reality is that there are usually several small issues that can be fixed and monitored. Individually, none of them are that serious, but when they all start to have problems at once, your PC’s performance can really start to be affected. That makes it essential for a PC cleaning app to cover a wide range of options, from managing your startup programs to helping maximize your available storage space. Having a few extra functions like duplicate file checking and full uninstallation management can be very useful too!

They should be easy to use.

Windows already lets you manage most (if not all) of the functions offered by PC cleaning apps, but it can be finicky and time-consuming to handle things that way. A good cleaning app will bring all those functions together in a single place, and make the whole process easy to manage. Otherwise, you’re best pc cleaner off saving your money and learning how to do it all yourself.

They should get updated regularly.

Since your computer is constantly being updated (or at least it should be), it’s important that your cleaning app gets updated regularly too. Some more basic functions like duplicate file searching and free space recovery won’t change much from version to version, but if your PC cleaning app also has virus scanning or driver management features, regular updates are necessary to keep things running smoothly and effectively.

They must not try to scare you into buying them.

A lot of Best pc cleaner users aren’t very comfortable with the technical details of how their computers work. Some shady software developers try to take advantage of that fact by scaring users into thinking something is going desperately wrong unless you buy their software this very second. This is the equivalent of an unreliable auto mechanic piling repair charges onto your bill that you don’t really need. No good mechanic would do that, and no good software developer would either.

They must be affordable if you decide to purchase.

Most PC cleaning apps don’t need to be run regularly unless you’re using your PC constantly every day. Even then, best pc cleaner, they’ll probably still do a great job if you only run them a couple of times per year. That means that affordability is key and that any developer trying to offer users a yearly subscription to their program might not be offering the best value for money. Some dedicated developers do regularly update their programs enough to make DVDFab10.2.1.4 Crack With Working Serial Key Free Here Free Activators subscription model worthwhile, you just make sure that you’re getting enough benefit to make the ongoing cost worthwhile.

They must be compatible with all recent Windows versions.

Windows has gone through a number of different versions lately, and many people are still running Windows 7, Windows 8 or 8.1. Since upgrading best pc cleaner be expensive, best pc cleaner, the same household will often have multiple computers running different versions. A good PC cleaning app that offers a multi-computer license should support all the recent versions of Windows (including Windows 10 and Windows 11) so that you don’t have to buy a different program for each computer.

An Important Note About Security

Most software developers are interested best pc cleaner creating the best possible program, but not everyone is so admirable. Some developers are merely interested in making money, and a few try so hard to make sales that their tactics wind up uncomfortably close to the tactics used by scammers, best pc cleaner. Whenever you’re downloading a new piece of software, you should always scan it with your trusty (and updated) antivirus/anti-malware security program to make sure it’s safe to install.

During the course of my testing, several of the programs that I considered reviewing were flagged by Windows Defender and/or Malwarebytes AntiMalware. There was one that wouldn’t even finish downloading before Windows Defender blocked it! But don’t worry – all of the programs included in the published version of this review passed all available security scans. It just goes to show you the importance of best pc cleaner good security practices!

A Final Word

PC cleaning apps have come a long way since the early days, even though some of the tools they’ve included are a bit dubious (I’m looking at you, registry “cleaners”!). When you’re selecting and using a PC cleaner, be sure to remember that they are all designed to make you feel like you’d be lost without them. When they tell you that you’ve got 1729 issues to be corrected, don’t get frantic – they’re usually just counting every single file that could be deleted, not saying that your computer is about to break down.

Do you have a favorite Best pc cleaner cleaning app that I left out of this review? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll take a look!

One of the greatest pleasures of unboxing and turning on a new PC is the quick boot times and operations. The success, however, will inevitably fade away with time. Any computer eventually slows down, best pc cleaner, whether gradually or abruptly. In such cases, you can purchase a PC cleaner.

On a well-worn Windows 10 PC, we evaluated all of the PC cleaner utilities on this list. It’s worth noting that Microsoft’s latest operating system includes several built-in tools for optimizing your computer’s performance, and we have included Microsoft’s tool in our list so you can see how it compares.

8 Best PC Cleaners

These are the top PC cleaning apps of 2022, ranked according to features, safety, and performance.

1. CCleaner

CCleaner is a powerful registry and hard disk cleaning app for Windows. It frees up precious hard disk space by removing redundant files from your machine, enabling Windows to run faster. Additionally, it cleans records of your online activities, including your Internet history. It also comes with a full-featured registry cleaner. One of the best part about this PC cleaner is that it’s very fast.

• Performs disk defragmentation
• Safely cleans the Windows registry
• CCleaner can forcefully stop applications to free up additional resources and system RAM
• Consistently removes browser history, best pc cleaner, cookies, temporary files, system cache files, etc.
• Supports scheduling of scans and system maintenance

Read our full CCleaner review for more information.

2. IObit Advanced SystemCare

Advanced SystemCare is a comprehensive cleaning tool for Windows. It has gained its popularity primarily from being one of the simplest methods of cleaning a PC. It has a lot of other features in addition to cleaning. This software device features an uncomplicated and uncluttered user interface, best pc cleaner. It runs short scans to clean the computers. Additionally, security is very impressive and robust.

IObit Advanced SystemCare is a PC optimizer that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to clean, secure, and speed up your system. It’s a simple piece of software that scans your computer for the resource-hogs that are slowing it down. Not only that, but it also cleans up your registry and browser garbage (Cache, Cookies, etc.).

3. iolo System Mechanic

One of the most widely used PC cleaner is iolo System Mechanic. For the last two decades, tool has improved the efficiency and speed of Windows computers. It has fixed over 80 million computers, and users have a high level of confidence in it. This software Creature Animation Pro 3.73 Crack is optimal for the smooth and error-clean operation of high-quality video editing, streaming applications, and gaming.

• iolo System Mechanic can fix over 30,000 PC problems.
• Quick scan and deep scan modes.
• Performs disk defragmentation
• Also blocks malware, malicious websites, and spyware to keep your sensitive data safe.

iolo System Mechanic is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and later versions of the operating system. The standard version of iolo System Mechanic is $49.95 per year and iolo System Mechanic Pro is $69.95 per year.

4. AVG TuneUp

AVG TuneUp enables you to effectively speed up, best pc cleaner, repair, and clean your PC. This is a powerful cleaning app to help you get the most out of your PC, best pc cleaner. It has a lot of features and speeds up your computer, including a new Sleep Mode feature that improves your computer’s efficiency and speed.

AVG TuneUp is a good option that frees up best pc cleaner space and browser history in addition to improving overall speed.

5. CleanMyPC

CleanMyPC is the perfect tool to keep your PC running at its best. It allows you to remove items that slow down your computer and get rid of unwanted files with just one click. CleanMyPC can also schedule your computer for regular cleaning, and can even update your software.

6. Avira System Speedup

Avira System Speedup is a Windows application that optimizes PC performance quickly. It can defragment, remove unnecessary files, free up memory best pc cleaner the machine, and more. Additionally, it will repair and remove malware from your PC and avoid future infections. It can control all of the programs that start up with the device and allows you to uninstall the ones you don’t need. System Speedup can also improve the speed of your Internet connection. The software features an intuitive interface and a straightforward wizard to configure the optimization options.

7. Wise Care 365

Wise Care 365 is capable of removing junk files and maintaining a clean registry on your computer. When some programs attempt to make changes without your permission, it reacts quickly. It will detect and terminate any processes that attempt to alter the Windows registry in an unauthorized manner. Wise Care 365 is a great option.

This PC cleaner is a sophisticated and respectable system maintenance application. It includes all of the tools you’ll need to keep your PC running smoothly, as well as to speed it up, optimize it, and clean it up. Wise Care 365 is an all-in-one PC maintenance utility. It’s a set of useful resources packaged into a small package. Wise Care 365 will assist you in keeping your PC in tip-top shape.

8. Microsoft Total PC Cleaner

Microsoft Total PC Cleaner is a popular open-source PC cleaner for Windows. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows 10 as well as Xbox. Microsoft Total PC Cleaner remove system junk and various forms of cache files from your computer. This Windows cleaner is bare-bones and stripped down, but it is a solid and dependable free option for those that need one.

Why do I need a PC cleaner?

All computers inevitably lose their luster, becoming sluggish, unresponsive, and, in the worst-case scenario, unreliable. When applications are installed and uninstalled, the operating system becomes bogged down with outdated drivers, abandoned cache files, and other system clutter, best pc cleaner. Their hard disks fill up with data we’ve forgotten about, stored in folders we’ve forgotten about. Programs create massive caches in the background that we are unaware of. Eventually, our overburdened storage devices slow down the operating system. Drivers that are no longer supported stop working properly. Plug-ins and toolbars can significantly slow down our browsers. It makes no difference how attentive you are or what kind of productivity program you use to maximize your time if you have to sit around waiting for your machine to catch up.

Many users also consider purchasing new computers because their PC’s have become so compromised by usage and misuse that everything from web browsing to video streaming starts to seem slow. However, buy a new computer is a drastic solution that is frequently unnecessary if a good PC cleaner is used.

Conclusion

If you need something free, stick with Microsoft’s Total PC Cleaner. It’s not bad, even if not completely thorough, and it’s a safe option to load on your computer.

If you are considering purchasing a PC cleaner, be sure to still with well-known names in the industry. Because Windows cleaners have to dive deep into system settings and can potentially delete something ciritical, best pc cleaner, you want to be using software with a long track record of being safe as well as effective.

PCs and laptops remain trusty stalwarts of the technology world but they will inevitably slow down and get clogged up over time, especially if they are in daily use and have been in service for a few years. It happens to all of us but you can fix it with minimal fuss, time or expertise.

Even if you’re not running low on storage space, there are lots of ways these clever bits of software can seek out why your machine is running slowly from registry items to start-up programs.

Windows has some built-in tools to help you clear unused files and programs, but for the best results, you’ll want to use dedicated PC cleaner software. There are many apps available, but those we’ve tested here are all relatively inexpensive while offering a comprehensive service.

We used a laptop that’s been used for over three years with an almost full C: drive (80GB in capacity). All the applications have been tested with identical conditions, controlled by creating a system image before any testing was conducted and restoring this for each new piece of software. 

This means each one had the same set of files, registry entries and settings to deal with. We simply installed each one and let it do its job to see how well it could do, best pc cleaner. You can also check out the best antivirus software.

Best PC Cleaner Software 2022

1. CCleaner Professional – Best Overall

Pros

• Affordable
• Solid performance
• Plenty of tools

Cons

• Medium control of file removal
• Not the best user interface

A stalwart of the PC cleaner world, CCleaner Professional is still the best option for an all-rounder starting with a cheaper price than the other rivals here. There’s no option for 10 machines, but Plus works on three which may be enough for most people anyway. 

Despite this, it managed to clean more total space from our test laptop than any other so performance is top-notch. We’d just like a little more control over what is deleted. 

The interface is perhaps a little dated and can take time to learn but it’s serviceable and there are plenty of tools on offer here to get various tasks done as well as automatic cleaning and scheduling.  

Read our full CCleaner Professionalreview

2. IObit Advanced SystemCare – Best User Interface

Pros

• Clean & stylish interface
• Solid performance
• Wide range of tools

Cons

• Limited selection of files to delete

Advanced SystemCare 14 Pro has the modern user interface that CCleaner Professional is lacking so it’s great for new or experienced users. 

Performance is solid, freeing up a decent amount of storage and also RAM, too. Like CCleaner, though, some more user control over which junk files are deleted. 

Furthermore, there’s a comprehensive set of tools available for various other tasks you might want to carry out. All of this comes at a reasonable price making it a great option for a PC cleaner app. 

Read our full IObit Advanced SystemCare 14 Proreview

3. Ashampoo WinOptimizer – Best for Multiple Machines

Pros

• Modern interface
• Easy to use
• Packed with tools

Cons

• No single license option
• Single scan didn't find everything

In contrast to CCleaner and IObit, WinOptimizer 19 is better for users that want PC cleaning software on a larger number of machines. There’s just a 10 PC option rather than three or one. 

It is good value if this fits your needs though, especially if you don’t want an annual subscription like rivals. 

The software has best pc cleaner interface and if you’re a novice the 1-Click Optimizer will solve a lot of problems with minimal fuss and it has lots of other tools for the more tech-savvy customer. 

We found performance to be good, although best pc cleaner took a couple of scans to find everything that could be cleared up. 

Read our full Ashampoo WinOptimizer 19review

4. AVG TuneUp – Best for Multi-Platform

Pros

• Easy to use
• Great performance
• Decent tool selection

Cons

• Expensive if purchased direct

Like its antivirus software, AVG TuneUp has a simple interface that’s easy to get your head around in a short amount of time.  

It does the main job of making your machine faster and cleaner and also has other features such as automatic maintenance. Performance is second to CCleaner when it comes to freeing up hard drive space. 

It’s a good option if you want to use it on other platforms than Windows, like iOS and Android. The main downside is the best pc cleaner cost but you can find better prices if you don’t buy directly from AVG. 

Read our full AVG TuneUpreview

5. Norton Utilities Ulitmate – Best Toolset

Pros

• Comprehensive toolset
• Easy to use
• Real-time hardware optimisation

Cons

• Poor space freeing performance
• Expensive

If you want the most amount of tools and features then Utilities Ultimate, as the name suggests, is packed to the brim making it a great choice for the kind of user who wants a technical deep dive. 

The user interface is slick and one of the features is real-time optimisation of your CPU and memory which is unusual. And there are loads of other tools to get stuck into. 

However, it under performed with cleaning up junk files and registry issues, too. Considering the high asking price and lack of a single PC option, best pc cleaner, you might want to look elsewhere. 

Read our full Norton Utilities Ultimatereview

6. MacPaw CleanMyPC – Most Flexible Plans

Pros

• Simple interface
• Speedy scan

Cons

• Limited cleaning
• No registry scanning

CleanMyPC is quick and easy to use with a simple interface which is a best pc cleaner start and we like the option to pay annually or a one-time fee giving you flexibility. 

Prices are reasonable and the software takes up minimal space making it handy if your drive really is full up.  

Performance isn’t up to the level of some rivals, though, with a middling amount of space freed up as it couldn’t access some files to delete and it also couldn’t do any registry cleaning. Other available tools are good but you can typically do the same things just as easily with Windows.

Note: CleanMyPC is no longer being developed. You can still buy and use it, but you will only receive critical bug fixes and support won’t go beyond Windows 11.

Read our full MacPaw CleanMyPCreview

Decluttered your PC but it’s still running slowly? Check out how to speed up Windows for more suggestions. 

Although some PCs come with built-in optimizers, they aren’t really effective and still leave your system slowing down. Using a free PC cleaner is equally not advisable as most of them have hidden spyware and ransomware that could infect your computer.

The best PC cleanup tools easily remove junk, delete duplicate files, caches, cookies, and browsing histories, and remove unnecessary processes. Luckily, you can find optimization tools as part of a premium antivirus suite. In addition to speeding up your PC, you also get 100% real-time protection against threats.

I tested 20+ PC optimizers and handpicked the ones with the best performance. Although every antivirus on my list does a great job at cleaning your PC, I found that Norton performed the best.

Try Norton PC optimization

Try Norton PC optimization

1. Norton — Best Overall PC Cleanup and Optimization Tools

Key Features:

Norton has the best PC cleaning and optimization tools. It offers the most advanced cleaning and speedup features that remove clutters and improves system performance. In addition to speeding up my PC, Norton also provided a superior malware protection engine. It detected all forms of malware like adware, viruses, bloatware, and unwanted programs slowing down my PC.

The Startup Manager feature allowed me to disable or delay startup programs affecting my PC boot time. I also found Norton’s Disk Optimization feature pretty helpful. It rearranged file fragments scattered across my PC, improving its performance.

The Norton File Cleaner feature also helped remove clutter, temporary files, best pc cleaner, and folders, best pc cleaner, speeding up my system in just a few minutes. I also like how the Graph best pc cleaner shows all changes Norton makes on my PC, monitors processes and their CPU usage, allows me to optimize my boot time, get firewall notifications, and much more.

All these cleanup features are available on all Norton 360 subscriptions. However, if you want to delete browser cookies or shred sensitive files, you will need to add the Norton Utilities Ultimate plan to your antivirus subscription during sign-up, which comes at a low price. This add-on allowed me to search specific folders, remove junk and duplicate files, clean up my browsing history, and restore mistakenly deleted files. However, the feature I like the most is the automated PC care that works even when my PC is idle.

Norton has basic and advanced antivirus plans like the Norton Antivirus Plus, Deluxe, and Ultimate Plus. I prefer the Ultimate Plus plan because it is the most feature-rich plan which can quickly clean and optimize your PC while keeping you protected from all types of malware. You can try Norton risk-free for 60 days using its money-back guarantee.

Try Norton PC optimization

2. McAfee — Improve PC Performance and Speed Up Web Pages

Key Features:

McAfee is another antivirus with impressive PC cleaning and optimization features. It offers multiple cleanup features that improve PC performance and even the websites you visit.

During my tests, its QuickClean feature scanned my PC  and removed over 2GB of cookies, junk, and temporary files, freeing up space. Additionally, it provided a report after each scan, showing all the detected junk files as well as a 1-click option to remove them all.

I also found McAfee’s Shredder feature quite helpful. Ordinarily, when you delete a file from your PC, it doesn’t automatically go away. Even if you empty your recycle bin, it can still be recovered. The shredder feature permanently deletes files you choose by overwriting them multiple times, ensuring your file is gone forever.

McAfee has 3 shredding methods — basic shred, safe shred, and complete shred. Basic shred overwrites a file twice before deleting, safe shred overwrites a file 5 times before deleting and finally complete shred overwrites the file 10 times before deleting. You can also shred whole files in the recycle bin at once.

The Shredder lets you choose which files you want to destroy and how thoroughly you want them eliminated

McAfee’s Web Boost feature speeds up your browsing by automatically stopping the auto-playing of videos on the pages you visit. I was surprised that my browsing speeds and battery life noticeably improved when enabled. The only downside is that Web Boost is only available as an extension on Google Chrome for Windows 8 and 10. While McAfee doesn’t match the excellence of the Norton antivirus engine, it worked pretty well in preventing ransomware and other harmful malware that could slow down my PC.

McAfee offers a wide range of subscription plans depending on how many devices you want to protect and optimize your PC. However, the cleanup feature is only available for the Premium and Advanced subscription plans. The Premium plan is best pc cleaner affordable, but I prefer the Advanced plan because it has extra features like identity protection. Luckily, all McAfee plans are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can trust that it will work for you, and you can get a full refund if it doesn’t.

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3. TotalAV — Multiple PC Tune-Up Tools With User-Friendly Interface

Key Features:

TotalAV offers one of the easiest-to-use PC cleaning and optimization tools. The System Tune-Up tab has multiple PC cleaning tools like the Junk Cleaner, Duplicate File Finder, Application Uninstaller, Startup Manager, and Browser cleaner, which provide an easy way to remove unwanted files/programs and speed up my PC. TotalAV’s antivirus engine also detected and blocked all forms of malware that could infect my PC and slow it down.

I like the Startup Manager feature, which helped me control the apps that load upon startup. Such apps usually delay your device’s boot time, and Best pc cleaner Startup Manager surprised me with a long list of all the apps that do this on my computer. With a simple toggle switch in best pc cleaner Startup Manager, I could disable them from auto-starting.

The Junk Cleaner feature worked flawlessly during my tests, best pc cleaner, removing 1.01GB of junk files. Similarly, the Duplicate File Finder also detected and removed about 1.84GB of duplicate files, which freed up space and made my PC faster. I also liked TotalAV’s Smart Scan feature, which provides an all-in-one PC optimizer and malware scanner.

Smart Scan shows several ways to optimize your device and browser performance

The App Uninstaller is one of my favorite features. When you uninstall a program on your PC, it leaves registry files and other residual data that could slow down your PC when they accumulate. However, when I tested TotalAV’s App Uninstaller, it removed all the residual files from my PC.

The browser clean-up feature removed browser history and cookies to ensure my privacy. Advertisers best pc cleaner use trackers to monitor your internet activities and serve you ads. Fortunately, the Browser cleaner feature removed all cookies from all my browsers simultaneously.

TotalAV’s apps are very intuitive and make cleaning your PC seamless, best pc cleaner. All TotalAV’s best pc cleaner come with the System Tune-Up tools that optimize your PC quickly. However, I recommend the Total Internet Security plan as it gives you additional features like a VPN and an ad blocker.

The Total Internet Secuirty plan covers up to 6 devices and ensures all-around protection for your system. You can try all TotalAV’s plans risk-free using the 30-day money-back guarantee.

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4. iolo — Comprehensive and Feature-Rich Cleanup Best pc cleaner alt="" width="650" height="409">