A Free PC Cleaner? Is There Such a Thing? (Yes & No).Download CCleaner | Clean, optimize & tune up your PC, free!
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If you've done any kind of search for a free PC or computer "cleaner," then you've likely encountered many that were anything but free. Sadly, it's become increasingly common to advertise that a registry or other PC cleaner program is free to "download" even though the all-important "cleaning" part will cost you. How these companies get away with that sort of practice is beyond belief. Fortunately, among the hundreds you'll find in a search, there are several very good, completely free PC cleaner tools available.
Physically cleaning your PC is a related subject, but that, of course, involves a very different procedure. Completely free PC cleaner tools are available from many companies and developers, and we've put together a list of the very best to choose from in our Best Free Registry Cleaners list. Only freeware cleaner programs are included in this list. There are no shareware , trialware, or other for-pay cleaners.
In other words, we don't recommend any programs that charge a fee of any kind. You will not have to pay for anything, there are no donations required, the features will not expire after a certain period of time, a product key isn't necessary, etc. Some computer cleaners do include extra features that you have to pay for, like scheduled scans, auto-cleaning, malware scanning, automatic program updates, etc.
However, none of the tools from our list above require you to pay in order to use the PC cleaning features. Back in the "old days" there were many programs that billed themselves as registry cleaners and that's pretty much all they did. However, as registry "cleaning" became less needed it never was, really , these programs morphed into system cleaners with the ability to do a lot more than remove unnecessary entries from the Windows Registry.
So what has happened over time is that our list of registry cleaners has become primarily a list of system cleaners, adding many more features than they had ten years prior. CCleaner, in particular, is a full suite that includes lots of features in addition to registry cleaning. It lets you clear your private web browser data like the history and saved passwords, delete temporary program and operating system data, disable programs that startup with Windows, find duplicate files, wipe an entire hard drive , manage browser plugins, see what's filling up all the space on your hard drive , and more.
If you're instead looking for a PC cleaner that checks for viruses and other malware, see our list of the best free spyware removal tools or install a dedicated antivirus program from our Best Free Antivirus Software list to always be on the watch for malware threats. There are certainly other lists of free PC and computer cleaner programs out there but many of them include cleaner tools that, at some point during their download or use, charge you something.
The scanning may be free, but when you get to the cleaning part, you're prompted for a credit card number. Worse yet, sometimes only the "download" is free, but actually using the program is not.
It's all semantics—and it's not very ethical. We are not affiliated with any of the companies in our curated list, nor do we receive any compensation from any of them for promoting their programs. We have tested each of them personally and, at least as of the date in the piece, each one was completely free to download, scan, and clean your system and registry.
Registry cleaning should only be used to troubleshoot actual issues and should not be part of regular PC maintenance see our Registry Cleaners FAQ for more on why you'd use one. System cleaning removing temporary files , clearing cache , etc. When you visit this site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies.
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You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. By Tim Fisher. Tim Fisher. Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the VP and General Manager of Lifewire. Tweet Share Email. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know!
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