The Portable Freeware Collection Forums

Motivated by concerns over CCleaner's possible privacy issues (those issues magnified tenfold by the constant nag pop-ups) I've investigated alternatives for two of its functions:
a. Cleanmgr+ (https://www.mirinsoft.com/cleanmgrplus) seems to have all the good features (and more) of both CCleaner and MS's Cleanmgr (and none of the bad) as far as junk removal is concerned, and
b. Wise Registry Cleaner Portable (https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities ... r-portable) seems to do as safe and effective a job of tidying up the registry as CCleaner. (This was of particular concern to me; there's lots of portable up-to-date junk removers available, but all the registry cleaners were looking rather out of date.)

I'm afraid I'm rather too simple a soul to provide the detailed analysis of these products that you would prefer in submissions here: perhaps more IT-savvy users could investigate and add them to the database if they pass muster.

AdrianK_IT wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 8:55 am Motivated by concerns over CCleaner's possible privacy issues

Good idea. CCleaner is still on MANY "best of" lists despite being far from the best (anymore). As we have a thread for Google alternatives, this makes sense.

AdrianK_IT wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 8:55 am I'm afraid I'm rather too simple a soul to provide the detailed analysis of these products that you would prefer in submissions here: perhaps more IT-savvy users could investigate and add them to the database if they pass muster.

We have CleanMgr+ (formerly Xleaner) already submitted, but nothing for Wise Registry Cleaner. I think the closer one would be "Wise Disk Cleaner"

* Free Wise Disc Cleaner - viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9730

* Xleaner (discontinued in the favor of CleanMgr+) - viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7959

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KCleaner: viewtopic.php?p=96062#p96062 (another disk cleaner that I've had some luck with)

I would also recommend Bleachbit.

A search for Cleanmgr+ returned no results! https://www.portablefreeware.com/index. ... nMgr%2B&m=

AdrianK_IT wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 10:42 pm A search for Cleanmgr+ returned no results! https://www.portablefreeware.com/index. ... nMgr%2B&m=

It's okay -- we don't have an excellent search engine. Sometimes you've got to go through a site search like DDG https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=site%3 ... %22&ia=web or we have a Google portal at the bottom of the advanced search area: https://www.portablefreeware.com/options.php?

I like these better than CCleaner
Portable Wise Disk Cleaner
https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities ... r-portable\

Portable Wise Registry Cleaner
https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities ... r-portable

As the topic is more of a generic nature and not about a single program, I'm moving it to "Discussion".

Please tell me if you disagree.

These are some other alternatives to CCclearner

CleanMyPC
Glary Utilities
Iolo System Mechanic

I'm using Vit Registry Fix (for Windows XP/VISTA/7/8/8.1/10 - x86/x64).
It comes as a full suite of portable maintenance programs :


I'ts not free but dirt cheap (9$ - Lifetime license).
Developer is Ukrainian.

Stopped using any cleaners/tweakers/optimisers for almost a decade already
Can't imagine why any non-newby, non-casual PC user would need such basically snake oil

Bleachbit is a pretty good alternative. Just missing a registry cleaner, but use registry cleaners with a bit of caution.

HDD cleaners are good if you want to reclaim some HDD space. Also good to have is Tree Size Free to have an idea of which folders and files are consuming a lot of space on your PC.

freakazoid wrote: ↑Wed Nov 04, 2020 12:04 pm Bleachbit is a pretty good alternative.

It used to be a great program but I was frustrated with intense oversimplification with the program in recent updates.

billon wrote: ↑Wed Nov 04, 2020 11:16 am Stopped using any cleaners/tweakers/optimisers for almost a decade already
Can't imagine why any non-newby, non-casual PC user would need such basically snake oil

I spend a lot of time trying to maintain some better security/privacy by storing everything inside a VeraCrypt volume -- part of why I've been so keen on portable software over the years. As such, I've spent a lot of time trying to minimize the instances of app history or other details outside of that volume (enter tools like CCleaner). But I haven't spent much time looking for the leftovers for private data, so it might well be snake oil.

I also don't use registry optimizers, I just reinstall the whole OS on an 8-15 month cycle.

webfork wrote: ↑Wed Nov 04, 2020 9:58 pm minimize the instances of app history or other details

In regards of privacy/stealthiness (and only for that imo) using such programs make sense, you are right.

webfork wrote: ↑Wed Nov 04, 2020 9:58 pm I just reinstall the whole OS on an 8-15 month cycle

That's radical solution of possible problems

billon wrote:

webfork wrote: ↑I just reinstall the whole OS on an 8-15 month cycle

That's radical solution of possible problems

I agree.

I suggest that the next time you have to do that, setup your Windows to a virtual disk and make a backup of the virtual disk file after you finish; that way, whenever you need a fresh copy of Windows, just restore the virtual disk image backup...

For further info, you can check my post here -- especially the entry on "Installing a Fresh Windows OS to a New Bootable VHD": viewtopic.php?p=72857#p72857

AdrianK_IT wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 8:55 am Motivated by concerns over CCleaner's possible privacy issues (those issues magnified tenfold by the constant nag pop-ups)

i'm still using version 5.30 and with Windows Firewall Control i don't let it call home (if it ever tries)