Download a Grab Bag of Free System Tools

10 + 2 free system tools to maintain your computer, and keep it in top shape.

We talked about keeping your computer physically clean, just a few days ago. Today, we’ll focus on keeping your computer’s operating system and subsystems clean, so that you can ramp up your system’s performance.

With that in mind, I retested some of the free system tools I’ve rated and recommended, over the last year or more, that will do a great job of revitalizing your system. These free applications are at the “Top of the Class”, in my view.

There may be slight overlaps in functionality between applications, so I’m not suggesting that you download them all – choose those that best meet your specific needs.

If I’ve missed one of your favorites that you feel should be on this list, then let me know with your comments.

CCleaner

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.

It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally, it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it’s fast; normally taking less than a few seconds to run.

Glary Utilities

Glary Utilities, a free all-in-one utility, is a terrific collection of system tools and utilities to fix, speed up, maintain and protect your PC. Personal experience with this application for the last 2+ years, has convinced me that a typical user can really benefit by having this application on their system.

With this free program you can tweak, repair, optimize and improve your system’s performance; and its ease of operation makes it ideal for less experienced users.

Advanced SystemCare Free

Advanced SystemCare Free is a comprehensive PC care utility that takes a one-click approach to help protect, repair, and optimize your computer. It provides an all-in-one, and super convenient solution, for PC maintenance and protection.

WinPatrol

Do you want to get a better understanding of what programs are being added to your computer? Then WinPatrol is the program for you. With WinPatrol, in your system tray, you can monitor system areas that are often changed by malicious programs.

You can monitor your startup programs and services, cookies and current tasks. Should you need to, WinPatrol allows you to terminate processes and enable, or disable, startup programs. There are additional features that make WinPatrol a very powerful addition to your security applications.

Revo Uninstaller

Revo Uninstaller is a superior program designed to uninstall programs from your computer. This free program with its advanced and fast algorithm scans before, and after, you uninstall an application.

After the program’s regular uninstaller runs, you can remove additional unnecessary files, folders and registry keys that are usually left over on your computer. This feature is a definite plus.

RunAlyzer

If you’re looking to track down spyware, or speed up system startup–and you’re technically astute–then RunAlyzer may be just what you need. Run it, and it performs a thorough analysis of all programs and services that run when you start up your computer.

Note: Recommended for advanced users only.

Autoruns

This free utility has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, in my view, and shows you what programs are configured to run during system boot up or login, and the order Windows processes them. These programs will include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys.

You can configure Autoruns to show additional locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and more.

Autoruns goes considerably beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows.

Regseeker

The longer you use Windows, the more cluttered your registry can become, especially if you regularly install and uninstall software. Many applications, on being uninstalled, leave behind “orphan” registry entries. They don’t remove all traces of themselves which can cause problems such as sluggish performance, system lockups, or a bloated registry that takes longer to load on startup. With the click of a button, Regseeker will scan your registry for these fragmented files, and safely remove them.

Note: Recommended for advanced users only.

Wise Registry Cleaner

Wise Registry Cleaner is a free, non aggressive application that, as one of my friends says, hits a home run in the safety department. As it searches the Registry for obsolete/redundant registry keys, it differentiates between those that are “safe to fix”, and those that are “not fully safe to fix”.

To provide the greatest safety factor for those who are uncomfortable, or unfamiliar, with cleaning the Registry, the application’s default removal setting is – “safe to fix”.

Fresh UI

One of the oldest and most well established free Windows tweaking applications, Freshdevices’ Fresh UI is a powerful tool that allows you to configure and optimize your version of Windows.

This small (1.24 MB) program has a clean, easy to understand interface that gives you access to hundreds of system settings, some of which are hidden, and others that are just hard to find. The interface is organized by section for easy navigation, and it is complete with detailed descriptions for easy reference.

Auslogics Disk Defrag

The program is extremely easy to use, does not require any analysis phase and is faster than most disk defragmentation software I’ve tested in the past, and it’s free. In my view, it’s one more maintenance process in helping me get the maximum performance out of my hardware.

FixWin

If you’ve been looking for an easy way to fix issues such as, Win Explorer not starting at boot up, CD drive or DVD drive is missing or not being recognized by Windows, or other programs, or the Device Manager is not functioning correctly (not as uncommon as you might think), then the recently released FixWin freeware application, could be the perfect solution.

It’s important to note however, FixWin does NOT scan for problems. You, have to recognize that you have the problem – the application will then correct the problem, provided of course it is one of the 50 very common problems the application is designed to deal with.

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RegSeeker – King of the Free Registry Cleaners!

Getting frustrated while you wait for your operating system to load? Are some of your applications not working quite right? Tired of trying to figure it out?

Then it’s time to give RegSeeker, a free Windows registry cleaner, a go at cleaning and optimizing your Windows registry.

A jam-packed, jumbled registry can be one of the chief causes of computer slowdown and malfunction. A messy registry can often put a brake on your system, cause programs to stop working properly, and aggravate you while you hang around waiting for the operating system to load at a snails pace.

Even a new/newer computer is not immune to this type of problem. Over time, sometimes a very short time, repeated loading of the operating system and application software can create errors and leave unnecessary entries in the registry. This is where RegSeeker, a multilingual registry cleaner/optimizer, can prove to be very useful.

RegSeeker’s primary function is to clean your registry, which it does easily, safely, and thoroughly. Just launch the program, click on “Clean the Registry”, and delete the listed unneeded registry entries.

Despite the fact RegSeeker has an automatic registry backup feature, I strongly recommend that you analyze the search results very carefully, and then ensure you have in fact backed up before deleting any registry entries.

After a previous review of this application, I received one comment in which the reader indicated he had suffered a complete meltdown of his computer after having run this application.

On the other hand, I have been safely using this program on a daily basis for over three years, and I have not had to use this backup feature yet. However, as we all know there’s always a first time and that generally occurs when you least expect it. So my advice; err on the side of caution any time you are working with the registry and be sure to backup.

I download and test, 1-2 applications daily, so this program gets a real workout on my machines. As well, I use Revo Uninstaller, a powerful application uninstaller to uninstall applications which means less work for RegSeeker.

RegSeeker is multifunctional in that it also performs tweak operations. It can clean out your startup entries, Add/Remove program entries, adjust color schemes, change personal information entries, and it includes a general “Tweaks” menu option. I have found this tweaking ability to be relatively useful.

RegSeeker is an extremely valuable tool for keeping your Registry in perfect running order, and its “Tweaks” editing options allow you to do more with the user interface than you might have previously thought was possible.

RegSeeker is FREE for personal use only.

System Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server

Download at: Download.com

Important Note:

If you’re a relatively new computer user, it’s important that you choose a Registry cleaner which will clean your Registry easily, thoroughly, and most importantly for you as a new user, safely.

Wise Registry Cleaner is a free, non aggressive application that, as one of my friends says, “hits a home run in the safety department”. As it searches the Registry for obsolete/redundant registry keys, it differentiates between those that are “safe to fix”, and those that are “not fully safe to fix”.

To provide the greatest safety factor for those who are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with cleaning the Registry, the application’s default removal setting is “safe to fix”.

Download at: Download.com

Free Wise Registry Cleaner – Safe for New Users

A packed, cluttered registry can often be one of the major causes of computer slowdown, and in some cases, computer malfunction. As well, a messy registry can cause programs to stop working properly, and it can lead to frustration while you wait for the operating system to load, often at a snails pace.

Even with a new/newer computer, the loading of the operating system and application software can, over time, create redundant errors and leave unnecessary entries in the registry. This is where a Registry cleaner can prove its value.

If you’re a relatively new computer user it’s important that you choose a Registry cleaner which will clean your Registry easily, thoroughly, and most importantly for you as a new user, safely.

Wise Registry Cleaner is a free, non aggressive application that, as one of my friends says, hits a home run in the safety department. As it searches the Registry for obsolete/redundant registry keys, it differentiates between those that are “safe to fix”, and those that are “not fully safe to fix”. To provide the greatest safety factor for those who are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with cleaning the Registry, the application’s default removal setting is “safe to fix”.

In testing I found it was not particularly fast; certainly not as fast as my personal favorite registry cleaner for experienced users, RegSeeker. I did however find it to be very thorough in that it found 74 issues on my test platform; 55 entries in the category “safe to fix” and 19 entries in the “not fully safe” to remove category.

To clean your registry, just launch the program, click on “Scan” and the program will find, and then give you the option of removing, unneeded registry entries. By removing any unnecessary registry entries you will have taken an important first step toward optimizing your computer.

Despite the fact Wise Registry Cleaner has an automatic registry backup feature, I strongly recommend that you analyze the search results very carefully, and then ensure that you have used the backup feature before deleting any registry entries.

System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

Download at: Download.com

Free – Wise Registry Cleaner (5 Star Rated) – New User Friendly!

A packed, cluttered registry can often be one of the major causes of computer slowdown, and in some cases, computer malfunction.

On top of that, a messy registry can cause programs to stop working as they should, and it can lead to frustration while you wait for the operating system to load, often at a snails pace.

Even with a new/newer computer, the loading of the operating system and application software can, over time, create redundant errors and leave needless entries in the registry. This is where a Registry cleaner can prove its value.

If you’re a relatively new computer user it’s important that you choose a Registry cleaner which will clean your Registry easily, thoroughly, and most importantly for you as a new user, safely.

Wise Registry Cleaner is a free, non aggressive application that, as one of my friends says, hits a home run in the safety department. As it searches the Registry for obsolete/redundant registry keys, it differentiates between those that are “safe to fix”, and those that are “not fully safe to fix”. To provide the greatest safety factor for those who are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with cleaning the Registry, the application’s default removal setting is “safe to fix”.

In testing I found it was not particularly fast; certainly not as fast as my personal favorite free Registry cleaner for experienced users, RegSeeker. I did however find it to be very thorough in that it found 74 issues on my test platform; 55 entries in the category “safe to fix” and 19 entries in the “not fully safe” to remove category.

To clean your registry, just launch the program, click on “Scan” and the program will find, and then give you the option of removing, unneeded registry entries. By removing any unnecessary registry entries you will have taken an important first step toward optimizing your computer.

Even though Wise Registry Cleaner has an automatic registry backup feature, I strongly recommend that you analyze the search results very carefully, and then ensure that you have used the backup feature before deleting any registry entries.

System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

Download Version 3.4.1 at: Download.com

Free Wise Registry Cleaner – Great Newbie Tool!

A packed, cluttered registry can often be one of the major causes of computer slowdown, and in some cases, computer malfunction. As well, a messy registry can cause programs to stop working properly, and it can lead to frustration while you wait for the operating system to load, often at a snails pace.

Even with a new/newer computer, the loading of the operating system and application software can, over time, create redundant errors and leave unnecessary entries in the registry. This is where a Registry cleaner can prove its value.

If you’re a relatively new computer user it’s important that you choose a Registry cleaner which will clean your Registry easily, thoroughly, and most importantly for you as a new user, safely.

Wise Registry Cleaner is a free, non aggressive application that, as one of my friends says, hits a home run in the safety department. As it searches the Registry for obsolete/redundant registry keys, it differentiates between those that are “safe to fix”, and those that are “not fully safe to fix”. To provide the greatest safety factor for those who are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with cleaning the Registry, the application’s default removal setting is “safe to fix”.

In testing I found it was not particularly fast; certainly not as fast as my personal favorite Registry cleaner for experienced users, RegSeeker. I did however find it to be very thorough in that it found 74 issues on my test platform; 55 entries in the category “safe to fix” and 19 entries in the “not fully safe” to remove category.

To clean your registry, just launch the program, click on “Scan” and the program will find, and then give you the option of removing, unneeded registry entries. By removing any unnecessary registry entries you will have taken an important first step toward optimizing your computer.

Despite the fact Wise Registry Cleaner has an automatic registry backup feature, I strongly recommend that you analyze the search results very carefully, and then ensure that you have used the backup feature before deleting any registry entries.

System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

Download at: Download.com

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