CCleaner

•  Introducing CCleaner
•  Using CCleaner
•  CCleaner Rules
•  CCleaner Settings
  •  Choosing which cookies to keep
  •  Changing CCleaner settings
  •  Changing the language CCleaner uses
  •  Changing advanced settings
  •  Cleaning Flash cookies
  •  Changing monitoring settings (CCleaner Professional)
•  CCleaner How Tos
•  Troubleshooting
•  Advanced Usage

Changing CCleaner settings

There are several settings you can modify in CCleaner that can make it more convenient to use on a regular basis. You can also change how secure CCleaner's deletion process is.

To run CCleaner automatically when Windows starts:

1. In CCleaner, click the Options icon at left, and then click the Settings button.
2. Select Run CCleaner when the computer starts.

To check for updates to CCleaner automatically:

1. In CCleaner, click the Options icon at left, and then click the Settings button.
2. Select Automatically check for updates to CCleaner.

Note: Function “Automatically check for updates” is set to check for new updates every 10 days. The frequency of update checks cannot be changed. You can always check for updates manually.

To modify the Recycle Bin behavior:

1. In CCleaner, click the Options icon at left, and then click the Settings button.
2. Select Add "Run CCleaner" and/or Add "Open CCleaner..." option to Recycle Bin context menu.

• If you select Add "Run CCleaner" option, you will be able to right-click the Recycle Bin to automatically run CCleaner.
• If you select Add "Open CCleaner" option, you will be able to right-click the Recycle Bin to start the CCleaner application.

To change CCleaner's deletion method:

1. In CCleaner, click the Options icon at left, and then click the Settings button.
2. Do one of the following:

• Select Normal file deletion (Faster) to delete files more quickly, but less securely.
• Select Secure file deletion (Slower) to delete files more securely, but much more slowly.

CCleaner has four methods of secure deletion: a Simple Overwrite (1 pass), DOD 5220.22-M (3 passes), NSA (7 passes), and Gutmann (35 passes). A 'pass' refers to how many times CCleaner writes over the spot on the hard drive. The more times CCleaner writes to that spot, the harder the file will be to recover by any means. The drawback is that it will take CCleaner longer to complete the job.

Note: CCleaner can only securely delete files which have not yet been deleted from the Recycle Bin. If you have already delete files insecurely (for example, using Windows Explorer), you can delete them securely using Recuva.

For more information, see the Wikipedia entry on the Gutmann method.

To set which drives CCleaner will clean when wiping free disk space:

1. In CCleaner, click the Options icon at left, and then click the Settings button.
2. In the Wipe Free Space drives area, select the drive or drives.

To set CCleaner to clean MFT free space (NTFS drives only):

The Master File Table (MFT) contains an index of the files on an NTFS drive. As the computer overwrites and deletes files, the MFT can accumulate free space which may contain remnants of index pointers to deleted files. You can now set CCleaner to wipe the MFT free space, just as you have been able to set it to wipe free drive space.

To enable MFT free space cleaning, select the Wipe MFT Free Space check box.

Note: If you select both Wipe Free Space and Wipe MFT Free Space, CCleaner will wipe the MFT free space first.

To increase the size of fonts used in CCleaner:

See this topic.