KCleaner is not new, v3 has been around a while, this is an update from earlier this year, a repeat offering.
Be aware that we can download it from the vendor, and the free version is almost fully functional.
I do not know what the pro version offers, probably automation running in the background, but since I do not run utilities in the background, I do not care.
I encourage everyone to carefully check the options in KCleaner and UNSELECT the removal of non-temp file, such as Apple installers and such, until we are confident that we don’t need them, because many of them will be called on later when we are trying to update those programs, and if the previous installation package is not there, then older versions of such software cannot be easily replaced and updated, and updates fail ( so we have to remove and reinstall, and maybe clean the registry in between to eliminate references to deleted temp files ).
Then to use it,
– first click [ Options ] [ Expert Mode ],
– then click [ Simulate ],
– then wait as it scans and show the results,
– then manually scroll the results and inspect if you are happy and if you take 100% responsibility for deleting what is shown,
– THEN and only then click [ Clean ],
– otherwise, uncheck items you do not want to delete,
– or go back to [ Options ] [ Settings ] and uncheck items you do not want to delete,
– and then re-run [ Simulate ] as many times as it takes to get familiar with the results,
– before clicking [ Clean ].
I recommend backing up and rebooting and making a restore point before cleaning so the computer presents untampered resources to KCleaner, it misbehaved ONCE for me and deleted everything on the computer, and we don’t know why, hence my careful and hard-learned recommendations above – if I had checked and scrolled the list first, I would have seen the Windows directory, Program directories, User directories all checked as about to be deleted … ooops … but as I say, that happened ONCE, and only ONCE, and could not be duplicated ( for obvious reasons ), so I recommend rebooting before … now, why KCleaner had the inbuilt power to wipe an entire boot/operating system volume, and not self-prevent such a catastrophe, is a topic of programming chatrooms beyond end-user testing and feedback here!
When I next tried the program, I removed ALL checks from [ Options ] [ Settings] except for ONE CHECK AT A TIME, then I ran [ Simulate ] to see what it would do, then I web-searched and learned the meaning of those files and compared results to other programs, and then I proceed very carefully.
There are two categories of temp files, at least, and KCleaner does not know in it’s won the difference ):
– files that are meaningless and functionless, “true temp trash“,
– copies of meaningful and functional files, files that are installation programs and reference programs that MAY no longer be needed for our immediate computer function and use, but these files MAY be re-needed in the future during updating or repair of those programs.
It may be nice to see 1 GB of a long itemized list of “trash” to be removes removed … but I have 1.6 TB free, so why am I wasting my time “cleaning” anymore?
Okay, we clean so that things run faster,
– disk checks,
– file searches,
– defragging,
– malware scans,
– backups, restores,
… and other disk activities run faster if they do not have to slog through the same old meaningless “true temp trash” over and over, stuff that neither we nor our computer will never use again, stuff that has no functional contents.
What we need is evolving intelligent support software that is smart and able to learn about what it sees on our systems.
This ain’t it.
KCleaner, by comparison, is an old-fashion manually-programmed cleaner ( DOS with GUI ), it never calls home to ask for guidance when seeing new kids of files because ( a ) it does not look for new kinds of files, and ( b ) it doesn’t call home … and worse, dangerously worse, ( c ) it does not coordinate file deletion with registry references, so our Windows registration database may still refer to the deleted files, and other programs may expect the deleted files to still be there, KCleaner has not notified other programs to collect their babies before KCleaner deletes whatever KCleaner deletes, and so on … and ( d ) it does not check itself before deleting an entire disk, see by ONCE unduplicatable experience above.
I compare KCleaner to other bulldozer temp file cleaners, such as
– Temp File Cleaner by Old Timer ( which has no selectable controls but is actually more powerful and less dangerous, from BleepingComputer ),
– Temp File Cleaner by AddPCs ( capable, a few general controls, but an uncontrollable bulldozer at some point, v3 still works in free mode ),
– the temp file feature of CCleaner ( safer ), Glary Utilities ( safer ), IObit Advanced System Care ( safer, I can’t believe I’m saying that, bit not IObit Uninstaller [ Software Health ] feature which is dangerous ),
– basically similar to the temp file feature of just about any other free or fee utility program – all are manually programmed by their programmers ( that’s why they each find different temp stuff ), none of which are intelligent, able to learn, none of which have much power over Windows settings and features to reset or bypass Microsoft misbehaviors, and none of which compare to and learn from the Windows registry and coordinate before deleting.
It’s just a tool, and the free version installed as portable is just fine for what it can be used for, and it is worth updating occasionally as the programmer polishes their manually generated settings.
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Regarding endless failures to download and other web stuff … I notice Google Chrome blocking an incredible number of sites, Firefox is a little more miscible, but I have had to to revert to old fashioned Microsoft Internet Explorer ( ! ) to get to some stuff, WHAT IS GOING ON?!?
I always check downloaded files at VirusTotal, even stuff directly downloaded from supposedly reputable vendors ( remember the virus distributed in CCleaner ?).
So, c’mon, folks, it’s okay to report failures here, but let’s also report our work-arounds, and let’s be the go-to resources for making stuff work regardless.
Thanks.
.