Get Your Windows PC Back Into Shape With WinUtilities

If there is anything that a Windows user can’t deny it’s that the Windows operating system is an irritating thing to maintain. There are so many hidden stockpiles of temporary, log and history files that before long your hard drive is looking like the disappearing beer supply at a redneck wedding. Honestly, who has time to hunt through all of the system and Internet folders, the registry and the history and log files just to “clean up” the mess that other OS processes and installed applications leave behind?

There are lots of tools that will attack part of the mess, like your Internet history files or registry cleaners, but what about fragmented hard drive space, duplicate files or junk registry keys?

The bottom line is that if you’re running Windows and you don’t want to spend all of your time running 100 applications to take care of each of the areas where Windows wastes space, then you’ll want to run a single app that can handle it all. One such free utility is an awesome program called WinUtilities offered by YL Software.

An All-In-One Windows Maintenance Application

When I say that WinUtilities does everything, I’m not exaggerating. The free version of this utility has most of the features completely unlocked (at least all of the ones that I tried work 100%).

The application is split up into utility groups like Clean Up & Repair, Optimize & Improve, and Privacy & Security. Each of these areas has its own collection of tools. Some of these you’re probably accustomed to using in Windows (when you can find it), and others are somewhat unique to WinUtilities.

There are lots of free registry cleaners out there. Well WinUtilities has one too. It’ll scan through your entire registry looking for any errors that need attention.

Another awesome tool that can free up a lot of space is the Disk Cleaner. This will run through any drive (including attached drives or USB sticks), and it will search for “junk files”, such as temp files, invalid shortcuts, memory dump files and more.

The main reason I installed this software on my PC is because it also comes with a thorough program uninstaller. If you’ve used the standard Windows program uninstaller, then you know that occasionally there are those pesky apps that may only partially uninstall, but then it won’t remove the item from the registry. For whatever reason, the program remains on the “installed program” list even after all associated files are removed. Well, if you use the uninstaller in WinUtilities, that won’t happen anymore.

If you get one of those random errors where the program won’t disappear from the installed application list, just click on the “Remove” link at the bottom of the tool.

It’ll wipe that app off the list and you’ll never have to see its ugly face again. Problem solved.

Once you’re done cleaning up your computer and recovering wasted space, the Optimize & Improve section is filled with utilities that will make your computer run faster.

Here you’ll find disk and registry defrag tools, a cool BHO Remover that will clean up any “Browser Help Objects” that you really don’t want. Then of course, there’s another one of my personal favorite tools – the “Startup Cleaner“.

This tool shows you every last place that controls what applications launch when your computer boots up. Some people think all they have to do is clear out the “Startup” folder and that’ll take care of it. Not at all – check out all of the areas that can affect what gets launched at startup.

In the “Files & Folders” section, you’ll also find the powerful “duplicate files” search, which will show you all of the duplicate files on your entire system, or inside select directories. This is sometimes one of the fastest ways to clear up a lot of wasted storage space on your computer.

Another really cool tool in this section is the “File Splitter and Joiner“. This application will take any huge file that you may want to burn to a CD or send in an email, and it’ll split it up using various formats. All you have to do (or the recipient has to do) at the other end is use the same tool to rejoin the files again into the single huge file.

Don’t forget to poke around in the “System Tools” area, where you’ll find a whole range of additional utilities to tweak the operating system – including modifying config files (be careful!), viewing OEM information, and even tweaking some of the network packet handling.

Overall, I think that if you really don’t want to keep using all of those little “cleanup” apps that you’ve installed to handle the registry, doing defrags and dealing with other system problems – this program is a perfect all-in-one replacement.

Give WinUtilities a test drive and see if it does everything you need it to do. Were you able to let go of some of those other cleanup and optimization tools you were using? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

Image credits: Deleket

Get Your Windows PC Back Into Shape With WinUtilities is a post from: MakeUseOf