The Internet Cleanup Debate

Cleaning up a computer of unwanted files these days is a mandatory procedure for improving system performance. There are two key ways to clean a hard drive; firstly you could delete files by hand, or secondly you can use an automated tool to do the job. Cleaning the drive manually means looking at each of the files and file folders then coming up with a list of which data files can go, and removing them depending on which should stay and which should go. The manual method is more thorough than scanning the drive with software tools but this way can be tedious if many files exist. You can also make use of software tools that can determine information which include file properties, last opened dates, etc. and make lists of files to be cleaned.

A quick search on Google will rapidly reveal the depth of software products that work drive scanning and cleanup processing using a range of methods. One of the more common types is the internet cleaner, several are for-profit software and some are open source. However there are more things that these utilities are able to do, some can delete private data, check the drive for porn and remove it, detect the presence of illegal or unlicensed software, and help with free space recovery.

Out of the many computer cleaning applications available, drive cleaners are usually one of several types. The first of these are free or commercial disk cleanup tools such as the 'Disk Cleanup' utility that comes with Microsoft operating systems, that can help remove redundant files and give back usable space in the process. Also you can find other software products that are especially suited to erasing browser tracks and delete traces of things you have typed while searching from IE and Firefox, and some other browsers, such as evidence removal cleaners. Now there is also porn detection software which detects the existence of porn and a range of other inappropriate files and helps the user get rid of any files that are not wanted. The last category of cleanup utilities is the 'disk washer' style product, which rubs out existing files and data from anywhere on the disk such that it may not be found by others.