Expatriate Computer Tips: 
Essential Free Software for Weekly PC maintenance -
Ccleaner (Crap Cleaner)
 

Run Ccleaner once a week. CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy 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. But the best part is that it's small, fast and FREE!

Ccleaner Features:

Ccleaner cleans the following Windows components:
Internet Explorer
- Temporary File Cache.
- URL History.
- Cookies.
- Hidden Index.dat files.
- Last download file location.
Firefox
- Temporary File Cache.
- URL History.
- Cookies.
- Download manager.
Recycle Bin
Clipboard
Windows Temporary files
Windows Log files.
Recent Documents (on the Start Menu).
Run history (on the Start Menu).
Windows XP Search Assistant history.
Windows XP old Prefetch data.
Windows memory dumps after crashes.
Chkdsk file fragments.
 

Advanced Options allow cleaning of:

Menu Order cache
Tray Notifications Cache
Window Size and Location Cache
User Assist history
IIS Log Files
Custom Folders

Application Cleaning:
As well as cleaning up old files and settings left by standard Windows components, CCleaner also cleans temporary files and recent file lists for many applications. Including:

Firefox, Opera, Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Office XP, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and more...

Registry Issue Cleaning:
CCleaner uses an advanced Registry to check for problems and inconsistencies in your registry. It can check the following:

File Extensions
ActiveX Controls
ClassIDs
ProgIDs
Uninstallers
Shared DLLs
Fonts
Help File references
Application Paths
Icons
Invalid Shortcuts and more...

Safety:
CCleaner was designed from the ground to be safe and secure to use. It has multiple levels of checks in place to ensure that it cannot delete any useful information or documents you may still need. Ccleaner also certify that it contains NO Spyware or Adware.


High Security:
For the super cautious users, Ccleaner uses secure file erasing. By overwriting the files before deleting them, making it impossible to recover the data.


Multiple Languages:
CCleaner is available in 26 different languages. Among them are
English, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Simp), Chinese (Trad), Czech/Slovak, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
 

Other expat essential software:
Picasa - Find, edit and share your photos, free from Google