The Download Blog

If you need to free up system memory or if you think you do but aren't sure, this little tool will provide the help you need.

Instant Memory Cleaner provides an easy-to-use front-end interface for Microsoft's command-line ClearMem and FreeMem commands (for XP and Vista, respectively). It installs an icon to your system tray, and its color provides a handy clue about your system's memory use. When the icon is green, the system's free memory is more than 30 percent of the total physical memory; yellow means less is available; and red means its time for action.

The informative small pane that opens when clicking the tray icon is useful, displaying the megabytes of free physical memory and a check box that verified whether the application launches at boot. Also included are buttons for launching a memory-cleaning session, opening Help, minimizing the pane, or exiting the utility. A final button opens a fresh pane (again, nicely designed) with details on current memory use, including megabytes of Total Physical Memory, megabytes of Memory in Use, and percentage of Memory in Use.

This isn't the most feature-packed Windows optimization utility but we found it one of the easiest to control. Advanced WindowsCare Personal's simple interface offers two main options: Repair and Repair And Optimize. The former fixes Registry entries and cleans out your operating system. The latter does the same thing and tweaks Windows for maximum performance.

If you run into trouble, the Restoration option can return your system to its original configuration. The Advanced menu provides fine control over repairs and optimizations. Afterward, I noticed only one improvement, a reduced amount of used RAM, but that's not insignificant. However, the sparse descriptions of system problems may not satisfy seasoned users. And although the latest version of the app includes a help file, it's hardly extensive.

Nevertheless, if your system is doing its best turtle impersonation and you're considering reinstalling Windows, it wouldn't hurt to try this freeware package first. There's also a paid upgrade that offers more features, such as a run-in-background option, faster definition file updates, and tech support.

Correcting a long-standing oversight by Apple, AppCleaner completely removes unwanted programs from your Mac OS. Dragging applications to the Trash just isn't enough because almost every app installs various support files in several different places all over your computer.

AppCleaner is one of the best utilities around to help you track down and delete these files. It provides a slick, 3D interface and two options for deletion: you can either drag and drop applications onto AppCleaner's main window, or you can have AppCleaner list potential applications--and even widgets, plugins, and screensavers--to uninstall. The program will then show you all the related files for any app you're uninstalling and ask which you want to delete.

You can set AppCleaner to "protect" certain applications from accidentally getting trashed, too, by manually specifying them or just by auto-protecting all default and currently running apps. AppCleaner also comes with a SmartDelete option that detects when apps are trashed and offers to remove the related files, making it great for cleaning up past messes as well as preventing future ones.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

As a software reviewer, I download a lot of programs to test them out. Some are great programs deserving of a space on my hard drive while others just are not up to snuff. With all the available software here at CNET Download.com, you've probably found a few gems worth keeping, but you've inevitably also downloaded a few programs that just didn't work out. We understand.

On a Windows machine, you can go to the control panel and choose the Add/Remove programs tool to find and uninstall software you don't want. But on a Mac, it's not as easy. When you install on a Mac the process usually involves dragging the software into your Applications folder. What you may not know is other files associated with that program are automatically installed into different folders to make the program work properly. So if you simply drag that app icon to the trash, you're leaving a significant amount of unused files on your hard drive.

Today, we have a group of freshly reviewed apps whose purpose is to extricate those unwanted apps and leftover files from your hard drive. They come in a few different versions, but all are worthy of checking out if you want to trash that one program once and for all, or if you just need to make space on your hard drive.

AppTrap is less of an app than it is a free System Preference pane. Once set up (you can have AppTrap start at login), all you need to do is exactly what you've probably done all along: drag the application to the trash. When you do, AppTrap will ask if you want to delete all associated files. Simply answer yes and you're done. If you're looking for the least work to get your Mac apps off your hard drive, AppTrap is your program.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

AppCleaner is a free program that lets you be a little more hands-on than AppTrap. You can drag unwanted apps to the nice-looking interface, or browse through a list of possible apps to uninstall. AppCleaner shows you all the files you will be deleting before your confirmation so make sure to look closely before you pull the trigger.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

AppZapper is a shareware program I've talked about before and does a fairly good job, but it will cost you ($12.95). Like AppCleaner you can drag-and-drop apps to the interface to display associated apps. But AppZapper also offers the UnZap command, letting you retrieve previously "zapped" software components from the trash. As an added bonus, you can also have the program search for other trash files on your hard drive with the Genie.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

CleanApp is another shareware alternative with a few extra features than AppZapper, and yet it's more affordable ($10). CleanApp offers the same drag-and-drop functionality, but also allows you to track all future installations so you can make absolutely sure you delete every file upon uninstallation. CleanApp seems to forever remain in beta, but does a nice job otherwise and might be just the solution you're looking for.

Not all downloads are good downloads. Unfortunately, when you're on a Mac, it's more difficult to completely extract all files associated with unwanted software. Check out our reviews and look at the available features before installing the uninstaller that's right for you.

This powerful application offers extensive utilities to improve your system's performance and protect your privacy. Glary Utilities' well-organized interface allows users to easily choose from several tools. It cleans unwanted junk files and removes invalid and broken shortcuts, freeing up valuable disk space.

There's a registry cleaner that allows you to scan, remove, and back up faulty entries. You also can wipe out Internet Explorer traces and tweak start-up programs and memory optimization. Privacy-conscious users will certainly appreciate the inclusion of a government-standard file shredder to securely delete data. Users who are looking for an effective and easy-to-use application to keep their system in tip-top shape should try this one out.

The Auslogics Registry Defragger looks good, but it's hard to tell if this or any Registry defragger or cleaner works. What's the challenge? Simple: It's not easy to gauge if these programs are effective because you'd need to benchmark your CPU against a range of programs before and after the Registry cleaning to properly test for any improvement, and that's an extremely time-intensive process.

Still, Auslogics is known for making effective Windows utilities, so perhaps we should give them the benefit of the doubt until more conclusive evidence is in. In any event, when you run the Registry Defragger, it spits out a report that you can review before proceeding with the potentially risky defrag process. The Registry optimization requires a reboot to defrag and compact the Registry.

This is a fairly serious program, and once you begin the analysis it won't let you move the mouse outside the program window. It also "strongly recommends" that users close all other programs while it runs, although this is a standard warning for Registry-cleaning apps. In our tests, benchmark improvements never materialized, but it's not impossible that there's something going on that we're missing. Recommended, but with a grain or four of salt.

Even in these days of cheap RAM, where you can get an extra gigabyte of the stuff for around $40 or so, there's not much you can do about must-have programs that leak memory short of seeking out an alternative. That doesn't mean you're tied to incessant program restarts and operating system reboots, though: a few useful programs such as RAM Idle LE, RAMBooster, and Instant Memory Cleaner make it their business to reclaim wasted bits.

Instant Memory Cleaner sports a main interface several times smaller than its options window.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

RAMBooster is well-known to longtime Daily Download readers. We've featured it in our Windows Starter Kit and in a First Look video. For a freeware program not updated since 2005, it functions amazingly well. Using program defaults or modifying the setting through the Preferences screen of the Edit menu, determine how much RAM you'd like it to free up and at which point of resource consumption. RAMBooster will keep track of RAM usage and scrub your RAM free of flotsam left behind by closed windows and background programs.

As free memory falls, the system tray icon will change color from red and black to yellow. Mousing over will reveal your current available RAM, and right-clicking will access the user-initiated cleaning menu.

This is all well and good, but I've noticed that when running multiple programs that leak memory or otherwise consume a lot, RAMBooster seems to hamper performance more than enhance it. Everything from typing to Web site downloading will be sluggish, and when I kill RAMBooster it goes away. It's an imperfect standard, to be sure, but sometimes you've got to go with what works, and what doesn't.

RAM Idle LE sports a more contemporary interface, and doesn't seem to suffer from the same endurance problem that plagues RAMBooster. The left nav offers the RAM Optimizer and a System Information tab. The information is culled from your computer's version of Windows, the amount of RAM you have, paging memory, version of Internet Explorer installed, and more. Most of it is nice to know but not really essential for a RAM rescuing program.

RAM Idle doesn't look unique, but it does a great job of cleaning your RAM while in use.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Just as in RAMBooster, RAM Idle lets users set the amount of RAM they need to have available, and it also has automatic settings to keep things running smoothly without constant attention. It's nearly double the size of RAMBooster, at just under 900 KB, but it offers many more settings for you to play with.

The main RAM Optimizer pane is kind of useless, with an unlabeled graph that I think is supposed to represent CPU usage taking up most of the space. From below it, though, or from the context menu for the system tray icon, users can enable or disable the program, manually set the free RAM target and minimum free RAM, as well as enable further RAM-optimizing functions.

Users can set a certain amount of RAM to be freed within 60 seconds after start-up, and they can also set a smaller amount of RAM to be freed regularly thereafter if the amount of free RAM falls below a certain percentage. So, for example, 64 MB can be freed every 4 minutes if there's more than 25 percent of your system's RAM in use. Enacting any of the changes made requires hitting the Save button that lives over the left nav. Clearly, the layout could use an overhaul.

Still a fan-fave, RAMBooster hasn't been updated in three years.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The RAM Idle system tray icon shows the amount of free RAM as part of its icon, but it drops a digit in numbers larger than 999. The program also has context menu tools for restarting, shutting down, and hibernating Windows, and predetermined amounts of RAM that you can force it to free. Overall, it benefits from the added features, compared with RAMBooster's minimalist approach.

Instant Memory Cleaner is another tiny program for freeing bogged-down RAM. The freeware sports an equally tiny interface, a small box that loads in the bottom right of your screen. The boxy user interface shows available RAM in real time, and if you want more information you can click the pen icon to get a detailed breakdown of what's eating up your memory. A Windows-logo knockoff icon instigates the memory clean, and other buttons lets users minimize or exit the program, and access the help menu. A bar in the center of the program provides mouse-over information.

Some users may be bothered by Instant Memory Cleaner's atypical and hard-to-see interface, but since these programs should be used for their effect and not their aesthetic standards, simple is better here. Although it lacks the useful advanced settings of RAM Idle, it does what it's supposed to at least as well enough as RAMBooster, and without all the extra hang-ups.

RAM Idle does the job for me--I especially like how I can set a specific level of RAM to keep open. If you have a favorite RAM cleaner that you use, tell us about it in the comments below.

From The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli

Published by William; Sydney, Australia

In our house, we used to share a computer. I had Spybot - Search & Destroy and Norton Antivirus installed on it, and I became the scanning boss since my parents barely knew how to click a mouse. After about a year, I discovered "DriveCleaner" in the program manager window. I tried uninstalling it, got an error, then saw the progress bar roll backward fairly fast. At least these malware people have a sense of humor.

But then: My computer was exceedingly slow and gave me constant pop-up problems. Stress session. I tried looking up fixes for this on the Web, but I believe it infected hosts.dll, as the search came up with more variants of DriveCleaner, which I didn't realize, so I installed them anyway.) "Please pay to remove 3,960 infected items." I was so stupid and desperate, I did.

Stress attack. Angry relatives. Internet banking now forbidden. I burned everything to a DVD and reinstalled Windows. Of course, lovely Dell supplied our computer with Windows XP Home Corporate, and did I mention the DVD had auto-run? Stress attack. Actual nightmares of virus.

I reinstalled again and this time, disabled the auto-run registry key. Whew. Then I took about a month to reinstall the drivers, as the small spectrum of default colors just didn't cut it.

Now I've got a new computer with ZoneAlarm, Avast, and Spybot - Search & Destroy installed. Soon I'll get AVG and McAfee Site Adviser (for Firefox or Internet Explorer) as well. Throughout the entire scenario, I thought the infection was my fault. It turns out my father had a close call with DriveCleaner, and you can guess what happened when the truth came out.

Stress. Relief. Dramatic arguments over not telling me. My dad got me to remove his Windows account and create it again. This seemed to damage the Trojan heavily, but it was still there opening ports for its nasty friends to come and play.

Editor's Response

Realizing you're not solely responsible for a catastrophic computer meltdown is an immeasurable relief, but don't let yourself off the hook yet, William. Although your pop may have been the first in the family to fall prey to the rogue antivirus app, don't forget who also bought the ruse, paid out, and lost Internet banking privileges, not to mention a portion of the contents in that account.

Your most fundamental weakness in this episode wasn't the malware per se, it's that you allowed yourself to get panicked and lazy. Had you been calm and proactive, you could have compared DriveCleaner's phony prognostication with a second opinion, and not grabbed at the first seemingly-solid repair option that was dangled in front of you. These mal-intended apps prosper by scaring you into action, and the more clear-headed you are, the less likely it is you'll succumb.

You also would have seen by running an Internet search that DriveCleaner is a no-goodnik that makes security vendors' malware list, including Symantec's, Norton's publisher. And DriveCleaner is twice damned by LinkScanner Lite and McAfee Site Advisor, which both assign the link blaring red "stop" signs. In the twisted justice of search engine optimization (SEO,) DriveCleaner's site is also the top slot on Google, which may mislead some users into thinking it's safe.

At a time like this, it would be prudent to remember that as an ultraindexer, Google reflects what's live online, but doesn't vet it. CNET blogging partner Michael Horowitz's recent article has just the pithy example.

Auslogics, publisher of the popular Auslogics Disk Defrag, also makes another defragger: Registry Defrag. Does it actually work? Is it all smoke and mirrors, or does using this free program result in faster clock times?

... Read more