Free PC Disk Cleaners and Antivirus Software

There is a lot of free software out there for PCs that claim to clean your computer, registry, or remove viruses. From my experience, most of them do not do anything. I will briefly describe the few that have been helpful for me, and provide download links. Most of these have a pro version that costs money, but the basic free ones seem to work fine for me. Personally I would recommend trying all of these and seeing which ones work. What is great about this set of programs is that they do not fight each other. I used features from all of them together and it works great.

Auslogics Registry Cleaner is a great registry cleaner. It is simple and easy to use. Although there are more advanced features, the default setting work great. It is also very fast. Prior to cleaner your registry, it backs everything up just in case something goes wrong.

Wise Registry Cleaner is another great registry cleaner. It is easier to use than Auslogics. It has less features though. It gives you the ability to do a full system backup and create restore points, but it is up to you to do it. The cleaner does not automatically backup your registry, or even prompt you to do it. Given this slight drawback, it is still an amazing program. It works wonderfully and may be a little better than Auslogics at catching problems. I like to use them to compliment each other and they do so very well.

Clamwin is about as simple as you can get for an antivirus software. At least as far as the interface goes. It has a few hidden features like Windows Explorer and Microsoft Outlook integration. It also has a scan scheduler which I always recommend using when it is available. Clamwin is a very good scanner and cleaner. It too works great with other programs. The main downside is its simplicity. It takes a long time to scan and fails to show you its progress during the scan. Still it is a great antivirus program and I highly recommend trying it out.

Avast Antivirus is packed with features. There are different versions of Avast at different price levels. They will try to get you to pay for it, but the free version is all you will ever need. Avast has one of the most complete virus definition files out there. I can easily say that this is the best antivirus software out there. It works great, is easy to use, and has many advanced features. If you only use one of the programs in this article, it should be this one.

SuperAntiSpyware does not deal with virus directly but rather detects and deletes files that collect information about your online activity, known as malware. SuperAntiSpyware is very straightforward with a large Scan Now button. It also uses several different options for scanning that you can select with radio buttons. The quick scan is very quick, taking a couple minutes. The full scan, however, can take several hours. Not only does the program delete malware, it also hosts several built-in tools to undo the effects of malware.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is an outstanding anti-malware program. It is fairly fast, a little slower than SuperAntiSpyware. It has a decent amount of features, but it does not go crazy. It stays at the top despite its lack of updates. The program has not been updated for a few years, that is not to say the malware definitions have not. They have and are extremely effective. This is a great anti-malware program and works amazingly well with SuperAntiSpyware.

Wise Disk Cleaner, made by the same people as Wise Registry Cleaner, is a tool for keeping your PC clean and tidy. It works well and basically picks up after you as your daily tasks mess up your computer, because everyone knows how fragile Windows is. The program is well organised with four tabs: Common Cleaner, Advanced Cleaner, Slimming System, and Disk Defrag. The Common Cleaner cleans all the typical junk that needs dealt with. The Advanced Cleaner goes a little bit more in depth. Slimming System gets rid of useless windows files like sample pictures and music. The Disk Defrag tool defragments your drive and is a nice addition to the suite of tools.

CCleaner has a cleaner similar to Wise Disk Cleaner. It also has a registry cleaner and a tools menu. CCleaner is simple and intuitive, yet very thorough. The cleaner cleans windows files, then the files of your other programs. The registry cleaner is not great, but it works. I would recommend using the other two I listed in addition to this one. The tools menu lets you manage your startup and uninstall programs among other features. CCleaner is a great disk cleaner that for the most part can work independent of Wise Disk Cleaner, although there are some features that compliment each other. I recommend messing around and seeing what works for you.

To comply with the rules of Hubpages, I have removed all the download links. Just Google the name of the software you want, appending the word "download" to it and you will find the software. Be sure to download it from a secure source!