Do PC Cleaners Work? Understanding Before and After Results

Your computer is slow and acting a little buggy, so you decide to hop online and find a free PC cleaner to download. But before you do that, you decide to look at a few PC cleaner reviews. To your surprise, you find mixed messages! Some people rave about their PC cleaner and how much it improved performance. Others, however, complain about how nothing seems different or that their computer is still behaving poorly.

Who's right? Which reviews should you trust? Do PC cleaners work? Or are they just an elaborate ploy to get you to download them?

There can be a lot of doubt when it comes to downloading a free PC cleaner. Before you do, take the time to understand how a PC cleaner works, what you should expect from a download and how to make sure you're getting the very best results from MyCleanPC.

How do they work?

A PC cleaner works by targeting all of the inefficiencies and clutter that build up on your computer over time. It performs a number of maintenance tasks that may take time or be hard to do individually, including:

  • Emptying caches for various programs
  • Limiting processes from using RAM in the background
  • Eliminating corrupted registry files
  • Locating and removing temporary or duplicate files
  • Defragmenting your hard disk
  • Finding and eliminating malware

Some of these maintenance tasks have more of an effect than others, but all are integral in optimizing your operating system for maximum efficiency. Running a comprehensive set of maintenance scripts will make sure your computer is getting the full and complete attention it needs.

What should you expect?

This is where many people set the wrong expectation. A free PC cleaner isn't going to make your computer feel like it just got a fresh RAM upgrade or help you achieve lighting fast speeds that outstrip newer PCs. Instead, cleaning up your PC and running maintenance tasks is going to give you back the computing power of your system, helping programs open smoothly and run quicker. You won't have as much lag or as many freezes and crashes, either.

You need to set your expectations accordingly. This means looking at the numbers. For example, if your RAM usage is at 7.6GB out of 8GB before a cleaning and drops to 5.8GB out of 8GB after a cleaning, it's evident that a cleaning helped to reduce the strain on your RAM by addressing background processes.

The same type of improvement can be seen in something like a disk defragmentation. If your hard disk is 48% fragmented before a cleaning and just 12% fragmented after, you're working with a cleaner that's bringing benefit to your system in incremental ways.

All of this should add up to anecdotal improvements, as well. Your files should open just a little bit faster than they did before. You shouldn't have to worry about lag when you have a few programs all running at the same time. And, your computer shouldn't hum and whirr loudly when you decide to do something simple like open a web browser! All of these little things add up to a more seamless computing experience.

How to get the best results

Getting the best results from a PC cleaner download is all about maintaining it consistently. You should run cleanups in regular intervals and address areas of concern that keep reappearing — such as too many startup items or bloated caches. It's also a good idea to do routine virus and malware scans, to make sure these malicious files aren't slowing down your operating system, either.

The best thing you can do for yourself, however, is to set reasonable expectations. Your computer can only perform as well as its hardware allows it to. Cleaning your operating system may restore some level of speed and smoothness to your PC, but it's not meant to be as powerful as a RAM upgrade or a new-age processor. If you experience quicker, better computing, your cleaner application has done its job!

Experience MyCleanPC for yourself

If you're confused by PC cleaner reviews and aren't sure what to expect, take the plunge with MyCleanPC. You'll be able to get a completely free diagnosis to see what's plaguing your computer's speed, allowing you to set the right expectations.

And, with an easy-to-use interface, you'll be able to clean up your PC simply, gauging its restorative results in real-time. Instead of having to read reviews, you'll be able to see the before and after results on your very own computer, so you can make your own conclusion about how effective a PC cleaner really is.