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The top-of-the-line Professional Plus (reviewed here) is a $39.95 application that adds three standalone apps for hard drive defragmentation, file recovery, and PC spec viewing. The $24.95 Professional plan builds on the free option by offering more thorough computer cleaning, real-time system monitoring, automatic history cleaning, and automatic software updates. It has basic PC-cleaning capabilities, as well as privacy-protection tools that let you delete cookies, passwords, and other related browser files. The free version is, as you'd expect, the least feature-packed option. Piriform has corrected the problem in subsequent CCleaner releases.
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Still, Iolo System Mechanic remains the category's Editors' Choice due to its thorough cleaning tools and unlimited licenses.Įditors' Note: This is PCMag's first CCleaner review since the tune-up utility suffered malware-related issues in 2017. CCleaner is pricier than Windows 10's free, integrated tune-up tools, but it comes in at a lower price than some competing products, offers features that dramatically improved our testbed's boot time, and is easy enough to use that it's worth the investment. It boasts many system-enhancing features, including a registry repairer and real-time system monitoring, as well as extra features like privacy protection and drive-wiping tools. Piriform's CCleaner Professional Plus is one of many tune-up utilities capable of giving a heavily used PC a new shot at life.
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