Description:
You may not know it, but the more you surf the Web, the more Internet fluff your PC collects. You unknowingly accumulate files in your Web caches and your cookie folders that you probably wouldn't miss if they were zapped. The same is also true of using your PC over a period of time--try as you might, you just can't avoid picking up junk! The problem lies in the zapping--it's messy to do it manually and much more convenient and safer to delegate it to a piece of software such as QuickClean, a new utility from McAfee that runs under Windows Me, 95, 98, and 2000. Besides ditching cookies, QuickClean offers one-click deletion of other Internet clutter that accumulates on a PC, including your Internet cache, downloaded files, ActiveX plug-ins, and temporary files. Basically, it can shred all details of your Internet trail, though for safety's sake you can assign specific file types and folders to a hands-off list. QuickClean also deletes entire software programs from a hard disk without troubling shared or critical files. This feature is borrowed from McAfee UnInstaller, an earlier McAfee software product designed to delete software programs from a hard disk. QuickClean is a more Internet-savvy version of UnInstaller. It can, for example, delete e-mails from the "sent" and "trash" mailboxes in Outlook. You can also schedule these housekeeping forays across your hard disk to keep your PC in tiptop condition. QuickClean is safe to use thanks to its widespread use of wizards that guide the novice through the process of eliminating unneeded files, identifying and removing duplicate files, cleaning up the Windows Registry, and safely uninstalling applications. The application wizard is particularly impressive, enabling you to monitor installs for painless system restoration, archive applications for subsequent restoration, and package applications to copy or move them to another PC. On the downside, the program is a trifle fragmented, as it employs several separate stand-alone programs rather than offering an integrated one-stop solution. --Roger Gann
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