dasadler wrote:1) Will it work with Firefox or only IE?
2) What is the actual practical benefit of CCleaner? Seems like I have heard advice against using the registry cleaner.... so, what does it actually do that makes it worth having?
1) CCleaner works with most browsers, including Firefox - see
Features.
2) The main feature of CCleaner is a file cleaner: it can remove temporary files, browser history, browser cookies etc. Each of these can be performed manually, but since there are so many types of items to be cleaned, that would take a lot of time. CCleaner makes it a one-click operation. It is fully configurable; you can specify which applications it should handle, which cookies you want to keep, etc.
You can run CCleaner yourself, or let it warn you when there is a certain amount of 'cleaning' to do.
I find this component really useful. Some applications tend to slow down if the number of temporary files becomes very large, so it makes sense to remove them from time to time.
CCleaner also has a registry cleaner component, which you can run separately from the file cleaner. It is a very 'conservative' cleaner - it is safe to use, but it doesn't remove much (except perhaps the first time you run it). There is no pressing need to run it, since registry size is not a problem in Windows XP and later.
