Speed Up Your Computer With Blind Friendly Software Part 1 CCleaner

Posted on: March 22nd, 2011 at 4:30 AM
by Justin Daubenmire
System Performance , , ,
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Introduction

This is part 1 in a 3  part series on how to speed up your computer using accessible system utilities. There are many software packages out there to help you speed up your computer and increase the performance of it. However, many of them are not accessible so blind or visually impaired computer users cannot use them. In this first post, I discuss CCleaner.

What Is CCleaner

CCleaner is a free program that can clean unneeded files from various programs saving you hard disk space, remove unneeded entries in the Windows Registry, help you uninstall software and select which programs start with Windows. It works on all versions of Windows.

Here are instructions on how to use the utility:

  1. Download CCleaner and install it onto your computer.
  2. At the end of the installation, it will have a check box to run CCleaner. Uncheck it and do not run it from the installation screen. This is because there is an easier way to run the utility.  
  3. Tab to the finish button and press enter on it to complete the installation.
  4. Minimize to your desktop
  5. Press the letter R until you arrive at recycle bin
  6. Press your application key
  7. Down arrow until you hear Run CCleaner and press enter

 

That’s all there is to it. CCleaner will run and remove all junk files off of your computer and clean up your registry. As it runs, a screen shows and will disappear after the cleaning is complete. This operation normally takes 1 minute or less to complete.

The default cleaning options chose by the program upon a new installation are normally all you need. However, if you want to adjust any of the cleaning options of CCleaner, follow these steps:

  1. Minimize to your desktop
  2. Press the letter R until you arrive at recycle bin
  3. Press your application key
  4. Down arrow until you hear Open CCleaner… and press enter on it

 

The CCleaner main screen appears and is accessible. You can tab through all options and press enter on the cleaner button, registry button, tools button, or options button. After pressing enter on a button, there is a tree view on the screen that populates and lets you select or deselect items to clean. You can tab to this tree view and then use your down and up arrow keys to move up and down the tree of items to clean. Press your space bar to select or deselect an item to clean.

There are many options you can experiment with so feel free to explore. There is also a check for updates button that will check for a newer version of CCleaner and if available, it will download it and install it for you. I recommend running CCleaner once a week.

If you know of any other accessible system utilities, please leave a comment below and share it with everyone.

Thanks and talk soon,

Justin


6 comments so far...

  • marvin hunkin Said on March 29th, 2011 at 6:13 am:

    hi. very informative article. okay, real easy to clean c cleaner.

  • Justin Daubenmire Said on March 29th, 2011 at 1:08 pm:

    Thanks Marvin… glad you found it helpful. Spread the word and let others know about the blog and article… thanks!

    talk soon,
    Justin

  • Jim Said on March 29th, 2011 at 9:55 pm:

    Hi Justin,
    We picked up your feed on http://www.nonvisualdevelopment.org.

    Jim

  • Justin Daubenmire Said on March 31st, 2011 at 3:52 pm:

    Thanks Jim…

    Justin

  • shaun everiss Said on July 5th, 2011 at 8:55 pm:

    Hi justin.
    Just got c cleaner.
    A small note to all users that was not mentioned in this blog maybe because it was not on the latest version but.
    The latest version contains the google toolbar and the google update helper.
    both of which are basically spyware and need to be uninstalled from add remove programs.
    Still I am satisfied with this.
    it finds more than regscrub xp ever did.
    A note.
    On win7 systems it will find things like the windows sidebar etc.
    Be carefull of its startup manager in win7 it may be better to use msconfig to disable the stuff then delete the stuff you don’t want which is disabled in startup manager every so often.
    One thing I guess is as a blind person you can disable things like the windows side bar, though you probably won’t want to.
    My main wish was to make c cleaner run on my brothers system.
    That and the fact that c cleaner is nvda complient.
    No running supernova to read regscrub and no more me reinstalling flash after a clean.
    Though regscrub is good for maybe the tips and tweaks I won’t use it for cleaning anymore

  • shaun everiss Said on July 25th, 2011 at 2:57 pm:

    Hi.
    Just as an added comment to this it seems that there is an issue with c cleaner removing stuff that still works.
    My dad has a work system requiring webfolder style navigation in remote.
    I suspect the key or keys for remote stuff are being detected as dammaged when they are not causing stuff to not connect.
    A restore of backups have fixed this but there is now a load of dangerous reg junk in the registry.
    I am only clutching at straws but its something I need to find.
    I wander if excluding a key can be done.
    Ccleaner is good but support costs.
    So even if there is a bug I can’t even report a ticket to this issue.
    The program is quite good but obscure ms remote configurations not withstanding I have issues with stuff that does not run right.