Windows programs can be messy. I don’t think they intend to be, but they tend to act like children at times. Microsoft Word has a bad habit of running out the door and forgetting to delete the temporary files it made as backups of the document you were typing. Adobe Acrobat unloads a whole toy box full of goodies into your personal temporary folder every time you download a new version. Internet Explorer – well, that kid’s just a pack rat. Every single time you hop onto the Internet – even if it’s just for a quick spin around the news sites – he’s furiously scribbling down copies of everything he sees and storing them on your hard drive, just in case you might ever need to trot something out and look at it again.

What you need is a nanny to clean up after all those messy programs. Times are tough, though, so you need one that will do all that hard cleanup work fast, but for free. Oh, and if the new nanny could also fix up a few things around the house and make the place run a little more smoothly, that’d be great too.

Luckily, I’ve got just the nanny for the job. It’s called “CCleaner,” and it’s from a company called Piriform. Here’s their own description: “CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it’s fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!”

I’ve used CCleaner for a long time, and I love it. I use it on almost every computer that I work on because it’s fast, it’s easy, it does the job perfectly and it’s free. Simply install the program, run it, click “Analyze” (and wait for a while if your system is really jammed with junk), then click “Run Cleaner.” Customize it a bit if you wish, but the default settings are usually just right. You can download the program yourself at: http://www.ccleaner.com

One little note: If you race through the “Next” buttons during the install process, you’ll miss an opportunity to un-check a box that installs the Yahoo! Toolbar. I’m not a big fan of browser toolbars, so my recommendation is to un-check this box when you see it.

CCleaner has other nice features, too. You can use it to check your Registry for errors, and then fix them. Sometimes this can really help a system that takes forever to start up. Important note: If CCleaner prompts you to make a backup of the registry changes it is making, do it. If something goes awry, that one little backup file will be gold. You can also use CCleaner to remove installed programs rather than going to “Add/Remove Programs” like you usually do.

Now that your computer is all spic-and-span you can get back to the real fun – smacking those lazy programs around and getting some real work out of them for a change.

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[Author’s Note: “Ask the Geek” is published weekly in the Stratford Star - the penultimate reading experience for residents of Stratford, Texas, population 1,920. It is posted on WritersCafe.net for posterity. Feel free to comment, but I can’t promise you’ll make the Star.]