SYSTEM CLEANER
CCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com
Ever since Avast acqu ired Piriform,
CCleaner’s developer, in 2017 th e
popu lar system cleaner has gone
seriously downhill. The prob lems started
when a hacked version served up
malware to CCleaner users. Then Avast
started bund ling its own softwareand
displaying intrusive adverts.
In oneCCleaner releas e, Avast even
prevented anyone who downloaded the
free version from opting out of data
sharing. Users found they were unable
to deac tivate Acti ve Monitoring (the
snooping feat ure simply switched itself
back on) and madethe program
impossible to quit without termin ating it
by force using Windows Task Manage r.
Most recently , CCleaner was bund led
with a buggy preview version of a web
browser that wasn’t ready for general
use, and which changedfile extensions
so that users could no longer view PDFs.
CCleaner may once have been an
essential system tool, but now it’s way
past its prime.
BleachBit
http://www.bleachbit.org
Like CCleaner, BleachBit removes
junk files from your PC, free s up
space and protects your privacy by
shredding personal files so they can’t
be recovered. To use the program,
just select the areas to target – your
browser cache, cookies and histor y,
for example – click Preview to see the
results and then click Cl ean to remove
the selected items.
BleachBit lack s a few of th e feat ures
found in CCleaner, such as the Registry
cleaner andstartup manager, but you
don’t needthe former anyway because
Windows does a grea t job of managing
the Registry by itself, and you can
control which programs start
automatically in Windows 10 by
going to Settings, Apps, Startup.
BleachBit has been in development
for 11 years and is available for Windows,
Linux and macOS. There’s no paid-for
edition, so you won’t see any adverts or
nag screens whil e using it, and because
the developers are all volunteers and
don’t make any other software , bund led
junk isn’t an issu e either. It also comes in
a portable version.PASSWORDMANAGERLastPass
lastpass.com
LastPass stor es your passwords
securely online, and logs you in to any
site from any device, anywhere.It can fill
in forms automatically, stor e important
personal data such as your credit card
details and analyse the securi ty of your
passwords to help you make them
stronger. However, you have toupgrade
to the Premium edition if you want
featu res such as emergency access and
advanced multi-factor options, and that
costs from £27.60 a year.
In the past,LastPass was affe cted
by a zero-day vulnerability that
left accounts in danger of being
compromised, as well as a phishing flawthat meant attackers could steal a
LastPass us er’s email, password and
more. Then four years ago an attack
on LastPass’s network resulted in the
theft of email addresses , password
reminders and authentication hashes.
It also suffers oc casional access issu es
(seebit.ly/downd482for details).Bitwarden
bitwarden.com
Bitwardenis a reliable open-source
password manager for all the major
desktop platforms (Windows, macOS
and Linux), mobile devices (Android and
iOS) and web browsers. It offers many
of th e samefeat ures asLastPass but for
free. To fund the service, the developers
also offer a paid-for Premium version,
which provides additional features such
as 1GB of encrypted file stor age and
two-step loginwith YubiKey, FIDO U2F
and Duo, but it’s very much optional
and costs just $10 (£8.21) a year.
Because Bitwardenis open-source,
any bugs and flaws in the password
manager are spotted quickly, so
it shouldn’ t be affe cted by the sort
of issu es that have plag ued LastPass
in recent years.DITCH OVERRATED SOFTWARE FOR OPEN-SOURCE42 21 Aug - 3 Sept 2019
CCleaner once helpedsolve PC problems,
but now it creates them
BleachBit cleans your PC quickly and efficiently , with no bundled junkLastPass has suffered several security
problems in the past few yearsPassword manager Bitwarden offers lots of
free featuresand works across your devices