hello. offhand i do not know if this is the correct forum to pose my question but here goes. i have a ccleaner icon on my computer which was recommended years ago by the glitches forum for a problem i had. i can't remember what! anyway, whatever, the problem was fixed. i was reading, ccleaner is supposed to clean away any old unwanted junk hanging around and i was wondering should i click on this icon and what effect it would have on my computer. robert.

Hi robert, I'll move you to Glitches for this one as your question is tech-related.

It won't do a thing unless you tell it to.
Just opening the program does nothing except open the program.
Check their "Quick Tour" for instructions on running the file "cleanup" vs the "registry cleaner"

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/tour/after-installation
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/tour/main-window
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/tour/cleaner-rules
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/tour/running-the-cleaner
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/tour/registry-cleaner
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/tour/tools
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/tour/options

And if you haven't run it in a long time, it will probably need to update itself to the most recent version. Be very careful to be sure what you actually update is CCleaner because it now takes you to a 3rd party update site which can be confusing.

This is the best site I have found to download free stuff like ccleaner

Here

Personally, I wouldn't download CCleaner from any website except the developer... piriform.com. File Hippo is better than some of the mirror download sites.

And after it does a scan, before you let it clean make absolutely sure it isn't going to remove things you want to keep. Look through everything and make sure a program or file isn't included in the removal area. You can also put a check next to programs, and I think files, you don't want CCleaner to bother.

I would second that. I always go to the source site.

CCleaner actually doesn't bother any programs. What it will do is remove junk like temporary internet files, cookies and the like. If you want it leave cookies alone for sites you visit often - say Gameboomers - you just find that cookie and move it from the list on the left over to the list on the right. The cookies on the right will be left alone.