Aro 2012 Cleaner

Hi all. I went to CNET/Download (yeah, I know) and tried a cleaner called ARO 2012. It found over 1000 errors on my HDD. I ran the cleaner and of course, it told me it removed 100 temp files (which I could do with CCleaner) but to correct the rest, I would have to buy the program. Of course I didn't and removed it from my system. I also opted NOT to install "Ask" as part of ther bundle but Firefox asked me if I wanted to install the plug-in when I restarted the browser (which I didn't). My question is, is there a free program out there that will remove the supposed other 900+ errors on my HDD? Like I mentioned, I already use CCleaner. Thanks

 

I'm not all that knowledgeable in this, starbuck or etavares will know best, but I would suggest they are most likely false positives or just fake warnings to scare you into buying the software, your best bet and safest way of cleaning temp files and maintaining your HDD are the inbuilt Windows tools like Disk Cleanup to clean temporary files and other unused files and Disk Defragmenter to reorganise files better (quite slow though, takes a while to run and finish).

Rather than rewrite something else as I don't use XP anymore I'll point you to the Microsoft pages on both of the above tools.

Disk Cleanup - http://www.microsoft...p.mspx?mfr=true
Disk Defragmenter - http://www.microsoft...g.mspx?mfr=true

 

The reason I am trying to go this route of trying to find a cleaner that would uncover all these (supposed) errors is because of a start up issue I am having that I have posted on the site in the past. When I boot my XPpro, after the "Windows" splash screen, my wallpaper comes up and the system lags at that point for about 20-40 seconds BEFORE my icons and "Start" task bar load. It just sits there at the wallpaper. I feel something is not right but don't want to go through the trouble of doing a clean install of windows and risk losing all my programs and files. Guess I'll just have to deal with slower than normal start-up :/ Thanks for the insight folks!!

 

I know little about ARO and I trust Allheart's specific evaluation. Frankly it sounds like a registry cleaner coupled with scareware. You seem to have something interfering with your startup> Have you looked at what is loading when you boot?

 

"Startup" screenshot added here (as attachment).....

 

I have 4 gigs RAM in but as you know, only a little over 3gigs is recogonized by XP. The problem started before I installed Kingsoft. Maybe I should go back to Avira or AVG??? I'll try what you posted and let you know how that works...thanks..........

 

I found this. Far more cons than pros.

http://download.cnet...10183947-1.html

 

Sarge,
Many here and elsewhere are using Microsoft Security Essentials as the primary a/v app. It is fairly small, runs completely in the background and will not nag you with non critical warnings. It is also self updating and completely free. Available from the MS site.