Hard Drive Powerwash is a free application that will let you get rid of unnecessary files that might be clogging your computer up and thus reducing its performance, along with some extra utilities.
Installation & Requirements
Even though the application is fast and mostly simple, you need to look out for the extra software that the installer will try to force on you. Simply read the EULA descriptions and decline the agreements for the extra software and the installation will continue normally.
Interface
There are a lot of utilities in Hard Drive Powerwash. You can access them either by choosing the View option from the top menu or choosing the various utilities from the left side toolbar. The main feature of the application, the cleaning utility, is located in the home page. There you can simply click on the Analyze button and the application will scout your computer for specific formats of temporary files so that you can delete them if you want.
Deleting those files should not be an issue for your operating system. Such files are simply left there because programs neglect to delete them after an installation for example and they simply stay there for months. If you let them accumulate they will take up a large chunk of space and that might lead your PC’s performance to drop.
The Internet Cleaning tab is exactly that. It will gather information about the currently supported browsers, which are Internet Explorer and Firefox, and then let you delete them. The deleted files will be the history, cookies, cache and stuff like that so keep that in mind before deleting them.
In the Custom Items and Program Settings tabs you will simply be able to alter various options about the application like the files you want to exclude from deletion, what to do with the deleted files and more. You can also directly activate and deactivate the User Account Control for Windows Vista and higher because it might be preventing the application from retrieving files and editing them. Last is the Results tab which is exactly what it says. When you initiate a scanning mode you will be taken there and you can decide what you want to do with the detected files.
Pros
-Clean interface
-Extremely easy to use for users of all levels
-Detailed scanning options for all modes
-Fast scanning
Cons
-None worth mentioning
Conclusion
Hard Drive Powerwash is a very handy utility that should be used at least from time to time to ensure that your computer does not have any extra weight on it and that everything operates smoothly.
