2 Lesser-Known & Portable Alternatives To CCleaner [Windows]

If your argument is that CCleaner is the best resource to cleaning out Windows’ junk and temporary files, then I won’t be the guy to argue with you. I’ve even made a post in the pastcomplimenting and appreciating all of the Piriform applications, as I believe they are some of the best on the entire web. That being said, there are those of you out there who have no interest in using CCleaner.

There are plenty of applications out there that will help you in automating the process of cleaning up your hard drive. Today, I’ve got two of my favorite alternatives that I’d like to share with you. Like CCleaner, they offer portable versions.

Xleaner

The Xleaner site is natively in German, though Google translate helps us in instantly translating that to English. The page may look like a bit of a mess, but downloading the archive that includes the Xleaner files is as simple as clicking the Download button in the screenshot below.

The main interface of Xleaner looks a bit like a dumbed-down version of CCleaner. It isn’t quite as pretty, but just as effective and simple to navigate.

As it ships, Xleaner cleans out most of the expected areas of Windows, such as your recent documents, temporary files, and Internet Explorer history and cache. Clicking the Manage Cleaning Jobs option to the left will allow you to specify exactly what you should have cleaned when you run Xleaner. It is very extensive.

Here, you’re able to see all of the available Windows tasks that can be cleaned with Xleaner.

In the options tab, you’ll see, like CCleaner, Xleaner breaks down options separately for each of the most popular browsers. It’s good to be able to not clear the history of all browsers at once, and instead only for a certain browser.

Xleaner also includes many settings specific to the application itself. You can set it to start with Windows, check for updates automatically, and more. There are several tabs underSettings for you to check through.

When you’re all done configuring the application, simply clicking Run Cleaner will run the operations.

DriveTidy

On the face of DriveTidy, it couldn’t get any more straightforward.

Of course there is more to the application than only that, as you can tell by clicking to show the advanced options. Not nearly as full in features as Xleaner, it still manages to includes most of the common areas to clean.

Further down that list is the thumbnail cache, Windows installation files, sample videos, temporary files from applications like iTunes and Steam, and junk file extensions such as LOG and DMP. It’s on you to decide what you’d prefer to have cleaned.

Clicking the question mark directly to the right of the header in the application will allow you to quickly check for updates. It’s not automatic, but it’s easy.

Which of these two applications comes closest to replacing CCleaner for you? Let me know in the comments!