cleaner

Q: What do you call a vacuum cleaner that doesn't suck?

A: A race car.

That seems to be the refreshingly unexpected answer Dyson's U.K. engineers would provide.

The crew got together earlier this month to shake the dust off with the "Dyson car challenge," a Pinewood Derby of sorts wherein the engineers competed to -- as the company puts it -- "create the fastest go-kart using a few Dyson spare parts and all the torque they could eke out from one of our handheld motors."… Read more

Apple sells Air laptops and has geniuses working in its stores, so at first glance you might think the new AirGenius 5 has some sort of Apple pedigree. But no, it's just Honeywell's new high-tech air cleaner, which hits Target stores today for $239.99.

The product has a few highlights, the most important of which are that it's quiet; has five different cleaning settings (Sleep, Germs, General, Allergen, and Max); and has a washable honeycomb-style filter that you don't need to replace like some filters (Honeywell says it doesn't restrict airflow like paper filters do and still captures up to 99 percent of particles 0.3 microns and larger).

I actually saw and heard the AirGenuis 5 in action a couple of weeks ago and can attest to it being quiet. As for cleaning the air in the room around me, I'll have to take Honeywell's word on that. If nothing else, I'm now more cognizant about just how much breathing I do. … Read more

Gamers don't like to share. They love multiplayer environments, to be sure, but when it comes to their systems' resources, they're selfish; anything that saps gaming power has to go, at least for the session. Process Cleaner is a simple tool that can terminate all non-Windows processes with a click. It also manages Services and the Start menu, cleans your hard disks and browser, and optimizes ActiveX.

Process Cleaner collects all these tools in one simple, plain interface, which is not a bad thing. And since Process Cleaner basically unifies existing functions, everything worked well enough. Before we … Read more

Abyssal Registry Cleaner is a freeware registry cleaner that offers several advantages, chief among them safety and simplicity. Like other registry cleaners, it scans your system's Windows registry for broken, invalid, and corrupt entries and deletes all or some of them, as you choose. And, like other free registry cleaners we've tried, it tends to emphasize speed and safety over deep cleaning. It automatically backs up your registry before it deletes any files, making it possible to restore the previous version if you need to.

Abyssal Registry Cleaner's user interface resembles many similar tools, with large, colorful … Read more

Anyone who's used a computer for any length of time--especially anyone who installs and uninstalls software with any frequency--knows that it doesn't take long for your machine to become cluttered with invalid registry entries, broken shortcuts, and other junk that takes up space and slows system performance. Eusing Cleaner is a simple program that provides a variety of tools for tidying up your computer. As with any program that accesses the registry, proceed with caution, but used judiciously Eusing Cleaner can definitely take out the trash.

Eusing Cleaner has a straightforward interface that looks a little dated but … Read more

Whether you need to quickly access something on your desktop or just need a quick way to hide an open window from prying eyes, there are better ways to accomplish this task than with a keyboard shortcut. One of these is Zigzag Cleaner, a clever little utility that will minimize any open windows with just a swipe of the mouse. But that's not all it does: Zigzag can also be used to quickly accomplish a variety of common desktop tasks.

Zigzag Cleaner appears as an icon in the Windows system tray; right-clicking on it brings up a configuration menu … Read more

A bucket-load of community data, Facebook-styled "like" and "dislike" of user comments, and a pile of interface tweaks that make the program easier to use capstone SlimCleaner 2.0 (download), available exclusively today from Download.com.

The update to its sophomore version makes some big changes from version 1.6's collection of robust tools. There's a registry cleaner, for sweeping up all the detritus left by unruly programs after you uninstall them, a faster scanning engine, and recommendations for similar programs. The recommendation engine appears to be accurate, so if you're looking at … Read more

A decent registry cleaner can help you keep your computer clean, safe, and running at its best, but with so many available, how do you choose? First off, any program that makes changes to the registry should do no harm. It should have a scheduler and other performance options, and a good Help file. Make it open-source freeware and you have our attention. Little Registry Cleaner provides safe, effective registry cleaning with automatic registry backups. It requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0, which you can download and install from Little Registry Cleaner's setup wizard, if your system lacks it.… Read more

Advanced SystemCare Free 5 uses its powerful arsenal of optimization tools to keep your PC feeling fresh and clean. It also includes a couple of features that could help boost performance for either gaming or work purposes--your choice.

Advanced SystemCare's Quick Care option includes the ability to clean your Registry, perform a rudimentary malware scan, fix and remove broken shortcuts, delete junk files, and erase browsing tracks. It works in a flash, requires almost no user input, and to make things even easier, can be configured to run on system startup.

The Deep Care option, on the other hand, … Read more