What does it do? First, let’s get back to basics. If you are anything like me, you’ll be loading demonstration programs from cover-disks and what with downloads from AOL and the Internet, your system will be getting clogged up with unwanted programs.

When you install a program, it typically creates a directory for the majority of files that it needs. It also sprays system files all over the Windows directories, puts icons on the desktop and adds a set of entries on the programs under the Start button. The installer also modifies the registry which is a sort of database of programs in the computer. It’s hardly surprising that once installed it’s almost impossible completely to remove a program. Luckily most well written programs have an uninstall utility which appears in the Control Panel. Just fire up the Add/ Remove Programs to see the list of well behaved programs.

 The trouble is that many programs are not so well behaved and you need an uninstaller such as Cleansweep to take out the unwanted files. It does this by monitoring the initial installation and storing the information about what changes were made. If you subsequently need to remove the program, it can then reverse the changes.

Cleansweep gives you the option of saving the changes in a compressed file just in case anything goes wrong. You are then prompted to delete the compressed file some time later. It can even remove programs if you haven’t monitored their installation. It does this by searching for all the file links and then recommends which files can safely be deleted.

Cleansweep uses a traffic light system - if a file shows up red then you should not delete it, amber means use caution and green means that it’s safe to delete.

In other parts of the Cleansweep, wizards let you archive a program, or move it to another drive, or even another computer.

The cleanup section provides more ways of regaining disk space, for example, by letting you search and delete duplicate files, redundant DLL or VBX files, unused files, and even orphans that have been left behind.

 The Internet sweep function lets you uninstall programs downloaded from the internet and also remove any internet files in cache and cookies. These are small data files placed on your hard drive while surfing the Internet. Before removing files, Cleansweep always lists the files it could remove and often gives useful information about them. I was amazed to find that I had collected 72 cookies from websites as diverse as Amazon and Altavista. Other options are to remove Active X controls and plugins.

The Registry Genie provides a useful and informative registry editor although I should repeat the usual warnings about not editing the registry unless you know what you are doing. There’s also a Registry cleanup tool.

LiveUpdate lets you update your version of Cleansweep automatically through the Internet but of course this feature is only useful if Symantec provide updates for you to download.

Much, if not all, of the above will be familiar to existing users but a couple of new features are Fast and Safe Cleanup and Norton Safe which are not integrated into the main program.

Finally Norton Safe provides a filter to Fast and Safe Cleanup so you can nominate file types that should plucked to safety before the Windows Recycle Bin is cleared. I’m not convinced there’s enough new material in this release to justify upgrading.

To sum up, Norton Cleansweep 4.5 has every imaginable utility to help you to free disk space. It is very supportive and will guide you in what can be sensibly deleted. Ignore the warnings and you could regret it but use it well and you can learn more about your computer as well as free up disk space!