I’ve been wondering when it would happen, and wondering what was amassing n the meantime. I’ve had it for ages now - and who was cleaning up after it?

Follow up:

Wondering what it is yet? No, no - it’s not a new pet my almost fourteen year old male offspring has forgotten to clean up after. It’s Google Chrome. And what I’ve been itching to know, is if one of the cleanup programs would add functionality to clean up browsing history, etc. generated by using Chrome and taking up space I like to keep clean. Today I finally realized it! It apparently happened about a month ago, but I’d never paid enough attention when I ran CCleaner to realize it. In the Applications tab - it does indeed keep Chrome nice and tidy! (As well as handling the other well known browsers.)

I’d write a tutorial on how to use it, but Piriform (the developers of CCleaner) have kindly developed and posted a fantastic (and from the looks of it - very comprehensive) CCleaner Beginner’s Guide on their website. There’s an online, printable or downloadable .zip version.

CCleaner cleans up all your junk files including browsing history and cookies. If you’d like to set it so some of the cookies for your favorite sites are not removed, take a look at this great post on CCleaner Cookie Control by my dear friend Eagle_Kiwi on Multiply.

The integrated registry cleaner checks for unused entries and lets you choose which ones you want to painlessly remove. (Note: Always accept the option to backup your registry before changing it, just in case something doesn’t work as expected after cleaning!!) It also manages start up items, and can be used to uninstall programs.

If you’re curious to know more, visit the website or check out the CCleaner Wiki. Amazingly, it cleans up after far more programs than I ever realized! "CCleaner supports the cleaning of temporary and unneeded files from certain programs, including: Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari, Google Chrome, Foxit Reader, Microsoft Office (2000, XP, 2003, 2007), Nero Burning ROM, Java, Windows Live Messenger, ZoneAlarm, Flash Player, QuickTime, VirtualDub, Windows Media Player, 7-Zip, Avira AntiVir, Spybot - Search & Destroy, Windows Registry Editor, eMule, KaZaA, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip, and many more." If you haven’t tried it yet - it’s worth adding to your arsenal (and your regular clean up routine)!