Fortect vs CCleaner – which is the best Windows repair and optimization tool?
When your PC slows down or is plagued by errors, it’s time to turn to a Windows repair tool that can fix the system and bring it back to optimal performance. Although the operating system has several built-in utilities, optimization software is often easier to use and has additional features.
Both Fortect and CCleaner can speed up your computer, remove junk, and fix many problems, but which does it best?
In this Fortect vs CCleaner comparison, I tested each tool’s user-friendliness, key features, and overall performance. Here’s everything you need to know.
Quick Comparison
| FORTECT | CCLEANER | |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of Use | 5/5 | 4/5 |
| Junk File Removal | 4/5 | 5/5 |
| Registry Cleaner | Yes | Yes |
| Registry Repair | Yes |
No |
| Replace System Files | Yes |
No |
| Startup Manager/ Optimizer | No | Yes |
| Driver Updater | No | Yes |
| BEST FOR: | Repairing & Cleaning | Cleaning & Optimizing |
Fortect vs CCleaner: User Interface and System Impact
When your PC isn’t working properly, the last thing you want is a complicated tool that’s hard to navigate. Fortunately, each software has a clean design and is easy to navigate. There’s also no bundled extras or up-selling other products.
Fortect Interface
Fortect immediately greets you with a straightforward dashboard and the ability to carry out a full system scan right away. This is perfect when you don’t know why Windows is damaged. Simply start the scan and it displays a useful overview of what it’s checking as it goes.
On a 10+ year-old system with minimal upkeep, I was pleasantly surprised that the process took less than two minutes and had a negligible impact on system performance. While running, it used less than 100mb or RAM and CPU usage peaked at just 3%.
Once complete, you can scroll through the summary, which includes an overview of your hardware, a list of recently crashed programs, junk files, and potentially unwanted programs (PUP), which might be malware. It also lists broken registry items and various browser caches.
While software obviously cannot fix physical hardware problems, the hardware summary is useful when it logs CPU temperatures that are too high or fails to detect components that should be there. E.g., if you have four RAM modules and it only finds three or if it logs your CPU temperatures that are too high.
It also shows how well your hardware performs against other Fortect users, which could hint that you need to upgrade your system.
Fortect gives full control over the repair process. You can fix everything at once or click through each category to repair the areas you choose.
The time it takes to do a full repair depends on your hardware and how much needs to be fixed. However, it’s unlikely to take longer than 30 minutes and can run quite easily in the background.
CCleaner Interface
CCleaner’s interface is a bit more cluttered, but also offers a full scan on startup. This took less than a minute and used approximately 100mb of RAM. Unlike Fortect, it doesn’t give a running summary and its results are less detailed, displaying only the amount of junk data and Windows issues as a number.
It also lacks a full hardware summary, which could make it difficult to diagnose hardware-related problems.
For experienced users, CCleaner is customizable, allowing you to go through the applications and browsers to repair, with check boxes for the type of data to clean and fixes to apply.
It also offers individual scans and tools for different purposes. For example, a performance optimizer, driver updater, and registry cleaner.
This is useful when you know what you’re looking for, but for a beginner it’s somewhat overwhelming.
Like Fortect, you have full control over what to fix but there is no ‘repair all’ option, so you’re forced to use multiple tools to get the full repair finished.
That being said, all the main features are organized on the left toolbar and the interface is easy to navigate.
Verdict: Fortect
Overall, Fortect is easier to use and provides more details after an initial scan. Neither program has a major impact on system resources.
Fortect vs CCleaner: Junk File Removal
Over time Windows, software, and web browsers accumulate junk files deep in the system that are no longer needed and take up hard drive space, which can slow down your computer. Fortect and CCleaner both remove these files.
Fortect junk file removal
After an initial scan Fortect displays all the junk in one category. This includes temporary files Windows no longer needs and old software remnants after it has been uninstalled. In total, it found 783MB to remove. You can delete it all or choose the exact files to remove.
Fortect doesn’t include browser caches in its junk file category. This data is found under privacy traces. Presumably this is because browser data and old cookie files can contain personal info used to track your browsing habits. Here it found 1.06GB of data to remove.
CCleaner junk file removal
As the name suggests, CCleaner promotes itself as a system cleaner and does an exceptional job of getting rid of the junk. This includes everything from browser caches to old memory dumps and Windows Explorer data such as thumbnails and recently used programs/document logs.
You can choose what to clean or let the program remove it all in one go. Using the same computer, CCleaner identified 2.08GB of junk.
Verdict: CCleaner
It’s clear that both programs have similar junk file removal capabilities, although they approach it slightly differently. Based on the amount of junk found, CCleaner has the edge with 2.08GB compared to Fortect’s combined junk and browser cache amount of approximately 1.843GB.
Fortect vs CCleaner: Registry Repair
The Windows Registry is a centralized database that stores configuration settings for the operating system and installed software. Over time this builds up with old entries, or worse, becomes corrupted, resulting in errors. Using the built-in registry editor is not recommended because deleting the wrong thing can cause more damage to your computer.
Fortect Registry Repair
Fortect excels at registry repair. Not only does it find old entries to delete but detects missing or corrupted entries to fix. This includes vital shared DLLs and other system files that are required to run programs and Windows tasks.
During the repair process it pulls fresh copies of Windows files from its up-to-date database, bringing your system back to life without needing official boot media.
CCleaner Registry Cleaner
CCleaner has a separate registry scan, but it can best be described as a registry cleaner rather than a repair tool. It does an excellent job of finding unused file types, old installers, incorrect file paths and other junk data.
Removing this can free up space and improve system performance. However, it does not fix corrupted registry items or replace missing DLLs and other system files.
Verdict: Fortect
This is where the two programs diverge into a cleaner and repairer. CCleaner only cleans the registry, but Fortect can actually fix a broken registry. This is a powerful feature when we consider that a lot of errors and even boot problems can be linked to the registry.
Fortect vs CCleaner: Performance Optimization
Can these tools really improve the performance of your PC? Yes, but in different ways.
Fortect Performance Optimization
While Fortect does not have any specific optimization tools, it vastly improves system performance in two ways. Firstly, its junk file removal frees hard disk space and allows Windows and certain programs to run more efficiently.
Secondly, by repairing the registry, fixing Window errors, and replacing missing or damaged files with fresh copies, it brings severely damaged systems back to full working order.
You can even run it in safe mode to help repair your PC if it doesn’t boot at all.
CCleaner Performance Optimization
CCleaner has a lot of extra little tools that can give your system a performance boost. This includes closing programs that don’t need to run in the background, managing which programs should launch on startup, a driver updater, and the ability to remove unwanted browser extensions.
All of this together can improve startup times and overall performance.
Verdict: Draw
Both software improve performance by getting rid of unneeded junk. If your computer has no significant problems, CCleaner gives you more control over startup and background processes, which can provide a boost.
Despite not having these extra tools, Fortect provides its own unique performance boosts by doing a thorough system repair.
Fortect vs CCleaner: Pricing
| Annual Price |
FORTECT | CCLEANER |
|---|---|---|
| 1 PC | $33.95 | $29.95 |
| 3 PCs | $41.95 |
$49.95 |
| 5 PCs | $58.95 | $64.95 |
CCleaner is slightly cheaper if you only wish to clean one PC, but Fortect offers better pricing for multiple systems.
Conclusion
Both Fortect and CCleaner are excellent solutions for maintaining your PC and work quite well alongside each other.
After getting hands on with both, CCleaner gets rid of more junk than Fortect and has extra utilities like the startup manager and driver updater. A PC that’s a bit slow but not damaged will benefit more from CCleaner.
However, Fortect is easier to use and is better at repairing Windows when it’s corrupted, suffering from errors, and missing system files. Its ability to safely fix the Windows Registry is unmatched.
