Be aware, too, that you should always create a Windows system restore point before using Advanced Registry Optimizer 2010--or any Registry cleaner--in case it makes changes that cause your PC problems.

Lurking on your hard disk are plenty of duplicate files that take up space for no reason. If they're media files such as music or photographs, they could be consuming hundreds of megabytes of storage. Finding them all can be tough because identical files may have different names, and even files with the same name may be sitting in different directories.

The $20 searches out duplicate files, tells you when it finds them, and then lets you delete them. It works lightning fast, zipping through several thousand files in minutes.

Be aware that it does make mistakes sometimes, so be sure to use its built-in ability to launch files to examine them before deleting them. If you'd rather not vet the possible duplicates so closely, you might prefer the more accurate (and, at $30, more expensive) .