With the passage of time we will surely begin to notice that our computer begins to go slower than at the beginning. And this is totally normal. Little by little, junk and temporary files accumulate on our PC, slowing down their performance. This without taking into account possible malware or unwanted software that may remain on our PC and impact its performance. There are many tools to clean and optimize Windows to make it work as it did the first day, but if we want something simple and effective, we should definitely think about Tron.
Tron is a program, or rather, a script that automates the operation of other programs, designed to maximize cleaning of our computer. This script is completely free and open source, so, thanks to this, we will be able to know at all times what it does on our team, contrary to what happens with other similar software.
The 10 phases of Tron
The complete operation of this program is mainly divided into 10 phases, each of which is focused on a specific task.
Phase 1 – check the system
This is the first phase that appears when you run the program. It detects if the program runs in a temporary folder (and if so, prevents it from running), it scans the versions of Windows and Internet Explorer to ensure compatibility, and it detects the general configuration of the PC to adjust its operation. For example, if we have an SSD disable defragmentation, check if it is possible to restart the PC, if Safe Mode works, if you have administrator permissions and if the network works. It also records the available space on the hard drive to compare with the available space upon completion.
Phase 2 – prepare the system
During this second phase, it runs a series of programs and tools in charge of preparing our system for cleaning. He is also in charge of preparing the environment so that Tron can co-complete his tasks. Among others, the tools and tasks that are executed are:
- Create a RunOnce entry.
- SMART check of hard drives.
- Create restore point.
- Rkill
- ProcessKiller
- Set the time through NTP.
- Check and repair WMI.
- McAfee Stinger
- TDSS Killer
- Windows Registry Backup.
- VSS cleanup.
- Reduce reserved space.
- Deactivate suspension.
Phase 3 – clean up all temporary PC files
The next step will be to start by cleaning all the temporary files on our computer. To do this, Tron uses the following tools:
- CCLeaner
- BleachBit
- TempFileCleanup.bat
- USB Device Cleanup
It is also responsible for cleaning Internet Explorer, duplicate downloads, Windows logs, and the Windows Update update cache.
Phase 4 – uninstall bloatware, heavy applications, and unwanted software
Once Windows is cleaned, the next step is to make it lighter. And what better way to do it than by removing all kinds of unwanted software, and bloatware, that may be on our PC. To do this, the following applications are run:
- Oem de-bloat
- Toolbar & BHO
- De-bloat metro
And the OneDrive integration with Windows is also removed.
Phase 5 – remove malware
It may be that our computer is running slow because it has malware installed doing its thing. At this point, Tron will be in charge of analyzing our system and cleaning it using the following tools:
- Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
- KVRT: Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool.
- Sophos Virus Removal Tool
Phase 6 – repair Windows
We already have our computer clean and disinfected. Therefore, the next step will be to solve any possible problems that may appear. And for this, this program performs the following tasks:
- Run DISM to check and repair Windows.
- Reset Windows registry permissions.
- Reset the file system permissions.
- Check the status of the file system.
- Run CHKDSK.
- Eliminate telemetry from Windows.
- Repair the network.
- Fix file extension association.
Phase 7 – patch and update the software
With Windows already repaired, the next step will be to update the most common applications to guarantee their correct operation at all times:
- 7-Zip
- Adobe flash player
- Adobe reader
- Java Runtime Environment
Windows updates will also be downloaded and installed and the DISM settings will be reset.
Phase 8 – optimize the system
It will also be responsible for optimizing various parameters of our operating system. For example, paging is restarted and the “Defraggler” tool is run to defragment the hard disk.
Phase 9 – get the results
At this point, the program will have finished its work. Now what remains is to generate a report of everything you have done so that we can analyze it carefully and make sure that nothing has gone wrong.
Programs (such as Malwarebytes) that have been previously installed are also removed at this stage.
Phase 10 – manual tasks
Finally, when finished, this program allows us to run a series of tools that have to be run manually on our computer. We should only use them if we need them, but these tools are:
- ADSSpy
- AdwCleaner
- aswMBR
- autoruns
- ComboFix
- PCHunter
- Junkware Removal Tool
- Net Adapter Repair
- Remote Support Reboot Config
- Safe Mode Boot Selector.bat
- ServicesRepair.exe
- Tron Reset Tool
- VirusTotal uploader tool
How to clean and optimize your computer with Tron
The first thing to do is download the latest version of this program to clean Windows and get the best result. The latest version can always be found at the following link . Of course, we must bear in mind that, although the program as such is a simple script, it reaches over 500 MB. Once downloaded, we must execute the “.exe” that we have downloaded, which will be in charge of extracting all the parts of the program, along with the script “tron.bat” that will be the one that will allow us to execute the program.
Once everything is extracted, we will copy the script and the “resources” folder to the desktop. So we can have everything much more at hand. Of course, before executing the script we must make sure that we have no pending updates on our computer. And it is also recommended to restart the computer before starting. If the computer works correctly we can run the program in normal mode. If we have a virus and Windows does not work, it will also work in Safe Mode, although it is not mandatory.
Once we have everything ready, we will run “tron.bat” as administrator, and wait for its work to finish. It can take between 3 and 10 hours, it depends on the power of the computer. And it is better not to use the computer while running to avoid problems.
We should also bear in mind that some of the tasks carried out by this program (for example, the analysis of Malwarebytes) require interaction on our part.
When the script finishes running, the only thing left to do is restart our computer. We must restart it completely before doing anything with it, to make sure that the cleaning is completely complete.
Execute independent phases
If we don’t want to run the entire script, but want to run a specific phase, we can do it without problems. Each phase has its own script (eg “stage_2_de-bloat.bat”), which can be found in the “resources” folder.
Anyway, for a complete cleaning, it is recommended to run Tron completely.
We must be careful to use Tron
Tron is one of the most complete tools to clean, optimize and disinfect Windows that we can find. But also one of the most dangerous. We must always use it carefully and comply with the instructions, since when doing so many tasks there are things that can go wrong and leave our computer worse than at the beginning.
Furthermore, although the script is open source, some of the tools it uses (Defraggler, CCleaner, Malwarebytes, etc.) are proprietary, so we cannot affirm that the entire process is transparent.
If we follow the instructions, we do not use the computer while the script is running, and we reboot once the whole task is finished, we should not have any problem.