Microsoft is beta testing, in a bit of a secretive way, an app called PC Manager that fills the niche currently populated by CCleaner and Huawei’s PC Manager. It scans your PC for unwanted files, can free up RAM, and ties into Windows Defender to block malicious apps. Unfortunately, it also nags you to change your browser to Microsoft Edge.
We first learned about the app in a tweet from Aggiornamenti Lumia, which led to a story on XDA Developers. The pcmanager.microsoft.com site was found to be active but in Chinese. Eventually, with the app not appearing on the Microsoft Store, a download link for an .exe file was discovered, and people could start trying it out for themselves.
The app is a simple one that loads at startup, then sits in the system tray. When invoked, it scans your storage to discover any cruft it deems worthy of being swept away. There's a RAM boost feature that increased the amount of free RAM on our test machine by about 10% A process inspector performs its best Task Manager impression by allowing you to end unused programs, and it can tell you about the effect other startup apps are having on the performance of your machine - something already in the OS via the Startup Apps page of Settings.
It also duplicates some Windows Defender functionality, with a Scan button for threats, and checks Windows Update. It also has a few less welcome abilities: nagging us to change our default browser from Chrome to Edge (we're old-fashioned, ok) and recommending we turn off Malwarebytes.
While the app is still clearly in beta - it's displayed at the top at all times - it's a welcome addition to Windows, bringing together some disparate but related tools in one place.
