Amethod to identify and remove regis- try branches, files, processes and other objects that consume system resources, but which do not contribute anything useful, has been registered by antivirus company Kaspersky Lab.

The company says this will help improve the speeds and resources of computers.

“Over time, so-called junk, such as temporary files, all recent operations lists, protocols, kernel memory contents or the entire contents of the operating system (dumps), piles up on any computer – whether home or business machines. While these items consume the PC’s computing resources, for example, disk space, they offer no benefits and sometimes simply slow down its performance. Operating systems do not provide any standard tools for clearing up junk,” says Kaspersky Lab patented technology author Oleg Zaitsev.

Kasperksy’s technology analyses all unused objects that affect system performance. It identifies and removes those that heavily burden the system, but are of no value to the user at the current time. These unused objects are, therefore, not required by the applications in use.

Most other technologies, which try to remove junk from the system, simply aim to remove the greatest number of unused objects. However, there is neither an analysis of their impact on the system nor an analysis of the effect of their removal, with little thought of any useful outcome. Unlike these, Kaspersky Lab technology can identify the most resource-intensive junk objects and delete them before other less demanding objects.

“When you need to clear up a room as quickly as possible and immediately put that space to better use, the first thing you would do, obviously, is to get rid of the things which take up the most space, then worry about the rest. We followed that principle in developing this technology,” says Zaitsev.

“This technology is particularly effective in squeezing extra performance from older computers that have a lot of applications. In these cases, machines can run up to 10% faster,” he adds.

Two of the most important tasks that this technology supports are optimising the operating memory and disk space use and helping the administrator’s preventive maintenance of network computers, which is especially important in corporate networks.

Although the patent was obtained at the end of February, the technology has already been successfully implemented in the Kaspersky Internet Security consumer solution, in the company’s business solutions Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Windows, Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business and Kaspersky Security for Virtualisation. It is also available in the free Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool utility.

Kaspersky Lab continues to enhance its intellectual property portfolio. As of early March, that portfolio includes more than 130 patents, issued in the US, Russia, the European Union and China. Another 200 patent applications are pending at the patent offices of these States, the company concludes.