BRUTAL Optimizer ships with a lot of tools, and several of them sound similar ("Disk Cleaner" vs "Disk Analyzer", "Install Residue" vs "Disk Cleaner"). This guide cuts through that by starting from what you actually want to do and pointing you at the one right page — plus the honest note on what each tool will and won't do.
This is where the similar-sounding tools matter:
Open Drive Health. It reports SMART data, wear level, temperature, TRIM status, and fragmentation — read-only, so just looking is completely safe. For maintenance it does the media-correct thing automatically: ReTrim on SSD/NVMe, defrag only on a confirmed hard drive. It will never defragment your SSD, and the page explains why (see Our honesty promise).
Open Privacy Center for reversible telemetry, ads, and tracking toggles. Every toggle can be reverted to its Windows default. If you want ad/tracker blocking at the network level, that's done via filtering DNS — the app never edits your hosts file, which is a deliberate safety choice.
Open Driver Update. It scans via Windows Update and, for NVIDIA GPUs, checks NVIDIA directly (NVIDIA drivers are reported for you to install from NVIDIA's own app). It creates a System Restore point before an install whenever Windows allows one, and nothing installs unless you confirm it or switch on automatic driver updates yourself (Pro).
For the full safe routine with the do's and don'ts, see A safe optimization checklist.
What's the difference between Disk Cleaner and Disk Analyzer?
Disk Cleaner automatically removes safe, allow-listed junk (temp files, caches, dumps) and reports verified freed space. Disk Analyzer is for investigation — it shows a treemap of where your space went, your largest files, and duplicate files, so you can decide what to delete manually.
Install Residue vs Disk Cleaner — which do I use?
Use Disk Cleaner for ongoing junk like temp and cache files. Use Install Residue specifically to find and remove leftover folders from programs you've already uninstalled.
I just want smoother games — what's the single best starting point?
Run Smart Optimize on the Optimize page, then turn on the Guardian so it keeps tuning the system while you play. Add per-game settings via Game Profiles or PC Games if you want to go further.
How do I check whether my SSD is healthy?
Open Drive Health. It's read-only, so scanning is completely safe, and it reports SMART data, wear, temperature, TRIM status, and fragmentation. For maintenance it runs the correct action for your drive type automatically — ReTrim on flash, defrag only on a hard drive.