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Clean for all accounts on local computer


nolme

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Hi,

 

the question has already been posted inside the forum maybe not in suggestions.

 

Running CCleaner as a service could be useful to clean all users datas instead doing this session by session.

 

Thanks,

 

Vincent

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As you are aware this has been asked and answered dozens of times.

 

 

 

Consensus says that this is not a viable thing (to clean all users). also running as a service would cause CCleaner to clean "system user"

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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Consensus says that this is not a viable thing (to clean all users). also running as a service would cause CCleaner to clean "system user"

 

=> You can retrieve all local users using netapi32.dll with functions like NetUserEnum() in C++

=> Then browse all folders ?:\document and settings\<user>

 

So why is this not viable ?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Consensus says that this is not a viable thing (to clean all users). also running as a service would cause CCleaner to clean "system user"

 

=> You can retrieve all local users using netapi32.dll with functions like NetUserEnum() in C++

=> Then browse all folders ?:\document and settings\<user>

 

So why is this not viable ?

 

I like your idea, but how would it be possible to clean password protected user accounts?

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I like your idea, but how would it be possible to clean password protected user accounts?

 

LOL.

A password protected account it not enough to disable access to its personal folder. ;p

If current user has admin rights, it can access to every folder by default.

Who has specified Private Datas for each account (since Windows XP) ?

 

A Service has all rights too to access everywhere on the hard drive so it's not a problem.

^^

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LOL.

A password protected account it not enough to disable access to its personal folder. ;p

If current user has admin rights, it can access to every folder by default.

Who has specified Private Datas for each account (since Windows XP)?

 

A Service has all rights too to access everywhere on the hard drive so it's not a problem.

^^

 

If this is possible, it would certainly be cool.

To those who decry this action because of "a user might gasp & have a heart attack if things they expected to be there weren't!", I think they could add a prompt to CCleaner where if a user was sure (they own the computer, they have say over what goes on, etc.), then I see no problem with this.

 

I do hate when users have a lot of user accounts, then you have to clean each of them in order to defrag properly or do other tasks (some users have several gigs of internet or temp file trash, leading to performance degradation & longer defrag/program load times.

 

I would certainly love a multi-user account cleanup on CCleaner. It seems technically possible, as using relative paths such as %programfiles%, %appdata%, %tmp%, etc, would easily enough be able to find the user account data. As I recall, there are switches using relative paths that work for other accounts.

 

It will be interesting to see if they can do this.

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Not viable because of the troubles it would cause.

 

e.g. "My dad ran ccleaner on our computer and deleted a bunch of stuff I still needed" or "Because IT ran ccleaner on my computer, I can no longer access google apps which has my presentation which is due on monday"

 

if you really need to clean someone else's account enable allow secondary login and right click>runas

 

this is discussed an multitude of times on this forum

 

SMH

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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Not viable because of the troubles it would cause.

 

e.g. "My dad ran ccleaner on our computer and deleted a bunch of stuff I still needed" or "Because IT ran ccleaner on my computer, I can no longer access google apps which has my presentation which is due on monday"

 

if you really need to clean someone else's account enable allow secondary login and right click>runas

 

this is discussed an multitude of times on this forum

 

SMH

 

I understand the concept you are promoting, but I don't see how that example could possibly be valid. As far as I know, Google Apps is all stored online, on Google Servers. All that you have to have is an internet connection. So you are saying that cleaning the temporary internet files could somehow destroy Google Apps?

 

Unlikely, since they are stored on Google servers, not yours! How could clearing internet trash accumulation affect Google Apps?

 

Thanks!

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I agree with 'Mr Don'.

 

BTW, as all MSP, we're making choices for maintenance reasons so this case :

"My dad ran ccleaner on our computer and deleted a bunch of stuff I still needed"

won't arrive because 99.9% of managed computers are single user (but each user as its own login/password).

 

The only way to clean all in one click is to use network agents which run as SYSTEM.

 

It has been discussed hundred of times but maybe with wrong arguments ;p

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I agree with Nergal.

 

Even if the presentation is held safe on Google Apps :-

1) the non-expert user will still complain that his work is lost because he has no access by the usual single click, and he has no clue on how to get access;

2) there could be other non Google Apps that do not hold work on remote servers;

3) CCleaner is able to remove files that the user wants to retain,

and if the superior administrator who knows everything should launch CCleaner,

and if he takes out something the user needs, there will be repercussions,

especially if the inferior user happens to be the Managing Director ! !

 

Alan

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Even if the presentation is held safe on Google Apps :-

1) the non-expert user will still complain that his work is lost because he has no access by the usual single click, and he has no clue on how to get access;

2) there could be other non Google Apps that do not hold work on remote servers;

3) CCleaner is able to remove files that the user wants to retain,

and if the superior administrator who knows everything should launch CCleaner,

and if he takes out something the user needs, there will be repercussions,

especially if the inferior user happens to be the Managing Director ! !

Running as a service, CCleaner would have the ability to read ? and respect ? each individual user's CCleaner settings from the registry or .INI file. Thus it wouldn't remove anything from any profile that the corresponding user wouldn't delete by using CCleaner in interactive mode. And if a particular profile had never previously used CCleaner, then the default settings could be used instead of the aministrator profile's.

 

Also, you appear to assume that multiple-profile computers are used in a professional environment. In my long (40+ years) experience, professional computers have at most only two local profiles defined: one local administrator and one "work" user (which may or may not belong to a domain). Any multiple-profile professional computers would use roaming profiles. The only computers I've seen with multiple local profiles are family computers.

"Do not mock the crocodile until you've finished crossing the river" (African proverb)

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I suspect your experience may be limited.

 

Some years ago the latest "improvement" feature was Hot Desking,

where a single desk is kept hot by multiple users,

each user in the office on a part time basis, and otherwise possibly full time at home.

 

I believe each user could carry their own laptop with them,

but some users probably need a far less affordable computer,

so I am sure (even though I have no experience of this) that multiple profiles can and do exist on a corporate computer.

 

As a degree qualified professional design engineer I had the support of management when I violated I.T. policy and killed their Panda antivirus protection because it was crippling my work flow.

I think if I.T. had damaged my system by a blind registry clean I would have been supported in blocking I.T. from remote control.

 

I frequently use CC to clean junk files.

I occasionally look at the registry to satisfy myself it is still clean.

If the registry is dirty I want to know WHY in case something is broken.

If something is broken, before I clean the registry I decide if it would be better to MEND that application etc.

 

Before I remove an application I examine the registry and ensure it is up to standard,

then I fully remove the application (with Revouninstaller assistance).

Then I look at the registry again.

and every item which is found I consider and inspect,

and if I decide that it was needed by the application I just removed,

and if CC recommends deleting the key because "These are often left behind after uninstalling software."

Then it goes - and if I am unsure then I Google until I am sure.

 

I have every box checked for registry cleaning.

I DO NOT WANT THOSE ITEMS CLEANING BY SOME I.T. IDIOT that does not know WHY I have an interest in such items.

 

Alan

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@Alan_B : Maybe you're a bit frustrated in your environment ;p

 

We're not here to show our CV and how many certification we have...

 

Cleaning all %TEMP% at logoff is not a stupid idea. We all have our policies and security parameters. Configuration file are here just for these reasons.

So If you don't think this feature should be useful for you, don't use it and let those who need it just use it.

 

++

Vincent

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@Alan_B:

For one thing, using the registry cleaning function of CCleaner isn't something I'd do. Not that I don't trust CCleaner, but cleaning the registry is something that'll gain you a few hundred bytes at most, and this is not Win9x/ME anymore ;) If you want to optimize your registry, use NTREGOPT instead.

 

For another, corporate policies are there for a purpose. If you feel you have a good reason they shouldn't apply to you, you need to explain your needs to the I.T. dept., not bypass their safeguards. Did I mention I used to be I.T. manager for the French subsidiary of a big software company (not Microsoft)?

"Do not mock the crocodile until you've finished crossing the river" (African proverb)

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the Google apps example (which BTW is something we have encountered here at the forum) was an example of a cookie being removed.

 

again, I laid out the reasons (which I agree with) that the majority of those who frequent this forum regularly and read most if not all of the posted questions, have come to when discussing and thinking about this issue. the Original poster stated they had read this asked many times.

 

Secondly, Running CCleaner, as it is now, as a service (i.e. making it a service via a third party exe-->Service program) ends up cleaning the Local Service account.

In order for cleaner to even begin to do this thing (if it were decided that it were a good idea, which I, advanced forum members and the developers have maintained that it is not) CCleaner would require a major overhaul in the manner that it works. Please look through the Embedded ini attached to the sticky at the top of the CCleaner discussion forum and note that mostly CCleaner is looking at either items in the user's %appdata% folder or keys in the HKCurrentUser branch.

 

If you really want your computer's users to have no control over cleaning do the following

Install CCleaner with the option to save the options in the ini file. place the CCleaner.ini file in the c:\program files\CCleaner\ folder and place a shortcut to CCleaner.exe -auto in the all users start up folder.

 

But honestly I'm not going to answer anyone's query on "my computer ran CCleaner without me telling to and now my {insert removed file} is gone"

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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@Alan_B : Maybe you're a bit frustrated in your environment ;p

 

We're not here to show our CV and how many certification we have...

 

Cleaning all %TEMP% at logoff is not a stupid idea.

Vincent

 

You are wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong.

1) I am now retired and not frustrated,

2) I enjoyed my work before I retired, and was not frustrated,

3) You are so VERY WRONG, I merely indicated that I have skills and qualifications that are in the same league as PierreS who claimed 40 years experience,

4) The reason we SHOULD be here is to read and UNDERSTAND the posts we wish to respond to. This you totally failed to do. Nobody brought up %TEMP% before you did. Nobody said stupid before you. Why are you telling me about cleaning %TEMP% at logoff ? Only when I have approved M.$. security patches do I shut down in the standard fashion so that the patches can be installed and rebooted etc. according to M.$ wims and fancies, otherwise I ALWAYS launch CC in /AUTO /SHUTDOWN mode so that much more than %TEMP% is purged,

 

So If you don't think this feature should be useful for you, don't use it and let those who need it just use it.

5) You have to be joking. You have asked for the facility that would enable some other person to clean my profile, even though Windows has denied them permission to even see the contents of my profile, and NOW you tell me that I can prevent them from zapping what they cannot see ! !

 

Alan

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@Alan_B:

For one thing, using the registry cleaning function of CCleaner isn't something I'd do. Not that I don't trust CCleaner, but cleaning the registry is something that'll gain you a few hundred bytes at most, and this is not Win9x/ME anymore ;) If you want to optimize your registry, use NTREGOPT instead.

 

For another, corporate policies are there for a purpose. If you feel you have a good reason they shouldn't apply to you, you need to explain your needs to the I.T. dept., not bypass their safeguards. Did I mention I used to be I.T. manager for the French subsidiary of a big software company (not Microsoft)?

 

I use ERUNT to create a backup every morning, and I may use NTREGOPT perhaps once or twice a year.

I do not expect that deleting old keys gives even a 1 byte improvement to free space on the HDD, but will create more empty space in the registry hives and this translates into more HDD free space when NTREGOPT is run

 

Sorry you fail to understand my motivation. Let me spell it out for you.

 

When I uninstall an application I want it to go away, every wretched bit of it.

I do not want its remnants cluttering up my HDD and wasting my free space.

I do not want to have start-up delays as the computer tries to launch executables that are not present.

I do not want missing dll events in the system event logs burying any problems I should focus on.

I do not want registry keys and values left behind.

 

I DO WANT to know of any significant change to the registry that might indicate a recent abnormality.

 

By keeping a clean registry that is free of any issues, I immediately spot when something has changed which might warrant investigation.

 

I accept that I.T. has the authority to impose policies,

but my immediate superior was the Technical Director and a member of the board,

and he was the one who found and downloaded the tool for killing Panda so that his work was not disrupted,

and he copied it to me and authorised me to use it also.

The Technical Director and I.T. had a head to head and we came out on top.

I.T. then changed to something better than Panda which did NOT destroy a morning's work whilst it updated virus signatures for viruses that never arrived - we had no USB ports for flash drives on our machines, and we had no Internet other than emails that were processed via company firewalls and servers - the Internet was one P.C. in the corner behind the Technical Director.

 

Regards

Alan

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So,

 

why the slim version is very very silent (no shortcut) ? Isn't for MSP to do background jobs ?

I've no clue what any of this even means?

 

the only difference between the full install version and the slim version is that the slim version doesn't come bundled with the yahoo toolbar, it doesn't even come into play in this discussion.

 

isn't what for MSP (which I have no idea what this even is) to do background jobs? (by MSP do you mean Microsoft Patch Files? what does this even have to do with ccleaner)

 

Why am I contiuing answering this thread, I've only explained why we as a community and why the developers of this software have denied the request for "all users"

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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@Alan_B

 

Ok, you made your point. For the record, ever since I eschewed Win9x/ME (I switched to NT, then Win2k, as soon as I could), I've never had a missing executable at startup or missing DLL event after uninstalling software (and I do install/uninstall a lot). Yet I may have used a registry cleaner maybe 3 or 4 times in the last 14 years – and none since I moved to Vista, then Win7. Disk space is cheap these days. Salvaging a couple of sectors isn't worth the effort and risk, IMO. Defragmenting the disk regularly is a better way to keep the system shipshape.

 

But, whatever rocks your boat :)

 

(and no, I never was a sailor :D )

"Do not mock the crocodile until you've finished crossing the river" (African proverb)

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@Nergal: MSP = managed services provider (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managed_services)

In other words, we're planning tasks which will run at a scheduled time or startup/logout for remote users in multiple companies which don't have internal IT/Network Admin.

 

(Just a little comment on slim/full version. You're defition is 50% true. Yes the slim one don't have the toolbar + don't have shortcuts on desktop & start menu. So if we don't go into Program Files, or registry, we can't know CC or defragler are installed. For me, this usage is typically for admin whp wants to do some background jobs.)

 

"If you really want your computer's users to have no control over cleaning do the following

Install CCleaner with the option to save the options in the ini file. place the CCleaner.ini file in the c:\program files\CCleaner\ folder and place a shortcut to CCleaner.exe -auto in the all users start up folder."

They don't need to have control, they're users not admins ;p

I don't want to change all ini files on each PC using TeamViewer & Cie. I can do a BATCH file to move it & change it but it looks like a very bad patch.

 

Another comment on third party files. Cleaning all users temporary files don't need really to run as a service. Program MUST run as SYSTEM that's all. So if a third party program (like Kaspersky Network Agent from AdminKit8) already run as service with SYSTEM credentials, when the agent launch another process (CC for example), the new process will run under SYSTEM.

The only thing to keep in mind is to disable all interactive desktop communication (i.e. no message box or anything display to screen) because of Windows Vista/7 security.

On this approach, I don't think there's much work to do. If you can get current user folders to clean, it's quick to loop for other accounts isn't it ?

 

 

@Alan_B :

"otherwise I ALWAYS launch CC in /AUTO /SHUTDOWN mode so that much more than %TEMP% is purged,"

because you're doing it on your PC. You need to understand that we've hundreds of PC running at different days a time. If we've planned to clean every month all temp' files on all computers with different accounts & password, your method don't work.

(Remember that the cleaning task remote computers will run will start under SYSTEM so %TEMP% will be %WINDIR%\TEMP.

 

Yes we can create a scheduled task on all computers to do this. (and we can install this task using our network agent. It was the first idea). But the main problem with this method is that we have no return on it in our console (success, failed, pending...).

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I've never had a missing executable at startup or missing DLL event after uninstalling software (and I do install/uninstall a lot).

I have far less experience at uninstalling software, but I have experienced abominable disaster.

 

A Patch Tuesday update to .NET Framework just would not take.

I wasted Time and money emailing and phoning M.$ tech support and nothing worked.

They eventually said I would have to remove the entire .NET stuff,

commencing with the latest increment and working down to the oldest,

and then I could re-install and that should accept all updates.

Windows could NOT uninstall .NET 2, and gave absolutely no reason or excuse for its failure.

Many people had similar problems with that particular Patch Tuesday.

 

Eventually some-one published a tool that could tear .NET framework out of XP,

and it provided a log which showed that Windows refused to allow removal,

and Windows told the tool what it NEVER told me or M.$ tech. support,

which was that it had lost some Catalogue file/data that should tell it the order of removal of various components.

The tool then took the game up a notch and did not ask nicely, it just deleted the stuff Windows was retaining.

 

Eventually .NET junk was removed.

Unfortunately when I used CC to LOOK AT but not clean the registry there were thousands of missing shared DLL's.

I installed all the .NET stuff and as hoped that put back DLL's that had gone missing, BUT NOT ALL OF THEM.

I learnt that shared DLL's have some sort of counter which is incremented when an extra application etc. is added to the system and requires use of that DLL, and upon application removal the counter should be decremented. When a badly written application forgets to decrement the counter when it is removed, this leads to an error and I believe CC fixes the error by simply zeroing the counter.

I was concerned that perhaps when the removal tool tore .NET out of the system it may have ignored the counters,

and just possibly it could have deleted DLL's that other applications needed, in which case those applications would be broken and would stay broken after CC had zeroed the counters.

 

I chose to restore the disc partition image I created as a precaution before I ever used the tool,

and to depend upon Comodo and ESET to defend me from the vulnerabilities that M.$. had created and could not fix.

 

I now think of .NET as a vertical shanty town,

a high rise building composed of garden sheds loosely balanced on one another ! !

 

I always get a startup error described as

The HID Input Service service terminated with the following error:

The system cannot find the file specified.

 

I do not know how to fix this, but I am not worried because :-

It only started when I added a USB connected keyboard because I did not like the Laptop's built in keyboard;

and I know it cannot be malware because I did not need to install any software for it.

 

I have experienced other start-up errors in the past,

but this has only been when I correctly uninstalled some application via Add/Remove,

and the people that threw the software together had forgotten to delete some of the start-up links.

 

Regards

Alan

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@Alan_B :

You need to understand that we've hundreds of PC running at different days a time. If we've planned to clean every month all temp' files on all computers with different accounts & password, your method don't work.

 

O.K., I accept that your needs as a system administrator are different from mine.

 

Now I am retired I naturally think of my situation,

and would not wish a different user to clean my profile.

I would also note that cleaning Temp files can damage installation / removal of applications that need a reboot.

They may well leave in the TEMP folders something that should be RUNONCE on the next start-up to complete what could not be done under Windows.

 

I assume that you prevent your users from installing or removing their own software on systems you are responsible for,

so you suitably synchronise all cleaning and software changes to avoid any clash.

 

Regards

Alan

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I use ERUNT to create a backup every morning, and I may use NTREGOPT perhaps once or twice a year.

I do not expect that deleting old keys gives even a 1 byte improvement to free space on the HDD, but will create more empty space in the registry hives and this translates into more HDD free space when NTREGOPT is run

 

Sorry you fail to understand my motivation. Let me spell it out for you.

 

When I uninstall an application I want it to go away, every wretched bit of it.

I do not want its remnants cluttering up my HDD and wasting my free space.

I do not want to have start-up delays as the computer tries to launch executables that are not present.

I do not want missing dll events in the system event logs burying any problems I should focus on.

I do not want registry keys and values left behind.

 

I DO WANT to know of any significant change to the registry that might indicate a recent abnormality.

 

By keeping a clean registry that is free of any issues, I immediately spot when something has changed which might warrant investigation.

 

I accept that I.T. has the authority to impose policies,

but my immediate superior was the Technical Director and a member of the board,

and he was the one who found and downloaded the tool for killing Panda so that his work was not disrupted,

and he copied it to me and authorised me to use it also.

The Technical Director and I.T. had a head to head and we came out on top.

I.T. then changed to something better than Panda which did NOT destroy a morning's work whilst it updated virus signatures for viruses that never arrived - we had no USB ports for flash drives on our machines, and we had no Internet other than emails that were processed via company firewalls and servers - the Internet was one P.C. in the corner behind the Technical Director.

 

Regards

Alan

 

Alan, earlier he stated that if CCleaner ran as a service, or at least had that capability, it would be able to clean all user accounts. Normally, I might would deny that, but seeing that Handy Recovery (a data recovery software) can & does either remove the password protection, or access the OS from a lower level than regular Windows Explorer, he may be on to something.

 

I see nothing wrong with all users/temp folders being cleared (why would you wanna keep trash, besides the fact that CCleaner doesn't remove the last 24 hours by default?

 

I don't think anyone was saying they wanted it to clean the registry too, but only temp files (100% safe to delete, 100% of the time on all user accounts...)

This would eliminate much click & clean sessioning!

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