Alan_B

You lost me there. I wondered what browser were you using. I was confused (like Augeas) Regarding Regcure - Google had many results. Three were glowing testimonials from individuals who possibly have a cosy relationship with Regcure, and one was a forum with many user complaints, both about technical performance quality, and also the impossibility of getting fulfilment of the money back promise. I love women driver jokes, so it is hard for me to say this, but LISTEN TO YOUR DAUGHTER ! ! ! To answer "how to precisely stipulate the file name and folder path". As Augeas explained, you can create a text file of the analysis results. then you can open that file in notepad, select some of the items, and copy / paste into your next post. An alternative I prefer (avoids creating and opening a file) is Hover over the top left corner of the anaylsis, just left of where it says "ANALYSIS COMPLETE - (x.xxx secs)" Left click down WITHOUT release, and holding the button down drag the mouse down the page, and as you move down the selected text turns blue. When you have selected enough, carefully release the mouse, then hold the Ctrl Key and strike the "C" key Then the selected text is in your paste buffer ready to be pasted into your next post. Here is one I prepared earlier ANALYSIS COMPLETE - (1.341 secs) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0.67MB to be removed. (Approximate size) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Details of files to be deleted (Note: No files have been deleted yet) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ C:\Documents and Settings\Dad\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\0S8OWZCJ\views[1] 5.46KB C:\Documents and Settings\Dad\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\MSHist012009071820090719\index.dat 32.00KB Marked for deletion: C:\Documents and Settings\Dad\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat Marked for deletion: C:\Documents and Settings\Dad\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\index.dat C:\Documents and Settings\Dad\Recent\BatteryBar.lnk 719 bytes C:\Documents and Settings\Dad\Recent\Downloads.lnk 355 bytes C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Logs\FrameWork.log 1.51KB C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Logs\wbemcore.log 13.34KB C:\WINDOWS\0.log 0 bytes C:\WINDOWS\Temp\WGANotify.settings 409 bytes C:\Documents and Settings\Dad\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\632HMPHW\s.ytimg.com\soundData.sol 49 bytes C:\Program Files\LogMeIn\dbg_LMI_proc.txt 1.15KB C:\Program Files\LogMeIn\dbg_LMI_printer.txt 1.18KB Firefox/Mozilla cache cleaning was skipped. C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs\res2.log 0.13MB ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The above started as several hundred items, but I saw no benefit in doubling the length of this entire thread, so I have selected just a few representative items. Please do likewise. Regards Alan

Ishan Sorry, but I cannot agree with either view 1. I use the portable version of CCleaner which uses safe CCleaner.ini instead of the Registry minefield CCleaner.ini holds items such as :- Include11=PATH|C:\Documents and Settings\Dad\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\|*.* Include12=FILE|C:\Program Files\LogMeIn\|dbg_LMI_proc.txt Include11= item obeys your idea, all the Flash Player files and sub-folders are removed, just what I want Include12= item is different, it ONLY removes the one specified file dbg_LMI_proc.txt, leaving intact 69 other files and 6 subfolders held within ...\LogMeIn\ 2. I see two technical advantages to prefer cleaning before shut-down instead of after start-up :- a) I like to view the analysis before I execute, and if the analysis has something I was not expecting I have a fair chance of remembering what I did an hour or two earlier and recognise whether I caused the junk, or alternatively decide to suspend execution until further investigation. If I did the cleaning after start-up I would have to remember what I did the day before. I have a faithful memory that can remember WHAT I did, but WHEN is a little fuzzy. Where each user has profile that is private from others (unlike Galinkinlin), given "X" user profiles, if each user runs CCleaner before shut-down, then for any user at start-up there should be no junk anywhere. The system is clean, and EVERY profile is clean. If each user only runs CCleaner after start-up, then all "X" profiles will hold junk, and (along with the system) only the current users profile can be cleaned. There could easily be a GB of ancient junk stuck in the Firefox caches of many user profiles. 3. I see a massive benefit in cleaning at shut-down, but it is so important I consider it needs a separate thread (or new forum). Look out for an up-coming topic "Protect against Unexpected Update disasters". Regards Alan

Hi Thank you - I cannot remember ever being asked to expand a little. Mostly I get emails back from my son reminding me "Bullet Points Please" ! ! ! If you have administrator privileges you can install programs / applications, and you can create / modify / delete most files. You can do those things because you have permissions, which enable you to destroy your system. A "User" has reduced permissions, and is unable to do many of those things. The "User" can still destroy the system - but it is less easy to do so. As an administrator I could see the existence of C:\System Volume Information, but "permissions" prevented me from seeing what was inside it. I had authority to run CACLS and give myself permission to inspect that folder, and now automatically whenever I log on my start-up script can read the contents of C:\System Volume Information\_restore{F6EA6CAA-B744-447E-8F9E-B9A9507C7CB4}\drivetable.txt and immediately decide if XP has yet again gone wrong and included external drives for System Restore monitoring. As an administrator I can see the date and size of C:\pagefile.sys, but I am unable to see the contents - I am told "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process" Pagefile is a system file, always in use when XP runs, and is never accessible. Other files will be in use some of the time, and whilst they are in use they may be inaccessible. All the above, and more, is the sorts of thing I mean by "permissions". I mostly overcome any obstinate problems with CACLS, but I have confidence that if I overstep the mark and destroy the system, my Acronis Boot CD will restore normality with the C:\ system image I made as a precaution. I will not risk telling you how to blow up your own system. You were asked about the files you could not delete. I made no sense from your reply "No its all the files which arent being deleted.Under "troubleshooting'" on the Piriform site,under"problems after running ccleaner",#4," I looked there and it does NOT specify any specific folders and files. If you precisely stipulate the folder path and file name for a few specific items, I or others will probably be able to give you a safe advice upon the difficulty, and you will probably find that fixing those few items will fix most of the others also. Regards Alan

Was I.E.8 out of Beta when CC v. 2.18.878. was released ? Perhaps you need a later version to avoid conflicts. Regards Alan

Privacy Guardian is NOT free. It costs money and resources - it runs in the background. Perhaps it just observes on-the-fly the creation by various browsers of *.tmp etc. where ever they are dumped, so that when it thinks they are not needed it can go back and kill them. Regards Alan

I see no problem if the Recycle Bin is NOT checked for cleaning. I would have thought a simple code change would suffice. I see no problem if the Recycle bin IS checked for cleaning. FIRST delete to oblivion all the Recycle Bin contents, and then everything else is deleted to the recycle bin (till next time round when it is their turn for oblivion.) Putting things in the recycle bin is a good safe way of finding out if they were needed. and if their loss damages the system they can be quickly restored. The Carbon Footprint of Piriform servers would be reduced if there were no archives of posts from desperate people who lost vital files ! ! Regards Alan

If you can see it and delete it, then so can CCleaner - BUT NOT AS A DANGEROUS DEFAULT. To delete the other users files just specify them in Options / Include and check the box against Advanced / Custom Files and Folders Regards Alan

If you use Windows Explorer to select and then delete a file which CCleaner failed to delete, you will probably get an error box and the file will remain due to a problem with permissions. I believe CCleaner runs under your control with your permissions, and the system applies the same restrictions to CCleaner as it does to you. Regards Alan

Dr Watson always comes with bad news. If something crashes it is supposed to produce an error report, hence your 65 KB user.dmp This may remain until CCleaner runs. After CCleaner has removed it; run CCleaner a second time to confirm it has not regenerated; then shut down the P.C. and restart and run CCleaner a third time to confirm it has not regenerated; If your user.dmp often returns, something is badly wrong. I only see a user.dmp about once a month. When Dr.Watson runs it tends to slow down everything else - including the mouse. Perhaps fixing it then makes the mouse faster ! ! Regards Alan

The ONLY situation when Task Manager has not killed something is when I cannot launch it because something is taking 100% CPU.. Then I reboot the P.C. and launch the Task Manager BEFORE I start what I may wish to kill My secret is perseverance. In the Applications Tab I select whatever it is, and press End Task. Normally successful first time, if not try again. If that fails I go to Processes and select the relevent *.exe, then 1. Try the End Process button, if that fails 2. Right click context menu and invoke "end process", if that fails 3. Right click context menu and invoke "end process tree". If that fails, there has been a system error and a report is being created for sending somewhere, and things like Drwatson.exe and Dumpreg.exe will not permit ending the process, then 4. Select DrWatson.exe (or similar) and "end process" or "end process tree", 5. Select Dumpreg.exe (or similar) and "end process" or "end process tree", 6. I have never got this far - as soon as dumpreg.exe is killed the process I first ended then shuts down. Regards Alan

Use Regshot from http://www.majorgeeks.com/download965.html This is a good general purpose tool. You use it to take a snapshot of your system (registry and files) BEFORE you do "something.exe", and take another snapshot after you do something. Then you tell it to compare and it creates and displays a file listing everything that happened. This should tell you all the keys, files, and folders that are changed by cleaning. I normally use it whenever I install something. If I dislike the quantity of changes to registry and files I cancel the installation by restoring the precautionary C:\ image I take before installation. Regards Alan

I accept that Winapp.ini includes %AppData% etc. But CCleaner does not seem to understand it ! ! ! ! Please explain what is wrong. For some while I have used the Portable version v2.20.920 I have now duplicated the original folder, and to the duplicate I have now downloaded and unzipped "embedded_INIs_v2.20.zip." I have now used the original non-winapp variant to clean my system, and closed it down. I then used the new winapp variant and it found absolutely nothing extra to clean, hence CCleaner has not got any extra cleansing power, suggesting it does not understand winapp.ini. Winsys.ini includes lines starting :- RegKey1=HKCU\Software\Microsoft\... FileKey4=%USERPROFILE%\AppData\... Winapp.ini includes an awful lot of RegKey1=HKCU\Software\RealNetworks\... FileKey1=%appdata%\Apple Computer\... I deduce that "embedded_INIs_v2.20.zip" provides additional cleansing via the registry for NON-portable CCleaner, and that CCleaner does NOT understand %USERPROFILE% etc. that is written to the registry, but uses the built in capability of the Operating System to expand/interpret environmental variables that are there. Please educate me if there is a way for me to get extra cleansing by use of "embedded_INIs_v2.20.zip" with the portable variant. e.g. if I remove the original 10 byte "portable.dat" would that get the benefit of the registry, or will it merely add more registry keys in addition to all the junk that Adobe tips in there ? My use of the registry :- I was not thinking of the registry as a means of changing my daughter's password. I was referring to the fact that the NON-portable version of CCleaner uses the registry instead of CCleaner.ini, and I am not able to alter her user registry without having access to her profile, which I consider to be a definite nono. Regards Alan

1. Please give Analysis (and Cleaning) a better understanding of * I am able to add to the CCleaner.ini (by notepad, and ALSO by CCleaner GUI) the line Include04=PATH|C:\Program Files\LogMeIn\|dbg*.*.txt Unfortunately Analysis ignores it, and I have not dared test cleansing incase it scrubs the whole directory. Consequently for multiple junk files I need multiple lines of "Include..." 2. Please permit environmental variables such as %APPDATA% A large amount of ADOBE / MACROMEDIA / FLASH RUBBISH is taken out by Include08=PATH|C:\Documents and Settings\Dad\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\|*.* Twice as much is taken out by Include09=PATH|C:\Documents and Settings\Suzanne\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\|*.* Please note that "Include08=..." can be stipulated by either a Notepad Edit of the CCleaner GUI, but because I have no access to my daughter's profile I cannot use the CCleaner GUI to go beyond Include09=PATH|C:\Documents and Settings\Suzanne\ and that would cause her much grief ( and I would also suffer consequences ). Please note that with portable CCleaner I have the ability with Notepad to stipulate cleansing in a profile to which I have no access. Were I using the non-portable version I guess I would have to use Regedit to adjust her private registry. I am sure I could change her password and gain access, but that would violate her privacy, and I would not be able to put it back to conceal my violation. An infinitely superior solution would be Include08=PATH|%APPDATA%\Macromedia\Flash Player\|*.* With only one "IncludeNN=..." line every profile would be cleansed when active, i.e. 1 line would purge twice as much junk whilst I have 1 daughter, and would purge 100 times as much if my wife added another 99 children to the family ! ! Unfortunately this %APPDATA% not only fails to clean my daughter's profile it also fails to clean my own profile. Use of a single Include would save me a lot of typing, and it would allow CCleaner to focus upon cleaning the active profile, and avoid wasting time on the multiple ( 100 ? ) profiles not currently accessible. Regards Alan

I fully agree with Dennis. I would add that NET Framework is not an elegant well designed high rise building. It is a stack of sheds balancing on top of one-another; and if one of the sheds is broken the stability is not improved by throwing another one on the heap. When something is wrong with one of the sheds, a little more sticky tape may help; otherwise it has to be un-installed and re-installed, But first you have to un-install everything on top, starting with the latest "enhancement" NET 2 is more than I want or need, but now the security patch is fixed I will give up the struggle to remove it. But NET 3 and onwards will NEVER get into my machine. Regards Alan

IT IS AN OLD PROBLEM IT IS ALSO IN V2.20 - AND PROBABLY MUCH EARLIER. If Firefox is NOT running, there is no problem. Analysis correctly predicts cleansing. If Firefox IS running, we get the problem Analysis correctly predicts that cleansing will skip the Firefox cache Analysis FAILS to predict that cleansing will PURGE the cookies even though Firefox is running. Because "OPTIONS" was the route to configure "Cookies to Keep" as well is "Custom Files and Folders", when hundreds of cookies shot up the screen into oblivion I immediately panicked, thinking that with the "Custom..." option unchecked my "Cookies to keep" would also be ignored, so it was a tremendous relief when I found that all the keepers had been kept. My only loss was that because I did not know hundreds of cookies were about to be zapped, I had no opportunity to see if any of the victims merited a transfer to "Cookies to Keep". Now I will never know ! ! Having never been guilty myself, but having to pick up the pieces when a programmer colleague lost the plot, I would guess that an early version of Ccleaner correctly skipped both the cache and the cookies when Firefox ran, and at some stage an "improvement" enabled actual cleansing of the cookies, but forgot to update the analysis section. I think I will probably stop worrying about non-analysed cleansing of registry keys ! ! Regards Alan

NET Framework is a swine. You MAY have to install Windows XP Service Pack 3. On XP with SP2, Windows Update installed a security patch, again and again and again. I had to tell Update not to remind me. The only solution was supposed to be to un-install and re-install. I was on the phone with Micro-soft technical advisers several times using various techniques. Every attempt met with failure, but no explanation or relevant error log. Their final solution was to re-install Windows; But Windows was supplied pre-installed without an installation disk, and they refused to give me one. So I was stuck with a missing security patch. Fortunately ESET and COMODO kept out any malware. I found I could totally install NET Framework by use of http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/200.../30/611355.aspx That left hundreds of "missing dll" registry errors until I re-installed NET. There remained about a dozen, either genuinely missing and needed, or counters gone wrong. One thing I gained from that experience was a blow by blow log of everything done and errors encountered, and that log file tells me the item which blocked a clean un-install, and which the clean-up-tool removed by breaking the rules. The problem was that some catalogue entry was missing, and without that information the official un-installer did not know the correct sequence in which to remove items. I restored a previous Disc Partition image to avoid those unknowns and tolerate a known security risk. Subsequently XP SP3 was installed (for other reasons). Some time later I find that the security patch is no longer missing. SP3 did an awful lot of things I was unable to keep track of, and I guess it fixed this for me as it went along. Just possibly it might help you when all else fails. Regards Alan

I unzipped the portable version into a new folder to compare results with an earlier version in another folder. I saw no difference at the analysis stage - both versions had several screens of stuff. I launched Firefox so its 97 MB cache would no longer pre-dominate. I unchecked "Windows Recent Files" and "Custom Files and Folders" on each. Both versions upon Analysis showed greatly reduced lists that were identical. I used the latest version to clean. It cleaned what it said it would. PLUS IT TOOK OUT ALL MY COOKIES ! ! I was panic struck, so forgive a slight exaggeration :- in reality it seems to have left me with "Cookies to Keep", so it did take notice of that even though I had unchecked the "Custom Files and Folders" in which they are specified. Does this new version ever restrict its cleaning to what Analysis predicts ? Does a check box adjustment require the closure and restart of CCleaner, or even a Computer Reboot, to improve agreement between Analysis prediction and Cleaning Action. I do not expect similar "actions beyond the call of duty" with the registry cleaning, but I think I will sit this one out pending advice, and possibly continue with the old v2.20 until v2.22 arrives Regards Alan

A simple DOS command to delete the folder should do the trick, assuming you use the portable version. Alan

First you use Add/Remove to un-instal. Then with luck you can re-instal Alan

Me too. I viewed her/his profile. 5 people have already viewed. He/Her must be desperate for love ! ! Alan

After using NTREGOPT to optimise the registry, and the system reboots, what looks like 40 MBytes of old registry backup/temp files are created in 7 different folders on Windows XP Home edition SP3 The attached file lists each redundant item. RegOptFIX_C_TO_ZAP.TXT The attached *.txt file can be renamed as *.BAT. RegOptFIX.txt When RegOptFIX.Bat is run it creates 3 LOG FILES :- RegOptFIX_C_TO_ZAP.LOG, showing temp/backup stuff deemed worthy of zapping; RegOptFIX_C_SUM.LOG, showing the entire contents of the 7 folders to show context and confirm later version of the "zap" stuff"; RegOptFIX_C_VALID_.LOG, the contents of the 7 folders that are considered valid, i.e. excluding the zap stuff. After it has run and created the 3 lists, it offers the choice of whether or not to delete the junk. After NTREGOPT reboots, the backup stuff exists and does not seem to go away until I zap them. I leave the backup stuff for a day, and if everything is fine on the next reboot then I zapp the junk. NB I have never had a reboot problem, and if I did I expect to fully recover by restoring the previous ERUNT registry backup. I am pretty sure that the registry backup stuff made by XP will be almost useless, I am sure that there would be permisions and Access Control List aggravations to overcome before I could over-write the latest registry files with the "backups". Regards Alan RegOptFIX.txt RegOptFIX_C_TO_ZAP.TXT

Not very meaningful. I hate such statements - so misleading. Firstly, I CANNOT tell if you are complaining about the "Latest" version now available, so I do not know if any such problem still exists. Secondly, you may have downloaded on the same day that a new version becomes available, in which case date identification is useless. Today is just one of those days when I think I might update some software, and I like to check any user forum for any reported problems before I risk the same. Because of the meaningless "Latest version of course", I was irritated by the extra searching to find it was probably version v2.21.940 released on 25/06/2009. I do not intend to single out ishan_rulz for criticism, I just wish to recommend for any-one who has a problem that a version number will always be meaningful, and "Latest version" will ALWAYS BE WRONG after the next release. Additional related comment / complaint to developers, It would be useful if the change log showed the date of release for every version. The changelog is naturally the first place I looked to see what was "latest" as at July 1st, and of course I was disappointed. If anyone posted a fault before 25th June it would have referred to a previous version, and I just cannot see any clue upon release dates for versions other than the last version. Regards Alan

Reparse points may be a better way to go. Copy the existing cache folder and contents to D:\cache or whatever your alternative choice may be, and then replace the original location with a link pointing at the new location. This technique can be applied to more than the cache. I have used it to move half of my C:\ system drive contents elsewhere, and everything still works perfectly. The only things that seem to know the difference and yet work perfectly are :- PerfectDisc which restricts defragging to what is REALLY present on C:\, and Acronis True Image now makes a backup of C:\ that is 60% the size of what it used to be. Also EASEUS partition manager does not get confused, and still does the right things. Regards Alan

Hi In post #1 you said "it was alphabetically deleting all of the songs from D:\Music". The seemed wrong because CCleaner should NOT normally default to the non-system drive. In post #11 you said "CCleaner started erasing C:\users\Jamie\Music\" That seems less unreasonable - CCleaner was cleaning the Drive C:\, but the mklink was redirecting to other drives. According to post #6 "C:\users\Jamie is actaully F:\Jamie7 then in F:\Jamie7\Music(or \Videos) ..." I assume any songs removed from D:\Music were the result of another mklink. Incidentally, "mklink /?" is not recognised by XP Home edition - hence I needed a separate utility. Regards Alan

Dennis For over one year I used xplorer2, a free and nice dual pane multi-tabbed improvement on Windows xplorer. Back in January I came across reparse points and their ilk, and discovered that xplorer2 could create them for me - no need to fill my hard drive with more software ! ! If you are interested :- xplorer2 is available from http://www.zabkat.com/ Their user forum has advice upon Folder Junctions at http://netez.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?p=42073#42073 So far I have relocated 6 major folders away from C:\ to other partitions. Just in case I should forget what is relocated, I added to each remote folder a file "Used_At.txt". This states where the data was relocated from, and where it is relocated to. A simple Windows search on C:\ for "Used_At.txt" will immediately find them and remind me what I did. An alternative is Junction link magic from http://www.rekenwonder.com/linkmagic.htm This can not only create various types of reparse points, it can also find them without any "Used_At.txt" tricks. Regards Alan