Alan_B

Hi Is there any difference in speed and in performance between the different Builds that are available ? I generally prefer portable applications. When I need to recover a deleted file, I want the best. Until yesterday there was a 4 GByte file in a FAT32 partition on and external USB connected hard drive. Regards Alan

Hi I have no ActiveX issues. I detest it for its security issues. I detest Panda for requiring that I should abandon Firefox and use I.E. to facilitate a virus/rootkit scan. I have one .NET ver.2 patch that will not install. The solution is to uninstall and then re-install. Unfortunately Windows could not uninstall it. Finally I went to http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/200.../30/611355.aspx A very useful tool was able to blast it away - and also told me WHY Windows could not uninstall. Windows lost a catalogue file or something and did not know in which order to uninstall all the patches etc. (disgustingly, Windows previously gave no clues as to why it failed.) After purging .NET I ran CCleaner to NOT clean but observe, and saw several thousand "missing shared DLLs". I then installed .NET again and automatically the shared DLLs count went down to about a dozen. Even a dozen shared DLLs was something I did not like, so I restored the disk image I made in preparation because I knew in advance it would all end in tears. Astebner has refined his tool several times, and I will soon repeat the exercise. I am willing to accept advice upon this, but my views of missing shared DLLs are :- 1. Something has gone wrong. Code is not where it should be, and a counter says some application still needs it; 2. Erasing the counter is unlikely to help that application work without that code; 3. Damage is already done, erasing the counter does no further damage, but it MIGHT save a little registry space. 4. ALTERNATIVELY, when I do this again, I could identify the dozen missing DLLs and copy them from the previous disc image. This will ensure that any application that needs them can still run, and if in fact they are not needed I have merely wasted a little disc space. I hate wasting disc space. I hate wasting money - but I do not hesitate to pay my house insurance. Regards Alan

Hi I was at first unable to upgrade my Firewall because its installer failed to uninstall the previous version. It failed because 1000 keys and sub-keys were frozen solid and inaccesible to the firewall. They were inaccessible to me. I used RegEdit and it would not let me have access to these keys, BUT I was allowed access to its parent key which I deleted - but it stayed there because all its children refused to go away. The solutions I found may well work. First of all use ERUNT and create a registry backup. If you don''t have a back-up you will regret it 1. The easy way with Registrar Registry Manager, free download at http://www.resplendence.com/downloads Select the key with the problem. It will have a red flag to show Windows wants to keep you out. Delete it, and the manager gets rid of the problem, then your reg file should merge O.K. 2. The difficult way with Windows Regedit :- Use Regedit and select the frozen key (or its parent) and export for luck (first stage recovery if needed) Right click for properties => permissions :- Select yourself (first add yourself if not there) => advanced :- Lots of Tabs to choose from, but with perseverance you can take ownership of a key, and by doing suitable things to check boxes controlling "Inherit from parent" and "replace entries of child" you can eventually delete the sorry mess and then you should be able to merge the file you started with (I cannot remember the precise sequence - it took me many attempts a year ago as an intellectual exercise, I won but only just ! ) Regards Alan

Thank you for the prompt replies. I would have seen them earlier, but I have cut down my life on the Internet. I accept that the latest "out-of-cycle" update fixes the latest I.E. vulnerabilities that have become public, but in view of the pressure on M.$. to be seen to take urgent action I cannot help thinking there might be further urgent patches on their way ! Perhaps I will be more relaxed after the next Patch Tuesday - perhaps ! ! I now assume that the one post I saw on a forum about USB not working was just one of those things, perhaps there was some incompatibility on his system, or perhaps he clicked the wrong buttons. Anyway I now consider it worth downloading and trying for myself, so thank you for the answers. Not yet - I tried but as I feared the link I have downloads an *.exe file. Since last week when I set I.E. Security to "HIGH", Firefox cannot download *.exe due to the "Security Zone Policy". If only Macrium was available as a ZIP. I am tempted to throw caution to the wind - but probably not this week. USB 1.1 - I remember it well. I bought a 300 GByte USB drive from Buffalo for a broadband capable Laptop. The first thing I did was to copy everything I could from an old dial-up computer using Windows 98, and that took most of the day via USB 1.1 to copy 5 GBytes. At the time I thought how much easier and faster this was compared to using "Terminal" and serial ports to copy about 200 MBytes from one P.C. to another many years earlier. I am pleased to say that since then it only takes about 6 minutes to transfer 4.5 GBytes via USB 2. Thanks and regards Alan

Is this able to create a backup on a USB connected external Hard Drive, and then to restore that image ? I have seen many reviews on various forums, but only one referred to a USB Hard Drive, and that said it could not be used. Regards Alan

.NET Framework is a pain. I understand that missing shared dlls is something to do with a counter for each of them. When "something" needs the use of a dll, it may prefer not to install its own copy, but to make use of what is already installed by something else, AND THEN it increments the corresponding counter. When a "something" is un-installed it should decrement any counters it incremented upon installation, and then test the decremented value. If the counter remains non-zero then other applications are still using that shared dll, and it should be left present. If the counter has become zero, then nothing else is using that dll, so it should be removed. If "something" is un-installed and it deletes the "shared dll" regardless, then the counter is left non-zero and when CCleaner finds a non-zero counter I guess (I think) that it looks for the continued existence of that dll, and if it has been deleted an issue is reported. I fear that other things may still depend upon using the dll that was deleted, in which case they will collapse in a heap when used. Major damage has been done and nothing can repair the situation. That is what you get with .NET Framework I guess that CCleaner will resolve by setting the counter to zero. It won't help the other things that need the missing dll, but I guess it will do no further damage - I guess. The only solution MAY be to totally remove all versions of .NET Framework and then resolve the issues and then re-install without any further un-installation. BUT that could lead to additional problems and having to re-install Windows. I have a similar problem needing a solution myself so I would be interested in knowing how it works out for you. My role model is the penguin at the back of the crowd on top the cliff, watching the penguin at the front being pushed over into the sea to test whether there is a predator lurking under the waves, or whether it is safe for everyone to go fishing ! ! Regards Alan

1. I fully agree with Davey. 2. I do not believe CCleaner has anything to do with sharing documents between User Accounts. It is a normal Windows thing that each User Profile is private from all the rest. If you Google "copy user profile" you will find 19,200,000 hits. The authority is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151 but you may find several million are easier to follow ! ! But hopefully, System Restore will avoid all that hassle. Regards Alan

I am sorry you had a problem, and I cannot explain what happened. After several decades of DOS and then Windows I can assure you that unexplained problems are par for the course. I can make many suggestions of possibilities - but my son is always telling me to "get a life ! " On a completely different but related topic :- Some viruses and things attack Anti-virus products. It is a way of life. Anti-virus products usually embed themselves into the computer as deeply as possibly. I do not know the technology, but "hooks" can be a key element to being stuck-in and unmovable. This could be one of the reasons that Norton AntiVirus can be such a swine to remove. REGARDLESS of how a trojan got into your machine, regardless of whether it is the fault of Piriform, Filehippo, Verizon, or Starfleet command ! ! there are two vital sets of questions that need to be answered. 1.a. Why did Verizon die so easily ? 1.b. Why have Verizon no interest in identifying and fixing this problem of instant death ? 1.c. How will Verizon avoid this problem in future or is this a way of life for them ? 2. Do you really want to persist with such weak kneed security ? Regards Alan

This may be of use to you :- http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=16551 Regards Alan

In my opinion NERO is junk and only fit to be removed. Any application that depends upon the continued existence of *.tmp files in ...\temp\ folders should be hunted down and exterminated. If they cannot get that right, what can they do. To answer your query, have another look at the files. Select one in Windows Explorer and Right Click, then Properties. This will show you not ONE but THREE dates which generally mean 3 different things - sometimes. The ACCESSED date is fixed so long as nothing looks at it - but as soon as you look at it the date is IMMEDIATELY changed to here and now, but because of disk caches and wot-not you will probably need to RUN CMD and invoke "DIR /T:A", or reboot the P.C. to see the change. Disc Cleanup will compress "old" files that have not been ACCESSED for 30 days. I do not know, but I suspect that CCleaner purges TEMP files that have not been ACCESSED for 2 days. n.b. The MODIFIED and CREATED dates have self evident meanings - but it is not necessarily so. Sometimes these dates may be affected / over-written by the date when the file was downloaded. M.$. make up the rules as they go along, and I have seen a Security update replace one version of explorer.exe with another version to remove a hazard. The only difference shown by file properties was that the later one had a smaller size ( I guess the original version retained "debug" code they forgot to remove ), BUT the 3 different dates were repeated for both versions ! ! Please forgive the rant - I wish Windows was predictable - not a quagmire of uncertainty. Regards Alan

The answer is NO. I have not used CCleaner for a couple of days. Right now it is prepared to remove 30 files totalling 54.54 KByte. Typically there might be another 10 MBytes in the Firefox cache - but that is excluded unless I close Firefox WINDOWS on the other hand has modified since this morning, 625 Files totalling 1.9 GByte, or 250 MByte if you exclude pagefile.sys and hyberfil.sys I would say that in normal use :- Windows completely re-writes 2 GByte per day, which is 500,000 off 4 KByte sectors over-written. CCleaner overwrites only a few sectors for "normal" people who are content with the default of removing the directory information, or 1250 sectors IF you want to waste time with a secure over-write. In addition, files get fragmented and Windows de-fragmenters are always busy churning away with many more sectors being over-written. And of course if you do not clean temporary files, then that is even more stuff for the de-fragmenter to get its teeth into. If your disc is worn out after 5 years, CCleaner will have contributed only a minute of wear for normal people, or perhaps 5 days if you have a single over-write. There are some who prefer to over-write 35 times, but even then normal quiescent Windows will still grind at least 10 times as much. My computer is 4 years old. My concerns are :- Continual degradation and reduction of Windows integrity as one Patch Tuesday follows the next; Needless wear on bearings due to constant rotation of the disc when there is no data transfer; Spasmodic flashing of the drive LED when nothing should be happening so Windows and Defragger come out to play. Till today I have never thought about CCleaner wearing out the drive. I wont think about it again ! ! Regards Alan

Sly You said "the anti virus program did work, detecting and whacking something, but got taken down while doing it's job." You are wrong. Had it really whacked something, and done its job, a trojan would not have re-appeared in the Temp files. Just because an anti-virus accuses FileHippo with its dying breath does not make it so. It is an ex-anti-virus which never saw the trojan coming, and as it got hammered it just said the last thing it properly identified, which happened to be FileHippo. Several times this year Sophos has reported on large numbers of legitimate sites that have been infected, and whilst they were infected, people using them have been at risk. My hardware firewall is probably no protection. Whilst I am downloading the hardware considers ANY connection to/from that download site to be valid, and will allow simultaneous transactions to be initiated from that site. My software firewall prohibits every packet that is aimed at me, unless :- It is a reply aimed at the Port from which I commenced a transaction; and It has to be the same protocol. Never at any time is an ICMP packet (e.g. Echo Request) permitted unless I have manually authorised that site. I think, fingers crossed, that I am not part of the group that are at risk from infected sites. Perhaps you have inferior Firewall protection. It is also possible for an inferior Firewall to allow some sneaky intrusions from any part of the internet, regardless of any download that may be in progress from a clean site. Anyone who ventures onto the Internet should have PROPER malware protection. CCleaner is intended to purge stuff that it is sure is not used any more; it does not get daily virus signature updates. PROPER Malware protection should protect the system - and also protect itself. It is possible to get high quality protection that survives an attack and defeats an intruder; rather like being protected by a battle hardened S.A.S. guard. In this case it looks to me that the Verizon Security Suite is as effective as a goose, should an enemy arrive it makes a warning noise, and then falls dead. I agree with others, your protection is no protection, you really need to replace it. Regards Alan

What do you mean by "Unfortunately it is not possible now" ? Do you mean it worked previously, and now something has changed ? What version of CCleaner are you using ? EXACTLY what do you stipulate for removal - the complete line starting at C:\ Regards Alan

I believe that as standard CCleaner employs the individual users registry to remember which options to check, hence with 40 years computer experience I have CCleaner remember to analyse everything for me to evaluate and then clean, whilst it is configured for my daughter with less experience to clean nothing but her own profile, so there is no danger she could purge a vital program or system file. 1. Will CCleaner ALWAYS work like that ? Or is there any danger that at some time it might be "enhanced" to use one COMMON set of registry keys ? 2. How may I use CCleaner.ini with these different settings for different users ? I seem to remember that before the registry obscured everything there were some conditional controls in config.sys and various *.ini files. Is it possible to adjust CCleaner.ini with conditional controls that test %USERNAME% ? Or do I have to create a separate *.BAT file to copy an individual *.ini file as the new CCleaner.ini before launching CCleaner.exe ? 3. When "Save all settings to INI file" is first set it creates CCleaner.ini with the settings that were in the registry of the users profile. When the other user launches CCleaner.exe :- her registry has mild options and "Save all settings to INI file" is NOT checked, but CCleaner.ini has aggressive options and "Save all settings to INI file" IS checked. What is used, the INI or the registry, and does the other one get over-written ? 4. If the CCleaner.ini file exists when CCleaner.exe is launched, is the registry updated ? 5. If "Save all settings to INI file" is unchecked, what happens to an existing CCleaner.ini file ? 6. If in this same state one of the cleaning options is changed, is CCleaner.ini updated for backup purposes etc ? Now it gets tricky ! ! I have "installed" a more recent "Portable" version on my external hard drive. To EXACTLY compare the consequences of a more recent version of CCleaner, I ran the old version and checked the INI file option, which created CCleaner.ini, which I copied to the new portable folder. I recorded how many files the old version wanted to delete. I closed the old version and ran the new version, which wanted to delete exactly the same. The new version had everything checked identical to the old version, including the INI file option - excepting this was greyed out and could not be changed. I assume it will be un-greyed and controllable if I delete Portable.dat. 7. If I get the new portable version to use the registry, will it use the same registry key location as the old version ? 8. Am I correct in fearing unexpected glitches whenever a change is made for one of us to use the other version of CCleaner.exe, or to change between Registry control and INI control ? Regards Alan

What would you like to happen if a check is placed in the check box ? Regards Alan

Do NOT do it if you need an explanation. Things can go wrong. That is the nature of Windows. If you persist, then use the option to create a backup, that should cancel out any accidents. If damage is done and you are not aware of damage, the situation might deteriorate over time with further usage, and if sundry other "issues" get fixed before you realise it, you could have aggravation trying to un-wind everything back to normality - especially if you dont know when the problem arose. Cleaning the registry does NOT reduce the amount of disk space occupied be the registry. (And a little free space will be taken up by the registry backup.) There is a beginner's guide http://www.ccleanerbeginnersguide.com Study that before you do anything other than a simple default file clean. Regards Alan

Have you tried using System Restore to a restore point BEFORE you had a problem ? Digital Rights Management was never intended to be the users friend. Perhaps DRM has been offended and is teasing you with only 10% of your original 30 GByte. I know a man afflicted with an IPOD using daughter. She had 60 Gbytes until a minor iTunes upgrade. When we last spoke they were still waiting to see if they could re-download for free; I doubt they will even get a discount coupon ! ! It is possible that if IPOD or iTunes are running, they will have locked you out of access to their registry keys. The solution is to close down every wretched Apple thing and try again. Originally Apple iTunes installed "iPod Service", plus "Bonjour service", plus one or two other services, and all these services were configured as Startup type = Automatic. i.e. APPLE starts and takes control of Windows as soon as I log-in. I really did not want to know that. Perhaps you have the same affliction. Even "nice" software leaves traces behind when asked to un-install, that is why Revo Un-installer exists. Viruses don't un-install, they just find some-where else to hide. If you do not know into which category I place Apple - you have not been reading ! ! So I re-imaged the disc back 2 hours to the happy state where it had never seen Apple. Because I too have an IPOD using daughter, and also a son who works in I.T., I awoke from an afternoon siesta to find iTunes was once more installed together with the iPod Sevice ! ! But at least all the other maggot ridden Apple stuff had been discarded, and iPod Service startup type = Manual; so it never ran in my profile, and it still "started" when my daughter was logged in and plugged her IPOD into the USB port (with the External Drive safely removed). You should look in Services for ALL Apple Services (including "iPod Service" and Bonjour Service and any other rubbish). If any Apple service is Started, that could have blocked their registry keys. The solution is to select each of them in turn, then Right Click => Properties => General => Startup type = Disabled; then reboot the computer and Windows will no longer be crippled by Apple interference; then try again to restore the registry. Once fixed you can always use Services to "Start" a disabled item; or change its Startup Type to Manual in which case it only starts when you "need it". If you still have a problem, wait to see any other suggestions. If nothing works and you decide to reformat, then you will not have much to lose by meddling with the registry. Anything which follows could lose all your music. Backup before you proceed. What keys / data EXACTLY "cannot be written" ? If your registry clean-up resulted in several *.reg files, then try to restore each in turn to decide which have a problem. Having got a *.reg file with a problem, inspect its contents with Notepad. If it has more than one key, use Notepad to create a new variant for each key. e.g. the following has two keys, each with 3 names and values, and would have to be split into two new variants. NOTES Each variant must start with REGEDIT4, which MUST be followed by a blank line The final name and value MUST be followed by a blank line. REGEDIT4[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Software\Comodo\Personal Firewall\AppCtrl\IPC\8\0]"Filename"="W:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Thunderbird\\thunderbird.exe""CRC32"=dword:aa8830c6"AccessRight"=dword:00000200[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Software\Comodo\Personal Firewall\AppCtrl\IPC\8\1]"Filename"="C:\\Program Files\\CCleaner\\CCleaner.exe""CRC32"=dword:8cf95e9a"AccessRight"=dword:00000200 Then you can try to restore each variant in turn to determine which has the problem. Then you can post the text here for further advice, alternatively :- Registry Rules :- 1. Keep Out 2. Look but don't touch 3. You get what you deserved. Sometimes I break all the rules, BUT I create a fresh ERUNT registry backup BEFORE I launch RegEdit etc. If you do what I would do, you may be lucky. If you get stuck it will be difficult to get you out of the mire with forum remote control, but hopefully you should know your way around the registry if you are happy to re-install Windows. I am just concerned that I should not lead any-one into a minefield. When a registry key is not accessible, it can be made accessible by "taking ownership" of the key. RegEdit can do this, but it is a real pain with many hurdles to overcome. I prefer Registrar Registry Manager 5.51 - far less stumbling in the dark. You can get the latest version, 6.00, as a free download (rrtri.exe) from http://www.resplendence.com/downloads. Once you have taken ownership, you should be able to restore the registry backups. Regards Alan

My view is the opposite. Windows is intended to be compatible with the "IBM P.C." - it sort of works. Apple iTunes is incompatible with Windows ; it gave me nothing but grief; and junk files all over an external disc; and a useless Bonjour service that causes Windows to freeze; and other gadgets to sync with non-existent iPhones and stuff. Apple IPOD is incompatible with the "IBM P.C." hardware; when it was plugged into one USB Port it trashed the connection to the external drive on a separate port, rendering it permanently busy (like it was formatting all 300 GBytes of data), and it caused 3897 file errors on my internal system drive C: due to the brutal way it separated the two drives. When disaster struck there was no data transfer in progress between the two drives; I suspect that had I been moving files at that time the damage would have been worse; and even Recovery Console may have failed. I always have something bad to say about Windows; I have been using P.C.s for nearly 30 years; BUT one of the goals of M.$. is to attempt to enhance Windows and suck in more customers, that is how they get their money. I do not see how Apple can benefit from enhancing their chief enemy's Operating System. I can however envisage alternative strategies that could benefit Apple !! My experiences of Apple on a P.C. have not been pleasant. I would almost prefer a virus !!! Hence I consider any Apple product on a P.C. system is likely to cause trouble, and it is the responsibility of Apple to ensure its products are compatible with any system it invades. It is not the responsibility of M.$ to bend their system to accommodate an unwelcome guest. Perhaps the new virus hunter that comes with each Patch Tuesday update ought to include iTunes as one of the viruses to remove !! Regards Alan

It may be worth checking how much is held in "C:\System Volume Information" I have 562 MBytes due to 9 folders holding 9 restore points. If you have less than 1 MByte your Restore Point data has gone, and if CCleaner did it by cleaning the files you would have been told how many hundreds of MBytes it purged. Perhaps something, probably other than CCleaner, has damaged Windows and its registry so that it is no longer aware of the Restore Point data that may still be available This would be a good time for System Restore to mend the registry - if only it was working !!! This would be an even better time to use a registry backup created by ERUNT, a luxury that is free-ware and works regardless of System Restore. Regards Alan

Ugafan412 It is better to start your own thread, rather than tail-gate a very long pre-existing thread, especially since it is probably that your problems with Mozilla are unrelated to the problem here with IE8. This is also MUCH better for you. Any thread with zero replies is obviously one that needs a solution, and probably has priority. The other threads have been solved, or are in progress, so will be the last things to view. Regards Alan

Just to clarify, because I can see alternative interpretations to "installed the ERUNT and NTREGOPT, and ran" NTREGOPT should purge junk from the registry to speed it up, but I think it does nothing to repair registry damage. ERUNT will not repair registry damage. It will instead create a backup together with a small executable, and running the small executable linked with that backup should restore the registry, and THIS will repair any damage that was done AFTER the backup was created. My apologies if you already knew that. Regards Alan

You say erratically - how ? Variations in whether or not it does the damage, or in the location within HKCU that is damaged ? If the location varies I cannot help, otherwise :- Use ERUNT to backup your registry - the best 10 seconds you will ever spend. Use Regedit to select the relevant key. Do NOT delete it, but export it. I prefer to "Save Type as ..." Win9x because I prefer simple ASCII to UNICODE. If you now delete the key (not the exported file), it should go. If you now double click the exported file, the registry parasite should re-appear. What we now have, and need, is the correct format to stipulate the key to be zapped. Study http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310516 This shows the correct place to put a '-' in the exported file so that a double click should take it away. Then whenever you start this special file, it should zap the rogue. I have no experience of doing this, and do not know if you can simply invoke from a batch command file, or whether you will have to use Windows to start it An alternative that can be run by a batch command is to use reg.exe, which is described in http://www.computerhope.com/reg.htm. Regards Alan

I am "someone else". Even if I had an answer I would hesitate incase I caught any flack. Alan

I will not vote either way upon shredding - I have no use for it so any shred options are of no interest. I am 200% in favour of cleaned files going into the recycle bin. I would go further and say that this should be the default mode, and the existing clean to oblivion should only be an Advanced menu option. Delete to Recycle would eliminate many pleas for help after clean file action has killed an application. I always look at the clean file analysis and satisfy myself that it looks "good to go", and if not I cancel the relevant check marks. It would be so nice if I could permit a "suspect" action to proceed with the expectation that I could reboot and test the affected application to see if it is crippled, and if so I just restore from the recycle bin. Regards Alan

I am a happy XP user. Also happy to have prompted your response. I am sure your fellow "Vista Sufferers" will be able to help !!! Regards Alan.