mr don

I understand your concern, Dennis D. I used folder2pc with no problems on my computer. What Hazelnut was saying about "Why would you want to end up with 2 that seemed alike..." was saying seemed a bit ridiculous, as further down, I posted also that if they were to use Tweak UI, they can hide it in the control panel & see only the CCleaner one. Of course, they would also have the option of using it with the original CCleaner icon. I do not see any possible way that using this program could damage a computer. It is easy to use, it also has an edit/delete that is entirely safe to use to undo any changes made. Have you even tried the program? I know it sounds very technical, but I provided the way to do it & the way to also undo it. There is no possible way that I know of that it could have caused system damage. Why don't you try the program before you slam my advice? If I thought it could cause system damage, I would not post it. I understand the fact that you are concerned that the user may mess up the machine, but given the fact that both Tweak UI from Microsoft is a totally safe program to use to hide/unhide CPL items, & the fact that folder2pc is safe as well, I am just puzzled a bit by "what can go wrong". I am greatly interested in an example, if you can post any, of what you think possibly could have gone wrong since I have never had Tweak UI (Microsoft Power Toy) go wrong in hiding/unhiding icons, nor have I had any problems with folder2pc. Is it because the instructions were very thorough & therefore intimidating looking? Or was it perhaps you did not trust the choices I used, or what? Thanks! P.S. I am fully aware of certain things that can cause an unusable machine, but just wondering, how in the world would a user be able to make an unusable pc out of a program who only had a few functions which were to either add an entry to the control panel, or subtract it? I was never aware that merely adding or subtracting using a program as safe as folder2pc could cause any problems! In fact, because of safety concerns, I posted the program instead of the registry editing they would have to do to do it manually since the program never makes a mistake. I cannot think of how it could be unsafe, but I am very interested in your advice, as I do try to listen/help others all I can.

* Please note the parameters suggested before making a reply. User suggested Disable All, NOT Delete all. Disable always leaves entries so they can be re-enabled. Delete permanently gets rid of them. Since default Windows installs always start blank anyway, there is NOTHING that can go wrong with all entries Disabled. Some computers wind up with 100's of startup items, which kill your fingers to individually deselect. Having the capability to disable them all, then scroll through & re-enable Antivirus or other startup items would be wonderful! I can understand your anger/sentiment/position, but it seems that you have mistaken Disable All for Delete All. ---> Theoretically it appears utterly stupid to do a disable all. (Why? Disable never deletes anything!) ---> If you succeeded, would there be any functional controls with which to re-enable anything ! ! ! (This is Delete, not Disable! Disable leaves a way to re-enable) Thank you!

As a result of your request, I decided to experiment a little. Firstly, I tried a few things I wondered about before beginning to check on your request to replace Add or Remove with CCleaner. I had wanted DF.exe to display a GUI icon while running Defraggler on a scheduled task, so I tried deleting df.exe & replacing it with a copy of Defraggler.exe that I renamed to df.exe. It appeared to "run" the task, but no GUI & I never got the impression it was doing anything. Additionally, I tried renaming CCleaner to DF.exe in the event that if it worked, I could alter the Defraggler task to run CCleaner & then launch Defraggler. Still no go. Oh well, nice try, huh? Next, I tried adding CCleaner.exe to the system32 folder, but with it renamed to CCleaner.cpl (default control panel extension) but it did not show in the control panel after a refresh, nor would CCleaner run after naming it .CPL. I also tried overwriting the AppWiz.CPL with CCleaner.CPL, but it refused to run like that, in addition to having windows change it back to the standard add/remove in about 10 seconds. It is possible this may be able to work, but first, you would need to turn off system file protection in addition to modifying the registry keys for the control panel applet. I do not think you would want to put forth that much work just to replace the Add/Remove with CCleaner. If I find a way in the future to simplify it, I may post it for you. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

He was saying that the amount of disk space you save with cleaning a few bytes of registry data is minimal compared to the potential damage you may do to it in the process. NTREGOPT is what he recommended to recreate registry hives from scratch so the computer loads faster (reg optimization, slack space removal)

Try this: Figure out how long ago the problem started occurring. - After using a backup program like Drive Image XML to make a complete image of your system in case something goes wrong, then: - Run System Restore to a date you know everything was working. If you created new pictures/files before after that date, be sure to back them up to a flash drive before you proceed. According to MS documentation, items in your My Documents folder should be unaffected by a restore. Although, you may still want to back up some of those items just to be on the safe side. - Turn off System Updates for a week or two & verify if your power settings work. - If everything works, turn updates back on & see how long it takes for the settings to be "forgotten" again. You may be able to pinpoint a certain update that disables the settings. - If the settings are still forgotten, try to remember whether any program(s) you installed, disk cleanup utilities, registry cleaners, antimalware programs, etc. have been run that could have caused it to act this way. Remember, that not all disk cleaners are "safe" like CCleaner as some search for types of junk to clean. The danger with this, is if a program searches for .TPM (temporary files), it can also be used by a program for .TMP (Calendar Templates) etc..... This would cause problems if all ".TMP" files were removed! Thanks!

Cats. They are easier to feed. Dogs aren't bad, though!

Always cool to see women into technology. Welcome aboard!

I agree. The current system is much better than "votes". The mods do a good job here...

Of course, that was very interesting that they do "pear shaped" tomatoes. I see no reason for confusion, however, as pears are easily distinguishable from even the "pear shaped" tomatoes. http://anormalday.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/pear-bartlett.jpg

Returnil is ok, but it seems to have a negative impact. That is to say, to use far more resources than it should. CCleaner is an example of a small, light app that uses a minimal amount of processing time to do it's job. I will, however, keep checking. Perhaps sometime I will either stumble upon or create the perfect utility to revert changes to a system, particularly rootkit blockers.

I quite agree. Simply running a cold shutdown command that immediately "and more efficiently" shuts down a computer can harm applications. Particularly those situations wherein a word document is open, or Windows is processing a command to a program but you run a "brute force" shutdown utility which causes it to lose all data in processing... This may or may not cause immediate problems, but over time, it is downright dangerous. I agree that it is much safer to do a shutdown that takes a few seconds longer, but does a proper shutdown that closes running apps first. Additionally, CCleaner has the option not to remove temp files unless they are over 24 hours old. The way I see it, is if you are going to take the responsibility to run CCleaner on reboot, do not blame CCleaner for removing files that are 48 hours old simply because you waited 48 or even 96 hours to reboot the pc! This may be room to present an idea, that a user can set the length of time that CCleaner will preserve temp files, be it 24 hours, all the way up to a year if so desired by someone. While I see no reason to preserve junk for a year, people like you may well wish to. Additionally, if CCleaner is setup to clean multi-user profiles, it is highly customizable to the point that you can select & unselect nearly anything you do not wish for it to remove. That said, I do not know the reason you are so against this, when CCleaner is so customizable that were it capable of cleaning multiple user accounts, you would be able to set it to clean or not to clean whatever you wanted from all the accounts. Additionally, if your daughter ran CCleaner knowingly like that, it would just indicate that she wanted to clean the computer traces she had on the web, etc... If you really wanted to spy on her web activities, there are free key logger applications for that... I am at this point, a bit confused by your attachment to temp files seeing the customizable functionalities of CCleaner that would make it clean or not clean nearly anything you decided it should... Am I missing anything here? I believe it would be safe to say that a multi-user account cleaner would be 100% safe, since any user running it is obviously running it for 1 reason... to remove trash, & that since it may be customized to remove as little or as much trash as desired, there is no conflict in multi-user environments that could not be easily solved by simply setting CCleaner up to clean what you do or don't want it to clean. Correct me if I am missing anything here, but I don't see anything I am missing, & I believe I have covered all the bases so far on this "issue" you seem to be having concerning CCleaner being "unsafe" to clean all user accounts! Some would even argue that using CCleaner might cause their computer to burst into flames, as the increased processor time could heat up their processor & cause it to overheat (with all this hot weather!), therebye destroying their computer! You could take the option that CCleaner is unsafe, but I have not seen where it is so when used properly.

I will briefly outline (in the advent you were trying to figure out the reason) why each of the items below were suggested. - Go to the options in CCleaner & turn on the 3 pass file deletion (secure delete) & make sure you have checkmarked Wipe Free Space option. - This was suggested, because when you delete files, windows does not fully delete files, but simply removes key pointers to them in the system registry & a few other places making them "dissappear" from sight, but not actually be gone. By using secure delete to overwrite the deleted files, it should render them un-recoverable & thus unplayable. - Turn off the Windows 7 System Restore (right click my computer/properties & turn off the system restore) - This was suggested as System Restore on Vista & 7 appear to react differently than on XP, & are able to save revisions of files (multiple copies) in restore points. Turning off the restore points eliminates the possibility that he should delete a file but an older copy from some System Restore point should become activated & playable by whatever process. - Make sure you close WMP totally out (not minimized) - This was suggested as "closing" the media player may simply be minimizing it. Checking that it is totally closed as opposed to having a setting activated which could minimize it is very important. This is because Media Player may store a temporary copy of certain files in memory as part of it's buffer management to reduce or minimize jerkiness/pauses in media playback. - Run CCleaner as Admin - Running as admin may solve problems in situations where they are running an app in a restricted user account environment, as well as other potential problems in secure deletion under normal process parameters under Vista or 7. - Try to play the file - Suggested because after running the above steps, then we can by process of elimination, know more fully about what is happening & whether it was really CCleaner's fault or simply some stored copy of the movie being played, or some other glitch present. Hopefully, the above explanations will clearly indicate the reasoning behind each suggestion given. Of course, per Hazelnut's suggestion, please be sure that you have a backup of everything before beginning. There is a freeware Drive Image XML that can make an exact image of your drive using Volume Shadow Copying while in Windows with no need to shut down/hot swap drives. This program should alleviate any fears or worries that Hazelnut has posted above. I have tested Drive Image XML & it works great. You can easily restore any image it creates if something happens to cause err or problems. Again, this utility can be run "hot", or that is to say, from within Windows while Windows is running without any need to shutdown or do DOS imaging commands/DOS based programs/Norton Ghosting etc. This is much simpler than many utilities out there since it can be run from within Windows itself. Afterwards, if this still has not solved your problem, please feel free to post back up here, & also re-enable system restore so it can resume the process of creating return points on your system. If Hazel has any questions, or if anyone else has any questions, I will most gladly answer them. I do believe I have covered all of Hazel's concerns, objections, or questions. However, if any questions do remain, please post them here & I will answer them. Thank you!

Thanks! This is exactly my concern, that other uninstallers leave behind trace registry items, user app data directories, common program file folders, & even dll & ocx files left over in the Windows or the System32 folders. Would be wonderful to finally have a tool that can totally revert all changes by a program 100%! Malware? Gone! / Toolbars? Gone! / Kids on the computer? - All traces of what they installed... Gone!

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!

A part of this is because FF has features built into it that allow you to undo a closed tab, up to the last 10 opened, I believe, along with other things. You can turn a lot of it off by about:config in your address bar, then navigate through it & disable what you don't want.

There are a lot of programs that install thousands of entries in your computer. Sometimes you have a failed install, or even an old install that gets corrupted & just will not uninstall no matter what. Additionally, there are those programs who do not even include an uninstaller. Is there a way to create a program that a user can install which upon installation will do the following?: - Track all installations. All registry keys created during install, + all files created during install. - Auto create an "uninstaller" for each program installed. - Give a user the ability to see all the registry keys added/modified by the install. - Give a user the option to remove all the registry keys made by the program, or to remove all the files made by the program, or complete uninstall. - Automatically create a .reg of all the registry keys added in a single .reg file. - Create a restore point before installation of the program is started (have the option) as well as creating a restore point on removal of a program. - Automatically know to unregister any OCX or DLL files created by a process before attempting an uninstall. - Add to the F8 menu on windows, the option to run an uninstaller before windows loads, including windows update updates. Windows updates sometimes crash a computer to the point of not loading into windows at all. It would help to be able to uninstall the last process installed, so the user can get back into windows! - Lock down a computer so that it always returns to the exact same state it was in on reboot (Cafe machines? Hotel machines? Noone can mess them up!) I would love to be able to have something like this, as it would enable me, with dead on precision, to totally remove programs I never have been able to "totally" remove before because of all the junk left behind even by installers. Such as Norton AV products, McAffee, Malware programs, etc. I really love the concept & idea that not only could I have a really, really clean machine, but that no program is safe to hook into my machine, because I can un-hook it completely. Malware? Nowhere to hide! Norton? Not safe leaving thousands of registry bloat on my machine any more! Print Shop? Totally gone! Zapped! Trial programs? Can try them all with ease! This would take care of malware, trojans, worms, spyware, trashware, trialware, bloatware, or any kind of problem you could possibly face, since every action on the PC could be reversed! Ok, well a lot of the problems! Thanks! + me if you like this idea!

Your question seems confusing a bit. I believe you want Defraggler to: - Run a program before defragging (so you can delete certain files) - Defrag - Run a program after defragging I think this will make it simpler to understand.

You already can select more than one drive. Highlight it with your mouse & hold down CTRL or Shift key to select multiple drives. I agree, they do need to make it easier to see it has been "selected", say, like checkmark boxes? You make just since yesterday, at least the 2cd or 3rd to suggest this! The visual representation needs to be there! That might be a neat feature, to automatically come on and start defrag if the drive hits a certain fragmentation plateau... Say 50% or more, but then, if a user selects every day, every week, or every month, depending on their use of the drive, it is unlikely to be so fragmented in the first place. Shutdown after a defrag would be a nice option, instead of having to wait all night, or leave a computer on a few days because you had to defrag it & you will be away.

You basically have to manually clean a secondary drive. He is right. The problem with cleaning a secondary drive is the data locations of "trash" folders are so wildly variable that it would be nearly impossible to implement. The drive with Windows is easily enough cleaned because the trash locations are known.

Check what file system your computer is showing by slaving the drive off to another computer. If you need help doing this, let me know. Sometimes, computers will go from NTFS or Fat32 etc to RAW, which will show a "blank" drive. If it goes to "blank" mode, there is a utility called Handy Recovery which will be able to recover your data, including password protected user accounts. It has a trial you can use to verify it can see the files. It is able to see corrupted, deleted, or messed up partitions, or even recover just the files from the folders you select to another drive. If this turns out to be your problem, I do recommend recovering the files you need (music, pics, vids, documents, progs etc) first. Normally, windows will show a "RAW" drive as needing formatting. If you format, you could very well possibly destroy chances of recovering the data. Recuva is a very good data recovery utility, but the last time I tested, it was unable to see a "RAW" mode drive. It can see NTFS/FAT32 etc, but not RAW. If you cannot detect a drive is there, you cannot recover off it. Period. Handy Recovery is one utility that I know can & does read hard-disks & recover data when most other utilities will fail to. If you do find out this is your problem, believe me, it is well worth the money. I do not usually advocate payware, as there are so many freeware, but in this case, it does what I have not found in other utilities, pay or freeware. If it turns out your drive is NOT in RAW mode, you may be able to load into a command prompt using your W7 disk. Once you are able to load from the DVD to a command prompt, type in sfc /scannow & hit enter. This will test your computer files to see if they have altered their filesize or date & attempt to replace them with factory defaults. Additionally, if you have a harddisk that is going down the tube, running a utility like Defraggler may cause it to encounter bad sectors & lock up the drive or lose data on those sectors. I tried to partition a drive around bad sectors as a test before, but it seems that even if you have other areas that are "good" that when a drive starts failing, you better back up & move to another drive.

We need more information to know what is going on. It sounds like you are deleting a movie, but leaving WMP minimized on the task bar. Although you could be referring to the fact that you are simply clicking the WMP icon on the quick launch on the task bar. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Try this: - Go to the options in CCleaner & turn on the 3 pass file deletion (secure delete) & make sure you have checkmarked Wipe Free Space option. - Turn off the Windows 7 System Restore (right click my computer/properties & turn off the system restore) - Make sure you close WMP totally out (not minimized) - Run CCleaner as Admin - Try to play the file ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I wanted you to turn off system restore due to Windows 7 having the save versions of files option. This way, we can get an understanding of if the file is being properly cleaned, or simply reverting to a cached version of the file. Additionally, it is recommended that you note if you have any other programs that automatically create backups such as the Norton Protected Recycle Bin (keeps files on the computer, even after the regular recycle bin is deleted). * I do remember a while back that after installing Internet Explorer 8 on XP Pro, you could run CCleaner & it would "get rid of the browsing history". But a simple search in the IE history search box would call all of your history back up from the grave. Every single piece of it. It was appalling. I am not sure now, whether it still exists, & the bug seemed to go away after running IE's own cleanup utility. After you ran IE's cleanup utility the 1st time, it would work fine after that to clean with CCleaner! It very well could be a bug in the function of CCleaner, but 1st, if you do not mind, I request that you try the above listed options & post back here so we can have further of an idea where the problem is coming from.

I like your idea, but what I think would be even better, is the ability to schedule Defraggler to defrag on reboot before windows even loads so that it can defrag even more files. Then load into windows.

I think you mean that you want CCleaner to: - Show all startup entries for all users. - Group all the startup entries by user. This is a very good idea. I would also love for CCleaner to show BHO & scheduled tasks, as they are another important startup item that programs/malware/apps use that can slow a computer just as much as ordinary startup items, & cause just as many problems. If you decide to update from MS update, they will set their activation checker to install. If you cancel it, it will not go away. It will be set to bug you to run as a task every time you boot the computer up till you delete the startup task item. I am just wondering, how long it will be before companies learn from MS & use it for malware? "Please install this fake security software" every time, on reboot, as a scheduled task?" Thank you Microsoft, for exposing the next hole in your OS! I hope you can see from the example above, what I mean about the new startup item problems! Any chance you can implement like the guy said above, a scan for every user's startup items, in addition to the BHO + scheduled task startup items? It is because good programs like CCleaner are able to make it easy to remove startup items that now, they are turning to BHO & scheduled tasks to run! I say, don't give them the chance! BHO & Scheduled Tasks are both startup items, so I was wondering, why not add those to the startup items as well, so there is a "complete" startup item check?

Correct me if I am wrong, but if something checks for "broken" shortcuts, IE, shortcuts to items that no longer exist, would this not break mapped network drives & other valid shortcuts? Frequently, people spend time to make shortcuts to "drives that no longer exist", mapped network shares, etc, until they are brought back online. But while disconnected, they are seen as "broken" or "no longer in use" by broken shortcut cleaners. How would this be considered safe/ Thanks!

I was wondering if you could include the option to add CCleaner as a scheduled task. Defraggler can be set to run once a day, week, month. I was wondering about setting CCleaner as a task as well. Setting CCleaner to only run on reboot results in some computers not being cleaned for months. Especially servers who depend on NOT rebooting for months at a time. How about the option to set CCleaner to also run once, or once a day, week, month like Defraggler? I am not saying do away with the clean on reboot option, because of the fact that sometimes setting a scheduled task can fail. For whatever reason, even running in admin mode whether on XP, Vista, 7, servers etc, the scheduled task service can fail to work at times. So being able to clean on reboot would be better than nothing at all in these instances. Is there a chance you can make a version of CCleaner that can set itself to automatically run every day, week, or month like Defraggler? I would really love to know that if I am away "CCleaner will automatically run on a server" while I am gone, even if the server never reboots for days, weeks, months! Thanks!