Aethec

CCleaner should display the file it is hanging on...is it a file named index.dat ?

The main file it leaves is Trident, the rendering engine. As an example, Windows Help uses it.

Well, if you're still using an old computer, using Vista might not be a good idea. But if you're using a multi-core processor/SSD/more than 1 GB of memory/any modern thing/all of the above, XP will have terrible performance since it was not designed at all for that kind of thing.

Wipe Free Space...wipes the free space. Everything marked as free on your hard drive will be overwritten with zeroes. It doesn't free up space, and doesn't improve performance at all. And it should never be run on a SSD (solid-state disk). The main point is to make sure your data will never be recoverable. If, say, you wanted to sell a drive, and that drive had sensitive information on it, deleting everything and then running WFS can be a good idea. However, it should not be run as a normal cleaning. Desktop Shortcut deletes the shortcuts that do not point to a valid file (e.g. after uninstalling a program, if the uninstaller was badly coded, a shortcut might remain on the desktop). No idea as to what User Assist History cleans, however. Sorry:(

That is completely wrong. Vista is better than XP in everything, except managing very old hardware.

Start >> type regedit and hit Enter (accept the UAC prompt) Then go into HKEY_CURRENT_USER >> Software >> Microsoft >> Office Select the 14.0 key, right-click on it >> Export. Save the .reg file somewhere - if something goes wrong, you'll be able to restore it. Then select the 14.0 key again, and hit the Delete key.

Also, software like Windows Help use the IE rendering engine, thus creating some temporary files.

By default, Windows does not allow a program to be run as a different user if the said user has no password. For example, if you want to run CCleaner for each of the users on a computer and some of the users haven't got a password, you'll have to switch users multiple times. However, there's a hidden parameter to allow that. Sadly, it's in Local Security Policies, which aren't available on Home editions of Windows:unsure: Start >> Run... >> secpol.msc Local Policies >> Security Options >> Double-click on Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only Chose Disabled and click OK. Now you can run any program as another user, regardless of whether they have a password or not! (of course, you'll have to enter the password of accounts who have one...) P.S.: Don't forget to read the text in the second tab of this setting's Properties dialog, it has some security implications. However, unless you do not trust people in your home, it should be fine.

Actually, all programs can be maximized. Open the Task Manager (Ctrl Shift Esc), and click Maximize on any app in the first tab. Some applications aren't made at all for this and will show incorrect behavior, but it's still possible

This is a known bug...sorry, I'd love to help you more than that, but...you'll have to wait for a fix

1) Don't use anything but 1 overpass or the DoD one if you are paranoid (DoD stands for the US Department of Defense). Gutmann is completely pointless unless you use 20-years-old drives. 2) Don't use Wipe Free Space unless you want to sell your drive. The "Wipe MFT Free Space" checkbox only work if you use it. WFS will fill your deleted space with zeroes, making any file recovery attempts pointless.

Out of curiosity, why ? Actually, I think using .NET to create viruses could be a good idea since it's compiled in MSIL so the heuristics detections won't find anything (same for Java, and script languages)

Nice idea indeed. +1 And it's quite easy to do.

Applications >> Adobe Flash Player. Sadly, it's only available if you installed at least Flash Player for Internet Explorer (but it will clear Flash cookies of all browsers).

Those files are Windows Update files that should disappear after a restart (all the C:\e9f75752319bbcf502bd\ ones), and Hotfix Uninstallers.

Try this : http://www.mediafire.com/?4w1nzjm52yw It's a REG file, save it somewhere and double-click it. It should restore the New >> Text Document menu.

Did you make a backup when asked to ? What is your Windows version ?

If you use SkyDrive, here's a useful software : http://www.cloudstorageexplorer.com/ It allows you to have your SkyDrive directly into Windows Explorer - like if it was a physical drive.

I don't know if you were the one who disabled it, but...never disable any services, except Windows Defender if you already have an antivirus. Always set things to Manual if you don't want them to start with Windows ; and always do proper research before doing that.

Well, if it only downloads the installers, it's legitimate

Wipe Free Space...wipes the free space. You might already know that when a file is deleted, it's not actually deleted - the content remains, but the operating system changes something (in Windows, there's a bit in the Master File Table to say "this is free" or "this isn't"), so it's like that file didn't exist. What WFS does is replace all data marked as "free" on your hard drive with zeroes. Since that data was already marked as free, the only benefit of it is to make sure no one will ever recover your data. Windows, as well as all other operating systems, doesn't make a difference between free space holding a previously deleted file, and free space with only zeroes.

I'd have reported this as spam if you didn't have 20 messages... +1 for ident.

Suarez didn't "save" Uruguay. He used his hand to prevent a goal. Isn't one of the most important things in soccer fair play? Using your hand to stop the ball on the goal line isn't fair play at all.

The Hotfix Uninstaller probably don't need to be restored - if you haven't got any problems so far, then you'll just have to uncheck it next time.

What about the Windows built-in defragmenter ? Is it faster ? (if it is, then there's a bug in Defraggler...the XP defrag is not really a good one) (contrarily to popular myths, Vista is not worse than XP if you have normal drivers, and Linux is not better than any of those - but that's totally offtopic.)