pwillener

If you run the registry cleaner portion of CCleaner, then it is always a good idea to create a backup - which a Restore Point does. If you only want to back up the registry, ERUNT is very much quicker, without taking up much space.

To the best of my knowledge, the pagefile is rebuilt each time Windows starts.

Anyway, nobody has mentioned that FF3 has updated to 3.0.4 at the same time.

Uninstalling ZoneAlarm is always best & easiest done with the /CLEAN option (modify the Uninstall shortcut on the Start menu).

When you close Firefox, it may actually take a while until it's completely shut down, especially if you have used it for a long time. It cleans up a lot of things while shutting down; that's why it takes a while. Wait two or three minutes after closing Firefox, and you should be able to get the cache cleaned.

CCleaner can clean many unneeded things from your computer, but not spyware and other malware - that is not its goal. Try Spybot and run a full scan on your computer; that should get rid of most spyware.

OK, found it at http://www.filehippo.com/download_recuva/ (why not on the Recuva website?):

Are all Windows file systems (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS) supported by Recuva?

Installing SP3 on my system took about 30 minutes, and after the reboot Windows appeared to be very much faster as before. Definitely an incentive to go for SP3! As with SP2 four years ago, it is essential that the system is free of malware before starting the service pack install. Needless to say, a backup helps to recover from a failed update. Disabling firewall, antivirus & antispyware may help to overcome installation difficulties.

CCleaner cleans things as defined in the winapp.ini (and winapp2.ini) files. Most of these "things" are probably located on your main (C:) drive, but if not, CCleaner will clean them up wherever they have been defined. If your Temp files (pointed to by the %TEMP% environment variable) are on the D: drive, then CCleaner will find it. If you mean another disk drive with a different (multiboot) OS on it; no - CCleaner will only clean up the currently running OS.

Users who download from legitimate sites will get the original product get it for free can be sure that no malware has been merged into it

Maybe your %TEMP% environment variable is incorrectly set? What do you get if you type echo %temp% in a command prompt?

Yes, if you uncheck that box, CCleaner will not retain any temp files (that are not protected). It's just a personal preference; some people like to keep their garbage a few days before they throw it out

This is my personal opinion. I would never do any form of "registry cleaning" - even with CCleaner - without doing a complete registry backup first. Also, "delete some old programs" - did you do a regular uninstall from Add/Remove Programs? Either way, I would first try to boot into Last Known Good Configuration. If that does not fix the problem, do a System Restore to a date before you created the problem.

Can you try a System Restore to a date before the problem began? (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084)

User Asset History I think this should read 'User Assist History'; nevertheless, I don't know what it accomplishes.

Start Menu Shortcuts I *think* it checks for broken Start menu (Start button | Programs) shortcuts, and deletes these. Run once, then uncheck - this can make CCleaner run very slow. Desktop Shortcuts Same as above, but for Desktop shortcuts. Old Prefetch data Deletes old Prefetch folder entries (older than XX? days). Uncheck it if you don't understand the concept of the Prefetch folder (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefetcher for information). Menu Order Cache Will delete information on ordered menus. Window Size/Location Cache Will delete information on windows sizes and locations. User Asset History (Sorry, can't answer this.) IIS Log History Deletes IIS web server logs. Uncheck if you don't run IIS on your computer. Hotfix Uninstallers Deletes Windows Update uninstallers. This releases lots of space on your disk, but leaves you unable to uninstall any Windows or Office updates. Custom Files and Folders (Sorry, can't answer this.)

Just uncheck everything else (Windows & Applications tabs).

The $hf_mig$ folder is needed by MicrosoftUpdate to know what fixes and module versions are installed. If this information is unavailable, MicrosoftUpdate may accidentally overwrite newer modules with older ones. This folder must not be deleted, otherwise MU cannot function correctly any more.

Do not delete the $hf_mig$ folder! WindowsUpdate, or any explicit hotfix installs need it to synchronize with already installed updates. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824994 for details.

Sorry, the above is incorrect! It is the Start Menu Shortcuts that are taking long. Maybe I do have a very long start menu (All Users, and my own), but still I think it shouldn't take that long to check the Start menu items. (Desktop Shortcuts is very quick, and I have a lot of shortcuts on my desktop.)

First of all, I very much like the new feature that indicates what is being cleaned at the moment. Observing this, I found that all cleaning activities are very quick, except Startup Shortcuts. It stays very long doing this, at least four progress bar rotations. Why is this? I do not have many startup items; they are in fact quite reduced with the help of Autoruns. 37 Startup in total, 12 of which are disabled. All startup items exist.

Still looking forward to next week

Very much appreciated - thank you!

The question is whether the recovered files did contain any data, or if they were completely zeroed-out.