Super Fast

I have an external drive connected that CCleaner seems to take forever to start the wipe process. I moved all the data off the drive, then I selected to erase the entire drive. Not sure why it will take several minutes to do this, since I have a high speed machine running 2 GB RAM under XP Pro SP2 with a dual core 3.2 GHZ processor (6.4 GHZ) & most of the ram is free. I know the machine is free from malware, viruses, etc, so why is this drive taking so long? The drive is connected externally via USB 2, & is in very good condition (high speed copy works fine). There doesn't appear to be any bad sectors etc... P.S. Wipe drive starts fine & processes immediately when I select just wipe free space, but when I select wipe entire drive is when it takes so long. It is a 500 GB 7,200 RPM drive. Edit: It is more than several minutes. I have now been waiting for it to begin for the past 25 min. It still says Formatting E:\ Edit # 2: Both drives are IDE (PATA) based drives. And now, I have a 2cd drive, also 7,200 RPM wherein CCleaner is hung on Formatting... This 2cd drive is 160 GB. Must be a bug, since both drives are perfectly healthy, both drives have been freshly formatted in Windows before beginning, there are no processes locking the drives save for CCleaner itself, etc... P.P.S. If by chance CCleaner is invoking the LONG format command, it really should invoke the quick format command instead. There are too many 2TB drives, & drives that would take forever to format if it invokes long format command. Additionally, if that is what CCleaner is doing, it gives no progress indicator of the activity, thereby nullifying the awesome piece of software that CCleaner is. If CCleaner is using long, simply switch it to short instead, and let it clear the whole entire drive. However, I suspect that CCleaner is not utilizing the long format, so I wonder what is wrong? Why is the erase everything taking so long on multiple drives? I rebooted just to be sure, & all drives are connected just 1 drive at the time. Hope this is fixed by either 2.04 or the 2.05 release, because I love CCleaner! -------------> I just tried a 5,400 RPM Seagate 40 GB IDE drive connected via external USB 2, & wipe entire drive command took around 5 min to start processing the drive. Most of the time spent on "Formatting drive". Windows can do a quick format in 5 or 10 seconds. Isn't 5 min, & 35 to 50 min entirely too long for CCleaner to process a drive in the "formatting" stage? Seems that the larger the drive, the longer the wipe entire drive option takes, while wipe free space only will start in 1 second or less. If this is CCleaner gathering MFT records to process, then it should provide a user with the progress of the activity, so they are aware of why it is taking so long. MFT with high numbers of files may possibly slow it down. Not sure if that is it, but sure would like to know the cause!

Amen. I 2cd, 3rd, & 4th that. Greatly need the RAW scan capability.

Thank you for your wondrous reply. That is most helpful, however, I still feel it is a bit confusing, for the nature of dragging a file to the screen suggests that you would want it totally gone. I would think that having a drop down menu so that it shows Empty Folder by default (But still enable a person to single click select Delete from the drop down menu) would be both fewer clicks & a more proficient (understandable, easier to use) methodology. I do like your suggestion, however, if you do lots of files across lots of computers, that 2 or 3 extra clicks really add up! I know you can save .ini files, but sometimes you need different profiles on different computers, hence the interest.

There is one thing I find lacking from CCleaner Includes/Excludes folder. It is simple enough to add a file to delete, for CCleaner will automatically determine that the desktop shortcut you created is rightly a file to delete. The confusion happens when a user dares drag a folder onto CCleaner includes. They are asked about adding it, yes/no, yada yada, but, they aren't given an option for how to treat the folder (until it has been added!). It is very common to want to delete an entire folder, but default CCleaner action is to empty it (wherein users have to edit it to change it!) It is also very common to want to delete only the files within a folder. So what do I suggest? How about when a user drags a folder onto CCleaner, it simply asks: What do you want to do with this folder? {Delete} {Empty} I'd love to be given the option to delete or empty it BEFORE CCleaner decides to add it, not after, since this just wastes a lot of time & needless clicking. * Alternatively, I thought of the option of having CCleaner add the folder with a drop down menu to the right that auto selects empty folder when a user adds a folder to be deleted. This way, the default is on Empty Folder, but they can easily navigate with the mouse or arrow keys to the menu & select Delete Entire Folder as an option without having to go to edit so much! Having it presented while adding would make it so much easier! Example: > This folder will be:(Emptied) <---(Drop Down Menu here)--- > -----------------------> (Deleted)

Sounds to me like a malware problem. Computers infected with malware have been known to do that due to fake antivirus/remover software being installed, in addition to downloader trojans etc. Recommend that you follow Piriform guides for backing up data & doing a malware scan.

I agree. It is becoming common to have to defrag multiple drives, whether through USB, direct IDE (Pata), direct Sata, or other. It is sooooo frustrating to have to wait for drives to run sequentially, when parallel processing would be so much faster & quicker on today's multi-GHZ computers! Please do give us at least the option of simultaneous multi-drive defrag!

On XP SP2 Pro while defragging an older IDE drive via USB external drive, it appears to show a normal graph, then nearing the end of the defrag, it throws up weird "checkerboard" style patterns of differing patterns. I am not sure if this is while processing the MFT that it first begins, but it resorts to weird malarcky such as this with interludes of normal graphs. Any idea what causes this? I would surely love for the graph to maintain it's state. Seems to defrag, but seems weird watching the screen fill with weird defrag patterns.

Yes, that is what I mean. I am aware of that function in Defraggler, but if it would just be more clear like listed above, perhaps people will understand via a quick glance much easier. I agree with you.

These are external drives connected via USB under XP SP2 Pro. Size of the drive seems irrelevant, as it is common to have 40 GB free space on one drive, 200 GB free on another, etc. Files are not system ($UsnJrnl/system volume, etc) but appear to be regular, normal files. Drives are done with full defrag Defrag is repeated a 2cd or 3rd time only to have the files still scattered. A lot of files are consolidated, free spaces are much bigger & more contiguous, but it is bothersome to have free space for a few GB, files in a cluster, then another few GB free space. I will try to check later on more of what the files are. Thanks!

Defraggler confuses me a lot sometimes. It does show the amount left to defrag, but users mistakenly think "Oh, this will only take a minute... 1,547 fragments?" Is there a way to add a Consolidation % left to go, maybe below the defrag % left to go as well? Example: Current State: 43% Fragmentation 29% Consolidation <-------------- 928 Fragmented Files (5.2 GB) 32,546 Total Files to Consolidate <--------------- 15,538 Total Fragments I added the arrows next to the ones that would help users know "why" defraggler "takes so long" compared to other products that only defrag! P.S. Defraggler shows % Defragmented, but if it showed both Defrag % + Consolidated %, it would be so much easier graphically understand to users, I think.

Defraggler is a good utility, but sometimes it seems to do a great job of defragging/consolidating a drive. But other times, there are huge gaps of free space with lots of files scattered all over the drive. It appears that it does defragment the fragments, but file consolidation appears partial many times. Any chance of adding some kind of check to ensure a drive is "totally consolidated" as opposed to partially? This could be really important to a user if they needed "X" block size & it was already filled on the drive with small files... The files appear to be random that defraggler leaves, & this is on drives that are connected externally.

I have a problem. CCleaner includes works well on the 32 bit edition. But the Includes doesn't work on anything but 1 machine sometimes because the variables from machine to machine change. ___________________________________________________ For instance: There are trash icons I sometimes want to add to includes in CCleaner in the application data folder. On my machine, it may be C:\Documents and Settings\*insert user name here\Application Data\*insert name of folder here On another machine, the user name after C:\Documents and Settings\ changes from PC to PC, rendering the includes to delete ineffective! But with support for relative paths (environment variables), I could add a path such as %appdata%\*insert folder name here & it would work on any machine running XP/Vista/7! ___________________________________________________ Can you add support for these variables? Right now, because of this problem, CCleaner includes is totally useless except on a single machine! I'd love to know that I can run it portably & have it work on all 3 of my machines. Thank you!

In Windows 7 64 Bit, CCleaner 3.02.1343 fails to add files when dragged onto it through the includes. I suspect that excludes fails also, although I haven't tested it yet. I believe this does work in Windows 7 32 Bit, & I know it works in Windows XP 32 Bit, so I believe this is just a 64 bit problem. I ran the regular CCleaner installer from Piriform on a new 7 setup straight from walmart. *Additional info: I tried the add a file, then navigated to the icon I wanted it to delete off the desktop, but instead of adding the icon, it added the folder that the icon referenced in the program files folder instead (which I promptly removed!). This this please! I'd hate to know how many people tried to add a shortcut, only to remove a folder of files instead! Thanks!

My computer installs programs so fast that sometimes it is hard to see what files or reg keys get added or removed when installing or de-installing a program. Are there any programs/.bat files/methods to slow an installer or de-installer down so that you can see or capture each individual .reg key or file as it is being installed? I could think of several instances where this would be so cool to use the captured keys or files instead of a full blown re-install. Anyone know how to do this or where to find a program that does tell you all keys/files changed? Thanks!

Adaware has an ok looking skin. I like CCleaner better because it is good looking, easy, small, free, efficient. The only thing I think would be better is if the tabs were just a little different. If it could have 3 tabs: 1 for internet browsers & junk, 1 for computer temp files & junk, & 1 for installed apps. Then you could selectively clean "only" the internet junk, only the pc junk, etc, or all of the junk Of course, being able to select multiple startup items to remove would be a plus, instead of 1 by 1. CCleaner rules!

I know about rainlendar, sunbird, & ampsoft calendar. I want a calendar making program that is free, easy to use, & can print photos on the calendar. Does anyone know a good photo calendar program? Also, what do you think about http://www.browzar.com/ It is free, small (can be run off a floppy), & cleans up internet tracks when done. New versions have tabbed browsing. Also, do these programs clean as good as CCleaner for running of external media? http://www.igorshpak.net/ http://www.diskcleaner.nl/ http://www.singerscreations.com/AboutAddRemoveManager.asp http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/strun.html

When I install Spy Sweeper from webroot, it's program folder containing the masters update is "locked". I can't move, cut, copy the file or other files into the folder. It is unlike "regular" folders I have seen, & I am using Windows XP Pro. I wanted to copy the file to a disk to update the definitions on a computer I am scanning for someone in a remote area away from high speed internet. I can move & copy the files from the Spy Sweeper folders using Cedrick Collombs Unlocker program (right click, unlocker, move this file for action, ok). The weird thing is that it shows no locking handles & doesn't need to reboot or anything to move it. How can Unlocker move this "locked" file so easily? What kind of attributes does this folder have, & how can I remove them to make it like a normal folder? Any help is appreciated. I would really like to know what this folder protection is & how to remove it so it is like a normal folder. P.S. And this folder is like this while Spy Sweeper isn't running as well. Thanks!

http://free-backup.info/back2zip.html Back 2 Zip is free & easy. Backups can be stored in zero compression zips for speed or crunched down to smaller sizes with heavy archiving.

DX 10 breaks several apps. Not really worth the upgrade on XP if you use a lot of proggies. DX 9 is high as I want for a while.

Portable CCleaners usually have a few problems: Use .bat files (annoying) Must detect installed CCleaner before running (inaccurate on non default directories) Breaks an existing CCleaner installation (inconvenient & time consuming) Using 4 programs, we can fix these 3 major problems & others not listed also. ______________________________(CCleaner)______________________________ Download & install freeware CCleaner. http://www.CCleaner.com/ Under options & advanced, check hide warning messages & save all settings to ini file Close CCleaner & create a copy on the desktop. Delete uninst.exe from the desktop copy of CCleaner _____________________________(stubbieman)_____________________________ Download & install freeware stubbieman sfx. http://www.snapfiles.com/get/stubbie.html Uncheck delete unpack folder..., prompt for unpack folder..., & prompt user before overwriting... on project settings tab For target, browse to your desktop & save as Reg.exe For default unpack folder, choose <TEMP> from the drop down list Enter these commands 1 by 1 under the Run Last tab using ctrl + c to copy & ctrl +v to paste regsvr32 /s /u CCHelper.ocx regsvr32 /s /u CCleaner.dll regsvr32 /s /u CCListBar.ocx regsvr32 /s /u CCListView.ocx regsvr32 /s /u CCSubTimer.dll regsvr32 /s /u CCSystem.dll regsvr32 /s /u CCTab.ocx regsvr32 /s /u CCTreeView.ocx regsvr32 /s CCHelper.ocx regsvr32 /s CCleaner.dll regsvr32 /s CCListBar.ocx regsvr32 /s CCListView.ocx regsvr32 /s CCSubTimer.dll regsvr32 /s CCSystem.dll regsvr32 /s CCTab.ocx regsvr32 /s CCTreeView.ocx Under the build it tab, click build sfx _______________________________(win rar)_______________________________ Download & install a registered version of win rar. (link not provided) Right-click on desktop & new/compressed folder named Extract. Copy (NOT move) these files into this zip folder from the program files/CCleaner folder: cchelper.ocx CCleaner.dll cclistbar.ocx cclistview.ocx ccsubtimer.dll ccsystem.dll cctab.ocx cctreeview.ocx Copy Reg.exe that we created with stubbieman to Extract.zip & the desktop CCleaner folder. Open win rar & browse to the Extract.xip folder. At the top beside file, click commands & scroll to the bottom to convert archive to SFX. Under the SFX tab, click advanced SFX options & go to the modes tab. Change Silent Mode to Hide All & Overwrite mode to overwrite all files. Under General tab, click Create in "Program Files". Path to extract, type in Common Files. Go down to run after extraction & type Reg.exe in the box. Click OK. Click OK again. _______________________________(iexpress)______________________________ Go to start/run & type iexpress. Hit enter. Click next, next, & type Piriform / C-Cleaner / 1.40 for package title. Click next, next, & next. For add files, add the contents of the CCleaner folder on the desktop. Click next, & install program 1 is Reg.exe. Post install is CCleaner. Click next, next, & next again. Checkmark store files using long file name... & hide file extracting progress. Browse to the Desktop & save as Clean.exe. Click next, checkmark no restart & next, checkmark don't save self extract... & next, then finish. Reload iexpress same as before. Click next, next, use Piriform / C-Cleaner / 1.40 for package title, & next again. For confirmation prompt, click prompt user with & type Run C-Cleaner? Click next, next, add files & Clean.exe & Extract.exe. Click next & Clean.exe is program 1, & post install is Extract.exe. Click next, next, & next again. Checkmark store files using long file name... & hide file extracting progress. Browse to the desktop & save it as C-Cleaner Portable & click next. Checkmark no restart & next. Don't save directive file & next. Then next again & finish. __________________________(Why do it this way?)_________________________ How does this solve my problems? 1- CCleaner & Reg.exe are extracted to a temp dir. Reg.exe replaces a .bat file & registers CCleaner. 2- CCleaner is then run, after which any installed CCleaner is "broken" after you close CCleaner. 3- No check is needed. Extract.exe copies 8 ocx & dll files to common files folder along with Reg.exe & re-registers them when closing CCleaner. Any CCleaner that is installed on the pc will now work. Be sure to use a registered rar version so "made with trial version" doesn't appear.

I would like to know what I can do to turn commands into executable files. Such as registering a .dll file. I know about .bat files but I hate the pesky window that flashes for a second. I know about converting bat to .exe but the .com breaks some .bat commands. I know a little about .ini & .inf files. Is there a simpler way, say if you want to run a regsvr32 /s nameoffilehere such as a .vbs file, or is there a way to convert it to a .exe directly? I like how the IExpress.exe with windows can run up to 2 commands silently but it doesn't always work with every file, & doesn't seem to do too good with .bat files. If I knew a way to hack IExpress so there are about 10 drop down windows where I can install or run up to 10 commands, it would save me a lot of effort. Conversely, I love NSIS ZIP2EXE, but I wish it can do silent .exe like winrar SFX or IExpress. Plus I wish it could run more than 1 program at a time, such as up to 10 commands at once. Why does there have to be a file to extract? I wish they can just realize sometimes we only want them to run a script, not extract a file, however small you use. Is there a simple way I can convert a command into a script or exe without that annoying window popping up? I know about batch run, but it both shows a command window & has to be installed to even use the generated output. Maybe I can come up with a .reg patch to register the batchrun extension before running the file? What is the simplest way or program to generate an exe or vbs file that can be run silently (no popup window thingies pls!)

I have a few quibbles about Portable C-Cleaning. - If you use the portable C-Cleaner app, it works fine, but can break an existing CCleaner install due to, the registering of a few components, such as subtimer.dll etc. - I can use winrar to SFX C-Cleaner & auto remove the file when I am done. This fixes having to see that window each time when you use a .bat file to register & unregister components. But I still have the problem that I may break an existing install of C-Cleaner. - Hopefully, besides multi-user cleaning, C-Cleaner 2 could also allow multiple startup selects with shift & ctrl key & shortcut keys like del to delete them faster than 1 by 1 like it does now. - Maybe there can be a BHO cleaner & hosts file cleaner. - Maybe C-Cleaner 2 will save all settings in an .ini file instead of using the registry + not have components that need registering/unregistering so that if someone has another version of C-Cleaner already installed, you won't break their install by using a portable C-Cleaner.

I use computers & CCleaner a lot. Like, a lot LOT. Lol! Some features I would LOVE to see in CCleaner, is, I wish you can check off multiple entries to uninstall at once. It would also be nice to have the same feature for startup entries, checking multiple ones off to remove. Would be nice also, if there is a way to clean multiple user accounts at once, without having to log into each one, like the temp folder MS creates for each logged in user. Wish there is an option to totally empty the prefetch folder as well. The worst that can happen is windows has to rebuild its prefetch. I would love an option to turn off prefetch, & system restore with CCleaner as well. Yes, I am lazy, don't laugh, ok? Wish CCleaner could have files it cleans in alphabetical order with tabs grouped by content type, like your apps, computer files, & internet files. Apps could have installed apps it cleans, & computer say, temp directories, logs, start menu clicks etc, & internet could have ie, firefox, opera listed. This way I could easily say, just clean the "internet trash" or only the "computer temp" files, or only the "installed apps". It would be a whole lot easier depending on what you had to remove from each computer. CCleaner is such an amazing app. Wish it can save settings to a .ini file instead of reg file if there was a way. Well, really excited about version 2 you guys have coming up, I will def be checking it out.

I think they just want to be able to run it from a usb drive without having to install it. It would clean drive C: but from the thumbdrive, & without install.

Just exellent. Thanks for the free link on MS Installer cleanup. I am aware that avg, adaware, spybot etc, clean malwares, but was wondering about adding a bho & hosts file cleaner to CCleaner only because these 2 key areas are really common among computers I work with, where scumware attempt to try to block computers from using the web. Yet, the hosts file only needs the 127.1.1. etc it only needs that 1 loopback address, but spywares add other links which totally hose people's internet connection. And BHO (browser helper objects) also hijack those who still insist on using IE instead of Firefox, which I like to use IE tabs plugin any time I am requested to use IE so that I have the stability of Firefox to run it through, along with popup blocking. Those 2 alone are the 2 worst annoyances, yet are so easy to fix, well, in the sense that if the host file is only allowed to have the loopback, and the BHO entries in the reg are cleaned, these 2 are different in that the malware is ONLY found in a those 2 places, not all over the drive like other malware, so you know exactly where to find this. But would be so much easier to be automated, if there is a way. I never saw the ability to repair these 2 scums in some of the anti malware solutions, and it is annoying to have to manually edit a host file to reset it, or to manually remove bho. That is the only reason i had asked about inclusion in the list is because they never need updated definitions to remove, for they are always found in the same place on the pc. Always. So a fix now, would fix it in the future as long as pc's exist, I guess. Thanks for the link to the MS Cleanup tool, it works great. Appreciate all the help. One last thing, sometimes on a pc, there are lots of startup entries, but hard to remove so many 1 by 1 & I hate using MSCONFIG because the interface sucks, plus some pc's get so corrupted, they are missing their msconfig file. I love CCleaners layout, and wish I can select multiple entries at one time instead of deleting one by one. It seems you can clean the rest of things all at once, so was wondering if I am doing something wrong. Also, lastly, I have to click 6 times just to clean the registry, when the attached reg seeker shot, if you download that from hover software, you will see they got only 2 clicks to scan, clean, and backup the registry. If I could have an easier reg backup in CCleaner without so many clicks, CCleaner would be my most perfect cleaner. I hate to use reg seeker. CCleaner is so much better. Thanks!