CCleaner Minor Suggestions

CCleaner for Windows CCleaner Windows Suggestions
1

I know some of these have been suggested before, but I just wanted to show that there are others out there wanting the same thing: I've used Crap Cleaner since just before version 2.0 and it has served me well.

1) Clean all users and subusers during clean. Including administrator account and guest.

2) ADD "Tweak" section. With options tailored toward performance and gaming. Force Kernal into Ram, Unload DLL's, etc.

3) Scan for empty files and folders. Sometimes after an uninstall there are completely empty folders just sitting there. And registry errors that go along with them.

4) Option to delete backup drivers and files. Saves a ton of disc space and decreases boot time. Goes hand in hand with deleting the hotfix uninstalls.

5) ability to delete .tmp files

6) thumbs.db

Quick question too:

What is the point in installing Crap Cleaner and using the Portable version. Do you gain better or more stable cleaning with the installed version? Why does one need to be installed, does it work better?

2

I agree that it should have the ability to delete junk files from other users as well but this should be unchecked by default as the files, even junk files in other users are within those other users' consent.

I also agree that maybe CCleaner should go deeper into removing junk files and folders left over by removed applications that are just consuming space.

But looking at the name of CCleaner, backing up drivers, folders and files does not fit its name and goal of creation. And even an ability to "tweak" the computer by disabling services unneeded for gaming does not fit CCleaner's function.

A regular program has to be installed so it creates its own program folder and registry keys in the computer where it is installed, but this is not the case with "portable" applications. Portable applications don't need to be installed cause they are designed to be saved on a removable media such as a USB that you can carry to other computers without installing them there. Portable applications, on many occasions don't need their own registry keys to run too. The functionality of portable apps from regular apps that are installed are almost similar though I suspect that portable applications are more prone to bugs and crashes.

3
I suspect that portable applications are more prone to bugs and crashes.

I will neither agree nor disagree if we are talking about an imperfect application on a perfect System;

I do not know what the world would be like with a perfect system ! !

In a world controlled by M.$. I would expect the portable to continue working perfectly when the registry is sick,

so I would expect it to be better.

I forget who, but very recently a new user could not install CCleaner,

but had no problem unzipping the portable version.

A super benefit of Portable is simultaneous independent operation.

I can run the version I know and at the same time a new version that is different.

With each version I do not CLEAN but I ANALYSE,

Then I can Alt-Tab to switch from one to the other to observe any differences in aggression,

After which I decide if I will risk it or investigate further.

So far I have not seen any aggression differences between 2.20 and 2.30,

and the only remaining reason for an upgrade is a bug fix or speed of operation.

Regards

Alan

4

Well, a friend of mine has his CCleaner portable v.2.27 open whilst he has other windows and programs opened and sometimes the title of CCleaner on the taskbar would now be "New folder" which was an obvious bug.

I tried Open Office Portable as well which I decided to install to a folder in my alternate disk partition and it was quite prone to crashes and sometimes takes too long to launch even if I ran it in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3. I don't know if it would do any better if it was saved into a USB since it was meant to be portable anyway. I actually admire portable applications cause they would at least leave no or less orphaned registry entries when removed.

One example of how versatile CCleaner portable v.2.27 turned out to be was that when my friend was able to launch and use it even if the USB containing it was plugged to another computer and was just a shared drive in that network consisting of about 10 separate PCs.

5

1: Agree,

2: Tweaking has nothing to do remove removing junk, I am very cautious of "tweaking" for performance any way. I believe it causes more harm then good.

3:There has been much debate over deleting empty folders. Some people argue it can be dangerous, some like my self argue any decent program would cater for this. Saying that i do not care the slightest for empty folders. They take up no space. May i suggest using a decent uninstaller like revo for such purposes.

4:This steps away again from ccleaner imo

5/6: edited, didnt come out how i meant

6

1. Agree, but not by default, and only available to admins. Contrarily to popular belief, cookies, MRUs, Internet cache, etc are not "useless files".

2. You obviously don't know anything about Windows tweaking. The "Force kernel into RAM" thing is one of the most dangerous "tweaks" ever, AlwaysUnloadDLL doesn't work in Win2k or later.

3. If you need free space so much you want to delete empty folders, you should buy another drive. Some empty folders are useful. And I don't see what are "registry errors that go along with them".

4. It won't save boot time (I don't see why it would). Backups ARE useful.

5 & 6. That's not how CCleaner works. And it would be reaaaaaaaaaally slow.

7
1. Agree, but not by default, and only available to admins. Contrarily to popular belief, cookies, MRUs, Internet cache, etc are not "useless files".

2. You obviously don't know anything about Windows tweaking. The "Force kernel into RAM" thing is one of the most dangerous "tweaks" ever, AlwaysUnloadDLL doesn't work in Win2k or later.

3. If you need free space so much you want to delete empty folders, you should buy another drive. Some empty folders are useful. And I don't see what are "registry errors that go along with them".

4. It won't save boot time (I don't see why it would). Backups ARE useful.

5 & 6. That's not how CCleaner works. And it would be reaaaaaaaaaally slow.

Aethec, i'm sure you didn't mean to come off this way, but please be respectful of other members posts. I understand that to you other people's "beliefs" aren't useful to YOU, but everyone uses their PC differently then the next person. Some are IT testers, some Game, some watch movies and surf the internet, some do all the above, some beta test and need applications to ease their troubles, etc. So "useless files" are actually, "Useless" for some people.

Tweaking, i'm not even going to bite. Please read the rules for posting and replying on the forum. Just because you don't use it, doesn't mean someone else can't or needs to in certain situations.

Thing's like "backups ARE useful".... again, to you, but for some of us, absolutely not, not in a million years.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

8
Aethec, i'm sure you didn't mean to come off this way, but please be respectful of other members posts.

...

Thing's like "backups ARE useful".... again, to you, but for some of us, absolutely not, not in a million years.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Hellbovine

With all due respect, are you comfortable here ?

The reason that many of us are here is that we appreciate a cleaning tool that is not an adventure on every ride.

We like to clean without expecting calamity, and like to have backups in case of problems.

There may well be fewer disasters per download of CCleaner c.f. other ccleaners, because the defaults are pretty safe;

and naive users that pull out all the stops will still not achieve the aggression provided by other cleaners.

I suggest you continue with CCleaner to do what it does well, and use other tools for doing the things us chickens are afraid of.

N.B. I would also vote against any option to improve a computer by over-clocking

Regards

Alan

9
sometimes the title of CCleaner on the taskbar would now be "New folder" which was an obvious bug.

I tried Open Office Portable as well which I decided to install to a folder in my alternate disk partition and it was quite

Yes, agreed, an obvious bug - but in what - CCleaner or the operating system ! !

I actually use Open Office Portable on partition H:\. I have only one drive in my laptop.

I have never had any problems with it.

Portable CCleaner is TRULY Portable

I have launched it with a default INI that does minimal cleaning,

and a special INI that does the maximum I am comfortable with.

I set the widths so both can appear in the screen shot as attached.

each instance is running with the INI settings copied to its memory space.

had they been copied to the registry then the last one copied would be in force for both.

TRULY Portable code avoids the registry and simultaneous multiple instances are independent

(though I would not risk doing a simultaneous clean ! !)

Things like Open Office and Winmerge are fundamentally registry based,

and the portablization consist of a special mini exe that launches the real thing preceeded by an open phase and followed by a close phase.

The open phase exports registry keys it will take over, and then imports from an INI what should replace those keys.

Then the real registry based application runs, and when finished the close phase does the opposite to the open phase, so the registry is as it was, and any user changes in the application are put back to the INI to remember the last time.

Very neat so long as nothing crashes and leaves the registry damaged.

No way that you can successfully launch twice and use different configurations ! !

I prefer TRULY Portable because it is less to go wrong, and never has a problem starting up.

A big irritation with Portablized Applications is that a launcher exe may be created, and it always has a new name,

so my defence system immediately queries whether to allow a new and unknown and untrusted exe/dll.

But I guess anything is better than pure registry ! !

Regards

Alan

post-19700-1271457449_thumb.png

10

OT the folder issue, with the portable is definitly a OS bug or a bug in the drive on which that portable is loaded. The only dif between installed ccleaner and Portable is that Portable stores to the ini by default and with out choice, installed stores to reg and gives the (better IMHO) choice of storing to ini.

1) I disagree with most people here and say All accounts is a bad thing. and will get many people angry b/c ini (and probably reg) is shared i believe (at the vary least on an xp install where there is no restriction to writing in the Program files dir) and thus if Bob-Admin checks that off so he'll be able to clean tim's account too, then when sue cleans it'll clean bob's account when he may not want it to. (course that is better than completly deleting tim's user folder as happened to a previous poster)

2) NO, other apps do this and (as has been stated) this is not the point of ccleaner as a program (I have enough issue with WFS and it's at least simular to the point)

3)

3) Scan for empty files and folders. Sometimes after an uninstall there are completely empty folders just sitting there. And registry errors that go along with them

you have answered your own question on this one via the word choice "sometimes." sometimes yes they are useless and sometimes removing them will break a program to the point of neededing reinstall. Also as Most people do not unhide hidden files it has the chance of deleting folders that DO have something in them and are needed.

4) what backup files? not all backup files are created equal, not all backup files use .bkp or .old and many backlup files are QUITE needed and shopuld be handled by their respective programs.

5) see 4

6) why? if you don't want them turn them off else, the system spends time (slows down) rebuilding them because some one deleted them.

11

even if they were added into the program they don't have to be enabled by default, as it is, there's like almost 10 items I believe that start out unchecked within the cleaner.

12

I answered that call in my thing

even if they were added into the program they don't have to be enabled by default, as it is, there's like almost 10 items I believe that start out unchecked within the cleaner.

thus if Bob-Admin checks that off so he'll be able to clean tim's account too, then when sue cleans it'll clean bob's account when he may not want it to. (course that is better than completly deleting tim's user folder as happened to a previous poster)
13

"thus if Bob-Admin checks that off so he'll be able to clean tim's account too, then when sue cleans it'll clean bob's account when he may not want it to. (course that is better than completly deleting tim's user folder as happened to a previous poster)"

CCleaner and other said tools, aren't downloaded by people like bob, sue, and little timmy. They are almost always downloaded by power users, and/or people who need something extra to take care of a particular problem they are having.

Second, the odds of having 3-4 users on 1 PC in 2010 are ridiculously low. Even if there were 10+ users on 1 PC, I would bet its something like this: Dad, Mom, and 8 kids. Well I doubt that those kids will be downloading and using CCleaner, especially since they will have limited accounts and they wouldn't know how to find it or use it.

And none of this is relevant anyway, because in the end, YOU decide what tool or program to use, and what options to tick. If the masses want these options added to future versions, than that is what they want. That is how companies like Piriform grow, by listening to what the majority of people would like to see.

I understand with your reservations but that is why the default can remain unchecked. And then as an extra security measure there can be another popup box, just as there is with the other options within CCleaner saying "This will remove all your saved passwords and login names, are you sure?" etc, etc.

Why did something like Wipe Free Space get added? Personally I think its stupid all it does it prevent the average boob from recovering your porn, and a lot of people agree with me, however the masses wanted it, regardless of its effectiveness, and so Piriform delivered.

"The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people."

? Woodrow Wilson

Also, in response to some of the previous, deleting ur backup files can free 1-2 gigs and dramatically reduces startup time, file searching, and more. If you don't believe me, u can easily test it yourself, download NKProds nCleaner. Used to be a contender for ccleaner, but ccleaner is updated very frequently whereas nCleaner has almost been abandoned. Anyway, point being, use it to remove ur backups and such, and your pc experience will be dramatically faster. However, the program is not as useful today because it hasn't been updated in so long that its not up to date with all the new browsers, etc.

14

Sorry, but you are wrong in thinking CCleaner is used only by power users. I read a lot of French forums who talk about computer problems, and very often your average Joe is asked to download CCleaner to clean his computer.

Second, the odds of having 3-4 users on 1 PC in 2010 are ridiculously low. Even if there were 10+ users on 1 PC, I would bet its something like this: Dad, Mom, and 8 kids. Well I doubt that those kids will be downloading and using CCleaner, especially since they will have limited accounts and they wouldn't know how to find it or use it.

Kids don't always have limited rights. Their parents can trust them, or they can need admin rights to install games. Young kids don't know what CCleaner is, but a lot of teenagers like to "optimize" their PC using everything they can.

I understand with your reservations but that is why the default can remain unchecked. And then as an extra security measure there can be another popup box, just as there is with the other options within CCleaner saying "This will remove all your saved passwords and login names, are you sure?" etc, etc.

Wipe Free space is not enabled by default. However, a lot of people come here saying they have problems with it, or that the cleaning is really slow. Why ? Because 1/ people think all checkboxes should be cleaned without thinking to what they exactly do, and 2/ people don't read popups. I know, that's a problem with people and not with CCleaner, but you can't create a software and think everyone will think before using it.

Alan >> "But I guess anything is better than pure registry ! !" Why ? The Registry already has tenths, if not hundreds, of thousands of keys. Adding some more won't do any harm. And since the Registry is loaded into memory when Windows boots, it's faster than reading an .ini file on a drive ;)

15
Yes, agreed, an obvious bug - but in what - CCleaner or the operating system ! !

I actually use Open Office Portable on partition H:\. I have only one drive in my laptop.

I have never had any problems with it.

Well CCleaner Portable v.2.27 was doing that bug in Windows XP but it did not really hinder its cleaning ability. CCleaner is named New folder on its own title bar, I think.

And Open Office Portable was going buggy and prone to crashes on Windows 7 whilst it was saved on an alternate disk partition rather than a USB. It also left behind some registry keys after I removed it which was probably generated by Windows anyway as I have set Open Office Portable to be the default program to open .doc files from the Control Panel.

16

Hellbovine. There are thousands of other FREE programs in the Internet right now that can assist you more in your desires than CCleaner. As a partial summary of what the others above have stated, adding these new features you want would make CCleaner too complex to be used safely by other users especially the inexperienced pack.

Even if these features would be unchecked by default, there is nothing that can completely satisfy the curiosity of other users, make it the inexperienced users to use these advanced features and soon they end up damaging their systems and would soon put the blame on CCleaner for this especially that CCleaner is probably the most widely used maintenance software around the world.

Even with the current features that CCleaner has, there has been reports of hazards and errors especially on the registry cleaner feature. Think about the wipe free space option, many inexperienced users would probably have that checked whilst they clean without knowing that it can damage their system if that is always used simply because some of them are curious if that can optimize their PC's to the max. Imagine putting more advanced features, you can expect more users to make mistakes.

I think you can try other programs like Tuneup Utilities or Advanced SystemCare 3.5.1 which has the ability to backup drivers and make many other sorts of tuning operations.

17
Sorry, but you are wrong in thinking CCleaner is used only by power users.

Alan >> "But I guess anything is better than pure registry ! !" Why ? The Registry already has tenths, if not hundreds, of thousands of keys. Adding some more won't do any harm. And since the Registry is loaded into memory when Windows boots, it's faster than reading an .ini file on a drive ;)

1.

I would suggest that "power users" go for more powerful cleaners.

A few years ago I had spare time and wanted excitement,

so I make a backup image of C:\ and downloaded for free a special offer on GAOTD.

CC cleaned with all options checked, and Windows survived.

The download was unleashed and it was amazing how much more it cleaned.

I was not sure my P.C. would ever boot-up so I did not try,

I used the Acronis Boot-CD which can restore the image, even if the C:\ partition is destroyed ! !

Incidentally, quite a few people were more trusting than I,

and at the end of the day they were asking advice on how to make Windows work again.

2.

I long for the good old days when an application folder held an INI, and I could understand it.

I was comfortable with Config.ini and everything thrown in.

Registry is a bit less understandable - I worry about how much damage I can do with RegEdit.

I accept that putting CC settings into the registry will not slow down the PC very much compared to all the other things there.

My ERUNT registry backup is 45.387 MB today, last week it was 45.178 MB

I cannot help wondering how much smaller and faster it would be if every application was portable with its own INI.

I certainly would not mind waiting an extra 0.1 Seconds to read an INI instead of looking at the registry.

Just picking random numbers out of the air :-

If an application spends an extra 0.1 seconds reading its INI, but ONLY when used,

it might save 0.01 Seconds from the initial start-up.

If 100 applications used INI instead of registry, perhaps the start-up would be 1.0 seconds faster.

The thing I like the most about a Portable App. is that when its time is up and I want it out,

I can simply delete the folder it sits in.

Most registry based Apps need to be un-installed - which may fail to happen (especially Norton),

and even when they are un-installed they may leave a lot of junk in the registry,

and they may also leave some stuff in their "User Documents" folders etc.

The registry "did me wrong" - and I still cannot forgive it !

To upgrade Comodo I had to un-install the old, and the new would NOT install because the old was still there.

I quickly found that some Comodo registry keys had not been deleted, and that was what blocked the install.

There was one registry key that had not been deleted because it contained various sub-keys which each had many more sub-keys and values. A few keys at the far end were totally inaccessible, and that prevented the removal of 2000 keys.

No one had any access to or authority over these keys.

After I few weeks fighting this thing I found the I could select a key, use Permission / Advanced.

Regedit was prepared to let me take ownership but refused to show me who/what already "owned" it.

It did give me choices of

Inherit from parent permissions ... and

Replace permission entries on all ...

Even when I guessed right, I had a lot more stumbling in the dark before I was able to deal with it.

I now have gained the competence to deal with that sort of situation,

but I should not have needed to gain it.

I like technology, but I do not like the grief when it goes wrong.

If I want a new application, or always look for a portable variant or equivalent before I allow an installed version to lock up the registry.

Regards

Alan

18
even if they were added into the program they don't have to be enabled by default, as it is, there's like almost 10 items I believe that start out unchecked within the cleaner.

But most of the ideas you suggested step right away from what ccleaner is about. I think it's safe to say most of us who help on here love ccleaner simply because its lite, un bloated, SAFE, and simply does what it says on the tin.

I dont think i have ever seen one MAJOR disaster from ccleaner on here. There has been a few user disaster faults but not just down to ccleaner.

Aethec has helped many people and would not of meant to be disrespectful. But the bottom line is, he was right.