Cleaning Waterfox profile history/cache with CCleaner, Win 7

CCleaner for Windows
1

Hello,

I finally managed to get CC to clean Waterfox cache, and I thought I would share my solution with other WF users. And no, CC does not clean Waterfox cache by default, even though WF is based on FF. That used to be true, when WF shared the same profile folder as FF, but not anymore.

FF and WF have the same profile structure, so I followed the guide below (method 1), with some minor modifications :

http://www.piriform.com/docs/ccleaner/advanced-usage/ccleaner-ini-files/how-to-clean-user-data-from-non-standard-mozilla-browsers

On Windows 7 (and 10 I think) each Waterfox profile is stored in two folders with the same name (similar to FF):

C:\Users\ {USER NAME}\AppData\Local\Waterfox\Profiles\{profile folder name}

C:\Users\ {USER NAME}\AppData\Roaming\Waterfox\Profiles\{profile folder name}

The 'local' folder contains internet cache, which is the bulk of the data to be cleaned, and the 'Roaming' path contains other things like history, cookies, session, site preferences, etc.

I haven't created any additional profiles, so I just have the default one, and each folder name ends with 'default'. As per the guide, I added two lines to my "ccleaner.ini" file located in the CC program directory, so it looks like this:

[Options] 

CustomLocation1=FIREFOX|C:\Users\{USER NAME}\AppData\Local\Waterfox\Profiles\{profile folder name}


CustomLocation2=FIREFOX|C:\Users\{USER NAME}\AppData\Roaming\Waterfox\Profiles\{profile folder name}

Just replace the correct user name and profile folder name in the path. That's it.

Note 1: As someone else here mentioned, if you don't see the "ccleaner.ini" file in the CC folder, open ccleaner, go to options >> advanced, and enable "save all settings to ini file".

Note 2: If you are using the portable version of WF, you may not need to add the profile folder name in the two lines, so each line should end with \Profiles.

As of this post I used CCleaner v5.35, Waterfox v55.2.0, Windows 7 x64 Pro

2

Using only the portable versions of browsers and also not using Waterfox I've never had to input what you have at the end:

\{profile folder name}

Mine look like this, ends on \profile with nothing additional needed:

CustomLocation1=FIREFOX|C:\PortableApps\FirefoxPortableESR\Data\profile

CustomLocation2=CHROME|C:\PortableApps\IronPortable\Profile

3

Oh I tried ending the path at \profile many times, but it wouldn't work for Waterfox, and CC wouldn't detect the data in the profile folders. Only when I include the specific profile name in the path, CC sees the data. So if you have multiple profiles, you'll have to add the two lines for each profile.

If anyone can figure out how to clean all Waterfox profiles with a single set of custom lines, please share.

4

Thing is the web browsers have changes that take place with CCleaner typically always playing catch up.

5

In these folders

C:\Users\{USER NAME}\AppData\Local\Waterfox\Profiles\ and

Users\{USER NAME}\AppData\Roaming\Waterfox\Profiles

how do you tell what's a profile folder name? What I get in both cases is a folder named

ndzlb29q.default, and in both cases there are subfolders and files, none of which are obviously anything about profiles.

6
On 11/18/2017 at 03:40, olc said: 
<div class="ipsQuote_contents">
	<p>
		In these folders
	</p>

	<p>
		C:\Users\{USER NAME}\AppData\Local\Waterfox\Profiles\  and
	</p>

	<p>
		Users\{USER NAME}\AppData\Roaming\Waterfox\Profiles
	</p>

	<p>
		how do you tell what's a profile folder name? What I get in both cases is a folder named
	</p>

	<p>
		ndzlb29q.default, and in both cases there are subfolders and files, none of which are obviously anything about profiles.
	</p>

	<p>
		 
	</p>
</div>

Each FF or WF profile is stored in two locations: Local\Waterfox\Profiles\{profile folder} and Roaming\Waterfox\Profiles\{profile folder}. In general you should see the same exact folder names under both locations. The Local path contains the browser cache, while the Roaming path contains configuration files, extensions, cookies, etc.

In your case, you have only one folder 'ndzlb29q.default' in both locations,which refers to your one and only profile called 'ndzlb29q.default'.

So your .ini file should have these two lines

CustomLocation1=FIREFOX|C:\Users\{USER NAME}\AppData\Local\Waterfox\Profiles\ndzlb29q.default 

CustomLocation2=FIREFOX|C:\Users\{USER NAME}\AppData\Roaming\Waterfox\Profiles\ndzlb29q.default

Note: according to the CC guide, and as Andavari mentioned above, it should have worked if you just end the two lines at '\Profiles', so that it would clean all profiles, but that didn't work for me. You should try that to see if it may work for you.

In CC you just need to tick the Firefox boxe to clean both FF and WF. If it works right, CC will display Waterfox cache cleaning together with Firefox cache. See image below.

Also, you can keep track of your internet cache folder before and after cleaning with CC to see if the size is reduced. The cache is contained in Local\Waterfox\Profiles\{profile folder}\cache2. If you haven't cleaned in a while, it will grow quickly to many GB. After cleaning it should be 1-2 MB or less.

5a2083cfb1c05_CC2017-11-30_141645.thumb.png.adc6659f4155420b920c8f0bcc958702.png

7

@dono, many thanks for this, works well in Waterfox v5.6

Just to add, if you can't see your "ccleaner.ini" file, open ccleaner, options, advanced, enable "save all settings to ini file".

8

@Dono, you are correct, the profile name IS required, as opposed to the format shown in "Method 1". Perhaps it is not required in the "Portable" version because the directory is self contained, so to speak. Unfortunately, while CCleaner appears to work as expected, the Intelligent Cookie Scan feature, fails in my experience. I can, however, delete them manually from within CCleaner (Options -> Cookies) by selecting all of the cookies in the "Cookies on Computer" box, right clicking, and deleting them. All of the cookies in the "Cookies to Keep" box are preserved. If anyone using "Method 1" that is seeing the same issue, has a fix for this, I'd love to hear to it.

UPDATE: For the sake of completeness, although I can't explain the initial failure of Intelligent Cookie Scan, upon running CCleaner the following morning, it did indeed complete successfully.

@Dono, your post was of great value to me, and I am quite certain that others, lucky enough to sift through search results and find it, are grateful as well.

@DVDBANE, thanks for your reply.

9

@iSandman

in my test for Waterfox, Intelligent Cookie Scan work as expected after adding both CustomLocation

10

glad this was useful to someone :)

11

Hello

It worked for me two, but stopped to work after installation of the newest CCleaner-Version which I was compelled to install after the Windows 10 1803 Upgrade. .ini-files are not longer visible. I managed to see it anyway (with Resource Hacker). It says, one has to create a new .ini-file called 'winapp2'. That's no problem, but I can figure out what exactly I have to write in it. It says: "If you would like to create custom entries then create a new file called winapp2.ini which follows the same format as this one. What does that exactly mean, "the same format"?

12

Looks like it is working for me. This was one of my big issues with Waterfox and CCleaner - Thank You!

13

Awesome-Thanks you so much

14

Wouldn't it be a lot easier for everyone concerned if Piriform included Waterfox by default?

15

2nd just include it by default as a supported browser

16

Yes, but when you start with variant browsers then where do you stop?

The programme database (and so the downloads) would get massive, for things that most people don't even use.

Piriforms (sensible) solution is to cover the standard browsers in the main product and allow the community cover any variants by use of .ini files - notably winapp2.

17

Although we have added some niche browsers in the past and doing more is on the backlog list, they'll be handled in order of popularity with our user base - which probably means we'll see Cốc Cốc added before Waterfox.

18
2 hours ago, WPTFL said: 
<div class="ipsQuote_contents">
	<p>
		2nd just include it by default as a supported browser
	</p>
</div>

See my reply to your thread.