Under Options, Include, if I have a recursive entry for ~*.* to remove 'lost' Office files, the next time I start an Office application, it goes through a small reinstallation process.
PC is Win7 64bit, Office is 2010 Pro 64bit
Any idea on how this file type can be listed without Office thinking it needs reinstalling?
constain it to office file types, eg
~*.doc
~*.docx
~*.xls
~*.xlsx
etc.
That's an option but not the prefered method.
If you use Word, as an example, to open TXT, INI and so on, file types, the list of entries in CCleaner will get rather long.
Then add to that Publisher, PowerPoint, OneNote and it starts to become a logistical nightmare.
I can't see what CCleaner does to the ~*.* wildcard that is causing Office to lose the plot.
Another program I use, Cleanup!, can handle the wildcard fine, so I know it's not a Office problem.
You can fix this yourself.
Simply run CCleaner to clean your system and damage Office just one more time ;
Re-install the broken application ;
Use CCleaner to ANALYZE - not "Run Cleaner" ;
Double click on the most relevant result and you will see individual targets ;
If you wish you can Click ANALYZE again and you will see all targets - relevant plus others ;
Now select a target and right click and choose "Save to Text file".
This will show all the files (with their paths) that are targets,
and you will need to add one or more of them to the "Exclusions" so that the Office will no longer break.
Great theory Alan_B, i tried it out, but sadly no luck.
I ran CCleaner until nothing was found to be cleaned.
I then added the ~*.* and did a Analyze, the only file to show up in the summary reults was c:\system volume information\tracking.log which shgould have no bearing on Office, but what the heck, I added it to the exclusion list, did a Run Cleaner, went to open Excel and Pow!, dead again.
Box pops-up titled Windows Installer saying Preparing to install... another box then pops-up titled Microsoft Office Simgle Image 2010 saying Please wait whil Windows configures Microsoft Office Simgle Image 2010
This issue only arises if Custom Files and Folders is ticked and if I include the ~*.* entry, so I know it's something I an initiating and something CCleaner isn't handling the way one would except.
Have a go yourself and see if it's not just lucky me!.
I ran CCleaner until nothing was found to be cleaned.
I then added the ~*.* and did a Analyze, the only file to show up in the summary reults was c:\system volume information\tracking.log,
This inclusion may have terrible consequences to your computer
C:\~*.*
Amongst other things it would try to destroy certain files in your Restore Point System which depends upon the contents of c:\system volume information\*.*
You really need to ensure that you are not zapping system files with your custom includes.
If you actually used a more appropriate path for your include, what was it ?
Box pops-up titled Windows Installer saying Preparing to install... another box then pops-up titled Microsoft Office Simgle Image 2010 saying Please wait whil Windows configures Microsoft Office Simgle Image 2010
This issue only arises if Custom Files and Folders is ticked and if I include the ~*.* entry, so I know it's something I an initiating and something CCleaner isn't handling the way one would except.
You seem to have misunderstood my advice, and omitted stage 2.
1. Simply run CCleaner to clean your system and damage Office just one more time ;
Done
2. Re-install the broken application ;
Not done, fatal omission
3. Use CCleaner to ANALYZE - not "Run Cleaner" ;
Done - BUT you got zero relevant results.
Had you waited for Windows to configure ... and ensured that Office was installed,
THEN the Analyze results would show the files and folders that Office needed and your special include was damaging.
Do all 3 of the first 3 stages above, and then continue with
4. Double click on the most relevant result and you will see individual targets ;
Note - the most relevant result is "Advanced - Custom Files and Folders"
5. If you wish you can Click ANALYZE again and you will see all targets - relevant plus others ;
Note - This will show any NON-custom targets that default CCleaner might zap out of Office.
You can omit this stage if you are sure that it is only your special "~*.*" that is doing the damage.
6. Now select a target and right click and choose "Save to Text file".
This will show all the files (with their paths) that are targets,
Note - you should now see far more than "c:\system volume information\tracking.log,"
7. and you will need to add one or more of them to the "Exclusions" so that the Office will no longer break.
N.B. I cannot have a go myself - I am in the fortunate position of using third party portable software
and NOT having a bloated Office installation
in actual fact, it was done, my omission was not telling you about it. my mistake.
i have repeated the excerise and in the Advanced Custom Files and Folders, only log files and temp folders are listed.
i can't see a reason to suspect any of them - but i know what you are thinking - whatever is listed no matter how remote, must be the culprit (sherlock holmes and all that).
to be honest, i'm over it. i've wasted far too many hours, reboots and re-installs on something that isn't worth the grey matter.
i've changed the entry from ~*.* to ~*.doc* and ~*.xls* as that will capture the vast majority of leftover Office crap.
the reason it's nice to look for these files is when doing a PC cleanup, often I'll find a whole swag of these files taking up huge amounts of space that people were not aware of as these files are by default hidden by the system.
plus i have been using other software that had no issues and i was trying to get away from running CC and this other one.
as to your point about the Restore Points, surely the same can be said for any file that CC cleans up, there is always a chance that file also lives in the system info volume folder. not that it should matter greatly as the restore points don't include personal files, and only certain OS files. it wouldn't include an office recovery file, "~my cv.doc" for example, in a restore point.
do you know if CC is able to delete from the sys info folder due to the higher privlegde level required. i would have thought restore points were a no go area for any program other than the OS.
You are correct, Windows should protect C:\system volume information\,
which holds Restore Points plus other stuff.
I think you or a utility has broken Windows.
There is no way that CCleaner should be even seeing the contents of
C:\system volume information\
I have just downloaded the Portable version 3.22 of CCleaner.
I have added one file to my computer
C:\tracking.log
I have included that in my custom files with the non-default setting of
"Include files, subfolders and the folder itself"
I then created a further file
C:\Users\Alan\AppData\tracking.data
Then I performed Analyze which found many files, including
C:\tracking.log and
C:\Users\Alan\AppData\tracking.data
which shows my "include" penetrates through all the subfolders to which CCleaner is given access.
even so CCleaner never detected the presence of
c:\system volume information\tracking.log
TreeSize Free shows me everything that occupies space on my drive, which includes
c:\system volume information\tracking.log
which has a size of 20.0 KB (20,480 bytes)
TreeSize Free has super powers that show me what Windows does not want me (or CCLeaner) to see.
I too have super powers and by using iCalcs I do what I like with c:\system volume information\tracking.log,
and with that tool I can allow CCleaner to see and delete the contents of c:\system volume information\
but I prefer to avoid breaking Windows.
It is highly dangerous to start at the root of C:\ and delete all files with a specific name.
You may have changed the self protection of Windows by removing from less protected system folders anything that matched
~*.*
Another program I use, Cleanup!, can handle the wildcard fine
If that is a legitimate program. that may have weakened Windows defences.
The fact that an internet search does not identify what it is or where it came from makes me wonder of "Safe Search" is keeping me away from malware downloads
Cleanup! is the software I was using before I descovered CCleaner, it must have been around for at least 8 years or so. That's at least how long it seems i've been using it.
Made by Steven Gould and can readily be found on his website.
An Australian PC magazine has included it in it's monthly cover CD for ages.
I'm trying to get to grips with all the customisations of CCleaner so I can be as happy in recommending it as I was with Cleanup!