Since the OP's issue is fixed, I guess it is OK to continue hijacking this thread. (Guilty look toward Hazelnut
)
No, not sure what that means.
Edit. Is it that those files could not be found nor deleted nor accessed by way of UserProfiles, but could by way of appdata?
Not quite, Appdata is an Environment Variable that equates to part of the user profile.
Environment Variables are good. They are safe, they do what they should, THEY DO WHAT IS EXPECTED.
Under XP :-
%USERPROFILE% equates to "C:\Documents and Settings\{username}"
%APPDATA% equates to "C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data"
%USERPROFILE%\"Application Data" is another way to get to %APPDATA% - good for XP only
Under Vista and W7
%USERPROFILE% equates to C:\Users\{username}
%APPDATA% equates to C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming
%USERPROFILE%\"Application Data" is not what you think - it uses a JUNCTION to get there.
It is the path to ruin. It is a Black hole, known to SciFi enthusiast's as the one-way entrance to wormhole through space into another universe.
C:\Users\Alan\AppData\Roaming\ == %APPDATA% is where you write to %USERPROFILE%\"Application Data"
C:\Users\Alan\Application Data\ == NUL is where you read or delete %USERPROFILE%\"Application Data"
My GIF shows that I created the file ALAN_LOST via the unidirectional %USERPROFILE%\"Application Data"
after which I deleted on the same route - but it could not be found nor deleted.
Then I appended a further time stamp via that route.
The time stamps actually travelled to
C:\Users\Alan\AppData\Roaming\ALAN_LOST
C:\Users\Alan\Application Data\ALAN_LOST is where W7 tried to delete
W7 uses the JUNCTION as "Smoke and Mirror magic" to hide and protect the destination from deletion.
Then I used the bidirectional %APPDATA% as the route and TYPEd the file showing it held both time stamps which had been sent on the unidirectional route.
My expectation is that under W7 by stipulating in CCleaner INCLUDE the deletion of
"%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\ALAN_LOST"
THEN normal deletion and the one-way nature of the JUNCTION will protect the target,
BUT SECURE DELETION will overwrite and destroy the time-stamp,
and my question is - what is left by SECURE DELETION via the JUNCTION obstacle ?
i.e. Will ALAN_LOST still exist but holding random characters ?
Will ALAN_LOST have been renamed as part of the obscuration provided by SECURE DELETION ?
Will ALAN_LOST have been totally eradicated in spite of the best efforts of the JUNCTION's ACL restrictions that attempt to protect the contents of the destination ?
There are more than 40 JUNCTIONs/SYMLINKDs in W7 with varying degrees of ACL restrictions.
I recommend for further information on Environment Variables
http://www.askvg.com/list-of-environment-variables-in-windows-xp-vista-and-7/
http://www.axleration.com/default-environment-variable-values-of-windows-xp-7/
http://www.scriptlogic.com/support/CustomScripts/environmentVariableReference.html
This one has been damaged for a few months, but at one time it had separate columns showing XP and W7 side by side :-
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Environment_variable?t=5.#5.
I recommend for further information on JUNCTION and SYMLINKD
http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm
Please forgive the following rant, but I suffered many days and weeks learning how to overcoming registry problems in XP, when an old version of Comodo was removed but a clean install failed because XP had locked up 2000 registry keys with their values. I eventually learnt how to take ownership and delete ONE AT A TIME.
I quickly gave up on Regedit and found a much better tool which took out the whole shooting match.
Since then I created the technique of exporting a key as a *.hiv, and now a great big tree of keys which cannot be deleted will be replaced when I import that *.hiv at a higher level. ZAP POWER ! !
Now I find that Users on the most popular O.S. (i.e. XP) have published scripts to aid the removal for a clean install update of Comodo, and what works on XP is blocked by unidirectional JUNCTIONS in W7.
The Evil Empire strikes again !
The "benefit" of JUNCTIONs is publicised as backward compatibility.
You can buy W7 and your old XP applications can still be installed and initial data can be installed at
"C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data"
and the magic of JUNCTION will put it where W7 wants it at
"C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming"
How wonderful.
Until the customer has to do a clean instal / update and then XP code tries to delete
"C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data"
Problem - Could not find C:\Users\Alan\Application Data\ALAN_LOST
Microsoft Marketing to the Rescue - Microsoft Office etc. for W7 (at a price). Who saw that coming ! !
Alan