Extra Megabytes: DrWatson Log. WindowsUpdate.log

CCleaner for Windows CCleaner Windows Suggestions
1

CCCleaner is great. I've found a few more megabytes that cleaner maybe could address. Can anyone confirm these are big files on their setups also?

1) DrWatson logs. Dr Watson is a Microsoft system service that logs crashes, and keeps huge logs

\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\DrWatson\user.dmp -- 104,005 Kb

\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\DrWatson\drwtsn32.log - 25,919 Kb

Start "Dr Watson" from the run menu with "drwtsn32".

2) WindowsUpdate.log -- 1,468 Kb on my Windows 2000 box, with history going back to the dark ages.

3) WINNT/ShellIconCache -- Huge file, probably full of bloat.

4) WINNT/$Unist$Update$Shellc$ files. CCCleaner seems to leave a few of these.

2

CCleaner will clean many Windows logs like WindowsUpdate.log, etc., but it can't do it in the normal Windows mode. You have to log into Safe Mode to get rid of those files because their host application won't be running to lock them out from cleaning utilities like CCleaner.

3

Interesting, good point. The Dr. Watson logs though don't seem to be locked.

4

I forgot, the file "WINNT/ShellIconCache" holds all the icons cache on your computer. There are many free icon flushers/refreshers available such as Microsoft's Tweak UI.

5

Dial-a-fix will clean up WindowsUpdate.log:

http://wiki.djlizard.net/Dial-a-fix#Mirror...2C_and_articles

Its not yet Vista compatible yet.

4) WINNT/$Unist$Update$Shellc$ files. CCCleaner seems to leave a few of these.
Windows Update needs these files to know what updates have been installed.
6
CCleaner will clean many Windows logs like WindowsUpdate.log, etc., but it can't do it in the normal Windows mode. You have to log into Safe Mode to get rid of those files because their host application won't be running to lock them out from cleaning utilities like CCleaner.

Locked files can also be deleted on the next reboot by using freeware software such as Unlocker by Cedrick Collomb (http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker) or DelNext by Gammdayne (http://gammadyne.com/cmdline.htm). For my own use, both of these have proven to be very successful for deleting locked files, including those already mentioned and index.dat files.

Regards

DJ