Hidden system protected folders are NOT wiped!?

CCleaner for Windows CCleaner Windows Bug Reporting
1

On Win7 systems there is a system protected folder

C:\Windows\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\*

which contains much, deleteable stuff.

After having made system protected folder visible in WinExplorer in menu

Tools->Folder options-View-Hide protected operating system files=NO

I added this folder to the user defined folders in CCleaner.

(Side note: CCleaner should offer to add hidded system folders/files without having to unhide them first).

Then I hide these type of files/folders again in WinExplorer.

But this hide action makes them again unvisible to CCleaner again.

So at next clean run CCleaner ignores these files.

How can I CCleaner treat hidden system protected files ?

Thomas

2

I think the answer to your question is in the shear fact that these are " system protected files"

What part of that makes you think you should be deleting that

That folder ought not be cleaned

CCleaner (nor any other program) has the Ability to unhide protected system folders and files. If they did, could you imagine the horrible damage a virus or other malware could do!?!?

That Said I've looked into these specific files you mention and I would suggest that removing will most likely cause some errors when you try to do windows or driver updates via Windows Updates. My suggestion is leave it alone, but of course you are free to delete what ever you want, heck might as well add %windir% to your include list <_< .

To drive the point home

Again, be aware that by removing the baseline cache for a product, future repair, patch install, and patch uninstall scenarios may require your original installation media. If you have the drive space it is recommended that you keep the baseline caches available.

http://blogs.msdn.co...eing-space.aspx

3

Nergal, you point is valid, and I'd echo the danger of allowing automatic deletion of files and folders marked as 'system' in a manually added path. But your response ignores one of the major claims in the original report. If CCleaner deletes system files when you've set Windows Explorer to 'unhide' them but ignores them just because you don't choose to view them when you're looking at disk contents, it's both inconsistant and dangerous. One of the first things I do on a new system is set Windows Explorer to display hidden files. And while I'd have no problem with CCleaner killing 'desktop.ini' when found in %temp%, for example, I'd be very leary of allowing CCleaner to delete all system files in folders it checks - either by default or when added manually.

4

@Nergal:

In my inital post I didn't ask for advice if I should/could delete these files but HOW to delete them with CCleaner.

Not all the files which Microsoft declares "important" are really important.

I could show you a many forum postings and articles which confirm that it does not harm a computer seriously when deleting them.

Furthermore: Do you really think that hiding files or declaring them as "system" really does them protect from becoming infected??

On another system I wiped these "Managed" folder manually and my system worked fine for months!

So all together CCleaner should not care about if it is meaningful what the user want to wipe but that it really cleans them.

Until know I found no way to tell CCleaner to wipe all files in

C:\Windows\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\*

Is there really no way?

Thomas

5

no I don't think hiding them is effective against malware. I was making the valid point that if ccleaner could do what you ask & unhide/unprotect files, then so could other programs, malware for instance.

if you want a solution either don't rehide the files or continue the process as you do.

also this isn't a case of me telling you no don't clean that (which you shouldn't btw) it's a case of me saying ccleaner cannot "treat hidden system files" & as a consumer you really wouldn't want Microsoft to allow for software to do that.

finally

So all together CCleaner should not care about if it is meaningful what the user want to wipe but that it really cleans them

if that were true this forum wouldn't exist, so much of ccleaner's ability & bug fixes (through "ccleaner removed meaningful files" reports) comes from this community, it is in essence exactly what ccleaner should care about