I recently had CCleaner put on my laptop. I was told it should be run every couple of weeks. When I open it I get a list on the left side with check boxes many of which are checked. I clicked analyze and a list of files appeared in the large window. Many of the files were cookies etc. but some were picture files and some other files that I don't want to have deleted. Will the files be deleted if I click on "Run Cleaner"? How do I exclude the files from being deleted and can I retrieve the files if they are deleted?
You should find that some of these files will have a .lnk extension, which means they are shortcuts stored in Recent Documents, and not the actual files. CC only clears out temp int files, temp folders, logs etc. so you will not lose any live files, unless you store them in these folders which is not common practice. CC does not touch My Documents or any of the folders therein.
CC is safe if the default settings are used. Just check the file name/path/extension in the analyse list to confirm this for the first few times you run CC, until you are confident in its use.