I just installed CCleaner. First thing I've done is select the Analyze key and it's selected a total of 3,915 MB of files to be cleaned/deleted. Obviously that's a huge amount of files to be deleted so i looked through some of those selected and am concerned. Many of them are recognized file names (not concerned with browser history, etc) and I'm not sure what to do. For example, many look like this: f C\Documents and Settings\Tom\Recent\filename.lnk
I have not seen the extension .lnk before and it doesn't replicate in a Windows Explorer search.
Many of these are important files and are NOT listed in the Recycle Bin.
So, since this is a new program, before I go further I'm hoping to get a good explanation for why it's selected so many good working file names (documents, etc) and will, I assume, delete them if I select Run Cleaner.
Hi, welcome to the forum. Yes most people will see a large number like you did the first time they run the Cleaner.
lnk refers to shortcut files found in your MRU (Most Recent) files folders. It is perfectgly safe to delete them, it won't touch the actual file (filename.doc.lnk will be deleted but filename.doc will still be there)
when that part is removed your documents menu in the start menu will be empty (won't show the last files you opened)
the reason you see filename.lnk instead of filename.doc.lnk (I would suppose) is that you have your computer hiding know file extensions
Hi, welcome to the forum. Yes most people will see a large number like you did the first time they run the Cleaner.
lnk refers to shortcut files found in your MRU (Most Recent) files folders. It is perfectgly safe to delete them, it won't touch the actual file (filename.doc.lnk will be deleted but filename.doc will still be there)
when that part is removed your documents menu in the start menu will be empty (won't show the last files you opened)
the reason you see filename.lnk instead of filename.doc.lnk (I would suppose) is that you have your computer hiding know file extensions
OK, thanks for the reply and with a bit of trust I'll select the Run Cleaner option. I guess I'll see some improvement somewhere as this seems like a lot to delete. But i noticed that a full scan by Norton looked at over 1.1 million files and it's my personal computer and I don't have tons of music or photos, etc. so maybe this will help in that regard for sure.