I use a hosts file, I don't see a single ad.
I will say it again, CCleaner is free in the sense that no money is required from you in order to run the program.
I do not begrudge the CCleaner owners the right to try and raise revenue in order to provide me, and you, and every other user with a free program.
. . .[bTW, aside from this issue -- great program! Thanks much!]Gurtz
Gurtz, you are very gracious.
So . . . basically CCleaner doesn't really work.. . .Oh, well. You get what you pay for.
I started to reply 2 or 3 times, didn't. Now I will. I represent no one but myself.
CCleaner does work; one of its ancillary functions has a bug. It will get fixed. There are few software applications which are bugless, fewer still which are free and bugless. Windows is the MOAB (Mother of all Buggy) , and we pay for it then tune it up for Microsoft as we go. WXP isn't finished even yet.
CCleaner is free, period. So are Recuva and Defraggler. Sometimes nice people like Snowdrift contribute. I doubt if there are enough mouseclicks in the world to pay for the server time, developer costs, hardware, etc, to maintain this forum and those apps.
This forum has 2 outstanding characteristics, I think. Most important is the courtesy with which the members and moderators behave, even when a member says something wrong, as I have often done.
The other is the enourmous knowledge shared by the members. I have gigabytes of safe freeware, recommended by members. They correct each other but don't fight (much ).
So please be as polite as you can. If you don't like the derned software, don't use it. But be polite.
The secure deletion in CCleaner hasn't been great from day one, hopefully once CC2 is completely stable the secure delete code will get a rewrite.
...CCleaner does work; one of its ancillary functions has a bug. It will get fixed. There are few software applications which are bugless, fewer still which are free and bugless. Windows is the MOAB (Mother of all Buggy)
, and we pay for it then tune it up for Microsoft as we go. WXP isn't finished even yet.
...
So please be as polite as you can. If you don't like the derned software, don't use it. But be polite.
login123, thanks for the kind comment (about me).
I must agree with you on all your subsequent points! Though I reported the bug at the start of this thread, it is just one bug in a piece of software that, on the whole, does an excellent job. As you indicated, Windows has a ton of bugs -- even XP, which has been around for years. And unlike the developers of CCleaner, who produce free software on a shoe-string budget, Microsoft has the resources of a thousand suns behind their products. They don't really have much of an excuse for poor software (other than the massive complexity they have to deal with). [i would trade all the prettyness of the current versions for Windows for a simple version that is fast and never crashes. But that will probably never be. Oh well. I'm getting side tracked...]
Back to CCleaner. It really is good software, and I have no doubt the secure-delete issue will be fixed in due course. Until then I'll continue to use it, but will just have to be aware of the current limitation (and work around it). No big deal.
Thanks to the developers for all their efforts!
Gurtz
I cant resist - actually the cause of over 90% of "windows" crashes is 3rd party device drivers not windows itself. Keep in mind IBMs S390 mainframe at one point had over 60 000 known bugs in a released version.....
I cant resist - ...
... I couldn't either...
I have written about CCleaner NOT erasing file content and particularly file names numerous times. Just a relief to finally see so many who have confirmed my findings of months and months ago. Hopefully this bug will be fixed in the next release once and for all. Either that, or just remove the 'Secure delete' option completely from CCleaner, if it is not going to work properly. And, as long as we are on the topic, it would be FANTASTIC if CCleaner would destroy FILE NAMES along with destroying file contents. Most true 'erasers' wipe both names and content. Thanks for listening.
And, as long as we are on the topic, it would be FANTASTIC if CCleaner would destroy FILE NAMES along with destroying file contents.
Agreed.
I have written about CCleaner NOT erasing file content and particularly file names numerous times.
But this is only your second post!
Actually the secure delete problem, whilst being a nuisance, is not really critical. That is if you're not spending all day downloading highly dubious stuff. I didn't even use this option until I deleted a financial file than then realised that one day I might replace either my hard drive or PC. But all you have to do is to just surf and not use CC, and as long as your internet temp file is large enough you will overwrite the problem deleted file. Then use CC.
Now, if I want to delete a private file I first alter the critical data under edit, without altering the size of the file, and save it. I then open it with wordpad and foul up the contents so it's not openable with it's original application. Then I rename it to some other file type and put it into the 'folders to empty' folder and run CC with single pass overwrite (CC seems to overwrite the contents of this folder OK, and rename the files). This method may not be forensically spot on, but it's a good try.
After all the main principle of disk washers is to fill the disk with crap files and then delete them, similarly to what I've described individually.
I realise that this might not be suitable for people with large gb's of data to be deleted, or a lot of critical files that need to be cleaned every day, but I'm not in that category.
Yes, CC to remove file names please.
Rgds.
Actually, if CC removed file names we wouldn't know what was on the disk waiting to be recovered in the future by some felon or other. So I retract my vote, or at least modify it so that it is an option for individual files, not an automatic mass delete.
Rgds.
Actually, if CC removed file names we wouldn't know what was on the disk waiting to be recovered in the future by some felon or other. So I retract my vote, or at least modify it so that it is an option for individual files, not an automatic mass delete.
Rgds.
So you want it left recoverable so felons can find it??? Either way secure deletion only really stops your average Joe recovering stuff you've deleted, it's usually still recoverable forensically. So filenames SHOULD be erased IMO, unlike at present where they are just renamed something like 'LLLLLLL.LLL' which just makes it obvious what you've tried to securely delete - slightly defeats the object of securely deleting it if it's so easy to find what you've tried to 'securely' remove.
Alright then, I'll rephrase it. If there's some deleted file on the disk that could be recovered by this enterprising felon, I want to be able to find it first so that I can take some action to prevent it falling into said felon's hands. The thought of having deleted files on a disk that might be important and you can't find them is scary.
In my experience the LLLLL.LLL bears no relationship to the original file name, so it's no help to that annoying felon, who seems to be everywhere. Some names are L.L and some are LLLLLLLLLLLL.LLLLLLLLL. Also I've found that these renamed files are overwritten properly, in as much as I haven't been able to recover one of these files to a readable state.
I have also read recently, I can't remember where, that the recover after overwriting by interpreting the magnetic 'shadows' is more myth than reality, and there's no software available that will do this. I'll try to dig this up again.
Rgds.