Windows 8 CCLeaner V325.1872 64Bit Hanging

[ChristopherPF]

Hello,

I have started experiencing CCleaner hang when trying to remove IE10 History.

I did have to delete an original user account called \\RACHELELAPTOP\Users\Chris and subsequently create a new account which Windows named \\RACHELELAPTOP\Users\chris_000.

CCleaner can remove history just fine from directory \\RACHELELAPTOP\Users\chris_000 but not from directory \\RACHELELAPTOP\Users\Chris, understandably I guess, it just hangs at 4%.

Prior to this account change CCleaner worked fine, as of now regardless of what account I run CCleaner it always looks for this directory and hangs.

Why is CCleaner still looking for data within directory \\RACHELELAPTOP\Users\Chris?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[nodles]

Debug

Have you tried reinstalling CCleaner & rebooted the machine?

[ChristopherPF]

Hi nodles,

Thanks for replying, yes I have done both.

[Alan_B]

I would guess that the registry is telling CCleaner that \\RACHELELAPTOP\Users\Chris still exists and and it holds something to be deleted.

Internet Explorer is, in my opinion, an abhorrent nightmare,

and if you ever used that profile then I.E. may remember with great persistence,

hence it is forcing CCleaner to spin its wheels during an attack on Internet Explorer History.

I would guess it is aiming for Index.dat.

[ChristopherPF]

Alan_B,

Thanks for getting back to me.

The pics show what's in my reg and the set command shows my current profile env var. Not that this means much since you are probably right in so much that the original directory is still there with nothing in it, but enough to cause a problem I guess.

It looks like I may have only 2 options:

1. Reset Windows 8 to original install and recreate the original accounts and reinstall or use my latest system image.
2. Turn off CCLeaner's History deletion and let the browser clean up the history.

I just don't know what/where/how CCLeaner is doing what it's doing but your reasoning sounds logical - if I could only find it! ARG!

As for the choice of browser, well let's put it this way, my wife shares this particular machine and she hates both Firefox and Chrome. As for me I can use anything since I began programming computers in the mid (I'm not saying anymore here) you get the picture. A happy man has a happy wife!

Anyways thanks, if you can think of anywhere else I can look I'd appreciate that.

Kindest regards

[Alan_B]

If there are absolutely no files (hidden or otherwise) within \\RACHELELAPTOP\Users\Chris

the problem MAY be resolved by deleting the empty folder.

BUT

I do not know if this would break the system - Windows 7 still surprises me and I am sure that Windows 8 has to be worse.

I would suggest ensuring that you have an up to date image backup of your system and a Boot Rescue CD that can restore if Windows breaks,

and then delete the folder.

Personally I use Macrium Reflect for Partition image backups.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

[Nergal]

Rachel, or a computer administrator needs to change ownership/permissions on the folder, it's currently locked as a user folder

[ChristopherPF]

Alan_B,

I too use Macrium. Deleting of the \\RACHELELAPTOP\Users\Chris folder would cause major problems with Win7 or Win8.

Nergal,

Thanks for responding. Changing ownership on a Windows deleted profile can be dangerous, I had encountered this on an older Win7 box and it is too long ago to remember what I did to fix it. Signing on as admin then what? Does the admin just take ownership/permissions from system?

I would really appreciate if you could elaborate a little more since I do recall putting myself in a real mess with the said older Win7 box, if I remember, I tried changing or taking over ownership from system to my admin account then tried to remove the old folder which Windows did not allow me to do. Subsequently I "think" I had to somehow reverse the ownership back to the way it was to get out of the "mess".

Again, any details of what you would try could really help me.

Thanks again everybody!

Kindest Regards

[hazelnut]

Does the original deleted account still show in the registry as shown in this link ?

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/6cde20/rename-or-delete-the-user-account-in-windows-8/

[ChristopherPF]

Hi hazelnut,

Thanks for replying. No, not quite as per pics below. I have to go to explorer to actually get at the old "Chris" account. All of my current usable profiles are listed within reg but I can't see the deleted account in the registry as per the article.

The only difference is I use 64bit hence reg points me to WindowsNT vs. Windows to see accounts/profiles. Take a look at the pics hopefully they make sense to you.

Any suggestions I would appreciate as always.

Thanks for having a peek!

Kindest Regards

[Alan_B]

I wonder if it might be possible to recreate the original profile \\RACHELELAPTOP\Users\Chris,

and assign the original password,

and grant full Administrator privileges,

and log into the profile to exterminate everything that was installed by that profile.

My daughter bought a Laptop XP with broadband.

My Desktop Win 95 only had a dial-up modem so she added me as a non-admin User for the benefit of broadband whilst the women in my life were talking on the phone and blocking my modem.

Much later I reached retirement and was given the job of I.T. Admin with Administrator privileges,

and she became a non-admin user because her interests were on-line shopping and other female pursuits.

Hang on - I am getting to the point

Later still the Firewall had to be updated, and it was NOT possible because the new installer could not remove an old registry key.

I then found that RegEdit could not delete the key either.

Eventually I found a way to beat RegEdit into submission.

It has since occurred to me that :-

The old registry key was created by the old version of the Firewall when running under my daughters Administration,

so she would have had full ownership when it was created, and she was still its owner when I was trying to delete it,

so perhaps the update installer would have succeeded had I re-instated my daughter as administrator and used her account to run the installer.

Perhaps Windows still remembers and preserves your ownership under the deleted profile of some item such as a file, folder, or registry key,

and will only permit removal of that item if you undelete/recreate that profile and assert your authority via that profile.

[Nergal]

no because it would have a different Sid (the s-long string) you should be able to delete the user via the panel in your 1st picture

Hi nodles,

Thanks for replying, yes I have done both

please post the log file created to this thread, you may have to change its extension to txt

[ChristopherPF]

Hi Alan_B and Nergal,

I've been offline for a bit, but in that time frame, I decided I was going to try and do a Windows 8 reset to it's original install - I wanted to try this for curiosity. Obviously as per previous posts I could have used my Macrium image, and have used images successfully before, but, wanted to try Windows 8 restore to initial install settings instead to see how it worked.

Result: Pretty easy actually and I had everything back up and running with all account data restored from backups within about 6 hours accounting for MS updates etc. So, not to painful.

Listen, thanks both of you for the suggestions and if I find myself with a corrupted account again then maybe I will try and recreate the original deleted account to see if that works, if not, go ahead and try and completely remove the account as per my pics to see if it completely removes the old account. Failure to accomplish either would just put me back to where I make the decision to restore from image or resetting Windows 8 - in which case it's no big deal as I know it won't take that much time or effort anyways!

Thanks again folks for your time, much appreciated here!

Kindest Regards

[Alan_B]

Glad it worked out for you