Serious reproducible problem

[MarkHorridge]

I run CCleaner 1.19.108 with XP sp2.

Great program, I got in the habit of pressing "Run cleaner" with confidence.

The other day my PC lost a great numbers of settings, stored in "My Documents".

Several hours work getting things back to normal !

Today it happened again, after running CCleaner.

I investigated. I am a programmer who maintains programs used by other

people who all set up their PCs in various strange ways. It is of course often

hard to diagnose their problem from the limited info supplied. And, experience

tells that the users account of events is not always completely accurate.

 

 

I ran Analyse ... sure enough CCleaner wanted to delete a host of INI files, bookmarks, etc.

I closed CCleaner.

I noticed that my windows TMP and TEMP environmental variables were not set.

I set them to c:\temp (control panel..system..advanced..environment)

I opened CCleaner.

I ran Analyse ... this time CCleaner did NOT want to delete the INI files and bookmarks.

 

 

To check the fault for yourself:

Open CCleaner and Run Cleaner. Then Analyse. The list will be short. Close CCleaner

Delete windows TMP and TEMP environmental variables.

Open CCleaner and Run Analyse. The list will have grown, now including useful files. Close CCleaner

Restore your TMP and TEMP environmental variables!

[MarkHorridge]

A follow-up to my own post.

I wrote a small console program to echo the location

of the folder returned bt the GETTEMPPATH winAPI function

With env TMP and TEMP vars not set, this returns:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator

ie, my user folder.

Of course, I asked CCleaner to remove the contents of my temp folder.

So, all my (non-registry) settings disappeared. Under WinXP SP2.

According to my (aged) WinAPI guide, if TMP and TEMP are not set,

GETTEMPPATH is supposed to return the current folder. There seems to have been a change.

 

Mark

[Andavari]

Welcome to the CCleaner Forums MarkHorridge!

 

That's pretty much confirmed my thinking over several months about Windows Environment Variables either being set wrong or not at all, and it's why I've stated on a few occasions that CCleaner should scan those first and give the appropriate information to users to correct them.

 

Also that version of CCleaner you're using is ancient, grab the newest Slim compile from the download page if you only need the English version, if not get the Basic compile.

[MarkHorridge]

"version of CCleaner you're using is ancient"

 

I just repeated the test with v1.34.407 which I just downloaded. XP SP2.

Same behaviour.

 

The test:

Open CCleaner and Run Cleaner. Then Analyse. The list will be short. Close CCleaner

Delete windows TMP and TEMP environmental variables.

Open CCleaner and Run Analyse. The list will have grown, now including useful files. Close CCleaner

Restore your TMP and TEMP environmental variables!

 

Explanation: GETTEMPPATH winAPI function (if env TMP and TEMP vars are not set) returns on my PC:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator

ie, the user folder.

I asked CCleaner to remove the contents of my temp folder.

So, all my (non-registry) settings disappeared.

[TwistedMetal]

I can confirm this.

 

Details

--------

 

Environment Variables

 

User variables for (YOUR ACCOUNT)

 

TEMP %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp

TMP %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp

 

Not having these will not affect CCleaner and the cleaning of your PC in anyway.

 

System variables

 

TEMP %SystemRoot%\TEMP

TMP %SystemRoot%\TEMP

 

Not having these will affect CCleaner and the cleaning of your PC.

 

It will delete the following:

 

Everything in Application Data Folder

Everything in Local Settings

Desktop Icons

Favorites

My Documents

NTUSER files (.bak, .ini, .tmp.LOG)

Everything in SendTo

Everything in Start Menu\Programs\Accessories (Shortcuts)

Everything in Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Accessibility (Shortcuts)

Everything in Start Menu\Programs\

Everything in Templates folder

Everything in User Data

 

This is all for the User Account and will not affect other Accounts or stuff that is set to All User Profiles.

[Andavari]

Good info TwistedMetal! Hopefully MrG will see this thread!

[TwistedMetal]

Don't worry, rr made sure MrG would see this.

[JDPower]

Don't worry, rr made sure MrG would see this.

 

Excellent, hopefully a fix will be in a future version soon

[MrG]

Great debugging work! I'll get this fixed!

[MrG]

I've rebuilt the current EXE with a fix. Can everyone test it to make sure it's working 100%?

 

It's actually quite hard to test without and TEMP/TMP variables as it causes the development environment to function incorrectly.

 

MrG

[TwistedMetal]

I can confirm, this is 100% working!

 

Good job!

[arizonabay]

Well well well. I truly hope next time a non-computer whiz comes and tries to tell you about a problem such as mine, you wont take it so lightly. Now image having the problem without NEARLY the computer expertise as the OP - I lost everything and couldnt get it back and when I came and asked for help, practically got laughed at. Someone like the OP comes along that not only experiences the same problem, but has enough technical knowledge to know what the problem is and he gets a "oh, we'll work on that right away" - Nice. Thanks a lot. You know I stated in my original post I would continue to use CCleaner, and I DID reinstall it, but now I'm seriously thinking about ditching it, after the BS responses to my post. Regardless, thanks OP for being brilliant enough to know what was wrong, great job

 

I can confirm this.

 

Details

--------

 

Environment Variables

 

User variables for (YOUR ACCOUNT)

 

TEMP %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp

TMP %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp

 

Not having these will not affect CCleaner and the cleaning of your PC in anyway.

 

System variables

 

TEMP %SystemRoot%\TEMP

TMP %SystemRoot%\TEMP

 

Not having these will affect CCleaner and the cleaning of your PC.

 

It will delete the following:

 

Everything in Application Data Folder

Everything in Local Settings

Desktop Icons

Favorites

My Documents

NTUSER files (.bak, .ini, .tmp.LOG)

Everything in SendTo

Everything in Start Menu\Programs\Accessories (Shortcuts)

Everything in Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Accessibility (Shortcuts)

Everything in Start Menu\Programs\

Everything in Templates folder

Everything in User Data

 

This is all for the User Account and will not affect other Accounts or stuff that is set to All User Profiles.

 

 

 

 

Gee, if only you could have cared when THIS was posted:

 

arizonabay

Group: Members

Posts: 7

Joined: 1-October 06

Member No.: 7,230

 

 

 

I need to say... I was searching google for this issue, found this and immediately registered to post. I have used ccleaner for over a year and absolutely love it. Last night I started ccleaner and left (my daughter was coming to use the computer, she knows to finish it) I have used CCleaner at least 100 times. I sign on today and here is what is gone

 

90% desktop items

all computer/system settings

all restore points

all documents

all pictures

95% of installed programs

huge data files for my work

all work invoices and billing

[hazelnut]

Hello Arizonabay,

 

I remember your original post as it was an unusual situation to occur, losing stuff in the quantites you did. I understand why you feel a bit bitter but if you look at it from another point, you had used ccleaner for some time without problems therefore it was somewhat logical to assume that there was another cause.

 

I don't think that people laughed at you, most people understand how distressing your situation would be. It was fortunate for people like you and fellow users of ccleaner that someone was able to work out what the cause was. I know quite a few people here tried to work out what had happened, although it may not have seemed like that at the time to you.

 

Were you able to work out why yours had changed?

 

Anyway Arizona, please feel free to stick around the forum you will be most welcome

[arizonabay]

Hello Arizonabay,

 

I remember your original post as it was an unusual situation to occur, losing stuff in the quantites you did. I understand why you feel a bit bitter but if you look at it from another point, you had used ccleaner for some time without problems therefore it was somewhat logical to assume that there was another cause.

 

I don't think that people laughed at you, most people understand how distressing your situation would be. It was fortunate for people like you and fellow users of ccleaner that someone was able to work out what the cause was. I know quite a few people here tried to work out what had happened, although it may not have seemed like that at the time to you.

 

Were you able to work out why yours had changed?

 

Anyway Arizona, please feel free to stick around the forum you will be most welcome

 

 

The ONLY thing that was done was suggest my daughter did it and then tell me it was related to my AV (Norton's), and I'm not bitter, I just realize now that for the everyday common user, they truly could care less.

[TwistedMetal]

Hey arizonabay,

 

I don't mean to sound rude or anything. At the time we really didn't know what to suggest, I have been around for a while now, and we have had only a small number (around 4 or 5) with this problem. We didn't know what caused the problem or how to recreate it. There are so many different PC configurations and settings, almost everyone's is different.

 

I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to PC's and Windows, but I never would have guessed the environment variables (it's one of them things, no one ever touches, or even really knows about). I'm just glad the problem was found and how to fix it.

 

I know what it's like to get stuff deleted. I have crashed XP a few times (didn't know how) I had to reformat, I had important work related material on it.

 

Like, I always tell myself. "You can only learn from your mistakes and move on."

 

I am sorry for the trouble you went through and no one could help you.

 

We do care, it's just we didn't know what to do.

[JDPower]

The ONLY thing that was done was suggest my daughter did it and then tell me it was related to my AV (Norton's), and I'm not bitter, I just realize now that for the everyday common user, they truly could care less.

But you have to understand, most of us are just ordinary users like you. You were one of the first to report this problem and as such it only made sense to make other possible suggestions. We get all manner of unusual problems from first posters and they can quite often be explained/corrected simply with a little investigation into other things they did. I just had a look back at your original post to refresh my memory and only one post stated it couldn't be CCleaner. And that person was the same person who was good enough to go back to your thread and post the solution once it had been discovered for definite what the problem was.

Even now your situation is a little unusual as your TMP and TEMP environment variables suddenly changed, but at least you now know what it is and how to prevent it happening again. And more importantly, thanks to yours and other peoples posts, the CCleaner developers now know what is wrong and I'm sure they will be working on building some kind of check into a future release.

[arizonabay]

Hey arizonabay,

 

I don't mean to sound rude or anything. At the time we really didn't know what to suggest, I have been around for a while now, and we have had only a small number (around 4 or 5) with this problem. We didn't know what caused the problem or how to recreate it. There are so many different PC configurations and settings, almost everyone's is different.

 

I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to PC's and Windows, but I never would have guessed the environment variables (it's one of them things, no one ever touches, or even really knows about). I'm just glad the problem was found and how to fix it.

 

I know what it's like to get stuff deleted. I have crashed XP a few times (didn't know how) I had to reformat, I had important work related material on it.

 

Like, I always tell myself. "You can only learn from your mistakes and move on."

 

I am sorry for the trouble you went through and no one could help you.

 

We do care, it's just we didn't know what to do.

 

 

All I'm saying is after stating what I lost, even $1200.00 worth of work, I didn't see MrG showing up to take a look. I went from working 7 hours a day, 5 days a week to my current 12 hours a day 6 days a week because of this, and can't even estimate when I will be caught up again - go figure.

 

And by the way, I am the administrator on my computer, the only one allowed to change settings and I have not touched a setting in over a year. So as far as 'how my settings got changed to allow this' - another mystery, but we saw what happened the first time I had a mystery and brought it here. Good luck

[arizonabay]

thanks to yours and other peoples posts, the CCleaner developers now know what is wrong and I'm sure they will be working on building some kind of check into a future release.

 

Mine had absolutely nothing to do with it. If it never existed, the outcome would have been the same. The OP on this thread would have posted and it would have been fixed. Bottom line.

 

The point is, go back and look how long it took for anyone to even ask to see my settings. 5 days, and it wasnt a MOD or ADM. The 'solution' was to suggest my daughter did it, that Norton's did it, etc. No one cared. Thats all I was saying.

[hazelnut]

Arizona,

 

I guess it's not really going to matter anymore what people say to you is it? You are not going accept any sort of " hand of friendship" or explanations of any kind. So be it.

 

May I make a suggestion in a VERY well meaning way, please make regular backups of your work from now on, get an external hard disk even and copy over your work each evening, because there are lots of other ways to lose your work.

 

Best wishes to you and yours.

[JDPower]

No one cared. Thats all I was saying.

If we didn't care we wouldn't have answered and taken the time to TRY to find a solution, just because we couldn't find the correct solution from the details provided does not mean we didn't care. As Hazel said it doesn't seem to matter what any of us say so I won't waste any more time trying to explain and trying to be friendly to you.

[Andavari]

The problem with the Windows Environment Variables is that some registry cleaners that are too aggressive can remove them even if they're valid, and even with pre-existing directories which they're mapped to, so rather it's a bug in Windows or a registry cleaner for detecting them as invalid I don't know hence the reason to be cautious. If one doesn't pay extra close attention to what exactly will be removed from a too aggressive registry cleaner the result can be getting the Windows Environment Variables wiped out of the registry. So anyone can understand the lump I got in my throat when I had seen RegSeeker list some of the Windows Environment Variables on my system which is why I included those that I currently know of at the moment into the RegSeeker customized exclude.ini file to protect people from a catastrophe when using another cleaning tool that pulls the temp directories from the Windows Environment Variables.

 

At least the problem is finally figured out and is protected against which is very important. It's nice to know that trusty CCleaner wasn't really at fault!

[arizonabay]

As Hazel said it doesn't seem to matter what any of us say so I won't waste any more time trying to explain and trying to be friendly to you.

 

No one bothered before, and wouldnt bother now if it hadnt been for the obvious "oops guess we shoulda took it serious, lets be friendly and hope it helps" factor - deny it all you want, it doesnt matter at all, but its true. What part of 'I went from working 7 hours a day, 5 days a week to my current 12 hours a day 6 days a week because of this, and can't even estimate when I will be caught up again' did you not understand? And no thats not blaming you personally, that is saying - take a minute and just TRY to imagine how you would feel in the same situation. Can't imagine it? That's right, because it didnt happen to you, so get over the attitude about not accepting you 'trying to explain' or 'trying to be friendly' - no one needs fair-weather friends.

 

 

As far as the advice about 'backing up my computer? Well thats all fine and dandy, but after 10 years of doing this work online and never loosing a single page of it, you have to realize, if it had not been for CCleaner, I WOULDNT NEED A BACK UP BECAUSE UNTIL RIGHT THIS SECOND I STILL WOULDNT HAVE LOST ANYTHING. Doesnt mean its not a good idea in general, just means that now I should be backing up my computer to protect it from THIS product - lovely. Honestly, I was hoping to find out eventually it WASNT CCleaner that did this, although I knew what I saw and knew it wasnt caused by something else. I had JUST installed it on my brother's computer two weeks before and was hoping I didnt have to tell them to get rid of it because it could cause this, knowing they would always question something I recommend, especially after he loved it. Sorry I'm rambling, but I have been up for 24 hours, had other things to do today on top of the ridiculous work. Anyway, its over and done with, time to forget it all. Hope you guys get everything straightened out with it.

Dont respond - I am gone.