When CCleaner Deletes Treasure not Trash...

[FourTeller]

OK, I've been using CCleaner for several months now and have been pretty pleased with it. I'm not the most tech-savvy person so I appreciate its simplicity and, having gotten accustomed to its features and options (or so I thought) the first few times I used it, I fell into a comfortable routine. So I cleaned up a week or two ago after upgrading to the latest version and glancing briefly at the application list, which didn't look different from usual. Went on about my merry computer way until a couple of days ago when I opened up Windows Movie Maker 2 to work on a video project I've been wrestling with for several months now...

 

Only to discover that all my imported audio/video clips and collections had disappeared Not the project itself or the source files - I can still preview my edits to date and continue working on the end product if I want, but it's going to be an even worse pain than before now that hours of viewing, cutting and sorting clips have gone down the drain. At first I was completely devastated and flabbergasted as to how I could lose my entire collection as I knew I had hit save before exiting Movie Maker the last time. Then it struck me that there is only one way this could have happened...

 

Except, like I mentioned before, I've been using CCleaner for a while without incident and I didn't recall ever seeing WMM in the applications list before. Yet I opened it up and, sure enough, it's definitely there now and selected for cleaning by default. I will be honest and admit that I'm not positive that the editing software hasn't always been on the list - maybe I was just always more conscientious before about reading the options from top to bottom and I forgot to uncheck it this one time.

 

Frankly, I blame myself first and foremost for screwing up, followed very closely by Windows for creating and storing an important database file in an obscure location and not adequately documenting it for the benefit of XP users. (I finally discovered what it's called on a Microsoft Vista help page so I could locate it on my hard drive and will definitely be backing up regularly from now on.) However, I also have to question how and why CCleaner erased such critical information from this particular program.

 

When I clean up junk from my internet browsing, for instance, I can rest assured that I'll still find my bookmarks the next time around. Similarly, I don't have to worry about vanishing playlists from my media player applications. Also, most other software programs allow one to keep personalized settings from previous versions even after an upgrade, whereas with CCleaner it seems every option always has to be manually reselected or unchecked again - and woe to anyone who, like me, overlooks one thing that they did not in the past

 

FT

[Andavari]

You can have CCleaner not clean WMM, all you have to untick is:

Cleaner->Applications->Multimedia

 

If you by chance have Microsoft Office installed and don't want its settings disappearing as well untick it in:

Cleaner->Applications->Applications

[Whiteshark]

This sound really strange to me

I've never seen Windows Movie Maker mentioned in CCleaner, neither in winapp2.ini.

AFAIK, the only Windows Multimedia application cleaned by default is Media Player.

 

[hazelnut]

I have windows media maker listed in CCleaner applications.

 

As Andavari said, unticking this would stop any action there on ccleaners part. Also if you download new versions of CCleaner over the top of last version it would save your settings.

 

I take it FourTeller you are not using Vista?

[JDPower]

This sound really strange to me

I've never seen Windows Movie Maker mentioned in CCleaner, neither in winapp2.ini.

I don't have it listed in my CCleaner either

 

Having investigated the winapp entry appears to be wrong for my version. The current entry is:

 

[Windows Movie Maker]LangSecRef=3023Detect=HKCU\Software\Microsoft\MovieMakerDefault=TrueFileKey1=%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Movie Maker|MEDIATAB0.DAT

 

The detect key on my computer appears to be:

 

Detect=HKCU\Software\Microsoft\MM20

 

Also the filename to be cleaned doesn't seem to exist on mine, instead theres a MEDIATAB1.DAT.

 

Also seems to be possible to clean some more:

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MM20\Recent Document List

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MM20\Publish Wizard\MRU List

 

I rarely use Movie Maker so the above keys on mine are empty so can't test if they are cleanable items.

[Whiteshark]

Agree JDPower,

 

this is the right path for detect Movie Maker in my registry

 

Detect=HKCU\Software\Microsoft\MM20

 

 

(OR)

 

Detecting the installed .exe:

 

DetectFile=%ProgramFiles%\Movie Maker\moviemk.exe

 

 

 

IMHO the only entry that can be safely deleted is the last saved file path:

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MM20\Publish Wizard\MRU List

 

[grelly]

I don't normally use Movie Maker so I hadn't noticed that it was ticked in my CCleaner applications by default, I intend to use it shortly so unticking it now has likely saved me a headache later....... thanks .

[FourTeller]

While I obviously felt the need to vent a little after discovering what had happened, that was soon followed by a desire to forget about the whole thing for a while and distract myself elsewhere... hence my belated return here. As I previously mentioned, I did not recall WMM being on the application list before, which is what in large part contributed to my missing it last time around. The first few times I used CCleaner I was very particular about checking all the options from top to bottom but lately I would just do a quick visual scan as I already knew - or thought I did - what they were. Obviously if I had seen it way at the bottom of the 'Multimedia' group I would have unchecked it.

 

The more I think about it, though, I feel the editing software wasn't listed till recently as my collections would have been wiped out in previous cleanings. However, to be honest, I am not so sure previous settings always carry over from one upgrade to the next as, during installation, I am always asked the same questions about where to put CCleaner icons, buttons and so on. Anyway, I posted my experience as a cautionary tale and to hopefully spark some ideas for improvement. For instance, if in fact WMM was a new addition to the application list as I strongly suspect it was, couldn't there be some way to notify users of that fact instead of just automatically adding it for cleaning?

 

FT

 

P.S. My laptop runs XP SP2.

[knotwurthy]

A bit late to help but, under "Options" at the bottom is "History", however it only currently shows v1.38.485 and v1.37.456. On the CCleaner website main page, http://www.CCleaner.com , is the history of the last 2 versions with a link to http://www.CCleaner.com/versions.aspx , which has versions through v1.02.039. It looks like Movie Maker was added in v1.13.068. It would probably be nice if all new Application additions were not checked by default.

I usually update and run CCleaner. I guess we have to learn to review all the settings after an update.