Opinions on CCleaner settings

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Hi Loungers, as there are a lot of recommendations on using CCleaner, but no mention of what settings they use, I thought I’d post mine to let others see how it compares with their settings. Regular users will notice the ‘Advanced’ section is missing. I do not use any of them.

29694-RR

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I also add the old prefetch data in the advanced section, but otherwise similar to what you show.

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I also add the old prefetch data in the advanced section, but otherwise similar to what you show.

I read in another forum, The Elder Geek on Windows by quietman7 its best left alone.

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I’ll choose to keep some cookies alive.
I also don’t include “Last Download Location”.

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I’ll choose to keep some cookies alive.
I also don’t include “Last Download Location”.

I normally uncheck FF cookies as I find it better cleaning it out manually. Interesting your inclusion of LD Location, i’ll look in to it.

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I also drop the; “show prompt to backup registy issues” & “only delete temp file less than 24 hrs old”.
I find CCleaner’s registry cleaner to be a very mild and safe tool.

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Thanks Clint, I over time, have stopped doing anything to the registry but have used CC to clean mine after doing a removal without any trouble. As to ‘Last DL Location’ when using snipping tool, I always save to desktop but it always wants to save to normally pictures folder, can I set it to always save to desktop?

On another thread Ted Myers said he used Absolute Uninstaller. I used it to remove Avast but icon still shows in taskbar notification area. Back to MSE

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Thanks Clint, I over time, have stopped doing anything to the registry but have used CC to clean mine after doing a removal without any trouble. As to ‘Last DL Location’ when using snipping tool, I always save to desktop but it always wants to save to normally pictures folder, can I set it to always save to desktop?

On another thread Ted Myers said he used Absolute Uninstaller. I used it to remove Avast but icon still shows in taskbar notification area. Back to MSE

Roderunner, I have been trying Absolute Uninstaller since Revo Uninstaller free edition does not uninstall 64 Bit apps whereas Absolute Uninstaller does (It was suggested by another Lounger) I still use Revo for most of my uninstalls.

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Roderunner, I have been trying Absolute Uninstaller since Revo Uninstaller free edition does not uninstall 64 Bit apps whereas Absolute Uninstaller does (It was suggested by another Lounger) I still use Revo for most of my uninstalls.

Hi, Ted! That vote for Absolute Uninstaller came from me. I just got my new Windows 7 64-bit laptop up and running the way I wanted it. Glary Utilities contains the Absolute Uninstaller module, and is entirely free. I have used it successfully on everything OEM I wanted to kill off, except that it failed to remove OEM Office Home and Student 2007. That required more specialized tools, as the uninstaller for Office Home and Student went belly-up after declaring that “the language selected is not compatible with your operating system”. (What the???) Otherwise, Absolute Uninstaller is just fine for 64-bit Windows.

On my Windows XP machine, cleaning the Prefetch improves system performance. This is due to a BADLY written Intel ProSet driver (WiFi). I also clear all Forms Data from all browsers, as well as Empty the Recycle Bin. On my new Toshiba (Win-7 64-bit) laptop, I have Google Chrome with an Extension which cleans everything for me, but I still like to do a little Registry cleaning once in awhile. Glary Utilities has a module for this, too, as well as System Cleanup (They call this “cleaning (one’s) tracks”.). All in one package which is fully 64-bit aware.

-- rc primak

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Thanks Ted, since posing my question re CCleaner I found this site. http://docs.piriform.com/ccleaner

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I leave every setting at default with the exception of unchecking cookies for IE and Firefox. I prefer to eyeball those myself.

I do not bother with anything in the Advanced section, and I would not allow CCleaner to clear out the prefetch because Windows manages and updates prefetch. Every time it is cleared it has to be built again from scratch.

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I do not bother with anything in the Advanced section, and I would not allow CCleaner to clear out the prefetch because Windows manages and updates prefetch. Every time it is cleared it has to be built again from scratch.

There’s a big difference between ‘cleaning’ and ‘clearing’.

My version would have read “I would allow CCleaner to clean out the prefetch because Windows manages and updates prefetch badly” and “Every time it (the Prefetch folder) is deleted or emptied it has to be built again from scratch, CCleaner only removes redundant and old entries“.

By default, the Prefetch becomes full of all sorts of rubbish; as well as files that would speedup the windows boot process and regulary used program’s loading times, it also stores links to old installers, etc. from the Temp and download folders. Ccleaner only removes old (14+ days since last loaded) prefetch data, which is very likely to be the dross, certainly not anything that is loaded regularly by Windows. As the prefetch list is finite (128 entries), I prefer to have it used for preloading useful files.

Don’t believe it? Check the box and click analyse then double-click the resulting Prefetch entry and read it for yourselves.

WinPrefetchView (I use this to manually clean W7’s prefetch) will allow you to further study the contents of the Prefetch folder; you’ll notice that, even after you’ve run CCleaner’s Prefetch cleaner, that there will still be many useless files there.

Old Prefetch Data – (XP only) To run quickly, Windows uses prefetch files to store information about programs that you frequently use. The Cleaner deletes old prefetch data for programs that no longer exist or haven’t been used in a long time.

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I would not allow CCleaner to clear out the prefetch because Windows manages and updates prefetch. Every time it is cleared it has to be built again from scratch.

Yeah, that one setting to leave alone. I think it is uncheck by default too.

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Ted,

Is the “Absolute Uninstaller” you mentioned, the one made by Glary. Is this the one: http://www.glarysoft.com/absolute-uninstaller/?

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Ted,

Is the “Absolute Uninstaller” you mentioned, the one made by Glary. Is this the one: http://www.glarysoft…e-uninstaller/?

Yes it is.

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After going through tthe online help, I had customized which cookies to keep (as some pages remember some settings which I prefer, like local regional news).
I only clear the histroy if I goofed up a website (like typing in goole.com) as I like autocomplete.
I always purge the recycle bin…
I compact firefox databases, otherwise have to do it manually in firefox.
I don’t like autoexiting as I like to see how much was cleaned, and only delete temp files older than 24 hrs.

As to prefetch data, the only impact this could have is a slower boot on the next boot as windows rebuilds this data – so no harm done and I purge it.

As to cleaning the registry, I don’t use ccleaner as it has broken office 2007 on me before by doing this.

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I’ve been using CCleaner since being recommended by a friend with no problems ever. I have always left the default settings as they were. I’m going to re-read the comments though and maybe make a tweak as a result. I’ve been using the unpaid version of Revo for a long time and never once experienced any problems. Good stuff.

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I’ve been using CCleaner for three years, and I do a few things differently from your example. I chose not to clean Run, Taskbar Jump Lists, or DNS Cache. I do Empty Recycle Bin, which really doesn’t matter much, because I generally do permanent file deletions anyway. I also Compact Databases in Firefox.

For cookies, I generally use the Options to select cookies that I want to keep right before I run CCleaner, then let it delete all the others.

In Advanced Options, I only clean temp files older than 24 hours, and I don’t close the program after cleaning.

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I stopped using CC because it always disconnects my printer by changing the HP HKey registry. Any ideas how to prevent this?

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I stopped using CC because it always disconnects my printer by changing the HP HKey registry. Any ideas how to prevent this?

Hi Simcha and welcome to the Lounge!

Is this happening when you run the registry cleaner module? Before you allow the deletion of the registry settings CCleaner has determined can be removed, you can browse through the list and uncheck any you do not want changed. Try to find the reference to the HP printer key and remove the check mark so CCleaner does not remove the key. Evidently when the key is removed, another is created that is not correct.

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I downloaded Glary Utilities and it found hundreds of empty folders on my system. As I know just enough about computers to get me into trouble but not enough to get me out, I thought I would pose the question- Is it safe to mass delete all empty folders on my system with the thought that if any are needed they would be recreated at that time? Or should I leave enough alone as I am not hurting for disc space at this time (and how much space could an empty folder take up anyway?) Thanks in advance for any advice on this!

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I downloaded Glary Utilities and it found hundreds of empty folders on my system. As I know just enough about computers to get me into trouble but not enough to get me out, I thought I would pose the question- Is it safe to mass delete all empty folders on my system with the thought that if any are needed they would be recreated at that time? Or should I leave enough alone as I am not hurting for disc space at this time (and how much space could an empty folder take up anyway?) Thanks in advance for any advice on this!

Hi Jeff, please note I know absolutely nothing re Glary Utls. As to your hundreds of empty folders, just run CCleaner as per my settings post #1, if not removed or filled after a week its your decision what is done.

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I downloaded Glary Utilities and it found hundreds of empty folders on my system. As I know just enough about computers to get me into trouble but not enough to get me out, I thought I would pose the question- Is it safe to mass delete all empty folders on my system with the thought that if any are needed they would be recreated at that time? Or should I leave enough alone as I am not hurting for disc space at this time (and how much space could an empty folder take up anyway?) Thanks in advance for any advice on this!

I would briefly glance over the list of folders, just in case. But almost all will be Temp or empty Folders. It is usually safe to just hold your nose and dive in with Glary Utilities. I haven’t had it delete anything I really needed, although I do like to have a few empty user data folders on my desktop waiting for certain downloads and other files I am currently using. Mostly, I only go as far as letting Glary erase my tracks and clean up the Registry. None of the other utilities should be run too frequently, as empty folders do not take up much space, and sometimes they are there for a reason. Temp Folders should remove themselves during a Windows restart (although they don’t always do so).

-- rc primak

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I tend to get rid of anything temporary, in the IE, WE and System sections. In the Apps section, I have everything checked except Windows Update Logs. In the Options section, I have CC delete temp folders older than 24hrs, always prompt for registry backups and save all settings to INI file. In addition I use the winapp2.ini within my config.

Been using CC for years and it’s been as solid as a rock – never found it removing anything it shouldn’t. Great tool – thank you!

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Having read all posts with great interest, I have now set CCleaner to keep the cookies I want. My home page and WSL only.

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Remember the old saying, “your mileage may vary” ?
Well, my experience with CCleaner has been all bad. I’ve tried it twice, over a several year period and both times I’ve tried it, it has trashed my computer and I had to do a Ghost Restore to go back to before I ran CCleaner.

As for all those junk files that windows seems to want to keep forever……I use the Extended Disk Cleanup, which expands the scope of the Windows Disk Cleanup program to include many more folders and hideaways for those junk files.

Then I went through my HD looking for places where Programs have stored their own temp files, etc.
Most programs, even AVG, are horrible house keepers, , , they make temp files and NEVER delete them.
The Firefox cache is another place ignored by Disk Cleanup, for instance.

So, I wrote a Cleanup.bat program to delete the files stored in all these particular places. I put a shortcut to that batch file in my Startup folder, so it runs automatically every time I reboot my PC. I call that my FREE Maid Service.

My desire to keep my PC FREE of junk files is not just a fetish, but a desire to keep my PC running as fast and efficient as I can.
Efficiency has been my ‘Thing’ for most of my adult life. When a PC is loaded with thousands of junk files, it just makes managing the HD that much more difficult and it greatly extends the time it takes to do any Anti-Spyware or Anti-Virus scans.
Also, if you’re backing up your C drive every week like I do, you will want to keep your C drive as garbage free as possible, so the backup image takes up as little space as possible.

I back up my C drive with XXXXXXX, run from a DOS boot disk. When backing up XP, which is on a FAT-32 formatted HD, I can clean out all the junk files, even the pagefile and old Restore Points, from batch files on the boot disk.
I can even do the same thing on an NTFS formatted HD, by first running NTFS4DOS from the boot disk and then running my cleanup batch files.
It keeps my Backup Image file several gigabytes smaller than otherwise.

I apologize, if I got off topic. We old-timers tend to do that sometimes.

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I’ve just re read all posts, there is no mention of ‘task scheduling’ Ccleaner. Do you do so???

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