I thought I would use Heidi Eraser to wipe my free space. I normally use an older version to wipe the Sandboxie contents upon deletion. But I downloaded the new one and wiped my free space. After it was finished I noticed that things looked different. Like the boxes that pop up when I run software or browse to a folder. The start button looks different and the task bar is white. I don't understand what happened. This is very strange.
I had to get it from sourceforge. https://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/ The Heidi Eraser site doesn't have download links. They are missing. I also tried in another browser that doesn't have any addons and the only download links were for other products.
I wonder what else it did? I right clicked on the task bar and the start button to restore defaults but ut had no effect. Looks like I'm going to do a reinstall. Oh well.
I have been meaning to learn how to create an image. I'm not very sophisticated compared to most of the users here, I'm embarrassed to say. Can you recommend a product for creating a backup image?
I've had great experience with ShadowProtect. It's very user-friendly. Not free or open-source. But it works, and seems reliable.
I would try a system restore first, before you bother with a complete reinstall. System restore does solve a lot of problems in many cases.
I use Macrium Reflect (freeware), I regularly (every 4-6 weeks) make an image. It's fairly straightforward. I can do it anyway, and I'm virtually an idiot.
SHA256: 3851189937d5d347d240a9c3703fe9f7bbc792edcbddd8ed08f34ee7d183c062 File name: Eraser6.2.0.2971-NoRuntimes.exe Detection ratio: 0 / 56 Analysis date: 2016-03-12 08:48:55 UTC ( 21 hours, 46 minutes ago )
Thanks for all of the suggestions. Much appreciated! I think I'll start with Macrium free and go from there.
I don't know what happened. I have no experience with the latest Eraser versions. I still use Eraser version 6.0.10.2620, as that version works OK for my use on Windows Vista and Windows 7, and also because I didn't like the things that I read on the Eraser forum regarding the 6.2.0.x versions. (Nothing related to the issue that you experienced, though.) At the Heidi Eraser download page, when you hover the build names, you'll notice the download links, and clicking will start the download for that build. The links are the same as those in the SourceForge Eraser download directories, except the SourceForge download links are secure https links where the Heidi links are plain http. The thing that strikes me is that the SourceForge page offers an Eraser version Eraser6.2.0.2971-NoRuntimes.exe, that is not offered at the Heidi Eraser download page. Why is that version offered at the SourceForge Eraser page and not at the Heidi Eraser download page, and what is it with the "NoRuntimes"?
Heidi could have deleted many cache files including desktop settings, themes and icons. You could also try to navigate to C:\Users\username\AppData\Local folder and then delete IconCache.db file located there and reboot. Windows will rebuild the files automatically and propagate new cache files. regards.
I went to the Heidi website and hovered over the names and you're right. I wouldn't have thought of that though because they have a column dedicated for the download links. They should fix that. I don't know what happened but I still use an older version 5.86 with Sandboxie. It probably would have worked just fine for wiping free space.
I wish I had knopwn that before I reinstalled. That would have been an interesting experiment. Thanks for the tip.
On the previous version of the Heidi Eraser download page, that "Downloads" column showed the download count per version, like there still is on the SourceForge pages. On the current version of the Heidi Eraser download page, that column is empty and that is just confusing. You are right, they should better fix that.
My mistake. It didnt come to mind earlier. Hope its all sorted now though. The good thing is at least now you should have a clean image that you always revert to. Guard that with your life , and the next problem that comes along is much less stressful. regards.