PrivaZer Discussion Thread

@SunDescending2020,
all thumbnails used in Windows explorer are stored under :
C:\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
even if those are for files/folders on other internal drives or external drives.
(it was not the case of oldest versions of Windows)

PrivaZer scans files in this folder when you scan your C:\ drive with and show you a small image of what is recoverable.
For instance, I entered a folder on an external drive to see the list of photos of my son when he was a baby. The photos are on my external drive.
PrivaZer could find the appropriate thumbnails in the thumbcache when scanning the C:\ drive. See them :


So, if you want to clean the thumbnails displayed in Windows Explorer, simply clean the thumbcache files on your C:\ drive with PrivaZer
as shown here (and the thumbs.db files used for older versions of Windows that can still be there if you have upgraded) :



Result of the cleanup :


Detailed result :



The thumbcache files will be deleted at PC startup as they are protected by the system.
So don't forget to restart your PC.

 

support@privazer.com

Is there anything in the include/exclude file delete which enables clearance of files older than xx days

My laptop creates many files in \OEM\Care centre\Debug Log

I would like to automate deletion of all the files older than say 7 days and am sure it could be of benefit elsewhere also.

 

We will implement it.

 

Hello,

PrivaZer version 4.0.16 has been released.
Homepage - Download - Donors Version - Release Notes

 

It says "improved cleanup - Gom Player", but it doesn't seem to do anything more or better than it did before. Gom Player is still grayed out in the list of "video/music software" on the scan selection page.

 

maybe there's nothing to clean up on your pc?

 

I'm sure that's true, but I did simulate the problem to verify. I intentionally opened three or four videos of old TV shows that I have on my drive, then went into the registry to make sure the traces were there (they were). I closed everything and ran Privazer, and then went back to the registry. The traces were still there. In the listing of things to scan in the main screen of Privazer, if you click on "Video, Music software" and select options, it shows a checklist of programs. The first five (including VLC and Windows Media Player) are available to be checked, but everything else in the list (including GOM Player) is grayed out and can't be selected.

 

Hello @tgraf66,

Can you send us a screenshot of the keys and values concerned?
Here or at support@privazer.com

 

I just sent the e-mail. Thank you for the opportunity to help.

 

Thanks for the info.

So you're saying I also have to clean the tbn.db on C:\ with Privazer even though their location and only path shown is on the internal HDD (actually an encrypted partition on a secondary HDD).

Not exactly intuitive having to tell Privazer separately to wipe:-

C:\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

I've looked there and indeed there are a series of tbn.db files and one has more content than the others right after startup. Do you know if there is any program that will open a .db file so the content can be read?

What I'm actually interested in is any way of stopping that tbn.db being created there in the first place. As said under group policies and everywhere else in Windows settings I've found where it seemed relevant I have thumbnails turned off.

Could it be because it is an encrypted volume on a secondary HDD which is not open at start up that its particular tbn.db is not being wiped or told to be wiped?

EDIT

No still not working using the C:\ drive System > thumbnail Privazer options.

Indeed it said that a tbn.db in the location mentioned was going to be cleaned on restart. But after Restart when I launched the encrypted drive and use the 2nd HDD > Advanced User System options the Scans performed still list the same 800+ named tbn.db files.

On the C:\ drive if I use just the same System scan option (everything else unchecked) it shows over 6000 Scans performed with every one listed with a named tbn.db file too.

 

Hello @SunDescending2020,

• the "Scans performed" is here to show you where (at which path) PrivaZer tried to find a thumb.db file.
  It does not mean that it found one on that path. That's just a scan.
  
• The "Thumbs DB / Icons DB" shows you where PrivaZer found some thumbnail files. If you click on it, you will see if those files are empty or not and where they are located.
• If you want to see the details of the thumbnails contained in the thumbnail files, click on "Thumbnails & Icons (Cache)"

For instance, below, 20 traces found.



I don't know if it helps you.
Maybe you could send us the result of your scans to support@privazer.com to enable us to comment the findings.

 

@tgraf66,

thanks for the info you have emailed to us.
The cleanup of Gom Player PLUS will be improved in the next release of PrivaZer.

 

Thank you.

 

Hello @heron,

I run the script you provided and tested PrivaZer to clean your non-default temp location (C:\temp).
It is cleaned by PrivaZer without any issue.

Herre is the result of your script :


The result of the scan


The cleanup result
C:\temp is empty (sorry it is in french)

 

PrivaZer v4.0.17 Released (4 January 2021)
Website
Release Notes
Download (Donors Version)

 

I just verified the GOMPlayer Plus cleanup, and it works perfectly. Well done.

 

excellent. @The_PrivaZer_Team rules.

 

Thank you.

 

I think it's a good thing to donate something to support the development of this very good program.

 

Hey there, happy new year everybody!
Please allow me another question. I realized that Attribute Index cleaning in Privazer is unchecked by default. So, if you clean traces in the MFT and not the Attribute Index, is the name of the deleted file gone anyway or do these attributes also contain the name etc? I'm not quite sure what these attributes are... Thank you in advance! Please keep up your great work!!

 

It is the "Scans performed" that I am talking about only.

If you're using the Advanced options when you've cleaned everything including the thumbnails/icons etc if you then go back and scan again PrivaZer will show all those gone.

The "Scans performed", if I'm understanding you, then still tries to find the thumbnails/icons for the files on the drive, partition or volume you've just cleaned. As they've been deleted the actual thumbnails/icons are not found but the scan still goes through all the files looking for their thumb.db and lists the files scanned.

The question is why does it do that if you've just delete all the thumbnails/icons etc and under the System clean sub-menu everything is already shown as "0" in the dialogue box?

How is it helpful to have this information, showing the thumbnail path used and therefore the name of every file scanned? If there is nothing there after it has just been cleaned or there was nothing there in the first place why not just limit it to something like: Scans performed: 300 file paths checked (or whatever) - nothing found/all clean"?

I was thinking this thumb.db was an actual .db being kept somewhere or that PrivaZer was keeping a log of the scans.

 

I will answer as soon as I can. Sorry for the delay.

 

Questions (probably stupid ones): 1) do I need to run this on each drive to clean the USN, $log, and MFT files for each one, or does running it on the C drive only take care of all of that?
2) are the USN, $log, and MFT files cleaned for files that that remain on the drive(s), or only for files that are no longer on the drive(s)?

 

@Hukran

When a file/folder is deleted, the corresponding entry in the file table is not deleted but just marked as "free",
so that filenames + content + creation/modification/last accessed dates can still be recovered. That's a privacy issue !

Concerning the MFT (Master File Table) of NTFS-formatted drives, if you want to prevent from recovery of previously deleted files/folders , you have 3 things to perform :

1. - the erasure of MFT entries marked as free to erase particularly :
   -> $FILE_NAME attributes (containing the filename)
   -> $DATA attributes (containing the clusters where the content of the file is stored)
   -> $STANDARD_INFORMATION attributes (showing timestamps showing when a file was created, modified, and last accessed)
   -> other attributes...
   
   PrivaZer takes care of them when it cleans the MFT entries.
   
   
2. the erasure of the clusters :
   
   PrivaZer takes care of them when it cleans the free space of the storage.
   
   
3. the erasure of leftovers in the $INDEX_ROOT and $INDEX_ALLOCATION attributes of folders :
   Previoulsly deleted files can still have their filenames be listed in those $INDEX attributes (which are just indexes)
   
   PrivaZer takes care of them when it cleans the "INDEX-attributes" (see the image below)
   
   

So, your question : should PrivaZer clean the INDEX-attributes by default ?

The response is 100% yes to preserve your privacy. But this step may take a while and discourage people from using PrivaZer.
Thus, the option is there available for users looking for a maximal privacy protection :



Hope it helps,

 

@The_PrivaZer_Team

Thank you very much for your reply and clearing things up! I googled MFT attributes but couldn't find anything understandable. So basically, if you check only "MFT entries" and erase free space, recovery of files is not possible any more but the name of the file/folder can (but must not) be found in the attribute leftovers.

I'm very happy I've stumbled upon PrivaZer and I'm sure this is the best cleaner available to date.