Frustrated with System Cleaner

I decided to give the system cleaner a very limited try today. I don't usually use security suites, not to mention system cleaners, as I tend to be apprehensive about doing any widespread cleanup, especially with hard drives as large as they are today.

That being said, I logged on to my administrator account to set up the cleaner to behave how I wanted it to. My WSA setup prevents non-administrators from making setting changes.

Once it was setup how I wanted, which included unchecking firefox cache, windows temp, and system temp, as I definitely did not want to clean those, I logged back onto my standard user account to run the cleaner.

As I watched it chug away, my jaw dropped and my blood pressure rose as I saw it cleaning stuff I told it not to.

Then it hit me...was the system cleaner settings non-administrative? Does each user get to set their own preferences? I don't personally like that, as I don't want visitors using a standard account getting to pick what to delete on my computer.

Nevertheless, I went into the cleanup settings, which were on defaults for my standard user, and attempted to change them to what I wanted. It wouldn't let me save them though, due to the non-administrative setting change restriction.

So, something isn't working correctly here...the system cleaner appears to be something every user gets their own settings for, yet they can't change them if there is a setting restriction in place? That can't be working as intended.

On a side but very important note: I use Firefox Sync to synchronize all my cookies, saved logins, passwords, history, etc. between my two main personal computers. By Webroot clearing out the "Mozilla Firefox - Cache", I am assuming that means just the cache, or data files. I hope Webroot did NOT delete any of my saved cookies, passwords, etc.

Also, what is the possible risks of deleting windows/system temporary files? Some people do it regularly while my friend did it and somehow it caused an issue with World of Warcraft, so he claimed. This is the kind of cleanup I recommend not doing, and if it must be done, Windows has a tool for it. I'm afraid I'm just not a suite guy...I really like just the Antivirus version.

Sorry to have something negative to say.

 

I steer clear of WSA System Cleaner. For over a year now, I have been using Window's cleanmgr.exe in Scheduled Tasks, with my customised cleanup configuration set, to do a weekly cleanup.

Are you saying that you would advise against even this Windows cleanup tool? What problems might it cause?

 

Firefox - Cache is only temporary files cache.

As to user and windows temp files...

The Windows rules for temp files are "If you still need them, lock them. When you unlock them, you are saying you don't need them anymore." So the cleaner will not clean any locked files (checked and tested this). That doesn't mean that everything follows the rules. WoW, when doing updates, as well as background updates, will put unlocked files into temp. So if system cleaner is run while these files are there, it will delete them, since they are unlocked. Then when WoW goes back to look for them, it won't find them, and the update will fail.

Did you remember to click Save Settings after setting the cleanup functions the way you wanted them? This is the most common problem and a thing I've missed before too.

For "safe" cleaning that helps the computer a touch but doesn't affect convenience stuff or important diagnostics stuff, I clean up:
Windows Desktop: Recycle Bin
Windows System: Windows Temporary Folder, System Temporary Folder, Windows Update Temporary Folder, Windows Registry Streams, CD Burning Storage Folder
Applications: NOTHING!!! Muahahahahaha! Except one a month the Sun Java Cache Files, just in case a web site loaded a Java exploit into cache.
Internet Explorer: Nothing... I would do Temporary Internet Files, but I don't use IE.

Most everything else is "privacy cleanup" and inconveniences me more than it benefits anything.

I make sure I don't do a cleanup when anything else that could get confused is running, and no scheduled cleanups.

 

In reply to Techfox:

Thanks for your suggestions!

Not knowing much about computers, I have been using a sort of Idiot’s Guide to computer house-cleaning, which I found on the Internet: see here.

The webpage advises setting up your cleanup configuration with “CLEANMGR /sageset:1”, which allows you to easily select and save the configuration you want (in XP—yes, I am still using that prehistoric OS on my now six-year old workhorse), and then adding "/sagerun:1" to your command. I have the cleanup scheduled: once a week. I have unchecked anything I am unsure about, ie. Downloaded Program Files, Office Setup Files, Temporary Remote Desktop Files, Compress Old Files & also Recycle Bin (I prefer to empty Recycle Bin manually so I can double-check I haven’t accidentally deleted any files!). Looking at my configuration again, I think I may check Downloaded Program Files and Temporary Remote Desktop Files for future cleanups (?).

Remember: I’m pretty ignorant when it comes to this kind of thing .So what you say about WoW was going way over my head. However, if I have understood correctly, this might explain why yesterday morning, when I saw the Windows Update icon in the taskbar and confirmed that I wished to install, the update failed. The previous night Cleanup (and then ChkDsk) had been running. However after rebooting the machine a second time, it updated successfully.

 

No, my intent was not to advise for it nor against it; I am indifferent to it. I do not feel it generally is absolutely necessary, but if you wish to do it, by all means do it.

My intent in saying that was to point out that a lot of times features are included in suites that are already built into Windows. For example, many people purchase clean up utilities like TuneUp, while in reality, the grand majority of its functions can be done solely with Windows and are often not very difficult to do either. One of the only things TuneUp does that Windows will not is clean out unused registry entries - and Microsoft purposely doesn't include a registry cleaner into Windows because they don't believe it is necessary. Who are you going to trust...the makers, or 3rd parties trying to sell a product?

That's all I was trying to say...I'm not a suite guy.

@Techfox1976: I agree with most of your advice and thank you for your knowledge on the issue I am having.

Having looked through the settings yet again, I can see that MOST of this stuff is pretty benign and shouldn't cause any issues.

The defaults of System Cleaner in WSA will clean:

* Recycle bin (No risk other than user error)
* Recent document history (No risk other than user error)
* Run history (No risk other than user error)
* Search history (No risk other than user error)
* Windows temporary folder (Low risk; can affect apps that need unlocked files)
* System temporary folder (Low risk; can affect apps that need unlocked files)
* Mozilla Firefox cache (No risk)
* Adobe Acrobat Pro recent files (No risk other than user error)
* Adobe Acrobat Pro user preferences (Low risk; why erase your settings?)
* Microsoft Office recent files (No risk other than user error)
* Windows DirectInput recent files (Unknown risk - do you know?)
* Windows WBEM log files (Unknown risk - do you know?)
* IE address bar history (No risk other than user error)
* Temporary internet files (No risk)
* URL history (No risk other than user error)
* Clean index.dat (Unknown risk - do you know?)

So my issue is two-fold: As I stated in my original post, WSA did not save my settings from my administrator account. Either that is the glitch in itself, or the glitch is that because of the setting restriction, my standard users cannot make their own settings when they should be able to, if that makes sense.

I have Obssessive Compulsive Disorder. I didn't just remember to click Save All; I clicked it after every setting page twice. This is not the issue.

 

The configuration of the System Cleaner is on a per-user basis, as most of the cleanup routines will specifically affect just the selected user account. It's possible that your configuration of blocking non-administrators from changing configuration options is preventing changes to the non-default settings in the System Cleaner - I'll be taking a look at that

However, to answer your concerns: Firefox cleanup is only over the cache (not cookies/passwords/etc.) and the Temp folders won't cause problems as the data stored there is meant to be deleted.

 

Thanks Joe!

So in that case if indeed the system cleaner is a per user basis, which I can understand now that I realize a lot of it is user specific, then it needs to allow users to change their own settings even if they are non-administrators since the system cleaner is non-administrative, otherwise standard users would have no way to change those settings under a "only allow administrators to make changes" configuration.