Updated to v1.2 Beta ChangeLog : - Improved invalid ShellBags cleanup http://privazer.com/download-shellbag-analyzer-shellbag-cleaner.php
Regarding the ShellBag analyzer, the original version displayed all of them quite well. Version 1.1 wasn't displaying anything at all. Version 1.2 seems to have fixed the problem. Perhaps my copy of 1.1 is corrupted. If not, version 1.1. has an issue that wasn't noticed but was fixed in 1.2. This is on XP-SP2. Thought you might want to know. MD5 hash for my copy of 1.1 176155f7e91a61cb4ead1aae9eaf32bb
after verififcation, we found that some lines of code were commented out inadvertently in v1.1beta. Problem solved in v1.2beta. Thanks for your help.
At Piriform Forums, they have a subforum, called: "Want to recommend some software?" My recommendation to try ShellBags - Analyzer & Cleaner was removed within 2 minutes. I did not get any warning signal. It means that Piriform is more about "the Brand marketing", not about protecting my/your privacy. Privazer created something really good.
Privazer Team I saw version 1.3 beta on your site and decided to try it. This version is displaying different results than version 1.2. Testing on an older XP-SP2 unit, both show 846 total. versions 1.0 and 1.2 show 183 deleted and 570 existing. version 1.2 shows 188 deleted and 565 existing. The 5 additional deleted are all in: C:\documents and settings\user\local settings\application data\microsoft\CD burning\ The subfolders are: Downloads_ pictures Photolmp Photolmp\contents CTRun I did not find these in the existing folders lists for version 1.2. So far I haven't found the additional 5 existing shown in version 1.2 as there's no easy way to compare the lists. Would it be possible to add an option to save the results as a log or text file?
We'just updated to v1.3beta. This version is more accurate than previous releases. 1. Do you mean 188 deleted in v1.3 beta ? 2. Do the additional paths marked as "old / deleted folder" exist on your system ? 3. We will add an option to save results in next release.
Yes, it shows 188 deleted in 1.3 vs 183 deleted in 1.2. The listed folders do not exist. edit: I found the corresponding existing entries on version 1.2. All of them are listed as "N:\" the CD drive.
Registered to say THANK YOU! Your application is perfect, especially since nobody else cares to bring us an easy way to clean this type of footprints, which are a massive privacy concern. I will certainly donate to your cause. Could you please add a way to select which entries to delete? I don't want to delete all of them, I like to have some logs in case I want to troubleshoot a problem.
But I need to just clean some entries of one type. Let's say: I want to delete access to Folder name A, but keep the log for Folder B. I'm a sysadmin and if I delete ALL "folder access" from a computer I would lose the option to troubleshoot a problem if something arises. Thanks for the fast answer Love developers who keep in touch!
I've observed a very interesting thing. Probably 90% of comments posted in this thread were before PrivaZer created ShellBag AnalyZer & Cleaner. All those "comments-before-ShellBagAnalyzer&Cleaner" were something like, "It's impossible...","Nothing you can do...", "What's the reason..., "Do you wanna hide something...", etc... As soon as PrivaZer decided to deal with those PRIVACY issues that are very important to computer users, and offered us ShellBag Cleaner for FREE, I have not noticed a lot of Thank You notes in this thread. For Moderators. Would it be possible to create a new thread called, "ShellBag Analyzer & Cleaner", in order to provide more visibility for this utility and help spread the word about it around the world? P.S. I don't work for Privazer.
Please see new version v1.4 beta of ShellBag AnalyZer + Cleaner just released http://privazer.com/download-shellbag-analyzer-shellbag-cleaner.php
Version v1.4 is a big step from v1.3. Thank you. I've tried v1.4 on XP, Windows 7, and Windows 8 computers. No issues. Thank you for fixing that "flickering" problem for Windows 7. Just a feedback. I think it would be beneficial to make a note for some Windows 8 users about the difference of using ShellBag Analyzer & Cleaner when logged as a standard user and when - as an administrator.
Thanks for the export results to text file option. That was quick. A couple of questions regarding the new version. 1, I see a new category, control panel and system. On my XP unit, the option to select these is greyed out. These can't be deleted on XP? 2, Under the control panel and system section, I see a shellbag identified only as {CCE6191F-13B2-44FA-8D14-324728BEEF2C}. What is this? I can't find this string anywhere in the registry. A Google search for this only finds unknown CLSID.
Hello, 1. it is greyed out for all Windows version XP,...Win8 because it is not recommended to delete Shellbags related to the Control panel and the system. Furthermore, we do not see any privacy issues as long as you check "scramble dates". Right ? 2. We were not able to determine what {CCE6191F-13B2-44FA-8D14-324728BEEF2C} means. This would require more investigations. if anyone has an idea, it would be nice to share.
So far, I haven't been able to find any info on this CLSID. I also can't find it anywhere in the registry. A search of the registry files for that string from outside of XP has also found nothing. Why is this "not recommended?" The CLSID {CCE6191F-13B2-44FA-8D14-324728BEEF2C} appears in the "control panel and system" section. Until I know what it is and what activity it's recording, I'm not prepared to say that it's not a privacy issue. The ShellBag MRUs in its entirety is a privacy issue. MRUs of an unspecified activity is even more so. Can I assume this to mean that you're also seeing this CLSID? Does anyone else here see this or another unknown CLSID when using ShellBag Analyzer? I've set up a fresh virtual XP-SP1 to see if I can determine when this appears in the listing. ShellBag Analyzer does not show it on a fresh install or after installing SP2 or SP3.
I take it you saw that GUID mentioned here: https://github.com/williballenthin/shellbags/blob/master/shellbags.py and noticed the other ones marked unknown? Perhaps they or one of the developers they got code/information from did some logging while testing their tool to build up a database... seeing those but never determining what they were for? I periodically nuke all the shell bag registry keys from time to time and did so earlier today. I'll try the analyzer next time and see if any of the unknowns show up.
That is one of the few results I found searching for that CLSID. Most of the search results appeared to be near duplicates of that page. I just find it quite odd that: 1, That this CLSID appears in the shellbags but not in the CLSID section of the registry. 2, That there doesn't seem to be any useful information available regarding exactly what it is.
I've tried ShellBag Analyzer & Cleaner on 4 different XP computers but could not find any CLSID in the shellbags. Some info about Windows Shell Items: Windows Shell Item format.pdf http://mirror.transact.net.au/sourc...ell Item format/Windows Shell Item format.pdf On page 24 cce6191f-13b2-44fa-8d14-324728beef2c Unknown found in XP BagMRU
Did ShellBag Analyzer display any other useful information? For example, was there Last visit information and if so was it recent or distant past did it tell you anything helpful? I don't know that it would apply or be useful, but FWIW, NirSoft's ShellBagsView (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shell_bags_view.html) provides some column information (Mode, Windows Position, Windows Size) that ShellBag Analyzer doesn't. I haven't really tried to understand the nitty gritty of the shellbag registry keys and I forget what little I knew about shell programming. IIRC, you can extend shell behavior by registering COM handlers in HKCR\CLSID. Off the top of my head I don't know whether there are pre-defined ones that the shell doesn't need to lookup that way. I dumped strings from XP SP3 shell32.dll and a number of other shellish looking dlls then searched for that CLSID... found numerous ones but not that one. However, things change due to Microsoft updates and perhaps that was registered once but got removed due to the updating or uninstall of Microsoft or some software(?). Perhaps if the PrivaZer folks wanted to they could add some extra functionality to ShellBag Analyzer so as to explicitly look for CLSID's of interest, and if found *ask* users if they would like to send some feedback on those (preferably via website rather than built-in reporting tool).
New ShellBag AnalyZer + Cleaner v1.5 released. Changelog : - New option : cleaning algorithms selection - New column : Windows position - New column : Windows size http://privazer.com/download-shellbag-analyzer-shellbag-cleaner.php Please download.
I have just tried the ShellBag AnalyZer and I'm amazed. It showed information on my computer going back to 2008. Details of files I had opened and saved and details of directories I used to have on the hard drive. Between ShellBag AnalyZer and PrivaZer I was able to remove just under 7GB of personal information. I'm shocked because every single bit of privacy software I have run multiple times with 35times overwriting has MISSED massive amounts of personal information. Since 2008 I have run Evidence Eliminator, WinOptimizer, CCleaner, Eraser, Comodo Internet Utilities and others. I once checked a few titles by running a "borrowed" copy of EnCase and found most programs didn't do what they claimed. Some left traces of files and enough information to form a case against a computer user. Others chewed up a file but left the file name and enough information to show it once existed. None of them ever got it completely right - possibly because they didn't know what the Forensic Software was looking at. I've decided to clear all the other software and stick to just ShellBag AnalyZer and PrivaZer as they do a full job of removing personal information. This thread has certainly taught me a lot more about Windows! I'm just an experienced home user, not an expert in computer work!
