PC Cleaning, Stage II

Winuser · Apr 10, 2023

I use Revo not only to uninstall unwanted programs but also to monitor software installs so I don't see any need to run a Reg cleaner. I will say this about Reg cleaners. IMHO, it's doesn't matter what Reg cleaner is used, it's the user who does the damage. One needs to check what is going to be removed before clicking Ok. Back in the day that I did use Reg cleaners I only allowed the removal of entries for programs that I knew were no longer installed. I never ran into any problem doing it that way.

Winuser · Apr 10, 2023

Wisewiz said:
I use Disk Cleanup to wipe anything that amounts to enough to bother with

Because I'm an Insider I run Disk Cleanup Weekly. After Disk Cleanup finishes I make my System Image so that I'm prepared for the next build.

TM21 · Apr 12, 2023

Disk Cleanup, when run in 'Extended' mode, will still only clean up after Windows itself. And, Windows can be really messy!
And, Disk Cleanup will Not clean up after, browsers, hardware drivers, like NVIDIA, etc. Their crap will continue to build up on your PC till you wind up having to take it to a repair Tech.
For 40+ years, I was that repair Tech, so I know of what I speak!
I've spent literally HOURS deleting garbage from a customer's PC that had slowed to a crawl. And unfortunately, for me, I did not charge by the hour, but I had a flat rate for a Computer Tune-Up.
Many times a customer would report to me, "WOW! It didn't run that fast when it was new!"

I'm not here to put anyone down, but only to try to help, where I'm allowed to, and IF I'm allowed to.
Cheers Mate!
TM

ChrisPbass · Apr 12, 2023

TechnoMage2021 said:
So, I'm just wondering if anyone else, regularly cleans their own registry?
TM

I use CC Cleaner pretty regularly, which cleans the reg among other things.

TM21 · Apr 12, 2023

All I can say, is that if you insist on using CCleaner, make sure that you have your C Drive backed up.
I used CCleaner twice, over a period of time, and both times it totally disabled my OS from booting.
I had to resort to Restoring a full Backup of my C: drive to regain the use of my PC. So, nowadays, I won't let that program anywhere near my PC.

Taliseian · Apr 12, 2023

Your Registry does NOT need to be "cleaned". It has little impact on overall system performance and most cleaning tools, unless you personally review every removal it wants to make, opt on the side of removing too much and can easily remove keys that can cause your system to be put into a non-bootable state.

If I see system tools that want to "clean the registry", I stay far away from them.

TM21 · Apr 12, 2023

I can vouch for that. CCleaner definitely disabled my own PC.....twice.
But, even after the first bad experience, and because of all the hype, I decided to try it again. Sure nuff, it trashed my PC one more time.

Over the 40+ years I've been working on PC's, I've probably tested a dozen or more, so-called Registry Cleaners, with greatly varying results. Granted that some can get over zealous at what they remove and that can be disastrous!!
Some were even Great back in the day (Win XP) but were never updated for todays registries. "Easy Cleaner" is one of those.
Great program for the day, but no longer usable. :tears:

If you don't believe in them, and don't know how to properly use them, then definitely "stay away from them". That's my best advice, as an avid PC Cleanup freak.

At the risk of repeating myself, after years of trial and error, I've finally settled on ONE Windows Utilities package, called "WinUtils".
I recently mentioned it and made an error. I said it was FREE, but it's only free for evaluation (14 days) and then it's purely Retail Software.
Sorry About that.

So I was given the trial version by a good friend and PC enthusiast. I tried it, and all its various modules, and I decided it was well worth the very reasonable fee that they charge for it. I now own a Lifetime Key.

The HD Cleaner works well, but like 99.99% of other cleaners, it does not remove the temp garbage from Edge and Firefox. For that, and a few other hidden junk boxes, I rely on my own Cleanup.bat program (Batch File)

For those unfamiliar with Batch Files, let me say, they are nothing but a list of DOS commands, that will run sequentially when the batch file is run. A batch file which ends in .bat, is an executable, just like an .exe file. So if you have one, like my Cleanup.bat, sitting on your desktop (that's where I keep mine) a quick double click will run it and in a few seconds it's done, and your PC is clean. No fuss, no muss, no stress or strain. And, unlike the packaged software, a batch file can't take off down a dirt road and wipe out your PC. It only does what YOU tell it to do.

I'm sorry for the purists, who think the world starts and stops with MS Windows, and won't stoop to using a DOS Batch File to clean up their PC. C'mon guys, it ain't really that bad!

:tears:

thepcformula · Aug 19, 2024

TechnoMage2021 said:
That much superfluous data would surely effect performance, somehow, somewhere, even if you didn't personally notice it. Any scans would take much longer, and any backup would be much larger.
But if you don't do any scans, or backups, then yes, you may be oblivious to it.

It's only because of the quantum leaps in computing technology that we can get by with stuff like that and not have fire and smoke.

My first computer had only 64k of ram. It was a real chore, to write a program that would run in that little bit of ram.
One had to get really inventive with programming, in those days.
Nowadays, with Gigabytes of ram and Terrabytes of disk storage, we squander resources like crazy. I hate it!

The first actual computer that I ever worked on, had Vacuum Tubes in it, by the thousands. And not even one Transistor.
That came later, and I was there, to be trained on that one too.

Today, I'm running Microsoft's latest Operating System on a PC that is, according to MS, too old and too small to even run Win-11. But with good resource management, I have one very sweet running little PC.

Daily, I clean out junk files, and every few days I clean out my registry. Here's the report I got from my last HD Cleanup, using a little Batch File I wrote. I've discussed this batch file in other Threads.
View attachment 57540
And that's just the junk from a couple of days work. Think what that would be, after several months, or a year!!!
My poor little PC wouldn't even be running, by then.

thepcformula · Aug 19, 2024

Hello I am James AKA Thepcformula.
I was wondering if you would be willing to share the .bat file with me?

Sqrly · Aug 19, 2024

I do, manually, from time to time.

I install and remove a lot of games and once in awhile I go through the registry and remove entries for stuff that's not installed anymore.

Ghot · Aug 19, 2024

When I uninstall anything I use REVO and it's "scan for leftovers".
When I do use CCleaner's reg cleaner... it doesn't really find much.
It's easy to see "what" CCcleaner is asking to remove.

I do seriously miss the old JV16 Power Tools v1.3.0.195 (the last free version),
and before they started adding all the other stuff.

Unfortunately, it only half worked on Win 7, and not at all on Win 10/11

TM21 · Aug 20, 2024

Yeah, I too miss some of the old Utilities that stopped working after XP. But, most have been replaced by newer, faster and betterer Utils that do a good job. I keep "WinUtils" installed on all my PC's , mainly for the registry cleaner, although it has many other very usable features.

But since most of those packaged programs don't get all the junk that I want to get rid of. . . I've written my own Cleanup.bat program.

I'll post the text of that batch file here, for anyone who wants to use it.

Just Copy and Paste the text into any word processor, and then save it as "Cleanup.bat".

(this version is set to clean out the Temporary Internet Files, from Edge, Chrome, Waterfox and Firefox.)

@Echo off
cls
Rem: Count the number of files on "C" before the cleanup.
Echo: Performing initial file count. Please wait!
for /f "delims=" %%A in ( ' dir /a /s "C:\" ^| find /c /v "" ' ) do set Count1=%%A
Echo: Disk Cleanup now starting. Please Wait!
Del /F /S /Q C:\*.tmp
Del /F /S /Q C:\*.old
Del /F /S /Q C:\*.log
Del /F /S /Q C:\*.bak

PowerShell rm C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Temp\* -Recurse -ErrorAction:Ignore
Del /F /S /Q "C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\*.*"

Echo: Deleting Waterfox Temporary Internet Files
::TAKEOWN /F "C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Waterfox\Profiles\e7g81fpe.default-release\cache2\*.*"
Del /F /S /Q "C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Waterfox\Profiles\e7g81fpe.default-release\cache2\*.*"

Echo: Deleting Chrome Temporary Internet Files
Del /F /S /Q "C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache\*.*"

Echo Del Firefox Temporary Internet Files
del /F /S /Q "C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*.*"

Echo Del Edge Temporary Internet Files
del /F /S /Q "C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Cache\*.*"
Echo:
Echo:
TAKEOWN /F "C:\Windows\Prefetch"
del /F /S /Q "C:\Windows\Prefetch\*.*"
Echo:
Echo:
del /F /S /Q "C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\Temp\*.*"
del /F /S /Q "C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\*.*"
del /F /S /Q "C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\History\History\*.*"
del /F /S /Q "C:\Documents and Settings\%Username%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\*.*"
del /F /S /Q "C:\Documents and Settings\%Username%\Local Settings\Temp\*.*"
Echo Now deleting Recycle Bin
Echo:
PowerShell Clear-RecycleBin -force -ErrorAction:Ignore

Echo: All Recycle Bins Emptied

del /F /S /Q "C:\Users\%UserName%"\AppData\Local\temp\*.*"

Echo:
Echo:

Echo: Disk Cleanup is now complete.
Rem: Show number of files left on HD after the cleanup.
Echo: Performing File Count, After Cleaning. Please Wait!
for /f "delims=" %%A in ( ' dir /a /s "C:\" ^| find /c /v "" ' ) do set Count2=%%A
set /a deleted=%Count1% - %Count2%
Echo:
Echo: File Count before cleaning: %Count1% files
Echo:
Echo: File count after cleaning: %Count2% files
Echo:
Echo: Files deleted: %deleted% files

Echo:
Echo: The Date Is: %Date%
Echo:
Echo: The Time Is: %Time%
Echo:
Echo:
pause

pseymour · Aug 20, 2024

If I may make some suggestions (and I will), some of those folder paths bother me. :)

You use C:\Documents and Settings\%Username% in some places, and C:\Users\%UserName% in others. "Documents and Settings" is a holdover from the transition from XP to Vista and just points to the Users folder; one should probably stop using it.

But then really, the last part of the path of the user profile doesn't always match the user's name, for example if they've renamed their account. So you should use %UserProfile% instead. That will always work, even if their profile path is not C:\Users\Something.

Rather than %UserProfile%\AppData\Local, it's better to use %LocalAppData%.

Similarly for the user's temp directory, just use %Temp%. That'll work no matter where they may have redirected their temp folder, which some people do.

Using these other environment variables will make that batch script work on a wider swath of machines.

kelper · Aug 20, 2024

I think I was using EasyCleaner on XP. It made a massive difference to boot time. There was a progress bar that used to go left to right and keep repeating, I think it was a row of green dots. On a typical boot it would go through five or more repetitions. After running EasyCleaner, it did it only once.
The author claimed that Windows shipped with hundreds of errors/broken links in its registry.

Wolfzz · Aug 20, 2024

I regularly use CCleaner and occasionally use Wise Disk Cleaner and Wise Registry Cleaner ALL Portables
Never had an issue

TraderGary · Aug 20, 2024

I've never felt the need to use any kind of Registry cleaner. No matter what the size of the Registry, it is a database, and entries are accessed instantly. When the operating system loads, the Registry is loaded into memory and the amount of memory used is negligible. I just now checked, and my Registry is currently using only 6,124K of my 32GB total memory. My registry is using only .0182% of my total memory!

kelper · Aug 20, 2024

I'm sure you are right. But in the days of XP and slow disks and processors a registry cleaner made a big difference to boot times.

andrew129260 · Aug 20, 2024

I never reinstall windows, nor do I run any reg cleaners or anything like that.

System always runs well on every machine I use.

I have tried using some before but It never seemed to make any difference, and if there was a difference it was so little it barely matters.

So I do nothing. :)

TraderGary · Aug 20, 2024

kelper said:
I'm sure you are right. But in the days of XP and slow disks and processors a registry cleaner made a big difference to boot times.

Yup! My first PC was 43 years ago and today it wouldn't even be a good doorstop! It had a grand total of 64K of memory and one floppy disk drive. I paid over $5,000 USD for it and I paid another $2,000 for a 5 MB HD!. Yes, that's right, a 5 megabyte, not gigabyte, hard drive!

kelper · Aug 20, 2024

I started with a Dragon 32 which was similar to a TRS-80. It plugged in to the TV. Then I bought an IBM Ambra with an i836SX processor, so no maths co-processor. My email was martin.ross at CompuServe.com. Considering both names are common in USA, I was chuffed to blag that!

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