PC Cleaning, Stage II

andrew129260 · Aug 20, 2024

My first pc was a windows 95 compaq.

I think it had a 2GB hard drive, 8mb ram.

Fast little bugger for what it was. I was lucky that a family friend knew I loved computers and since my family was quite poor, offered it to me as he was upgrading. I think I received it right when windows 98 was about to release.

He gave me the aol cd and also told me the trick to get constant free access. (by uninstalling and reinstalling it multiple times, deleting a certain file between installs)

I had later got some money doing odd jobs around the neighborhood and eventually upgraded to windows 98 as well as bumping the memory to 32 mb I believe.

Man, that was a wild time for me.....

kelper · Aug 20, 2024

When I was on my computer, it tied up the phone line. I can remember the weird tones as the modem negotiated a connection. Any program would take hours to download. I think the phone number was a 1-800 number but I paid a subscription for the internet. My dad never complained so I guess it did not show on the phone bill!

TM21 · Aug 20, 2024

TraderGary said:
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!

Gary, you're just another Auld Fahrt, like me.
But that's where we differ. You like to spend money and I don't. You bought your first PC for $5000, and I built my own for just a few hundred.
Then I re-programmed the old Erso BIOS to speed it up, and to display my name on boot up! Loads of run.

I started out with 64 meg of ram, and two Single Sided IBM, Full Height floppy drives and a Seagate ST225, 20 Meg HD.

That got updated to an ST4038, 30 Meg drive and I thought I was in deep cotton. lol

Retail on that ST4038 was $700. I got three of them, for FREE.

On that first PC, I learned how to re-align those old IBM Floppy Drives, something I had done a lot on the Commodore 1541 Disk Drives.
I made a lot of money, re-aligning disk drives for people.

Building that first PC, and learning how to fix it when something went wrong, launched me into the PC business.
I also had to learn DOS. My first copy of DOS 2.0 was given to me by a good friend. Then I learned how to write DOS batch menus, using Ansi Color. I loved doing that.

BOY, it's been years since I've even thought about doing all that stuff.

Seymour, if you want to re-write my Cleanup.bat program, go ahead, but just know that it works perfectly GOOD for me.
And I did write it for me, and my PC's and the programs and browsers that I use. I don't use the Chrome browser, but I added that for those who do. Some day, I may also add Safari. I have a friend who likes that one.

Cheers Y'all!
TM

TM21 · Aug 20, 2024

OH, I forgot to mention..... I've always knows that a Windows Registry can get corrupted, and periodic cleaning can fix that.
There used to be a forum where you could get Banned for just mentioning Registry Cleaning. !!!

The worse Registry I ever saw was my own, after I Uninstalled Windows OFFICE 2003 (I think it was)
The Windows Uninstaller seemed to remove the program from my HD just fine.
But then, I decided to try my Registry Cleaner, , , it ran, and ran, and ran, and ran, and when it stopped scanning, it had uncovered 30 megabytes of CRAP related to OFFICE, that the uninstaller had just left behind. Deleting that CRAP, reduced the size of my registry by 1/3.
For years, I ran a tweak that loaded the registry into RAM on boot, for faster operation. So keeping the registry as lean and clean as possible really helped my PC's performance. Doing that really isn't required any more, with the FAST SSD's.

Just like someone will keep the dust off of the Grand Piano, I like to keep the dust out of my registry. :wink:

Cheers Mates!
TM

PS: I used to do Registry Cleaning for my customers, and often the Cleaner would remove THOUSANDS of dead entries. Greatly reducing the size of their registry, and improving the over all system performance.

TraderGary · Aug 21, 2024

TechnoMage2021 said:
Gary, you're just another Auld Fahrt, like me.
But that's where we differ. You like to spend money and I don't. You bought your first PC for $5000, and I built my own for just a few hundred.
Then I re-programmed the old Erso BIOS to speed it up, and to display my name on boot up! Loads of run.

I started out with 64 meg of ram, and two Single Sided IBM, Full Height floppy drives and a Seagate ST225, 20 Meg HD.
View attachment 105614

That got updated to an ST4038, 30 Meg drive and I thought I was in deep cotton. lol

Retail on that ST4038 was $700. I got three of them, for FREE.
View attachment 105615

On that first PC, I learned how to re-align those old IBM Floppy Drives, something I had done a lot on the Commodore 1541 Disk Drives.
I made a lot of money, re-aligning disk drives for people.

Building that first PC, and learning how to fix it when something went wrong, launched me into the PC business.
I also had to learn DOS. My first copy of DOS 2.0 was given to me by a good friend. Then I learned how to write DOS batch menus, using Ansi Color. I loved doing that.
View attachment 105616
BOY, it's been years since I've even thought about doing all that stuff.

Seymour, if you want to re-write my Cleanup.bat program, go ahead, but just know that it works perfectly GOOD for me.
And I did write it for me, and my PC's and the programs and browsers that I use. I don't use the Chrome browser, but I added that for those who do. Some day, I may also add Safari. I have a friend who likes that one.

Cheers Y'all!
TM

We launched ourselves into the PC business in quite different ways. Instead of going the hardware fixing and repair route as you did, I spent the first year with my new IBM PC working day and night to learn programming. At the end of that year, I passed the interviews to become a software engineer at a major corporation. Over the years I wrote the software for their internal telephone system and their customer support system among many other projects. I did well enough to take early retirement some 20 years ago and become my own boss trading stocks.

thepcformula · Aug 29, 2024

TechnoMage2021 said:
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

Revised .bat file to work on all windows computers.

**START**
start copying below)

@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!

Rem: Delete various types of temporary files
Del /F /S /Q C:\*.tmp
Del /F /S /Q C:\*.old
Del /F /S /Q C:\*.log
Del /F /S /Q C:\*.bak

Rem: Cleanup user temp directories
PowerShell -Command "Remove-Item -Path $env:TEMP\* -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue"
PowerShell -Command "Remove-Item -Path 'C:\Users\Public\AppData\Local\Temp\*' -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue"

Rem: Delete browser temporary internet files
for /D %%D in ("%LOCALAPPDATA%\*") do (
if exist "%%D\Cache\" Del /F /S /Q "%%D\Cache\*.*"
if exist "%%D\Temp\" Del /F /S /Q "%%D\Temp\*.*"
)

Rem: Cleanup Prefetch directory
Echo: Cleaning up Prefetch directory
TAKEOWN /F "C:\Windows\Prefetch" /R /D Y
ICACLS "C:\Windows\Prefetch" /T /grant:r everyone:F
Del /F /S /Q "C:\Windows\Prefetch\*.*"

Rem: Cleanup Recycle Bin
Echo: Emptying Recycle Bin
PowerShell -Command "Clear-RecycleBin -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue"

Rem: Cleanup other possible temporary directories
for /D %%D in ("C:\Documents and Settings\*") do (
if exist "%%D\Local Settings\Temp\" Del /F /S /Q "%%D\Local Settings\Temp\*.*"
if exist "%%D\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\" Del /F /S /Q "%%D\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\*.*"
if exist "%%D\Local Settings\History\History\" Del /F /S /Q "%%D\Local Settings\History\History\*.*"
)

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: File Count before cleaning: %Count1% files
Echo: File Count after cleaning: %Count2% files
Echo: Files deleted: %deleted% files

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

pause
(stop here)
**STOP**

thepcformula · Sep 8, 2024

pseymour said:
%UserProfile%

TechnoMage2021 said:
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

Try this script. It's organized and redundant and old code removed. Must run as Administrator.

@echo off
setlocal

:: Check for administrative privileges
echo Checking for administrative privileges...
net session >nul 2>&1
if %errorlevel% neq 0 (
echo This script requires administrative privileges. Please run as Administrator.
pause
exit /b
)

:: Clear screen
cls

:: Perform initial file count on "C:" drive
echo Performing initial file count. Please wait...
for /f "delims=" %%A in ('dir /a /s "C:\" ^| find /c /v ""') do set "Count1=%%A"

:: Start cleanup process
echo Disk Cleanup now starting. Please wait!

:: Delete common temporary files
echo Deleting common temporary files...
del /f /s /q "C:\*.tmp" >nul 2>&1
del /f /s /q "C:\*.old" >nul 2>&1
del /f /s /q "C:\*.log" >nul 2>&1
del /f /s /q "C:\*.bak" >nul 2>&1

:: Cleanup user-specific temporary files
echo Deleting user-specific temporary files...
PowerShell -Command "Remove-Item -Path '%Temp%\*' -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue" >nul 2>&1
PowerShell -Command "Remove-Item -Path '%LocalAppData%\Temp\*' -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue" >nul 2>&1

:: Cleanup browser caches
echo Deleting browser temporary files...
for %%B in (
"Waterfox\Profiles\*\cache2"
"Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache"
"Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\cache2"
"Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Cache"
) do (
if exist "%LocalAppData%\%%B" (
del /f /s /q "%LocalAppData%\%%B\*.*" >nul 2>&1
)
)

:: Cleanup Windows Prefetch
echo Deleting Windows Prefetch files...
takeown /f "C:\Windows\Prefetch" /r /d y >nul 2>&1
del /f /s /q "C:\Windows\Prefetch\*.*" >nul 2>&1

:: Clear Recycle Bin
echo Emptying Recycle Bin...
PowerShell -Command "Clear-RecycleBin -Confirm:$false -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue" >nul 2>&1

:: Perform file count after 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"

:: Calculate and display file count results
set /a Deleted=%Count1% - %Count2%
echo.
echo File Count before cleaning: %Count1% files
echo File Count after cleaning: %Count2% files
echo Files deleted: %Deleted% files

:: Display date and time
echo.
echo The Date Is: %Date%
echo The Time Is: %Time%
echo.

pause

thepcformula · Sep 8, 2024

**This new clean.bat script will work on Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11

@Echo off
cls
setlocal

:: Define common paths
set "TEMP_DIR=%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Temp"
set "CHROME_CACHE=%LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache"
set "FIREFOX_CACHE=%LocalAppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles"
set "EDGE_CACHE=%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Cache"
set "THORIUM_CACHE=%LocalAppData%\Thorium\User Data\Default\Cache"
set "THORIUM_COOKIES=%LocalAppData%\Thorium\User Data\Default\Cookies"
set "PREFETCH_DIR=C:\Windows\Prefetch"
set "WIN_UPDATE_DIR=C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download"
set "ERROR_REPORT_DIR=C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive"
set "WIN_INSTALLER_CACHE=C:\Windows\Installer\$PatchCache$"
set "DEFENDER_CACHE=C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Scans\History"
set "EVENT_LOGS_DIR=C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs"

:: Define file patterns to delete
set "FILE_PATTERNS=*.tmp *.old *.log *.bak"

:: Define all directories for cleanup
set "DIRS=%TEMP_DIR% %CHROME_CACHE% %FIREFOX_CACHE% %EDGE_CACHE% %THORIUM_CACHE% %THORIUM_COOKIES% %PREFETCH_DIR% %WIN_UPDATE_DIR% %ERROR_REPORT_DIR% %WIN_INSTALLER_CACHE% %DEFENDER_CACHE% %EVENT_LOGS_DIR%"

:: Count files on "C:" before cleanup
Echo Performing initial file count. Please wait...
for /f "delims=" %%A in ('dir /a /s /b "C:\" ^| find /c /v ""') do set Count1=%%A

:: Disk Cleanup
Echo Disk Cleanup now starting. Please wait...
PowerShell -Command "& {
$dirs = @('%TEMP_DIR%', '%CHROME_CACHE%', '%FIREFOX_CACHE%', '%EDGE_CACHE%', '%THORIUM_CACHE%', '%THORIUM_COOKIES%', '%PREFETCH_DIR%', '%WIN_UPDATE_DIR%', '%ERROR_REPORT_DIR%', '%WIN_INSTALLER_CACHE%', '%DEFENDER_CACHE%', '%EVENT_LOGS_DIR%')
$patterns = @($env:FILE_PATTERNS -split ' ')

# Delete common temporary file types
$patterns | ForEach-Object { Remove-Item -Path "C:\$_" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue }

# Delete files from defined directories
$dirs | ForEach-Object {
if (Test-Path $_) {
Remove-Item -Path "$_\*.*" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
}

# Delete Prefetch files and old event logs
Remove-Item -Path "$env

REFETCH_DIR\*" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Remove-Item -Path "$env:EVENT_LOGS_DIR\*" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

# Optional: Delete System Restore Points
Disable-ComputerRestore -Drive 'C:' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Enable-ComputerRestore -Drive 'C:' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

# Clear Recycle Bin
Clear-RecycleBin -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}"

:: Perform final file count
Echo Performing file count after cleaning. Please wait...
for /f "delims=" %%A in ('dir /a /s /b "C:\" ^| find /c /v ""') do set Count2=%%A
set /a deleted=%Count1% - %Count2%

:: Display results
Echo File count before cleaning: %Count1% files
Echo File count after cleaning: %Count2% files
Echo Files deleted: %deleted% files
Echo The Date Is: %Date%
Echo The Time Is: %Time%

pause
endlocal

**Enjoy! Please modify and share if you'd like to make it even better**

Winuser · Sep 8, 2024

thepcformula said:
**This new clean.bat script will work on Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11

When it finishes is it supposed to just close? That's what happened when I ran it as Admin.

pseymour · Sep 8, 2024

@thepcformula

You're making things harder on yourself, checking for the \Users folder or Docs&Settings. The last time the latter was used as a "real" folder was XP. And you're tacking on the user name to the end of whichever path you choose. The user's name does not always match their profile folder, e.g., if the account has been renamed but not the folder. Just use %USERPROFILE% for the profile folder and avoid the whole mess.

Similarly, you're defining variables for local and roaming AppData, along with the user's temp folder, when there are already %LOCALAPPDATA%, %APPDATA%, and %TEMP%, respectively. The variables already exist, and those folders may not be where you're expecting them to be. Usually they are, but not always.

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