Smart Windows Cleaner

[mommalina]

Have any of you tried this?? .

http://store2.esellerate.net/store/catalog.aspx?s=STR703984008&pc=

Smart Windows Cleaner $24.00

Download the program, and start cleaning out your computer today!
Delete cookies, typed URLs and more! The only software of it's kind that let's you specify which cookies and Typed URLS should not be deleted!

I assume it's something like CrapCleaner and Space Ace. Rich M gave up on CrapCleaner, and I've given up for now on Space Ace for other reasons.
I can't track down a review of Smart Window Cleaner; tried Google.

Smart Window Cleaner is offered by The Computer Lady. (I subscribe to her newsletter which at times is quite informative. She's a whiz at explaining things in simple language -- great for newbies and the computer-challenged).

Lina

[tonyd]

I haven't used this. I've been using JV16 at the suggestion of someone on this BBS and it's been working well.

http://www.jv16.org/

-td

[casey]

http://www.smartpctools.com/products/

Take a look here Lina, not sure if this is what you want but it does have a cleaner..

[dbarrow]

Be careful with "cleaners"!
Many of these are "automatic" and don't give you choices over what you want cleaned.
Many can strip out your cookies, passwords, logons, etc.
Some are known for "eating" essential temp files and folders.

In all truth, RBL's Space Ace was a decent product.

All depends what exactly you need to clean!
If removing remnants of uninstalled programs, that is a different kind of cleaner.

[Dan18960]

You know IF you clean your Temp files regularly (C:\Windows\Document and Settings\{username(s)}\Local Settings\Temp) AND if you don't see the Local Setting - go to the top \ Tools\ Folder Options\View (tab) and click on Show Hidden Files and Folders.

Next clean out the C:\Windows\Temp folders. IF you have the habit of creating and deleting a LOT of pictures, documents, etc - right click on My Computer, left click on Manage, and go to Disk Defragment and run it once and a while to just "compress" the hard drive.

Also, mentioning COMPRESS - IF you are working with GRAPHICS, don't waste your time. These files don't compress anyway.

Your going to have just as clean machine, less bother, and NOT make the mistake of downloading a program that craps out your computer.

[mylanta]

Good point Dan, I have "wasted" my system twice with Crap Cleaner, Space Ace kills all my cookies in Firefox, which is why I am now using Sea Monkey, and when asked, the author of Space Ace laments he doesn't have enough time to update it since Firefox is newer than SA IV.You know what for a $50 program, time should be forthcoming.
I am done tyring to find "quick fixes" for my own sloppiness. Just like jv16 which I love, the last thing I would do is turn that loose erradicating registry dupes or cleaning registry...easier to reformat and arrive at the same posture. I love it when people post questions on other forums about what to use to clean their registry. Like they want to take a dustmop to it? They have no clue that one wrong move and without backup which they never have either, they are in "wipe and load" territory with the "wipe" partially done already!
I learned a long time ago that if Windows doesn't have the utility, I probably don't need it.

[dbarrow]

Well... you know there is a CLEANUP utility in XP!
clean.exe does a fair job of removing the most common temps and junk files.

Even better, you can SCHEDULE it to run automatically!

Open NOTEPAD and past the following line:
cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:1 /sagerun:2

Save as clean.bat, type: All Files, encoding ANSI

Open Task Scheduler, create a new task, point it at your clean.bat (which I store in the %windows root drive)
set your schedule (mine runs daily at 7:00am)
finish the task and the RUN it manually one time.

From there on, clean.exe will run for a brief minute or so on a regular basis and you will never notice it.

[mylanta]

Like I said, if Windows doesn't have it, it aint necessary.
Thanks DB I won't automate it, but put shortcut in quick launch works for me.

[dbarrow]

The next "problem area" for cleaning resides in the %\Documents and Settings\User(name)\Local Settings\Temp

Everything under the sun you install on your machine loves to create its own temp folders and files in here.
Look in that Temp folder and find a whole pile of strange stuff.
Programs that LOG entries have a habit of creating daily small tmp files there. Quicken is one offender. ZA logs are another.
These never go away and over time, accumulate into a huge number of files in that folder.

The PROBLEM with most of them is knowing which you can safely delete and which you can't.
As programs often create their own temp folders here, removing the folder can cause your program to farkle.
Some of the daily log files are "in use" by the program and can't be deleted.

There are also MSI installer temps created there.
Be careful not to remove any of them or when you go to uninstall a program, the uninstall inf is missing!

Once a month or so, I go through this temp folder for the daily log files I know I can delete and strip them out by date range, leaving the most current.

Why these programs don't clean up after themselves is a mystery as well as why they insist on creating daily files.

Clean.exe does not touch this temp folder, nor do many other "cleaners".

If you find that folder bloated (for each user and the Admin and All user folders), you may want to do some cleaning.
Tread lightly!
Identify and remove what appear to be recurring daily log files making sure to leave the last one with the current date.

If there are Temp folders created by programs you no longer have installed, remove them only if you know the originating program is gone.

Most of the files and folders in there are very small and don't eat a huge amount of space so it's not like you are clearing a couple gigs of free space. It's just an unsightly mess that begs housecleaning!

DON'T FLUSH the trashcan until you are sure you have not stripped out something you need! I have found it necessary to go to the recycle bin and restore a file after taking it out of here.

[Dan18960]

Doug,

I have never had a problem deleting all the files and folders in the Temp folder (under {username} or Windows). Usually I have found that a few files won't delete and I just de-select them and continue deleting.

The ones that don't delete are usually associated with a printer, scanner, cd function, etc. But the older copies of those files delete with no problem.

I also go into the Temporary Internet files and go below the content.IE5 and delete everything there too. Hasn't lost any cookies or anything that has caused issues with IE or OE.

What I have found is that both of those locations are favorites for malware, spyware, and trojans (of course that is on OTHER people's computers).

[mylanta]

Dan,
Doug is referring to cleaning with clean.exe....I think we all know how to empty those files, the question is how to automate that. Crap Cleaner and Space Ace can empty those of course as well.

[dbarrow]

As the majority of malware and threat comes from web pages these days...
As IE will cache web pages up to the size of your HD if you let it...

You can set IE and FF to empty the cache on closing.
In the dialup days, the web cache was important to speed page loading by storing the copies locally.
With any high speed connection, it isn't necessary.

Check your settings in both IE and FF and set them to flush when finished and lower the cache size to 500mb.
Set both to block third party cookies not from the originating site (majority of these are adware and tracking cookies)

Clean.exe does empty the Temporary Internet Cache for IE but does not clean cookies.

Running the clean.bat daily with scheduler does keep things fairly clean and you won't notice it run unless you happen to be sitting in front of the screen when it does, for about 5 minutes.
Other than the \D&S\User\Local\Temp, none of my temp folders ever have anything in them.

If you have any other form of Temp folder that accumulates garbage, like log files or Word backups and tmp files, you can make a DOS .bat file to Delete *.* anything in them as well and set it to run in Task Manager.
I used to do that with a game that saved huge files on exit that would rapidly consume a partition. Forgetting my DOS, I recall you can do a delete command by date range if I'm not mistaken. Anything you can make a DOS .bat command for can run in Task Manager at whatever intervals you want. You can also do Move and Copy.
Don't forget you can also RUN any .exe using a .batch file.
I think, at one time, I had it running Space Ace that way.
Use of the CMD interface with batch commands and scheduler is a very powerful and under utilized tool in XP!

Using all the above, I run AdAware about once monthly and it never has anything to clean as nothing moved in and took up residence.

[mommalina]

After reading the feedback on this subject, I think I may not need any type of cleaner:

- I use Firefox almost exclusively, and it looks like the default settings are taking care of cookies and temporary files.

- I run Disk Cleanup weekly, and rarely are any temporary files listed. If there are any, I suspect it may be due to those very rare occasions I use Internet Explorer.

Thank you! :kiss:

Lina

[Dan18960]

Lina,

Actually, temp files are from Word, Excel, printer, scanner, and many other applications. Downloads that update programs - ie PalTalk, instant messengers, java, macromedia, etc.

But these are not as "harmful" as they were in the W98 days. The speed of the processor, the management of the operating system, and having larger hard drives has made these less of a operating threat than previously.

Rich, I have seen where either these cleaners are either not doing their jobs or users have just mis-configured them that usually I find temp files in both locations (local settings and Windows). I figure if people can SEE what they are cleaning, they are more likely to see the importance of cleaning out these areas. While it is nice to automate a lot of these functions - most users just turn them off when they are running because they can't wait the few minutes for them to complete.

But hey that is why they pay us sooner or later right! :yo: