Vista's "Recently Changed Folder" & CCleaner

[techguy]

From "Owner" or "Documents" or even in the Recycle Bin, on the left-hand side of the screen there is a link that says "Recently Changed". That link goes to a folder which contains a list of files that were recently viewed.

 

Does CCleaner clean the contents of this folder?

 

Thanks in advance.

[techguy]

From "Owner" or "Documents" or even in the Recycle Bin, on the left-hand side of the screen there is a link that says "Recently Changed". That link goes to a folder which contains a list of files that were recently viewed.

 

Does CCleaner clean the contents of this folder?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Anyone using Vista can you please try this and get back to me? Thx

[techguy]

60 people have viewed this thread. Surely someone could test this for me or tell me, it takes just a second. Thanks.

[nmarun]

I have business edition of Vista.. and I'm not sure where this 'Recently Changed' folder is. Details please.

[siegs07]

i just ran it and it looks like it doesn't delete that folder. maybe some of the CCleaner guys could look in to possibly add cleaning this to CCleaner

 

by the way, i ran a complete system recover the other day because i screwed something up and there is still files in that folder from before i recovered my disk. that's kind of weird

[techguy]

Does anyone know how to delete the contents of this folder? Nothing seems to do it and xp never had this. nmarun: go to your recycle bin. You will see the link "recently changed" on the left side.

[jeromy]

Does anyone know how to delete the contents of this folder?

 

I had (useless) data in this folder and just used the function within CCleaner to remove custom files and empty folders to delete them.

 

Options > Custom.

 

Folder is located here:

 

C:\Users\%userprofile%\Searches\Recent Documents

 

 

Make certain under "Advanced" from the main CCleaner screen you have "Custom Files and Folders" checked.

 

I'm definitely not going to keep this setting, because I don't fully know what type of data gets stored into this directory. :shrug:

[cmdkeen]

I had (useless) data in this folder and just used the function within CCleaner to remove custom files and empty folders to delete them.

 

Options > Custom.

 

Folder is located here:

 

C:\Users\%userprofile%\Searches\Recent Documents

 

 

Make certain under "Advanced" from the main CCleaner screen you have "Custom Files and Folders" checked.

 

I'm definitely not going to keep this setting, because I don't fully know what type of data gets stored into this directory. :shrug:

 

Hi,

 

I think the problem is that the folder is a "search-folder" or whatever it's called, meaning it just stores search results. Thus, the files you see when opening the folder are NO shortcuts but the actual files, meaning that if you delete any file within the folder, you delete the file itself. However, as far as I know, it's safe to delete the folder itself without deleting the files you see when you open the folder.

My question, however, is: Does Vista remember what files you changed recently? Because it looks like it and if so, is there any way for CCleaner to implement an option that deletes all information about recently changed files??

Oh, by the way, I use Home Premium (64) and on my system, CCleaner does not clean the contents of the "recently changed" folder...

[Disk4mat]

Deleted by Disk4mat

[chronos55]

From what techguy described it sounds like its a saved search. cmdkeen is correct on the point. There is also a recent places link in the upper left window pane. If your having an issue with CC cleaning recent places and recently opened documents add this as under: Options>Include

 

C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\*.lnk

 

Replace YOURNAME with your account name. This will clear both Recent Places & Recent Items. The recently chnaged files is a dynamic search folder. Nothing to clean.

if you right click on taskbar,select properties,start menu and untick the two boxes under privacy,you will no longer generate recent files and program usage

[cmdkeen]

if you right click on taskbar,select properties,start menu and untick the two boxes under privacy,you will no longer generate recent files and program usage

 

That's not entirely true, Vista still records the files that have been changed lately independently from that option.

[burtman]

That's not entirely true, Vista still records the files that have been changed lately independently from that option.

 

This is true - I tried these options, and after manually deleting the list the next time I opened any file it showed in this folder / result list.

This even includes files where, for example, I changed the read-only option even if never opened !

 

This, for those who require ultimate privacy, should be resolved (if possible) as you can open the file directly from this list (only hidden files do not show)

 

I've only recently started using Vista (due to a new purchase of a laptop which I had no choice - give me XP anyday !), and after a few initial annoyances I have been able to find each equivalent of XP options, BUT not this 'recent' list, and was most surprised after using CCleaner for a few weeks after reading this post and seen I had apparently viewed files I had no idea about

[rwgjr71]

The only way to stop the files from being displayed would be to turn of your file indexing.

 

1. click windows start menu icon.

 

2. in search box type index.

 

3. click on indexing options.

 

this opens the indexing options window

 

4. click on modify.

 

this opens the indexed locations window

 

5. un-collapse menu for you hard drive.

 

6. un-collapse menu for users.

 

7. un-check your user name.

 

8. click ok.

 

the indexing locations window will close

and bring you back to the indexing options window

 

9. click advanced.

 

this opens the advanced options window

 

10. click rebuild.

 

11. click ok.

 

12. click close.

 

your user name should be listed under the exclude column.

 

when you complete the process the index will rebuild for the other users and all of your files will be excluded.

 

this can be easily confirmed by opening a picture, rotating it, and closing it.

if done correctly your picture will not show up in the recently changed search folder.