System Restore points cleaner

[xpsunny]

It would be great if CCleaner can clean up old system restore points.....BECAUSE they occupy 12% of net HDD space. It would really be an awesome feature.

 

Also SP3 uninstaller cleaner would be real wow.......although CCleaner has Hotfix cleaner....but it lacks SP's uninstaller cleaner.

[YoKenny]

BECAUSE they occupy 12% of net HDD space.

I moved the slider in System Restore to only take up 5% of my HDD space.

 

I prefer to leave the Restore points alone until I run Windows cleanmgr.exe myself then select to remove all but the most recent Restore Points in More Options tab.

[xpsunny]

Well, most users do not bother to slide down the slider, majority of the PCs have the quota set to 12%.

 

Moreover if there is a malfunction in the Windows Clock then system restore points disappear from the restore tool even though they exist.

 

And the default Windows Cleanup utility does NOT delete them........................

 

Do you now understand the sensitiveness of Restore Points: complete dependency on Windows Clock...

[YoKenny]

I use Neutron to keep my system clock accurate so I don't worry about incorrect Restore Points being deleted.

Neutron is a very simple and small time synchronizing program that retrieves the accurate time from one of several specialized time servers on the Internet. Once the network time has been retrieved the program can set your computer's clock to match it.

 

Options in the program enable you to automatically obtain the time from the time server and set your clock appropriately at program startup. It is also possible to have the program automatically exit after the time has been set and so is ideal for placing a shortcut in your Startup folder to sync your clock when your computer is started.

http://keir.net/neutron.html

 

Windows XP and Vista has an automatic time sync Service that runs once per week but I found it to be very unreliable so I Disabled that Service.

[xpsunny]

One more thing......if your clock gets reset accidentally, system restore points cannot be deleted using the inbuild Windows cleanup utility.....they occupy 12% of HDD space.

 

And if your clock keeps on resetting then your HDD gets bloated with restore points.....

 

 

Its terribly vital to have this feature: to clear up most of the restore points...

[davey]

One more thing......if your clock gets reset accidentally, system restore points cannot be deleted using the inbuild Windows cleanup utility.....they occupy 12% of HDD space.

 

And if your clock keeps on resetting then your HDD gets bloated with restore points.....

 

 

Its terribly vital to have this feature: to clear up most of the restore points...

Hi Sunny,

Come on Sunny!!! No software developer wants to touch MS System Restore Points.

The next thing you are going to want is CCleaner to reset the PC clock.

Anybody messes with my Clock or my Recycle Bin is in deep trouble.

Windows releases System Restore data store as needed.

I also find 5% on the slider is more than enough for me as fas as System Restore Point space on WinXP.

davey

[xpsunny]

As I said before most PC users do not bother to slide down the slider to 5% quota. I see no harm in implementing the feature......if Windows inbuild cleanup utility can have this feature.....why not CCleaner have?

 

No harm in deleting the old system restore points, which the System Restore utility cannot access due to malfunction in the clock......totally......harmless.......

[Augeas]

If the clock is malfunctioning (how many clocks malfunction?) then there's no way of knowing which is the latest restore point. If someone is using CC to remove restore points then they know how to move the slider or use the existing Windows restore point tidy-up already. So my vote is no.

 

I had (still have) an IBM XT that had a clock malfunction after some six or seven years. Had to replace the battery. How many users know there's a battery in their pc?

[xpsunny]

My point is: If Windows inbuild cleanup utility can delete the restore points.....why can't CCleaner can?

[JDPower]

My point is: If Windows inbuild cleanup utility can delete the restore points.....why can't CCleaner can?

I'm with you on this one. I suggested it as an addition to CCleaner's advanced section a long time ago though so very much doubt it'll happen.

[xpsunny]

I will be pleased if I hear some official words from the developers.

[Alan_B]

My point is: If Windows inbuild cleanup utility can delete the restore points.....why can't CCleaner can?

Hi xpsunny

 

In answer to your post 9

" My point is: If Windows inbuild cleanup utility can delete the restore points.....why can't CCleaner can? "

 

I really can't do better than quote your post 3, i.e.

 

Moreover if there is a malfunction in the Windows Clock then system restore points disappear from the restore tool even though they exist.

 

And the default Windows Cleanup utility does NOT delete them........................

 

EXPLANATION

 

Hardware bugs permitting, software generally does what it is coded to do - but not necessarily what the programmer intended.

Software documentation may be partly based upon knowledge of design goals (possibly unfulfilled) and partly upon observation of results from some tests.

 

Microsoft publishes documentation to benefit users - in the past they have been criticised for not releasing internal information that would help their competitors.

 

Regardless of any secret knowledge, Microsoft do not know everything about their software.

If they did, Patch Tuesdays would be a thing of the past !!!

 

Software does what it does - not what you (or Microsoft) want it to do.

Software does not always do the same thing - oops here comes another Patch Tuesday.

 

If Microsoft are unable to ensure that the default Windows Cleanup utility will always delete old Restore Points, what hope has an independent third party software supplier.

 

Upon reflection, I think the creators of CCleaner may have the ability to take a shot at doing it - but there would be so many major disasters that CCleaner reputation would change from SAFE to RISKY.

 

Regards

Alan

[DBHskdvr]

It would be great if CCleaner can clean up old system restore points.....BECAUSE they occupy 12% of net HDD space. It would really be an awesome feature.

 

Also SP3 uninstaller cleaner would be real wow.......although CCleaner has Hotfix cleaner....but it lacks SP's uninstaller cleaner.

 

Related to that, when you do a Restore, SR often makes lots of copies with names like ???(2).???. CC could clean those up as an added feature. I'm a little afraid to just delete them because maybe some of them are in use...?

[YoKenny]

Related to that, when you do a Restore, SR often makes lots of copies with names like ???(2).???. CC could clean those up as an added feature. I'm a little afraid to just delete them because maybe some of them are in use...?

Welcome DBHskdvr

 

I don't see any copies with names like ???(2).???

 

In fact I do not see any files with names like ???(2).???

 

I suspect malware has infested your system so download RogueRemover and MBAM:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/rogueremover.php

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

 

Run RogueRemover first but Check for Updates then run it.

 

Run MBAM next but Update its definitions then run Quick scan and let it remove whatever it finds rebooting if necessary to remove locked files.

[hazelnut]

May not be a bad idea to also post a hijack this log in the spyware hell part of this forum.

 

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showforum=12

[Andavari]

I don't see any copies with names like ???(2).???

 

In fact I do not see any files with names like ???(2).???

 

I suspect malware has infested your system so download RogueRemover and MBAM:

It's not necessarily malware related at all and is a very common issue after using System Restore.

 

I've had those on a number of occasions, and it typically happens if something has been updated/changed then a restore point is used.

 

For instance if you restore the system many antivirus products will have folders/files, etc., duplicated such as one of their temp folders "Temp" being mirrored over to "Temp(2)". eTrust Antivirus is well known for such file duplication after a restore point is used which is why when I used it I used a batch file to auto-magically clean up after words. Also Windows built-in Search won't often reveal those "(2)" duplications.

[Disk4mat]

Andavari is correct.

 

As for the request itself, I am in favor of cleaning restore points etc. But I suspect one primary reason we will not see it is because of the numerous threads that go like... "Help! CC Deleted All of My Restore Points" or "System Restore No longer Works". I can only imagine what would happen if the words "System Restore" were mentioned anywhere in the CC UI.

 

Otherwise like I said. Im in favor of the request.

[davey]

As for the request itself, I am in favor of cleaning restore points etc. But I suspect one primary reason we will not see it is because of the numerous threads that go like... "Help! CC Deleted All of My Restore Points" or "System Restore No longer Works". I can only imagine what would happen if the words "System Restore" were mentioned anywhere in the CC UI.

 

Otherwise like I said. Im in favor of the request.

We already get those topics reported that CCleaner did it because it was the last thing done.

I disagree. The last thing done was turning out the lights and I am sure that has something to do with all these reports that CCleaner DID IT !!!

If you turn out the lights that is when all the fairies, goblins and such come out.

 

I think CCleaner shouldn't touch System Restore points. People can always use the Include option if they want.

 

davey

[Analytical]

I'd also like to see CCleaner (or perhaps an optional plugin for CCleaner) support the removal of system restore points. I think the more options that are available for a knowledgable user the better.

 

It seems reasonable to default certain actions to "no" where they're frequently the source of an incautious or less experienced user's complaint.

[Alan_B]

Microsoft have published a good intention for System Restore, which is that :-

1. It ignores user documents etc so they do not lose their recent edit corrections,

2. It restore the system files so Windows will behave as it used to behave before Patch Tuesday or whatever else damaged it.

 

In practice there are grey areas where it cannot decide in which category the file should be.

 

Often a Restore Point is automatically created without permission or notification, so I have no chance to first use CCleaner.

 

DO NOT EVER use Restore Point to go back UNTIL you first use CCleaner.

If you fail to use CCleaner then the Firefox and Java caches are not purged.

These caches are in the grey area - Windows does not know what to do.

What it does is look at the latest ??????\cache etc that is in your user profile,

and look at the earlier version within the Restore Point and realise they will not fit together,

so by some mysterious unknown and possibly random mechanism it allocates an extra (2) to the name of one of them.

This is where many of the extra (2) files come from.

 

I forgive the occasional difficulty that UN-intelligent software has in making a perfect decision, and that the best thing for it is to make both versions available for a subsequent user choice.

WHAT IS TOTALLY UNFORGIVABLE is that it does not GIVE me information upon what it did;

instead it gives me a glimpse on the screen of the location where 2 files exist, and which came from what;

BUT there is no means, other than pencil and paper, to record this so I may take any corrective action,

and once the computer has booted a search for files created in the last 5 minutes does not get that information.

 

Please forgive the rant, but in this modern internet broadband era, if computers require pencil and paper we might as well go back to the "good old days" when we communicated with quill pens - or for speed we went to the railway station for a clerk to punch it into a telex machine !!!

 

O.K., rant over. This is how System Restore creates spurious (2) files, and there are no clues available to guide the user in which to keep.

This demonstrates that System Restore has admirable intentions, but less than competent execution.

 

I am sure that Microsoft have tried to improve System Restore, and the continuing problems suggest that even with all their resources, and all their designers private knowledge of what they created, every attempt to fix one thing inevitably leads to breaking the software in a different way.

 

If M.$. cannot fix it, what hope has anyone else.

If CCleaner should have a go at it I think these forums will be overloaded with requests for help from people who "gave it a go".

[Dileep Devapal]

The default disk cleanup utility in windows that cleans the older system restore points is a drag. I am currently using tune up utilities 2009 just to clean up the old system restore points and then i run CCleaner to complete the clean up. You could certainly make it a lot easier for me if you included this feature. Leave it disabled by default so that only advanced users turn it on.

 

Moreover Vista doesn't allow you to control the space used by system restore. It defaults to 15% of the C drive. This usually takes up a minimum of 5GB in my case.

[amhoyle]

The default disk cleanup utility in windows that cleans the older system restore points is a drag. I am currently using tune up utilities 2009 just to clean up the old system restore points and then i run CCleaner to complete the clean up. You could certainly make it a lot easier for me if you included this feature. Leave it disabled by default so that only advanced users turn it on.

 

Moreover Vista doesn't allow you to control the space used by system restore. It defaults to 15% of the C drive. This usually takes up a minimum of 5GB in my case.

 

There is a way to change the % of the drive used by system restore in Vista via the command line. See detailed instructions here.

 

I agree it's rather annoying that there is no option to change this in some option panel. Personally, I would only change the default if I had a very large hard drive e.g. 320GB+. I find Vista system restore to be quite good, but if the % is reduced too much you may have problems trying to correct problems. On a 1TB drive, for example, it definitely does not need upto 150GB set aside for the system restore!!!

 

Hope this helps

[xpsunny]

Thanks a million for implementing the requested feature!!