Ccleaner reports different values

[Willy2]

I only recently installed CC v3.10. When I ran CC v3.10 for the first time today something weird surfaced. After hitting ""Analyze"" CC reported that the folders containing the temporary internet files (IE 8), contained files with a total size of about 60 MB. Then I ordered CC to wipe all thoses files. And now the weird thing occurred. After CC cleaned all those files it reported that it has wiped some 270 Mb worth of internet files. Weird !!!

 

I compared that with what ""My computer"" reported before and after wiping those internet files. It clearly showed that CC had wiped files with a total size of about 60 Mb.

 

I use XP SP 3 with all latest updates.

[Alan_B]

I sometimes see the same effect with earlier versions of CC.

 

Windows is always creating more junk files.

An extra splash of 210 MB between Analyse and Clean is possibly Windows being a little extra hyperactive.

 

Also the Internet is never silent.

A.V. signature databases get re-written and discarded.

[Willy2]

Just ran CC again and the same thing popped up again. I made 4 pictures to illustrate what I came across. Look at the numbers in the red oval.

 

1) Checked ""My computer"" and it reported 462 MB free disk space. (CC v3.10a.jpg).

2) Then I hit ""Analyze"" in CC and it reported 27 Mb/about 2900 files of internet files (CC v3.10b.jpg) were about to be wiped.

3) Cleaned those internet files and then CC reported that it had wiped 314 Mb of internet files (CC v3.10c.jpg). It also reported that it had wiped over 5000 files.

4) Checked ""My computer"" again and it reported that it had 495 Mb of free diskspace. 462 + 27 = 489 Mb. (CC v3.10d.jpg). CC also wiped/cleaned a number of other folders/files.

 

No, my laptop wasn't connected to the internet. I temporarily disabled my anti virus scanner because it also creates a lot of temporary files.

Edited September 10, 2011 by Willy2

[Alan_B]

I suggest that you double click on the Internet Explorer item and see the Details;

then right click and choose "save to text".

Do this both after Analyze and after Run Cleaner and you will have two lists of files.

Then use a text file comparator and you will see the extras which CCleaner failed to report at the Analyze stage.

 

That will show if anything is counted twice,

e.g. once in long name format and once in 8dot3 format such as PROGR~1.

 

You also may see from the "extras" a clue about what is being pruned and possibly why.

I notice that sometimes Thumbnail Caches are not seen before Run Cleaner, but only afterwards.

This suggests that CCleaner has the capability to see what it is available to clean,

but the initiation of Run Cleaner does things in/to/with Windows that makes more trash available to zap.

[Willy2]

Installed version 3.11 today and it still shows different values before and after cleaning.

[Andavari]

I'd think you may have something updating in the background like your antivirus, etc., to cause such a difference.

 

Also do you have any 'Custom Files and Folders' included that CCleaner would normally get rid of out-of-the-box, that may give a difference of results.

[Willy2]

Did some additional tinkering/research. And found the reason why CC v3.11 and CC v3.10 (CC v3.09 ??) report different values. At least, I hope I found the reason why.

 

When one hits ""Analyze"" the CC generates/compiles a list with the names and sizes of the files to be wiped. And CC seems to store that list somewhere (In a Temp folder ???). Now when I hit ""Clean"" then it seems CC adds one or more old lists/adds old info to the newly generated file info. Or (sometimes ??) simply forgets the newly generated info. CC is not quite consistent in the way it behaves. And that's why CC grossly overstates the amount of diskspace that's freed up.

 

I noticed that the names of some old files showed up in the ""files wiped"" list and I knew I had removed/extracted those files from the temporary internet files folders (in IE 8) at an earlier stage.

 

I certainly would appreciate when the CC developers would look into this matter. Has the way CC behaves, compiles the info of the files to be wiped, been changed starting with CC 3.10 or perhaps CC 3.09 ??

Edited October 11, 2011 by Willy2

[Alan_B]

I certainly would appreciate when the CC developers would look into this matter. Has the way CC behaves, compiles the info of the files to be wiped, been changed starting with CC 3.10 or perhaps CC 3.09 ??

If you want them to look into the matter, why have you not supplied details of exactly what files are reported by analyse and by Clean.

 

You Analyse and select any result and double click for Details for that result.

In the Detailed view Analyse again to see Detals for ALL Results.

Right click on a result and use "Save to Text File" option to produce Analyse.txt (or any other name you choose)

 

Run Cleaner and again

Right click on a result and use "Save to Text File" option to produce Removed.txt (or any other name you choose)

 

You can post those files and perhaps some one can see what YOU are doing wrong, or what CCleaner is doing wrong.

That might give a starting point.

There is no point in CC developers looking into a single complaint bereft of details if their product is working well for everyone but you.

[Willy2]

@Alan B. You're absolutely right. I did notice that ""Save to text"" option. To be continued ( I hope).

 

And now here's the weird thing. When I ran CC (v3.11) (just now when I am typing this) it didn't show these different values (anymore ????) And the anti-virus program was running !!. Or was something removed from the registry that caused CC to show this (strange) behaviour. Or was one or more cookies the cause for this ? (I didn't run the CC registry cleaner and cookie cleaner for at least two months) Well, I'll keep a close eye on how CC behaves in the future and report back when necessary. Perhaps I can discover a pattern.

 

Computer magazines recommend tweaks in the registry but on my laptop they - more often than I like - don't seem to work. Could be that CC is sensitive to the value of some registry entries, as well. As have said before: We'll have to wait and see how CC behaves in the future.

[Willy2]

Did some more research and I may have found the answer to this weird thing. It seems CC is using one way to calculate the total size of the files to be wiped and a second method to calculate the total size of the files that have actually been wiped. And then one ends up with two different values.

 

Here's what happened:

1. I watched a video (~85 Mb in size) using IE 8. A lot of videos are in Flash format and are stored in the temporary internet folders.

2. With the help of Defraggler I opened the temporary internet folder to move the video file ( with the name videoplayback[1] ) to a folder with more videos.

3. Ran CC v3.12 (I hit ""Analyze"") and it reported that about 20 Mb of files were to be wiped in the temporary internet folders.

4. Then I hit ""Run Cleaner"" to wipe all the files and then CC reported that about 105 (= 20 + 85) Mb of files were removed. I checked which files were wiped and what sizes they had. Although I had extracted the video file from the temporary internet folders CC still thought the videofile was still over there.

 

Does CC use a special (Windows) file, like e.g. index.dat to determine which files are (supposedly) stored in those folders and are (supposedly) wiped ?

Edited October 31, 2011 by Willy2

[Willy2]

Did precisely the same, ran the same procedure as described in post #10 and a similar result emerged. So, it seems to confirm the pattern I discovered in that post. Time for the CC developers to look into this problem.

[Nergal]

my guess is they may be however did you do a diff of the analyze & clean it sounds more like a cosmetic mistake if it is one. but I think it's actually cleaning more than it initially sees also sizes especially of internet files are an approximation

[Willy2]

Had some time today to do some more research/testing and the outcome confirmed what I have reported before. And I have evidence to prove it.

 

I did the following:

1) Ran CC v3.12 (click on ""Analyze"") and made CC store the results in a text/log file (log-7-11-2011-1.txt). CC reported that some 25 Mb of internet files were to be wiped.

2) Then I hit ""Run Cleaner"" and CC reported it had cleaned some 213 Mb of internet files. I stored the cleaning results in a log file (log-7-11-2011-2.txt).

The main difference was that CC thought that in the temporary internet files folders (IE 8) there still were a number of video files (e.g. *.mp4, *.flv) present. And that in spite of the fact that I moved those video files to a separate folder. And no, I didn't close any programs that were running.

 

The logfiles are included in the attachment.

Edited November 7, 2011 by Willy2

[Willy2]

CC (v3.12) has another quirk/flaw/error. It also reports the wrong amount of diskspace wiped when one empties the Recycle Bin (RB). Here's what I did:

 

1. I noticed that the RB had three deleted in it files with a total of ~70 Mb in size. I manually removed those three files.

2. Ran CC and it reported that cleaning the RB would free up about ~70 Mb of diskspace. Weird, very weird !!!