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CCleaner deletes MS Word data key in registry


srdiamond

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Such a problem has been reported with regard to registry cleaners in Microsoft forums . The odd thing here is that using only the temp cleaner and trash emptier alone--even when the temp cleaner says it deleted 0 bytes--resets Word 2003 setting to default. The pattern of affected setting make it clear it is deleting either the data key or the Settings value from the data key.

 

If this serious bug has not been previously reported, it is probably because many users either don't reset Word settings from default or don't recognize the difference after resetting.

 

Latest version of CCleaner

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This has been known for well over 1 1/2 years now, and a forum search would have revealed such information. If you wish to use Word 2003 with your settings intact you'll have to untick the cleaning of Office 2003 in CCleaner.

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This has been known for well over 1 1/2 years now, and a forum search would have revealed such information. If you wish to use Word 2003 with your settings intact you'll have to untick the cleaning of Office 2003 in CCleaner.

 

 

Amazing. I am expected to do a forum search to discover that a product widely promoted on the net has a bug that hasn't been resolved for over 1 1/2 years. Misleading promotion, if you ask me. Eventually consumers will wise up to the fact that a free product is no excuse for incompetent programming. No product is free; surely the developer obtains benefits from promoting his product, and owes a duty of informed consent to users.

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The problem isn't the developer, or the product CCleaner. Any other cleaning app that also offers to clean Office 2003 will probably result into the same problem because Microsoft placed some of the MRU lists within the actual settings such is the case in Word 2003. Hence the reason to only clean the list inside of Word 2003, and not use any other program to do it. To my knowledge that's the only way to clean Word 2003 without losing all settings. The same can also extend to other Office 2003 apps.

 

To safely clean things like Publisher 2003, etc., without enabling the full cleaning of Office 2003 (which I myself will never enable again since I use Office 2003) check out the winapp2.ini add-on, the Publisher 2003 and Script Editor 2003 cleaning routines I submitted and know they're safe and non-destructive to settings.

 

A tip before using any cleaning program on MS Office 2003 is to go into:

Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools > Microsoft Office 2003 Save My Settings Wizard

 

With Microsoft Office 2003 Save My Settings Wizard you can also restore your settings, and it works like a charm between WinXP re-installs too.

 

Here's just a few other threads on it:

http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=4089

http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=3935

http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=3073

http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=2940

http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=1222

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The problem isn't the developer, or the product CCleaner. Any other cleaning app that also offers to clean Office 2003 will probably result into the same problem because Microsoft placed some of the MRU lists within the actual settings such is the case in Word 2003. Hence the reason to only clean the list inside of Word 2003, and not use any other program to do it. To my knowledge that's the only way to clean Word 2003 without losing all settings. The same can also extend to other Office 2003 apps.

 

<Deletion>

 

Here's just a few other threads on it:

 

<Deletions>

 

http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=3935

 

 

I wasn't the only person irritated by this. In the thread above, I notice you wrote:

"It isn't an issue of MS Office versus OpenOffice.org it's clearly a CCleaner issue that's been an issue for many long months of wiping out some MS Office settings which in my views those entries that remove the user settings for Word, etc., should be removed from CCleaner, the last time I checked my preferred Word, etc., settings weren't junk. To be blunt and to the point it pissed me off when I found out that CCleaner was the reason I had to constantly reconfigure Word 2003, hence the reason I disabled Office 2003 cleaning."

 

I assume you receive further information subsequently, but I don't think the developer has done all that he reasonably should to prevent such problems from arising.

 

If some people want or need such thorough cleaning that their settings have to be sacrificed in the process, I'm glad CCleaner provides this capability for them. But it isn't a behavior the user has any reason to expect. There must be a mechanism to bring the behavior to the user's attention before the effect is felt. One obvious way would be to turn Office cleaning OFF by default and pop-up a warning when the user checks Office. I still don't understand why the product cannot be programmed to distinguish settings from junk, but I tentatively assume there must be good reason for this. I also don't understand why CCleaner deletes a Word registry key when registry cleaning is turned of, only the temp remover is run, and the product indicates nothing was removed, and it seems this must be a serious bug.

 

At this point, the developer's irresponsible marketing of the product has destroyed the confidence in a product I need to allow it access to my registry, and I have deleted CCleaner.

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Do what you wish, although simply disabling Office 2003 by unticking it will suffice. Also asking some rudimentary questions like "will CCleaner break some app on my computer" may have resulted in someone posting the info about Word 2003. It never hurts to ask before using some software you've never used before.

 

Although I still think that Office 2003 should be removed from CCleaner - I won't retract that statement as it seems to cause someone some grief that doesn't know it will wipe out the settings. It would be nice if CCleaner had some mouse-over help display something via a comment like "this will also remove Word 2003 settings, etc." without having to revert to reading the Beginner's Guide or posting a thread to ask about it - perhaps that's something for the Suggestions thread.

 

I personally think you're missing out the best freeware cleaning program in the world by removing CCleaner! ;)

 

Have a Merry Christmas srdiamond! :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have determined what the issue is:

In Word 2003 the settings AND MRU are stored in the same Registry key.

When CCleaner runs "Office 2003" cleating it deletes this key instead of just clearing the MRU portion of the key. This causes the Word 2003 settings to revert to defaults.

 

The key in question is:

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Data

 

You'll notice the MRU data is appended to the end and is stored as Unicode.

 

The behaviour needs to be changed to not delete this key for this version and instead rewrite the MRU section.

 

..this too a while to figure out! At first I thought it was a problem with the Office service pack!

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The behaviour needs to be changed to not delete this key for this version and instead rewrite the MRU section

 

The point about the data being included in the key has been known for some time, I think. The only possible question is whether changing the behavior in the manner you suggest is practicable. Could a third party application read and recreate the data in question while deleting the key? I have no idea. Do you _know_?

 

If the practicability can be confirmed, the question is, why hasn't it been done. Is it the result of hostility to Microsoft, a belief that the developer shouldn't have to perform extra work because of Microsoft programming the developer thinks is irrational?

 

The reason for not correcting or prominently warning of the problem is most important. If the developer is failing to treat MS applications properly out of prejudice, users cannot assume that other issues won't arise.

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Go to the CCleaner folder. Open winapp.ini and scroll down to the Office 2003 section. Remove "RegKey10=HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Data|Settings" and renumber the subsequent keys in that section. Not sure if that's absolutely necessary, but with the big warning at the top and everything, I thought it'd be prudent to renumber them.

 

I discovered this behavior first time I ran CCleaner way back with Office XP and I've been removing that key ever since. ;)

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