CCleaner not deleting old prefetch files

[Rod Lockwood]

My OS is Windows XP Home Edition, SP2. I just downloaded and installed CCleaner 1.39 a few days ago. I have the box checked to remove old prefetch data.

 

Yesterday and today I noticed that although old prefetch files would show up when being analysed, they weren?t being deleted. I have installed and uninstalled a program since then, but I still the same problem after removing that application. I even went so far as to use System Restore to go back before installing the program, but after updating CCleaner. CCleaner still cannot remove the old prefetch files.

 

Rod Lockwood

[phkhgh]

Same here. By default I think CCleaner only deletes (or wipes) prefetch files older than (14 days?). If you set up a custom cleaning task, I don't know if for this particular folder, it will over ride that time limit in CCleaner.

 

Put it this way, it doesn't erase the prefetch files, even on reboot, when I set up a custom cleaning task for C:\Windows\prefetch\*.* (the " *.*" is added by CCleaner, not me), AND the "Custom Files and Folders" box is checked under cleaner settings.

 

NOTE: I've read that some users have had problems after deleting the layout.ini file from the Prefetch\ folder. Others, including me, say it rebuilds itself w/ no problems. So, you might want to back up layout.ini first, then see if it's going to rebuild itself.

 

Eraser also doesn't seem to wipe the prefetch files even after reboot, although seems like it did in the beginning. Now, it doesn't touch them, even after reboot, but it does erase other locked files like index.dat on reboot. Not sure???

[Rod Lockwood]

Hello!

 

Yes, Phkhgh, I know CCleaner only deletes old prefetch files, which is why I specified old prefetch files. 8-) Nope. Custom cleaning is blank. I have never bothered with it. Too much work. I now have a fairly lengthy list of old prefetch files now. In fact, I just used it and noticed it didn?t remove some temp files in the Documents and Settings/%UserPath%/Local Settings/Temp folder. Very strange. CCleaner has never let me down before. Perhaps it might be the latest update? I cannot remember now if it started happening before or since the latest update.

 

I will check the Layout.INI file, but if CCleaner isn?t deleting anything in the Prefetch folder, then I don?t know why it would have been deleted. A different program is having a similar problem with old prefetch files? Could it be that Microsoft did something via one of its so-called critical updates?

 

Rod

[Andavari]

NOTE: I've read that some users have had problems after deleting the layout.ini file from the Prefetch\ folder. Others, including me, say it rebuilds itself w/ no problems. So, you might want to back up layout.ini first, then see if it's going to rebuild itself.

If it ever disappears it can cause Disk Defragmenter to fail.

 

If it doesn't automatically get rebuilt this is how to remedy that problem, note this is just the command to optimize prefetch data/process idle tasks. Click Start, Run and input:

 

Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

 

[Rod Lockwood]

Well, I checked and Layout.INI is still intact, but this is interesting. I rolled back CCleaner from 1.39 to 1.38 and now it deletes the null temp files and folders that it was missing, but still not the old prefetch files. 8-/ Although I now have to figure out what program is automatically creating a temp file every time I start up my laptop and why. I ran Spybot and it didn?t find anything. Next, my AV program.

 

I noticed there is a spot on the message board to post a Hijack This! report to get it analyzed. I have Highjack This! so maybe I should try this?

 

Rod

[hazelnut]

Nothing can be lost in letting one of the spyware mods take a look.

 

Post it in the Spyware Hell -Hijackthis Analysis section rather than in this thread.

[Rod Lockwood]

Nothing can be lost in letting one of the spyware mods take a look.

 

Post it in the Spyware Hell -Hijackthis Analysis section rather than in this thread.

 

Of course, I kinda guessed that is what the section was for. Just forgot what it was called. (You?ll find it happens to me a lot.) 8-)

 

Strange . . . since I have gone back to CCleaner 1.38 I haven?t had any old prefetch files popup or those annoying null temp files. I will post the Hijack This! report and then re-install CCleaner 1.39 to see what happens. I have a feeling that what ever it was either went away or wound up inadvertantly (?) fixed.

 

We?ll see.

 

Oh! BTW, one of the things I did was use Reghance to search for leftovers of a memory management/system optimizing program that I suspected was the culprit. Well I did find some remnants, but I found even more leftovers of uninstalled Symantec SystemWorks that CCleaner had missed. I got rid of them and according to CCleaner it didn?t cause any registry issues. So that was good.

 

Rod

[Andavari]

You don't by chance have secure file deletion enabled in CCleaner do you?

I only ask because the current version has a known bug when secure file deletion is enabled in that it isn't removing some files.

[Rod Lockwood]

You don't by chance have secure file deletion enabled in CCleaner do you?

I only ask because the current version has a known bug when secure file deletion is enabled in that it isn't removing some files.

 

Yep, that was it. Turned it off and CCleaner deleted the files. I noticed the thread after you mentioned it here. I saw it before, but didn?t connect it with my problem at the time.

 

Thanks to everyone with suggestions.

 

Rod

 

o/ Home, home on the range.

Where the deer and the antelope play.

Where seldom is heard

A discouraging word,

?Cause I threw my PC away. o/

[marquis]

There is some debate as to whether removing prefetch files is a good thing or not.

Best thing I can do is to post this URL;

 

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000743.html

[JDPower]

There is some debate as to whether removing prefetch files is a good thing or not.

Don't think there is any debate anymore is there, most agree its pointless.

[Rod Lockwood]

Don't think there is any debate anymore is there, most agree its pointless.

 

I?m a little out of the loop here. Why would it be pointless?

 

Rod

[hazelnut]

50% of people seem to think it's a good thing to remove prefetch and 50% don't.

 

After endless dicussions here and elsewhere, it's best a subject left for people to decide for themselves.

[JRd1st]

I?m a little out of the loop here. Why would it be pointless?

 

Rod

It would be pointless to delete prefetch files that are currently valid because Windows would simply create them again.

 

But, if you have prefetch files for programs you no longer have installed, then deleting them isn't pointless. IMHO

 

BTW, exactly what is an "Old prefetch file"? Does this mean one that is obsolete? Or just old?

 

I don't use this option in CC since I got Vista, but it never seemed to delete any valid prefetch files back when I used XP!

[JDPower]

But, if you have prefetch files for programs you no longer have installed, then deleting them isn't pointless. IMHO

Yes it is because Windows will delete them automatically anyway if it hasn't been used for a certain amount of time. Search the forum more on this (and read through the link that marquis posted), its been discussed several times and it was generally agreed there was little point cleaning old prefetch files which is why that option was moved to the advanced section in CCleaner (it used to be in the main section).

[Rod Lockwood]

Yes it is because Windows will delete them automatically anyway if it hasn't been used for a certain amount of time. Search the forum more on this (and read through the link that marquis posted), its been discussed several times and it was generally agreed there was little point cleaning old prefetch files which is why that option was moved to the advanced section in CCleaner (it used to be in the main section).

 

By default CCleaner considers any prefetch file old after 2 weeks. Yes, I understand. It makes sense too. Prefetch files are supposed to help start programs faster without keeping them resident in memory. This is good especially when you have loads of drive space, but only a small bit of RAM. If Windows automatically deletes these files when the program is uninstalled, then you shouldn?t have to worry about it. I suppose they could have CCleaner do a check to see that Windows did its job and just target PF files of unistalled programs older than two weeks. But until CCleaner does that, I?ll just not worry about it.

 

Thanks, everyone.

 

Later,

 

Rod