** RESOURCE: Deleting Junk Files **

** RESOURCE: Deleting Junk Files The newest threads are listed first. Newer posts may have more current information and/or build on experience or on info from prior posts, but not always. One of the advantages of looking at prior posts instead of posting a new thread is that you’ll immediately see multiple solutions and/or conflicting advice or maybe even a lively discussion. While the best answer to some questions may always be the same, not all advice works for every system. Therefore, be cautious, especially of advice touting one-size fits-all cures for anything and everything that ails your computer. Some posters hawk software they just discovered without fully knowing it does, or even if it can harm your system. Some of these RESOURCE posts may include URLs for MS Knowledge Base articles and/or other websites; if so, they’re listed after Computing.net threads. Six digit numbers are from the Win9x forum; 5 & 4 digit numbers are from the WinME forum. For the reasons behind these posts, see RESOURCE: Introduction. Please add other resources to this post, and I’ll incorporate them in updated listings. Exceptional links (very comprehensive or having info/advice not found elsewhere) will be indicated with »double guillemets«. All hyperlinks were tested and, unless noted otherwise, were working at the time of posting. This updates and therefore replaces post # 20841. ============================================================ Prior Posts on Deleting Unnecessary, Unwanted, Junk, Hidden, Temp, Temporary Internet, Downloaded Program, Index.dat, and Cookie files: Temporary Internet Files Deleting Files In/24530 TIF Folder Clearing Itself? Size of TIF Folder/25165 How to delete/stop buildup/20095 Deleted 101,139 files; system now runs better/19260; Original post here. Using Ramdrive for/103959 Problem deleting/16177 Nothing there...except 36,000 files/63127 Can’t delete all files/31923 Index.dat Files Size of/118632 Can’t Clean Out Entries in TIF index.dat/115525 Deleting/23872 In TIF Folder/112617 How do I view/20164 Can’t stop creation of in WinME/19944 Using them to spy on others/112617 PurgeIE Location of; Spider NetSecurity DELINDEX & Similar Clean-up Batch files & utilities While Some cleaners like RegCleaner and EasyCleaner do clean out the Registry, the also find “unnecessary” files, so there is some overlap between the functions of those cleaners and Delindex, although Delindex doesn’t touch the registry. See RESOURCE: Delindex & Delta.bat/24681 Don’t need computer course to use Delindex/26492 vs. other cleanup utilities/24421 Registry & Junk file cleaners; caution re jv16PowerTools/20552 cleanup utilities/106575 Easy Cleaner is effective, but it can keep MS Help and msinfo32 from working unless... EasyCleaner/23412 EasyCleaner/111678 EasyCleaner/24845 In case you think all cleanup utilities are created equal, go here to read and weep (or laugh): Dustbuster 1/20652 Dustbuster2/20693 Dustuster 3/20970 Dustbuster 4/21580 Dustbuster 5/21638 Temp Folders & *.tmp files Deleting Temp folder files/113760 Deleting Temp folder files/107579 Deleting Temp folder files/104199 Deleting *.tmp files/20581 A 1.95MB file in/19911 Causing slowdown?/18003 Delete Folders too? (No)/16980 Zero byte fff*.tmp Hyperlinks to answers/20839 From MS Word/19348 How to delete/13860 MS KB 221438 Zero byte Oem*.inf Norton Info MS KB 281967 MS KB 301540 Cookies Deleting/13893 Downloaded Program Files Shockwave & codec files in/63466 Pagefile.sys Fron WinNT/17238 Classes.bad, System.bad, and User.bad Created by Scanreg(w) /fix or /opt/16541 Desktop Icon Can’t delete/16619 Old versions of newer software Can I delete?/14488 Applog OK to delete contents?/21817 OK to delete contents?/108115 PC Magazine/108115 Files in PC Health Deleting *.xml files in pchealth\helpctr\datacoll\23649 Chris Quirke on PCHealth & SFP Windows diagnostic (*log.txt) files log files/26468 Schedlog.txt/11589 Faultlog.txt/11589 All other posts: multiple file types, junk files, unnecessary files, cleaning up, etc. Thumbs.db/26153 Hidden/114015 Unnecessary/113829 Spider not completely cleaning/105218 UPD files/15339 Delete files still there/10975 Delete files still there/63127 »MS Hidden Files by The Riddler« Christine Betterton-Jones Spring Cleaning Annoyances.org Follow this advice with caution! Jason Levine’s Spring Cleaning/63127 Dian D. Chapman’s Spring Cleaning Steve Bass’ Spring Cleaning; lots of links Ecape from Hardware Hell Silly Dog; MS’s really hidden files ============================================================ Renaissance Man’s 2¢ Worth: These are files I delete on a regular basis with two batch files, which I run from icons on my desktop. (These are file extensions; del[ete] *.[extension]) bad = registry files that the system marks as bad bak = duplicate (backup) files chk = ScanDisk disk error files dmp = memory dump files fts = temporary files recreated by Windows as needed gid = help files search data old = copy of older version prv = log files created by past windows boot-ups syd = temporary backup files tmp = temporary files *.$*= temporary files *.~*= temporary files ~*.*= temporary files *.??~=temporary files mscreate.dir = creates folders during installations I do NOT delete *.log files as some programs do because some log files are required to uninstall programs. I do look at a lot of them and delete them on a case-by-case basis. You can safely delete Windows Diagnostic logs (C:\windows\*log.txt and c:\windows\system\sfp\sfplog.txt) There are many programs that leave their own special junk behind. WinZip Logs (c:\winzip.log) ScanDisk Logs (c:\scandisk.log) Manual Text Logs in System Mechanic (c:\progra~1\iolo\system~1\manua*.txt) Dynazip.log From American Heritage Dictionary (c:\windows\dynazip.log) Windows Applog (c:\windows\applog\) Registry backup marked bad (c:\windows\sysbckup\rbbad.cab) (definitely delete this) Registry duplicates marked bad (c:\windows\*.bad) (definitely delete this) CPU-Z report (c:\progra~1\cpu-z\cpuz.htm) Belarc Advisor report (c:\progra~1\belarc\advisor\system\tmp\([computer ID])~1.htm) Belarc Advisor report (c:\progra~1\belarc\advisor\[computer ID].bci) Junk files from MS Office (c:\windows\ff*.tmp) These are files that are listed in EasyCleaner as “unnecessary” (which duplicate some of the files already listed): “These files are mainly backups, temporary and other unuseable files: *.tmp, ~*.*, *.~*, *.?~?, *.aps, *.bak, *.bk?, *.bsc, *.dmp, *.ilk, *.pch, *.rws, *.sbr, backup*.wbk, *.$$$, *.ncb, *.~mp, *.old, *.da0, *.chk." Easy Cleaner can also search for these files: "*.fts, *.gid, *.mtx, *.nch, *.ftg, *.$db, *.db$. *. NCH are created when you read newsgroups with Microsoft Outlook. *.MTX files are created when a scanner-device is used. *.GID files are created when you execute *.HLP files. Usage of these files is currently quite unknown, but these files are still save to delete. You get mainly temporary free disk space when you delete these, because programs (or scanners) create these again when executed.” CAUTION: A few people have reported that some programs have valid files with TMP extensions (how dumb!) although not on C:\ or C:\Windows\; others have reported some valid files with one or more $ in the extensions (also very dumb!) ============================================================ Computing.net is where each of us helps all of us to move the goal posts.

RM, what a lot of research you have done, and effort to help us clear the junk from our hard drives. I recently downloaded Delindex and will use it this weekend. I want to take my time (as somewhat of a novice) and make sure I do things correctly. Thanks for the continuing updates.

Once again, another Great Job RM! Thanks for your time, knowledge and willingness to share such a good resource. Take Care, Mesich

Thanks. And thanks to all the contributors to Computing.net. ======================================== If I see further, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants. Isaac Newton, in a letter to Robert Hooke.

Addendum ================================ Deleting “Undeletable” Files Filename too long or invalid/11370 Filename too long or invalid/30059 Filename contains illegal character/11300 Long filename/124548 About file manager/viewer LIST/7976 LIST website