| |

Cleaning System Folders

This pane allows you to define System Folders to be cleaned up when cleaning procedure is engaged.

System Folders for your profile are created and managed by the Windows operating system. For example when you open a Web page with graphics in Internet Explorer, all images from the page are placed in the folder Temporary Internet Files. The reason this is done is that the system assumes this page will be viewed more than once. It stores the images on the local drive so that when the page is viewed the next time, it will load up for viewing much more quickly. These images will stay on your system until you delete them manually or the operating system deletes them automatically. Anyone who gains access to your hard drive can review these images and determine which Web pages you have been viewing.

Here is an image of System Folders pane.

You can preview the contents of a selected folder content by clicking the View button to the right side of the folder name.

Brief description of System Folders Items:

My Temporary Files - Folder where most applications store temporary files. ZDelete.NET looks first where TMP environment variable for your profile points, then for TEMP if TMP does not exist.
My Temporary Internet Files - Folder where Internet Browser stores images and HTML pages for your profile to access them faster in the future.
My Internet Cookies - Folder where Internet Browser stores cookies for your profile. Cookies are small text files - they are like the browser's variables for interaction with a Web Server.
My History - Folder where Internet Browser and operating system store a list of recently used links.
My Recently Used Documents List - Folder where the operating system stores a list of shortcuts for recently used documents.
My Favorites - Folder where the operating system stores Favorite Links for your profile.
My Pictures - Folder with the same name where the operating system suggests that you keep your images. This feature is new in Windows 2000 and Windows ME. If it does not exist, this item will be grayed and inaccessible.
My Media Player Recent List - Place where the operating system stores a list of recently played media files and URLs.
My Auto-Complete History (Forms and Passwords) - Place where the operating system stores your history of recently typed names, links, passwords, history in search engines, etc.... If this feature is turned on in Internet Explorer, sometimes you can notice that when you start typing in the standard edit field in browser, a drop-down list appears and you can select the value from it.
My Recycle Bin - The standard Windows Recycle Bin - a virtual folder where deleted files and folders are stored until your clear or restore them. Remember: The standard Windows Empty Recycle Bin command does not actually destroy the data. It is still recoverable. Instead of using Empty Recycle Bin command, we advise you to check this option and run Auto-Cleaner to make sure that items in Recycle Bin are permanently destroyed.
My Find File History - Place in registry where operating system stores your recent requests for search for files or folders.
My Find Computer History - Place in registry where operating system stores your recent requests for search for computers.
My Run History - Place in registry where operating system stores your recent executed commands (menu Start-> Run...).
My Network Places History - Folder where operating system stores your network connections to other computers and network shares.

Attention to Netscape Navigator Users:

When you install Netscape Navigator, you have an option to store Internet Cache, Cookies, Bookmarks and History in the default locations, or in a custom location, selected by you. If you choose a custom location for these folders, they will not be cleaned by ZDelete.NET. However, you can manually specify the exact path to Netscape's Disk Cache Folder, Netscape's Cookies, History and Bookmarks files (cookies.txt, netscape.hst, bookmark.htm) in the Custom Items pane.

Warning:

Be careful if you decide to erase the My Pictures folder. All other folders on this screen keep no real documents. Rather, they store temporary files and links to files. This folder, however can be the main storage folder for important data files. After ZDelete.NET Auto-Cleaner has erased the contents of this folder, there is no way to restore files. Also be careful about erasing My Favorites because it may contain valuable links.

Note:

If ZDelete.NET tries to delete files that are in use by the operating system, it will encounter a use-conflict and leave the file alone. If this situation happens, an error message will be displayed on the screen. An exception to this rule - for use-conflict files in system folders, ZDelete.NET skips the files without displaying the error message. These error messages can be found in the ZDelete.NET Log file.

If your operating system uses a version of Windows Shell (Shell32.dll) prior to version 4.71, some of check boxes in this pane could be grayed and inaccessible. This happens because the operating system is older and does not support programmable interface to these Virtual Folders. If this is the case, you cannot specify them for cleaning in System Folders. If you would like to clean them, one way is to add the virtual path to these folders manually in Custom Items. This solves only part of the issue, however. It will not solve the issue completely because some information is left in cache files that are constantly used by the operating system and will result in a use-conflict situation. Another solution is to upgrade Windows Shell by installing a newer version of Microsoft Internet Explorer (v.4.0 or higher); it does not always solve the issue.

Cleaning System Folders

Brief description of System Folders Items:

Attention to Netscape Navigator Users:

Warning:

Note:

See Also