Dodgy left-over files from surfing!

[stickyb]

Checking out a system that had been in "public" use for a while I made an interesting discovery.

I am used to IE leaving lots of files lying around in its Temporary Internet Files folder, and those can be cleared easily with Tools/Internet Options in IE, BUT have found a new folder called Documents and Settings/[username]/Application Data/Sun/java/deployment/cache/javapi/v1.0/file which contains over 5000 jpg and idx files. Judging by the look of some of the jpg files, somebody has been doing some very dodgy surfing or chatting in the xxx area, and of course the files are all timestamped so it is easy in this case to work out who it was.

Has anybody else spotted this? Is it documented anywhere? Besides the obvious security issues it is a pain having so may Mb taken up that aren't cleared out by what used to be the "standard actions" It is also a "hidden" folder, so you won't see it unless you change folder options

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

stickyb.....

Interesting.

Like you, I consider myself fairly "with it" on this front, regularly clearing out the obvious (and not quite so obvious) temporary files, but this one is new on me. ...Likewise mine is full of 'junk' (although not quite so dubious!) as is one of the adjacent files in "..........javapi/v1.0/" (sorry, can't remember which; cleared it out last night).

Suggestions from anyone on here of similarly unexpected files awaiting clean out would be useful.

[R T Jones]

It seems as if it only keeps things associated with java applications and not usual web browsing. However as you mentioned it’s likely to keep things to do with chat rooms. Interesting findings indeed.

[four_two]

I have the same folder with about 2.5MB of what seems to be mainly icons, although I haven't managed to open the ones that have a Firefox icon. One I remember had the icons from a Tetris type game.
My folder however wasn't hidden.
The question is, can I delete the contents of this folder and not suffer any drastic consequences. Not being that au fait about computers I sometimes feel I'm only one click away from complete disaster!

[Spinflight]

Other than the fact that it takes up space it isn't a problem at all. Java is completely secure in that it runs in a sandbox and cannot access the system without explicit overrides from th developers. Sometimes this needs to be done, for instance so that you can save data from a java app to 3.5 or whatever.

The folder is simply cache to speed up the system. Deleting it will simply mean that it has to be downloaded again next time you run the Java app.

Bear in mind though that the smallest amount of space which an icon just 200 bytes long will take up on your Hd is 32K....

[TAF Oscar]

I regularly run a bit of freeware called Crap Cleaner which gets rid of these files and a ton of others besides.

http://www.ccleaner.com/

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

TAF Oscar.....

That's a handy little program (and a bit of an eye opener). Solves the initially mentioned Java issue and many other files.

Ta.

[four_two]

I've downloaded and installed ccleaner and it does look a handy program.
I haven't tried it yet but I wondered if there were any "issues" with it that users have found (it's my cautious nature again).

[5711N0205W]

Outstanding, managed to remove 438Mb of crap the first time I ran it, shall certainly be making a donation to the Author.

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

four_two.....

Gave it a run; as mentioned, impressive.

The only "issue" I noticed was that if you have your 'Favorites' or 'All Programs' in a certain order, they revert to alphabetical.

(asuming Me/XP) create a System Restore point first, although there is also a backup element in the program. ...If worried, tick one subject at a time and Analyze. ...Nothing will be changed until you Run Cleaner and so at that stage it will give you some idea of the potential before committing.

[Blacksheep]

Been running CCleaner after every session for many months now and have experienced no ill effects - other than the initially annoying reorganization of the favourites folder already noted.
Its a very useful tool to have.

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

Further investigation this morning shows that the irritant of Favorites/Programs reorganisation can be avoided simply by not selecting Cleaner > Windows (tab) > Advanced > Menu Order Cache.

Also caution, as indicated by the program, you will lose saved usernames/passwords if Cleaner > Windows (tab) > Internet Explorer > Autocomplete Form History is selected.

See here (http://www.ccleaner.com/help/fileclean.asp)

As previous though, very nice program.

Some reviews here (http://www.ccleaner.com/reviews.asp)

[four_two]

In view of all the positive replies on ccleaner I decided to go for it.
It messed something up which prevented Firefox from displaying the BBC site properly but after a bit of tentative playing around (Restoring, re- installing Firefox) I accidentally discovered that by clearing everything in Firefox-cache, history, and cookies- it was ok.
I do have a question though, after running ccleaner yesterday I used the analyze feature again today just for interest, and there is another 12 MB or so of new "crap". Is this a normal consequence of just browsing around the internet?

[Devlin Carnet]

Yep fraid so,
I run Ad Aware and crap cleaner every night.....
Its good to be clean :ok:

[Continental Drifter]

Just wondering does CCleaner work on a Mac or is it PC specific?
If not, do you know of any similar programs for the Mac?

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

Continental Drifter.....

PC specific.

PS: Latest version out TODAY/03.10.05 .....v1.24.180 (http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner.html)

[Farrell]

Wow! That CrapCleaner has just taken 810Mb of useless stuff off my machine!

[G-BODD]

CCleaner did this:

1,122.9MB removed!:ok: