Change In Disk Cleanup Operation

[Guest]

WinXPHome/SP2/NIS 2006 - Until recently, every time I used Disk Cleanup all
the categories, except for the ever-present 32KB of WebClient/Publisher
Temporary Files, would revert to 0 KB after the process. A few weeks ago, the
compressed files category showed 2,543 KB which the Disk Cleanup doesn't
clear. For the same period, the Symantec Resource Protector has been logging,
and denying, "unauthorized access" from an
"Actor"(C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CLEANMGR.EXE) for a "Target"(various program
files of NIS and Symantec). Does this mean that some Norton files have been
compressed and altered the Disk Cleanup process ? Why would internet security
files be compressed anyway ? Aren't they always in use ? TIA.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Compress Old Files "compresses" (not ZIP) files that are infrequently accessed or used. This is done using the native file compression of the NTFS file system. It would appear that Symantec's software is protecting itself by not allowing its own files to be modified or "compressed".

 

[Guest]

Would the Symantec software not allowing its files to be compressed have an
impact on the other files in the Compress Old Files category ? Every category
of Disk Cleanup (except for the mysterious 32KB in WebClient/Publisher
Temporary) used to clear to 0KB after running the cleanup.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Its possible. If the routine that does the compression "fails", then............ One of the first things I do on a new system is remove this option, so I can't speak to its behavior with Symantec's products.

 

[Guest]

So removing the option now wouldn't necessarily return the situation to
"normal" ?

 

[Phil Weldon]

'drive55' wrote:
| So removing the option now wouldn't necessarily return the situation to
| "normal" ?
_____

The other way of dealing with the problem you present is to forget about it.
It is only a problem if you think it is. Compressing files to increase disk
storage is a left-over from the era of sub-Gigabyte hard drives. So how
much hard drive space do you have that 2 Megabytes make a difference? If
you are absolutely SURE you don't need a file, delete it. Otherwise leave
it alone. If you want to micromanage, then don't use automatic functions to
clear hard drive space.

Phil Weldon


| So removing the option now wouldn't necessarily return the situation to
| "normal" ?

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

No, it wouldn't. The "Compress Old Files" routine takes a long time to complete on some systems (basically, how much s**t do you have on the disk for it to scan). A simple Registry edit removes this as an option and speeds up disk cleanup dramatically.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=812248

The above KB article outlines the steps to remove this as an option. As Phil said, is a couple of Megabytes going to make that much of a difference?