Disk Cleanup, file date accessed and virus scan.

[Guest]

I believe that, by default, Disk Cleanup does not remove temporary files if
they have been accessed in the last 7 days. When a virus scan is done, this
marks all files as having been accessed at the time of the scan. This would
mean that if a virus scan is done weekly then Disk Cleanup will never remove
any Temporary files.
Is this true and if so how do I work around this?

I suppose that I could set the antivirus software not to scan the Windows
Temporary folder. Is this safe?

 

[Leonard Grey]

A disk scan doesn't mark files as accessed. So not to worry

In any case, I think you're referring to 'Compress old files'. That's
where the Disk Cleanup Wizard offers to compress files you haven't
accessed for a period of time you choose. Many, including yours truly,
don't use this option for two reasons: it takes forever to complete (not
literally, but a long time), and if you're so short of disk space that
you're compressing files, time for a new hard disk.

 

[Guest]

I did an experiment last night. I am using Windows Live OneCare.
I set the virus scan options to exclude the Windows/temp folder from the
scan and then ran Tune Up which includes a virus scan as well as defragment,
cleanup etc.
Tune up completed this morning.
The result.... All files now show date accessed as today EXCEPT for the
files in the Windows/temp folder which mostly show date accessed as the last
date that I ran a virus scan.

So this strategey may work to allow cleanup to do its work on Windows/temp
folder files. Trouble is that there are many other locations which may
contain temporary type files.