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Slightly off-topic: Tracking Files



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 30th 18, 10:03 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Bill[_39_]
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Posts: 38
Default Slightly off-topic: Tracking Files

I use CCleaner everyday to purge my browsing history, etc.
It used to run faster. It takes quite a while to even remove
"counters.dat", whatever that is. I don't remember it being an
issue before. Evidently, I can accumulate 2000-8000 "tracking
files" without even doing a lot of browsing (how is this
possible?). I don't even use the IE browser, yet it seems to
takes a while to remove Internet explorer data. It is true that
I am using an older version of the CCleaner app, but I don't
believe this is the issue. Thank you for your guidance!

Bill
  #2  
Old July 1st 18, 12:15 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Larc[_3_]
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Posts: 383
Default Slightly off-topic: Tracking Files

On Sat, 30 Jun 2018 17:03:43 -0400, Bill wrote:

| I use CCleaner everyday to purge my browsing history, etc.
| It used to run faster. It takes quite a while to even remove
| "counters.dat", whatever that is. I don't remember it being an
| issue before. Evidently, I can accumulate 2000-8000 "tracking
| files" without even doing a lot of browsing (how is this
| possible?). I don't even use the IE browser, yet it seems to
| takes a while to remove Internet explorer data. It is true that
| I am using an older version of the CCleaner app, but I don't
| believe this is the issue. Thank you for your guidance!
|
| Bill

You don't set your browser to delete your browsing history when you close it? Firefox
on my systems is set to clear everything except cookies for sites I visit often.
When I run CCleaner, it usually deletes almost nothing from Firefox. I run the free
version of CCleaner only before each backup, but keep it up to date. It runs
quickly.

Larc
  #3  
Old July 1st 18, 12:43 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Paul[_28_]
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Posts: 1,467
Default Slightly off-topic: Tracking Files

Bill wrote:
I use CCleaner everyday to purge my browsing history, etc.
It used to run faster. It takes quite a while to even remove
"counters.dat", whatever that is. I don't remember it being an issue
before. Evidently, I can accumulate 2000-8000 "tracking files" without
even doing a lot of browsing (how is this possible?). I don't even use
the IE browser, yet it seems to takes a while to remove Internet
explorer data. It is true that I am using an older version of the
CCleaner app, but I don't believe this is the issue. Thank you for your
guidance!

Bill


Use Process Monitor to track the I/O operations. The current
version may not be WinXP compatible, so you might need to look
for an older version for WinXP.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sys...nloads/procmon

This is the info for WinXP:

Version 3.1

https://web.archive.org/web/20150117...rnals/bb896645

I had some trouble with the download link. I hope this works.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150208...essMonitor.zip

*******

The trace control is a tick mark in the file menu.
Remove the tick mark to stop the trace from collecting
any more data.

The filter is not important to collecting a trace.

Later, you can set the trace to:

"Operation" "Is" "CreateFile"
"Operation" "Is" "ReadFile"
"Operation" "Is" "WriteFile"

You can also limit the process name to whatever ccleaner
actually uses for operations.

By watching what it's doing, what file seems to take
many seconds to process, you can tell us what area
of the file system it's spending all this time.

*******

I have a browser (Seamonkey) which doesn't properly
clear the caches when you select that from the menu.

To deal with Seamonkey I delete a few things manually.

I'm not a CCleaner user, so I hope that much can get
you started. Start ProcMon, which will start tracing
right away. Start CCleaner. When CCleaner is finished
and exited, stop the trace in ProcMon using the File
menu tick box, then have a look at what happened.

Paul
  #4  
Old July 1st 18, 05:35 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Bill[_39_]
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Posts: 38
Default Slightly off-topic: Tracking Files

Paul wrote:

To deal with Seamonkey I delete a few things manually.


I AM using Seamonkey too! Are there some things that aren't
getting deleted that you could tell me about? Maybe that's where
the process time is going....too much on "counters.dat"!

Bill
  #5  
Old July 1st 18, 06:13 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Paul[_28_]
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Posts: 1,467
Default Slightly off-topic: Tracking Files

Bill wrote:
Paul wrote:

To deal with Seamonkey I delete a few things manually.


I AM using Seamonkey too! Are there some things that aren't getting
deleted that you could tell me about? Maybe that's where the process
time is going....too much on "counters.dat"!

Bill


I don't have a "counters.dat" on the C: drive.

Try Procmon.

*******

Things I search for:

_cache === search a level above this, for any additional junk
# === flash related
+++ === files with URL names, tracking via video playback
webappsstore.sqlite === grows with time, tracking something

Those are examples.

Paul
  #6  
Old July 1st 18, 07:29 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
NIl
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Posts: 73
Default Slightly off-topic: Tracking Files

On 01 Jul 2018, Paul wrote in
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt:

I don't have a "counters.dat" on the C: drive.


I do! Three of then, in fact. I have no idea what they are or what
they do. I don't think I've ever used IE on this Win7-64 computer.

C:\Users\me!\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Tem porary Internet Files\counters.dat

C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\L ocal\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\counters.dat

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\AppData\L ocal\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\counters.dat
  #7  
Old July 1st 18, 07:58 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Paul[_28_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,467
Default Slightly off-topic: Tracking Files

Nil wrote:
On 01 Jul 2018, Paul wrote in
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt:

I don't have a "counters.dat" on the C: drive.


I do! Three of then, in fact. I have no idea what they are or what
they do. I don't think I've ever used IE on this Win7-64 computer.

C:\Users\me!\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Tem porary Internet Files\counters.dat

C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\L ocal\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\counters.dat

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\AppData\L ocal\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\counters.dat


Would those be for Internet Explorer ?

I checked the other machine, and it doesn't have those either.
(Searched with Agent Ransack on a Win10 install.) Mind you, I
don't use IE all that often.

Paul
  #8  
Old July 1st 18, 01:44 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Robert[_14_]
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Posts: 6
Default Slightly off-topic: Tracking Files

Bill wrote in part:
Paul wrote:
To deal with Seamonkey I delete a few things manually.


I AM using Seamonkey too! Are there some things that aren't
getting deleted that you could tell me about? Maybe that's
where the process time is going....too much on "counters.dat"!



With any browser which stores lots of user-data, annually I
save a minimum of required data (bookmarks, contacts for those
who use them), then create a new blank user profile and use it.
This leaves a lot of cruft behind in the old profile. Hard to
pick out what to delete, just trash it all after the new is working.

-- Robert

  #9  
Old July 2nd 18, 01:48 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Bill[_39_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 38
Default Slightly off-topic: Tracking Files

Robert wrote:
Bill wrote in part:
Paul wrote:
To deal with Seamonkey I delete a few things manually.


I AM using Seamonkey too! Are there some things that aren't
getting deleted that you could tell me about? Maybe that's
where the process time is going....too much on "counters.dat"!



With any browser which stores lots of user-data, annually I
save a minimum of required data (bookmarks, contacts for those
who use them), then create a new blank user profile and use it.
This leaves a lot of cruft behind in the old profile. Hard to
pick out what to delete, just trash it all after the new is working.

-- Robert


I appreciate that tip! TYVM!

Bill

  #10  
Old July 2nd 18, 01:57 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Paul[_28_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,467
Default Slightly off-topic: Tracking Files

Bill wrote:
Robert wrote:
Bill wrote in part:
Paul wrote:
To deal with Seamonkey I delete a few things manually.

I AM using Seamonkey too! Are there some things that aren't
getting deleted that you could tell me about? Maybe that's
where the process time is going....too much on "counters.dat"!



With any browser which stores lots of user-data, annually I
save a minimum of required data (bookmarks, contacts for those
who use them), then create a new blank user profile and use it.
This leaves a lot of cruft behind in the old profile. Hard to
pick out what to delete, just trash it all after the new is working.

-- Robert


I appreciate that tip! TYVM!

Bill


Most browsers have an "Export Bookmarks".

That's the bit worth saving.

In some browsers, the option is buried three
layers deep, as if they don't want you to know
the option is available.

This converts proprietary formats such as
..jsonlz4 or some binary database format,
into something you can use for "import" later.

This should be done before making significant
changes to the browser and trashing the
possibility of Export.

Paul
 




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