Detritus™
Detritus is a package that will make your windows drive cleaner, and your system (and you) happier.
Many programs leave files around that are no longer of use, cache files, temporary files, others. Microsoft methods are particularly prone to this error in implementation.
When you combine that with the fact that the major performance killer on XP and most Windows is overly full disks, cleaning out those useless files can be a real performance enhancer.
How much can really cleaning out your drive save? After a run of Microsoft's DIsk Cleanup, an XP system can easily get rid of roughly 800 meg of useless files, and sometimes far, far more.
The Detritus Package has Detritus.exe, which looks for all those useless files, and several utilities to help you manage your drive better, e.g. DelCache, which empties cache directories of files, even ones that Microsoft forgets about and that can kludge up your drive (and waste your time).
Detritus:
- Detritus − Detritus reports on useless files on a Windows System. This lets you know if you would profit from better useless file management.
- Delcache − Delcache empties cache directories on all drives.
- Deltemps − Deltemps deletes all the tmp, bak, wrk, and $$$ files on all drives.
- Bigfiles − Bigfiles lists the largest files, from a system, drive, or path. Bigfiles can look at patterns as well, e.g. *.mov
- Types − Types lists the total size for all types of files. If you wish to know how much space is taken with MOV files, or AVI files,, types will show you.
An example Detritus report, from a very clean XP follows.
| 02/19/07 Files in Cache Directories Cache directories store just-used files in case you need them again. Sometimes cache directories are not cleaned of old stuff. Older flies and ones you don't need are not very use ful. ________________________________________________________________________________ 53,248 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Application Data\Microsoft\CryptnetUrlCache\Content\ 12,288 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Application Data\Microsoft\CryptnetUrlCache\MetaData\ 4,096 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Feeds Cache\FVCJQOSO\ 4,096 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Feeds Cache\KVRE100Y\ 4,096 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Feeds Cache\M3P0EW09\ 4,096 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Feeds Cache\W771PUCP\ 1,114,112 I:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\SFPCA Cache\ 81.78 M I:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache\i386\ 12,288 I:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\Config\Cache\ 2,183,168 I:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\OfflineCache\Personal_32#0409\ ____________ 85.18 M Total for cache 02/19/07 Files in I386 Directories ..\\Windows\\Driver Cache\\i386 has some drivers in it that allow you to install hardware without prompting for the CD. How often to you install new hardware? How hard is it to put in a CD? How long does it take our A-V to scan 81 Meg? Leaving 82 Meg around for infrequent use is an odd design decision. Anyway, it is not a cache, it is just a bin of drivers. ________________________________________________________________________________ 4,096 I:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_07\lib\i386\ 81.78 M I:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache\i386\ 36,864 I:\WINDOWS\system32\ReinstallBackups\0025\DriverFiles\i386\ ____________ 81.83 M Total for i386 02/19/07 Files in Inetlog Directories InetLogs are logs of your internet travels. Unless you go to only one or two sites. Most of these are useless except for checking on your use of illicit sites. We do that on the server anyway. ________________________________________________________________________________ 3,878,912 I:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\ ____________ 3,878,912 Total for inetlog 02/19/07 Files in Logs Directories Logs are of all sorts of things. The ones about errors are useful. With a little luck they will show you hardware or software problems. If you are not having problems are log files more than a meg needed? More than 50K? ________________________________________________________________________________ 8,192 I:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS\.clamwin\log\ ____________ 8,192 Total for logs 02/19/07 Files in Prefetch Directories Unknown type prefetch ________________________________________________________________________________ 2,891,776 I:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\ ____________ 2,891,776 Total for prefetch 02/19/07 Files in Sysrest Directories Unknown type sysrest ________________________________________________________________________________ 20,480 I:\System Volume Information\ ____________ 20,480 Total for sysrest 02/19/07 Files in Temp Directories Temp files ought to have been deleted when the creating program was done with their temporary use. If MS weere not immune to embarassment, they would blush as even one of these files shows sloppy work. ________________________________________________________________________________ 3,588,096 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temp\ 8,192 ..\svlc.tmp\ 4,096 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\ 53,248 ..\Content.IE5\ 638,976 ..\Content.IE5\0T2BSTY3\ 245,760 ..\Content.IE5\8XIB012Z\   ; 167,936 ..\Content.IE5\G5YNG1AB\ 221,184 ..\Content.IE5\OHUNCXU7\ 4,096 I:\Documents and Settings\LocalService.NT AUTHORITY.000\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\ 36,864 ..\Content.IE5\ 4,096 ..\Content.IE5\6YW01EIM\ 4,096 ..\Content.IE5\7ZU7BLAH\ 4,096 ..\Content.IE5\BRGWXD2F\ 4,096 ..\Content.IE5\L75X7Z3G\ 90,112 I:\WINDOWS\temp\ ____________ 5,074,944 Total for temp 02/19/07 Files with the ext (suffix) of bak BAK files, are backup and restore files for any application. If the application or program has finished you may consider removing these if you do not want the backup. ________________________________________________________________________________ 20,480 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\g9jeqlbu.default\bookmarks.bak 12,288 I:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\Config\Cache\Personal_32_1033.dat.bak 110,592 I:\WINDOWS\system32\NtmsData\NTMSDATA.BAK 110,592 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\g9jeqlbu.default\ ____________ 253,952 Total for files named *.bak 02/19/07 Files with the ext (suffix) of dmp Dmp files are supposed to go into the Windows directory, and even there it is usually a waste of time to save them, unless, of course, you are pursuing an issue with a publisher. ________________________________________________________________________________ 8,192 I:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson\user.dmp 8,192 I:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson\user.dmp 8,192 I:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson\ ____________ 24,576 Total for files named *.dmp 02/19/07 Files with the ext (suffix) of log & nbsp; Log files can show up anywhere, no only in log directories. These log can likely be trimmed with no harm, or deleted, particularly after a reboot. ________________________________________________________________________________ 139,264 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\ntuser.dat.LOG 8,192 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat.LOG 4,096 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temp\vminst.log 20,480 I:\Documents and Settings\LocalService.NT AUTHORITY.000\ntuser.dat.LOG 8,192 I:\Documents and Settings\LocalService.NT AUTHORITY.000\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat.LOG 20,480 I:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY.000\ntuser.dat.LOG 8,192 I:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY.000\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat.LOG 20,480 I:\System Volume Information\tracking.log 0 I:\WINDOWS\0.log 4,096 I:\WINDOWS\WindowsUpdate.log 0 I:\WINDOWS\Debug\PASSWD.LOG 450,560 I:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\tvDebug.log 36,864 I:\WINDOWS\system32\config\DEFAULT.LOG 4,096 I:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SAM.LOG 20,480 I:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SECURITY.LOG 49,152 I:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SOFTWARE.LOG 1,712,128 I:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM.LOG 8,192 I:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Logs\wbemess.log 4,096 I:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Logs\wbemprox.log 4,096 I:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Logs\wmiprov.log 4,096 I:\WINDOWS\temp\vmware-vmount-1.log 4,096 I:\WINDOWS\temp\vmware-vmount-2.log 4,096 I:\WINDOWS\temp\vmware-vmount-3.log 4,096 I:\WINDOWS\temp\vmware-vmount.log 4,096 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\ ____________ 2,543,616 Total for files named *.log 02/19/07 Files with the ext (suffix) of tmp Temp directories store files used temporarily by a program. Once the program has stopped or craqshed, they are no longer needed. ________________________________________________________________________________   ; 0 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temp\sv207.tmp 0 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temp\svlc.tmp 8,192 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temp\svlc.tmp\sv113.tmp 0 I:\WINDOWS\msdownld.tmp 4,096 I:\WINDOWS\temp\ZLT031e2.TMP 4,096 I:\WINDOWS\temp\ZLT076fd.TMP 4,096 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temp\ ____________ 20,480 Total for files named *.tmp 02/19/07 Files named ntuser.dat NTUser.dat is a piece of the registry that has been placed in the user's area. The only known purpose for putting pieces of the registry would be to avoid programming bugs with different users updating a single registry. There are many disadvantages with keeping a piece here and a piece there. All the world's other multi user databases manage simultaneous update. I guess the MS designers got confused. It was too hard. ________________________________________________________________________________ 524,288 I:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\NTUSER.DAT 225,280 I:\Documents and Settings\Default User\NTUSER.DAT 262,144 I:\Documents and Settings\Default User.WINDOWS\NTUSER.DAT 2,359,296 I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\NTUSER.DAT 262,144 I:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\NTUSER.DAT 229,376 I:\Documents and Settings\LocalService.NT AUTHORITY\NTUSER.DAT 229,376 I:\Documents and Settings\LocalService.NT AUTHORITY.000\NTUSER.DAT 262,144 I:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\NTUSER.DAT 229,376 I:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY\NTUSER.DAT 229,376 I:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY.000\NTUSER.DAT 262,144 I:\WINDOWS\repair\ntuser.dat ____________ 5,074,944 Total for files named *ntuser.dat -- Final Total -- 186.79 M total cluster space used by files that are mostly Detritus |