[Graham Mayor]

Any software that removes essential system files or registry information is
a hazard and not a help. If it removes Microsoft's software registry data on
Microsoft's operating system then it is worse than useless.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org


wrote:
Shauna Kelly wrote:

And then write a very angry letter to the makers of the software!

I had a similar problem, described below, and posted an angry letter
to the CCleaner forum. In the end I am not sure I was justified. The
developer's advocate shifted the blame to Microsoft, perhaps not
unreasonably. What do you think?

My Posting:
CCleaner deletes MS Word data key in registry, Bug that resets Word
2003 setting to default

Such a problem has been reported with regard to registry cleaners in
Microsoft forums . The odd thing here is that using only the temp
cleaner and trash emptier alone--even when the temp cleaner says it
deleted 0 bytes--resets Word 2003 setting to default. The pattern of
affected setting make it clear it is deleting either the data key or
the Settings value from the data key.

If this serious bug has not been previously reported, it is probably
because many users either don't reset Word settings from default or
don't recognize the difference after resetting.

Latest version of CCleaner

Advocate's first response:

This has been known for well over 1 1/2 years now, and a forum
search would have revealed such information. If you wish to use
Word 2003
with your settings intact you'll have to untick the cleaning of
Office 2003 in CCleaner


Taking your advice (to shift blame too g, I get angry:

Amazing. I am expected to do a forum search to discover that a
product widely promoted on the net has a bug that hasn't been
resolved for over 1 1/2 years. Misleading promotion, if you ask me.
Eventually consumers will wise up to the fact that a free product
is no excuse for incompetent programming. No product is free;
surely the developer obtains benefits from promoting his product,
and owes a duty of informed consent to users.


Expecting a response in kind, I read this quite reasonable answer:

The problem isn't the developer, or the product CCleaner. Any other
cleaning app that also offers to clean Office 2003 will probably
result into the same problem because Microsoft placed some of the
MRU lists within the actual settings such is the case in Word
2003. Hence the reason to only clean the list inside of Word 2003,
and not use any other program to do it. To my knowledge that's the
only way to clean Word 2003 without losing all settings. The same
can also extend to other Office 2003 apps.

To safely clean things like Publisher 2003, etc., without enabling
the full cleaning of Office 2003 (which I myself will never enable
again since I use Office 2003) check out the winapp2.ini add-on,
the Publisher 2003 and Script Editor 2003 cleaning routines I
submitted
and know they're safe and non-destructive to settings.

A tip before using any cleaning program on MS Office 2003 is to go
into: Start All Programs Microsoft Office Microsoft Office
Tools Microsoft Office 2003 Save My Settings Wizard

With Microsoft Office 2003 Save My Settings Wizard you can also
restore your settings, and it works like a charm between WinXP
re-installs too.

Here's just a few other threads on it:
http://forum.ccleaner.com/index. php?showtopic=4089
http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=3935
http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=3073 http://forum.
ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=2940
http://forum.ccleaner.com/index. php?showtopic=1222

[/End quote]

Stephen Diamond