[Andrea]

I want to clarify that the software I was using wasn't CCleaner but Disk
Cleaner--with the same result. I posted the problem as a bug (not an angry
letter) on December 13th, but no one responded. Then on 12/22 someone
reported a similar bug in which he was losing his user settings, and this
time there were a few responses, including the suggestion to fix the Office
plugin so that it only cleans out junk files and not registry settings.

-Andrea

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