Cleaning rules

Disk Scanner engine in SafeClean Utilities is based on rules. Here is a list of predefined cleaning rules and how you can customize them.

Predefined cleaning rules

Windows Temporay folder

Default temporary folder in Windows
All files in the default temp folder

Other Temporay folders

Other folders with temporary files
All files in folders as "msdownload.tmp" "temp" or "tmp"

Note: This rule will scan all folders with name "temp" or "tmp", and this may cause some problems depending on how you manage your data. If you use temp folders to save some of your temporary useful data, please don't enable this rule. Otherwise it is safe to clean these folders. This rule is disabled by default

Temporary files

Intermediate files created by various programs
Files that match "*.tmp" or "~*.*"

Other Temporary files

Intermediate files created by various programs. Files detected by this rule may not be very safe to clean.
Files that match "*.~*" "*.*~" "*.^*" or "*.??$"

This rule may detect some files which are useful for some particular program (E.g. Seagate Backup program). In other cases, files detected by this rule are safe to clean. However, it is recommended to revise the detected files before cleaning them. This rule is disabled by default

Backup files

Extra copies of the original documents.
Files that match "*.bak" or "*.old"

Lost cluster files

Lost clusters saved by Scandisk or Norton Disk Doctor
Files that match "chklist.*" "*.chk" or "file????._dd"
Files excluded "*.dll"

Help temp files

Temporary files created by WinHelp
Files that match "*.gid" "*.fts" or "*.ftg"

Setup temp files

Temporary files created by various Setup programs
Files that match "mscreate.dir" or "*.---"

System log files

Log files created by Windows for diagnostic purpose
Files that match "bootlog.prv" "modemet.txt" "suhdlog.dat" "system.1st" or "*log.txt"

WS_FTP log files

Log files created by WS_FTP
Files that match "ws_ftp.log"

C++ Builder temp files

Temporary files created by Borland C++ Builder when compiling programs 
Files that match "*.ilc" "*.ild" "*.ilf" "*.ils" or "*.tds"

This rule may detect some files which are useful for some particular program. In most cases, you should only clean detected files from your own project. Cleaning files in other folders may cause problems. If you don't program in C++ Builder, please don't enable this rule. This rule is disabled by default

Visual C++ Intermediate files

Intermediate files created by Visual C++ when compiling programs
Exclude folders that match *system*|*Visual*|*builder*
Included files that match "*.bsc" "*.ilk" "*.obj" "*.res" "*.pch" or "*.pdb"

This rule may detect some files which are useful for some particular program. In most cases, you should only clean detected files from your own project. Cleaning files in other folders may cause problems. If you don't program in Visual C++, please don't enable this rule. This rule is disabled by default

Customize cleaning rules

There is a build-in Rule Wizard which will help to define a cleaning rule. Basically, you need to define following parameters.

Specify folders to scan

You need to specify which folders, in full path, that you wish to scan. E.g. "c:\my_temp_folder\"

Define folder names

If you want to search folders by names, please define folder names to include or exclude. You can use wildcards as "*temp*".

Define file names

You need to define a pattern to match when scanning a file. E.g. "*.tmp". You can separate multiple file types by semicolon.

Define file attributes

You can also specify file details for e.g. the file's last modification date or size of the file.