# Unsloicited advice: "Cleanup programs" for PCs.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsloicited-advice-cleanup-programs-for-pcs/287607>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 31, 2005, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsloicited-advice-cleanup-programs-for-pcs/287607 "2005-01-31T16:02:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RumMunkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@RumMunkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RumMunkey)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsloicited-advice-cleanup-programs-for-pcs/287607/1 "2005-01-31T16:02:51Z")

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Just want to impart a bit of advice regarding a lot of those “clean up” utilities that find and delete “old” and “unnecessary” files on your computer. -Without a backup.

Use them with caution.

I know one program in particular that figures “\*.log” to be unnecessary and deletes them all. Turns out, a lot of programs will create a file called “uninstall.log” that it follows as a map of what it needs to remove to from your computer when you uninstall it.

If it can’t find “uninstall.log” it gives up, and you can’t remove the program (easily anyway).

So there you go. Maybe I will save someone from a headache and an eventual re-install of Windows some day.