Vulnerability of Gadgets in Vista and Win 7

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Hi,

Here a newsletter (it's a safe site) detailing the security failings of sidebar gadgets in Win 7, and also a discussion about security popups.

http://windowssecrets.com/newsletter...&r=27844-04882

Cheers

[Barrykgerdes]

Interesting! I have used the clock but nothing else. However I am more concerned with the tempoary(?) internet files area in your user area. The information stored here is of no use to anyone except hackers etc and is not easily removed. A cursury read of some of the data stored here was a history of all my internet activity since I put Win 7 on that computer. My user area contains 6GB of data and I have at times removed it completely and replaced it with a generic version that I always save when I first install the OS (naturally it contains the only info I need). Without any harm done to the computer.

Barry

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Barrykgerdes

Interesting! I have used the clock but nothing else. However I am more concerned with the tempoary(?) internet files area in your user area. The information stored here is of no use to anyone except hackers etc and is not easily removed. A cursury read of some of the data stored here was a history of all my internet activity since I put Win 7 on that computer. My user area contains 6GB of data and I have at times removed it completely and replaced it with a generic version that I always save when I first install the OS (naturally it contains the only info I need). Without any harm done to the computer.

Barry

Start>Run and type %tmp%. Delete all. That should clean a lot in AppData and other folders, logs, etc...

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Marc

I haven't thought to use %tmp% to locate the files before. I always did it manually. However you can't "delete all" because there are a couple of files in use so you need to selectively "delete all" to get the rest.

Barry

[multiweb (Marc)]

Some are always in use or locked by the OS but you'll get 99% in one pass. Typically up to 5000 files/registry entries on a typical Win7 system running Adobe products, PS, Microsoft Office, etc... I'd say bout 1GB in average.

[Colin_Fraser]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Start>Run and type %tmp%. Delete all. That should clean a lot in AppData and other folders, logs, etc...

Sorry but that won't do much. Only delete files in the User/yourname/AppData/Local/Temp folder

Will not remove any directories nor remove any Internet cache files or history files. Does not touch the registry at all.
Of course if you have more than one user account it does not touch those either.

Better off using Ccleaner or similar.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Colin_Fraser

Sorry but that won't do much. Only delete files in the User/yourname/AppData/Local/Temp folder

Anything in the temp folder is safe to delete. Deleting files higher in the tree could potentialy damage your system.

Originally Posted by Colin_Fraser

Will not remove any directories nor remove any Internet cache files or history files. Does not touch the registry at all.

The internet cache is one level up in local. For IE9 it's in
Users\yourname\AppData\Local\Micros oft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\Content.IE5.
Some apps have user/registry key info in AppData and not in the main registry. Adobe does that a lot.

Originally Posted by Colin_Fraser

Of course if you have more than one user account it does not touch those either.

Better off using Ccleaner or similar.

I assume you'd run it from one account once logged in. You can log off and apply the same to different profiles.

Those cleaner programs always made me nervous. I've had nasty problems in the past with corruptions running such tools.

[Colin_Fraser]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Those cleaner programs always made me nervous. I've had nasty problems in the past with corruptions running such tools.

Thats unfortunate. I have CCleaner running on Startup on most laptops where I tutor. Never had a problem yet, only because it is really stable now.
Another good option is to configure your browser to empty the cache and clear cookies on exit, OR better still if you are really worried about privacy, use Private Browsing.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Colin_Fraser

I have CCleaner running on Startup on most laptops where I tutor. Never had a problem yet, only because it is really stable now.

I'll give it a go. I used Registry Mechanic for a while.