What did "Clean Files" just delete?!?

It's nice that someone got back to you on this...

Sorry for the delay, it’s been brought to our attention when the community forum was switched to the new platform we stopped receiving notifications on new posts, this is being addressed.

The following is the answer from the DEV team and probably won’t answer your question but we raised a request to include a log or list of delete files\app for future enhancement. I did however tested this by placing a few excel files in c:\windows\temp and it did not delete those.

“Dev Response”

• Software Remediation: ‘Clean Files’ feature uses industry best practices to scan and remove unwanted files from the machine.
• These are primarily system/application generated junk/cache type of files that has little or no use and takes up disk space on the user machine.
• ‘Clean files’ removes junk files from multiple locations and does a more through cleanup than the built-in windows disk cleaner.
• Typical example of additional locations are: - %temp% - C:\windows\temp.”

Thanks, Joe.  I figured this just went into a black hole.  There's a balance between keeping things simple for the average end user and providing details to advanced users who would like the info and control.  In this case it's too simple I'm afraid.  It's the same with Tune Performance and Optimize Network.  It would be nice to get a report of what changes they actually make.

It's great that Dell provides these utilities, don't get me wrong.  It's a great differentiator for you guys.  Detailed logs are definitely needed though.

Regards,

Dan

"‘Clean Files’ feature uses industry best practices to scan and remove unwanted files from the machine."

How can I know what files I don't want?  I could open Windows Explorer, right-click a file, and select "Delete", but that's not industry best practices and I'm not qualified to choose which files I don't want.  I just wonder how to become informed which ones I don't want.

I have 4TB of disk drives, so 'Clean Files' was still in the middle of its scan when I figured out what it had in mind.  There's a "Cancel" button which is grayed out and unclickable.  However, I could close the SupportAssist application and I think it stopped.

I opened SupportAssist again, went to Settings, and disabled scheduled scans.  Actually I wouldn't mind having scheduled scans for other stuff like checking hardware health, I just want to disable 'Clean Files' until I learn what files I don't want, but there doesn't seem to be an option to just disable 'Clean Files'.

I have a related question to this...

You cite " industry best practices" and yet when it runs there is no setting to select the standard of deletion. My company usually uses Gutman as a standard for file deletion and I do not want any app deleting anything from our PC's insecurely. So my question is: What standard of deletion is used?

Incidentally, an option to turn that particular aspect of the assistant off would be most welcome if the standard of deletion is insecure. 

Hi Up ToMischief,

In case your system is part of any AD domain means if this laptop belongs your company then you are using wrong Dell SupportAssist application.

Application which you are using that is only meant for personal computers we have Dell SupportAssist application for Business users and that is totally different what you are using because SA Business application is all controlled by corporate IT Admin.

Thanks

DELL-Nikhil K

Hi Norman Diamond,

SupportAssist Business version is only meant for business users only because that has to managed through company IT admin.

You can continue using consumer version and for notification you can control it through 'Settings' top right corner you have setting icon.

Thanks

DELL-Nikhil k

Hello Nikhil,

No, I am not using the wrong version. Dell's own blurb says that the business version is for companies that have a formal IT team and being a small company we do not. The standard version is what Dell recommends  for those like us.

So my question stands: What standard of deletion is being used?

Hi Joe,

I have Dell Support Assist Client 3.0.1.62 running on a Dell Latitude 5480 and I just ran it today for the first time and just like the original poster of this thread I was a bit surprised that the "clean files" section deleted a total of 55 GB of "System" files, but I can't seem to find any logs as to what did it delete that was worth 55 GB. Since your post back on July 13, 2018 would you happen to know if the developers have updated this application to include any sort of detailed information as to what exactly this application is deleting? I've been looking to see if there's something on this version that kept the log of exactly what it deleted, but I have not been able to find any sort of log. I'm just left wondering as to what exactly it found that it was 55 GB worth of "System" files that it deleted.

Thank you,
Carlos

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@Norman Diamond wrote:

"I opened SupportAssist again, went to Settings, and disabled scheduled scans.  Actually I wouldn't mind having scheduled scans for other stuff like checking hardware health, I just want to disable 'Clean Files' until I learn what files I don't want, but there doesn't seem to be an option to just disable 'Clean Files'.

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I second this.  I want an app that automatically searches for updated drivers, BIOS, etc, but I really don't need all that other junk.  Deleting stuff isn't a "scan" (did something get lost in translation here?!). 

SupportAssist just wiped all my deleted files (aka Recycle Bin), which is really not ok; to be frank, I'm really angry about this and this sort of user-interface failure will weigh on my next purchasing decision.  It's like someone at Dell is totally tone-deaf to all the complaints about this kind of bloatware.  The whole purpose of the Recycle Bin is to be able to recover files you accidentally deleted.  I use it occasionally, and I think the inventors of that feature would be shocked at what SupportAssist is doing here.

Is there any way to make this a "formal" feature request (that there be some customization of the Scheduled Scan feature)?

There is no setting to keep it from emptying the recycle bin. I now have to stop scans to prevent it from doing one unwanted thing?

This needs to be fixed. This is beyond unacceptable. Besides that it tells me my drivers are all up to date, which they are not...

Instead of going through and manually updating all my drivers+bios, i decided to give the SupportAssist a shot. It emptied my recycle bin, deleted my temp and cache files without my permission. 

Whoever decided this was a good idea should look for a new job, in another industry, not relating to computers or customer's property.

Yep, shockingly, it’s true.  I learned it the hard way, when I clicked on a SA notification in my system tray to optimize.  It took off and went through the entire routine.  When it finished, I was left with an empty recycle bin (which I definitely did not want) and it has cleaned the registry, leaving me with a pop up dialogue box every time I start up that says “Unable to start the Bluetooth stack service.” DON’T EVER CLICK ON THE MESSAGE IN THE SYSTEM TRAY.  Instead, click on the SA Desktop icon, so that you can control what SA does.

Well this blatant disregard for safety and respect for the consumer has led me to remove the app. I, like others, accidentally hit "Run All" for the tests and scans and was SHOCKED to find out that 1 GB of files were deleted WITHOUT A RECORD. And many other tweaks were made to my network and stuff WITHOUT A LOG. I had just run CCleaner earlier today and removed excess junk which makes it even more shocking that this much was still found to do...