Possible folders to delete?

Hello
As the attachements show, there are 7 Roxio/Sonic files[shared] in Ccleaner but I do not use Roxio or Sonic.
There are also tons of Silverlight files in Ccleaner along with as many Activex/Com issue.
Also, there are Ubuntu and VM files in Windows Explorer which I tried but thought I removed.
>Question, can I remove them?

I was trying to get Ccleaner to run out of a VM so I could delete all if there was trouble.
Is the best way to 'image' prior to running Ccleaner or is there a better way?

If I restore the registry and there is trouble will system restore recover from the trouble?
Thank you for the help.
Peter

With a VM you are looking at a file stored on the drive you can copy to another location but would need to copy back to the same if the original becomes pooched in any way and hopefully will be recognised as valid. I've made backups of VMs that simply wouldn't load up later on a few occasions.

For your main drive and OS a full system image backup is the smart move prior to seeing any large changes made while those temp folders are clutter! Read the guide there. :)

If you are finding them empty or with one or two log files dump them! It won't hurt anything. CCleaner isn't generally siomething you would run on a VM however since you rarely won't find any large clutter except for some rare occasion.

As far as the registry however it depends on the type of restoration and by what means you are referring to. If you trash the registry on a VM and it won't run then you would need to create a new one to replace it unlike a regular host OS install where you could boot live from the Windows dvd to run the system restore feature or restore a full system image while booting live.

Often if you simply are browsing through various sub folders under your user account as well as in the Windows directory and run into a bunch take a fast look to be sure that they are temp install folders for various things like programs, updates and simply send them on their way! While they generally don't use much space as a rule only in the kbits they are obsolete and do nothing at all.

Now the word of caution I should emphasize here is on the use of programs with removal options since the overuse can lead to misidentified folders a program may see as an empty temp folder when actually it is in use by a program. These types of folders are often found in the users\user name\AppData\ and subs being reserved temps for VMs game saves, or other depending on the type of program that creates them.

With most vm wares of one type or another you will see one folder that will hold the VHDs(Virtual Hard Disks) and another for the VM(Virtual Machine) that being the total data for the VM's creation and configurations. Generally those will be sub folders under a main with a name like VM Ware, Oracle VirtualBox(not including Portable VBox), Microsoft Virtual PC being the most commonly used and known vm programs.

Most of the temp now garbage folders you can easily dump will be those having a lengthy folder name seen more as a combination of numbers with a few letters you can spot right off! You highlight a row of them and right click to the Recycle Bin without a concern since they are not being used anymore and wouldn't be. These are the types of folders the removal programs are supposed to take care in general and why CCleaner often sees the big rep.

For removing any virtual program the first step is he uninstall usually being through the Control Panel to insure Windows removes all registry entries associated with the program as well. Then when finding any folders the program created and used you can opt to back up the contents for future use if you reinstall the same later or dump them manually. At least you know the uninstall by the usual means saw any registy values tended to.

Note the reference to the Portable VirtualBox is due to being able to run that from a usb flash drive with no registry involvement for portable VMs.

Here I never use any of them much since I simply go through things manually as I go along. If I see a bunch of empty temps I simply toss them on the spot. Actually on the last check the number was few having just seen a clean install of 7 on 2 months ago.

Programs like the Revo or IOBit uninstallers to me are more like selling gimics over simply using the Control Panel and uninstall option if seen in the Start>Programs folder there.

That usually works out the best. Then at least you know where you are at when it comes to what will seen especially when going to restore a full image backup.

With the recent clean install here I elected to dump some unnecessary items due the images simply growing too large in size. I have one folder over 350gb in size where a lot of that was coming from namely a Steam mods folder!

Until the latest HL1 Black Mesa(remake) goes in once I find some time for that the folder is now seen at 152gb! That's called "trimming the fat" as far as items no longer needed. Fortunately empty folders while annoying don't use up anywhere half that kind of drive space! Otherwise I think most of us would be scratching our heads trying to sift through them all.