DiskMax 4

[kjx]

DiskMax is a windows performance maintenance software used by novices and experts alike. Novices because it guides them with a detailed help file and helpful prompts. Experts because it automates all those tedious tasks for you.

DiskMax 4 has been reviewed by members at other technology forums and has over 800 installs from Sunday (5Apr09). Over 40,000 if you take count from a 2-3 years back. It's user base growth has been rapidly increasing pace since version 4 released a month back and I thought it's now good enough for the discerning crowd at neowin.

If you take CCleaner as the benchmark, DiskMax does everything it does (except the registry cleaning and software uninstalling) and more. An unique feature not seen in any software application till date is the ability to clean out Windows Event Logs. It basically clears out the standard junk file locations (including other user profiles on the same system - if you are an admin and you specify it), deep scans your drives, cleans out your event logs, defragments your drives and rearranges key files based on prefetch data collected by Windows.

Official features list and download location: http://www.koshyjohn.com/software/diskmax.html

Additional information (help file as a separate download for review; only on neowin): http://koshyjohnuk.googlepages.com/dmhelp.chm

DiskMax is listed on Softpedia: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Secu...g/DiskMax.shtml

Please digg it when :p you find it to your liking: http://digg.com/software/DiskMax_Windows_P...nce_Maintenance

I greatly attribute DiskMax's sudden popularity spurt to it being picked up by tech bloggers at other forums. I'd be much obliged if DiskMax was shared around by bloggers who are reading this and decide they like the program. It's a small way of showing that my work is appreciated and deserves a wider audience. Thank you.

Edited April 14, 2009 by Koshy John

[kjx]

It just got approved at Download.com:

http://download.cnet.com/DiskMax/3000-18512_4-10912587.html

[349857345]

Wow...I really recommend this.

Has a lovley interface and its only 700KB in size. But would love the option to have a standalone .exe instead of installing it though :p

Anyway...it cleared 700MB of junk on my system which CCleaner missed.

thumbs up!

[+Xinok Subscriber²]

Never, never, NEVER delete files by extension!!! Some programmers don't always use appropriate file extensions, and some programs can stop working if these files are deleted.

[kjx]

Never, never, NEVER delete files by extension!!! Some programmers don't always use appropriate file extensions, and some programs can stop working if these files are deleted.

Noted. However, deleting files by extension is an optional feature that is never executed without first prompting the user. The extensions under consideration are: old, prv, chk, gid, wbk, tmp, dmp, nch, log, bak

Any programmer worth his salt would never create an important file with these extensions. Exceptions are setup.log, install.log, OPA*.bak - DiskMax makes allowance for these files and skips them. And this procedure has never caused problems for any of the 40,000+ users who have used DiskMax over the past 2-3 years (at least it was never brought to my notice).

To address your concerns, I have updated the program to include an additional prompt asking the user whether he/she wants to delete deep scan identified files to the recycle bin. Is this satisfactory?

Wow...I really recommend this.

Has a lovley interface and its only 700KB in size. But would love the option to have a standalone .exe instead of installing it though :p

Anyway...it cleared 700MB of junk on my system which CCleaner missed.

thumbs up!

Thanks for the positive response! There was another user who was able to get rid of 15GB of junk from a Windows 7 installation.

Here's his take: http://www.pallab.net/2009/03/14/reclaim-y...e-with-diskmax/

It's actually only 500KB - 200KB's from the bundled help file.

I have shied away from a standalone exe because it is not very professional - DiskMax 3 was and continues to be a standalone however.

Edited April 10, 2009 by Koshy John

[i_was_here]

Can DiskMax clean multiple profiles at once or only the current user?

[kjx]

Can DiskMax clean multiple profiles at once or only the current user?

Multiple user profiles. But DiskMax must be running with administrative privileges (manual elevation is necessary if UAC is enabled - right click and select 'run as administrator') for this to be available and you have to confirm your intentions for each user (at least the first time).

Basically you can pick and choose which profiles you want to scan through.

[+Xinok Subscriber²]

Noted. However, deleting files by extension is an optional feature that is never executed without first prompting the user. The extensions under consideration are: old, prv, chk, gid, wbk, tmp, dmp, nch, log, bak

Any programmer worth his salt would never create an important file with these extensions. Exceptions are setup.log, install.log, OPA*.bak - DiskMax makes allowance for these files and skips them. And this procedure has never caused problems for any of the 40,000+ users who have used DiskMax over the past 2-3 years (at least it was never brought to my notice).

To address your concerns, I have updated the program to include an additional prompt asking the user whether he/she wants to delete deep scan identified files to the recycle bin. Is this satisfactory?

That's safer, but it can still break programs. Almost every file extension has more than one use, even obvious ones like tmp.

http://filext.com/file-extension/prv

http://filext.com/file-extension/chk

http://filext.com/file-extension/gid

http://filext.com/file-extension/wbk

http://filext.com/file-extension/tmp

http://filext.com/file-extension/dmp

etc.

Something that might be safe, instead of scanning the entire drive, only scan specific folders. For example, the Windows folder is unlikely to have files from other programs and deleting these file types from that folder should be safe.

Sometimes, even high quality commercial software can crash. A long time ago, I had problems with Diskeeper crashing and trying to reinstall itself. It turns out it was only because I was deleting a LOG file used by Diskeeper.

[kjx]

That's safer, but it can still break programs. Almost every file extension has more than one use, even obvious ones like tmp.

http://filext.com/file-extension/prv

http://filext.com/file-extension/chk

http://filext.com/file-extension/gid

http://filext.com/file-extension/wbk

http://filext.com/file-extension/tmp

http://filext.com/file-extension/dmp

etc.

Something that might be safe, instead of scanning the entire drive, only scan specific folders. For example, the Windows folder is unlikely to have files from other programs and deleting these file types from that folder should be safe.

Sometimes, even high quality commercial software can crash. A long time ago, I had problems with Diskeeper crashing and trying to reinstall itself. It turns out it was only because I was deleting a LOG file used by Diskeeper.

Are you suggesting that the feature be removed completely?

The way I see it, the user is sufficiently warned that there is a remote chance that a deep scan may cause problems in unprofessionally written programs. They also get to delete files to the recycle bin so that they can check if anything's amiss before they get rid of the junk files for good.

The next step would be to remove the feature completely but that would be a disservice to those who want to use it.

[+Xinok Subscriber²]

Are you suggesting that the feature be removed completely?

The way I see it, the user is sufficiently warned that there is a remote chance that a deep scan may cause problems in unprofessionally written programs. They also get to delete files to the recycle bin so that they can check if anything's amiss before they get rid of the junk files for good.

The next step would be to remove the feature completely but that would be a disservice to those who want to use it.

If you won't remove the feature, then you should at least provide a better warning.

The first screen gives absolutely no warning.

Only the second screen warns the user, but from here, the files will be deleted regardless if you click Yes or No.

(The yellow borders were put there by Sandboxie)

[kjx]

If you won't remove the feature, then you should at least provide a better warning.

The first screen gives absolutely no warning.

Only the second screen warns the user, but from here, the files will be deleted regardless if you click Yes or No.

(The yellow borders were put there by Sandboxie)

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback like you are. I really appreciate it.

In my haste to come up with a workable solution, I overlooked what you just pointed out.

I have decided to explore alternative approaches to implementing this feature more professionally. This may take a little time but I'll explain in detail my final approach once I've settled on it.

[kjx]

Changes made on 16th April 2009

1. Text in the first deep scan prompt changed to: "WARNING: Select Yes ONLY if you have read the help file. If you select 'Yes', you can choose to delete files to the recycle bin, if you wish, a little later."

2. Help file now includes following text:

"WARNING: Deep scanning your system can be a useful feature only if you know what you are doing. It is highly recommended that you choose to delete files to the recycle bin when prompted so that you can restore files selectively if you find that an application requires any of them.

The files with the extensions listed above are by definition temporary files. Any application that attaches anything more than a passing importance to these files are simply badly written. But badly written applications do exist, and therefore, this warning."

Support for Windows XP/2003 implemented and tested. DiskMax 3 discontinued.

[ViZioN]

Cool little app :) Ran the standard setup but didn't deep scan and managed to save 200MB. Not bad at all. Well done!

[soldier1st]

Question to the maker of the app... why would you want to delete the stuff in the event logs? it makes no sense to me but perhaps you can explain it in better detail.

[kjx]

Question to the maker of the app... why would you want to delete the stuff in the event logs? it makes no sense to me but perhaps you can explain it in better detail.

Event logs are perpetually maintained as long as the Windows Event Log service is running.

The more the number of entries in each event log:

- the larger is the space occupied on your hard disk.

- the slower (very marginally; but noticeable on systems with old Windows installations) each write to an event log is.

It is also prudent to clear your event logs for privacy purposes. Open event viewer to see the tens of thousands of entries you are likely to have accumulated if your event logs have never been cleared.

[lunamense]

Great program, but I find after running it in Windows 7 b7100 using the detailed setting, and selecting yes to all options but deep scan, windows task scheduler is now broken. Something to do with clearing event logs?

[The Canadian]

This damn thing has screwed Windows over on my computer, and before you ask, I said NO to the Deep Scan, now icons on the start menu have changed, the thing your mouse pointer turns into when moving over text has gone white...I can keep going; yes I got 6.2GB of space back but that is not the point!

[fix-this!]

ccleaner is all i need! :yes:

[kjx]

This damn thing has screwed Windows over on my computer, and before you ask, I said NO to the Deep Scan, now icons on the start menu have changed, the thing your mouse pointer turns into when moving over text has gone white...I can keep going; yes I got 6.2GB of space back but that is not the point!

This is unbelievable - there is no possible way DiskMax could create such problems on a regular Windows installation. If you don't mind, could you please share with me a copy of the DiskMax Log.txt file found in your user profile directory (eg: C:\Users\<your-user-name>\DiskMax Log.txt on Vista/2008/7).

1. If you are talking about the list of recently used programs, then please note that you were prompted as follows by the program: "User Assist" - "Do you want to reset your recently used program history?" and "Selecting Yes is safe but will clear the recently used programs list in your Start Menu." If that's the case, Windows will repopulate the list after a while based on your program usage history. Otherwise, please explain further what you mean by "icons on the start menu have changed".

2. The mouse pointer issue. (a) DiskMax never changes any system settings. (b) The folder in which the mouse pointers are stored (eg: C:\Windows\Cursors) is never touched. Here's what you can do anyway, open up the 'Mouse Properties' dialog box from the Control Panel and set the 'Text Select' cursor back to the default. Even if you use DeepScan, there's no way DiskMax would cause your mouse pointer for text select to change.

3. Please keep going, I want to know what you claim DiskMax has done so that I can either set the record straight or help you out.

Honestly, if you didn't have such a high post count, I'd think you were trying to spread FUD.

[kjx]

Great program, but I find after running it in Windows 7 b7100 using the detailed setting, and selecting yes to all options but deep scan, windows task scheduler is now broken. Something to do with clearing event logs?

I have a fresh install of build 7100 on my other laptop. Kindly explain what you mean when you say Task Scheduler is broken. I just need to know how to replicate the issue (as in what exactly about Task Scheduler is not functioning like you want) to see what the problem can be. And no, clearing the event logs is absolutely safe - you only lose information that Windows records about computer activity.

Yes, clearing the Event Logs will mean that Task Scheduler may be unable to tell you when the last time a scheduled task was run/completed was unless it was after the last clearing operation. That does not mean that a scheduled task did not run or task scheduler is not working.

Here's a couple of things you can check right away:

1. Open 'Services.msc' from the start menu and then check if the Task Scheduler service is running. Task Scheduler is one of the hardened system services that the user can neither stop nor change startup type of.

2. Open Event Viewer. Navigate to 'Applications and Services' \ 'Microsoft' \ 'Windows' \ 'Task Scheduler' \ 'Operational' to see the entries there (from the time DiskMax cleared it last).

[The Canadian]

This is unbelievable - there is no possible way DiskMax could create such problems on a regular Windows installation. If you don't mind, could you please share with me a copy of the DiskMax Log.txt file found in your user profile directory (eg: C:\Users\<your-user-name>\DiskMax Log.txt on Vista/2008/7).

1. If you are talking about the list of recently used programs, then please note that you were prompted as follows by the program: "User Assist" - "Do you want to reset your recently used program history?" and "Selecting Yes is safe but will clear the recently used programs list in your Start Menu." If that's the case, Windows will repopulate the list after a while based on your program usage history. Otherwise, please explain further what you mean by "icons on the start menu have changed".

2. The mouse pointer issue. (a) DiskMax never changes any system settings. (b) The folder in which the mouse pointers are stored (eg: C:\Windows\Cursors) is never touched. Here's what you can do anyway, open up the 'Mouse Properties' dialog box from the Control Panel and set the 'Text Select' cursor back to the default. Even if you use DeepScan, there's no way DiskMax would cause your mouse pointer for text select to change.

3. Please keep going, I want to know what you claim DiskMax has done so that I can either set the record straight or help you out.

Honestly, if you didn't have such a high post count, I'd think you were trying to spread FUD.

Like I said, all this started happening after running DiskMax, take a look at my Start menu:

DiskMax_Log.txt

[kjx]

Like I said, all this started happening after running DiskMax, take a look at my Start menu:

Your icon cache is corrupted. DiskMax does clear the icon cache but it seems to have got corrupted when Windows rebuilt it. The icon cache gets rebuilt at log in on Vista if it is not found.

Here's what you should do:

1. Open task manager and terminate all explorer.exe processes.

2. Using task manager, open cmd.exe and type in the following command verbatim:

del /a %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Iconcache.db

This will delete the corrupt icon cache.

3. Log off using task manager and restart your PC. All your icons will be fine when you log in again.

I hope this resolves the issue(s) you are facing. If you need further help on any other issues (related to DiskMax or otherwise), please do not hesitate to contact me.

[farmeunit]

I didn't bench anything, but I don't notice much of a difference in boot or performance. Win7 64-bit Home Premium.

[wrack]

Hi,

Great work but ever since I have started using DiskMax, I have found the file table or something has been corrupted and now everytime I copy or move a file I get an error saying "The file doesn't exist!" and I retry and all is well. I reformatted the machine and no error since then. At first I thought the HDD was failing but it seems everytime I try DiskMax and use it few times, the disk eventually gets something nasty!

Hope you have some sort of answer to this!

Cheers :)

[kjx]

@farmeunit: If you have powerful hardware and regularly maintain your system, the improvements you see from DiskMax may be marginal. In some cases, it takes a deletion of the contents of the Prefetch folder and 2 reboots (once to refresh Prefetch data, and the second to utilize it) to see the effects of DiskMax on your system.

@wrack: You'll have to investigate further as what you are describing cannot be caused by DiskMax. This is because DiskMax does not access the filesystem directly - everything goes through Windows. Let's assume DiskMax actually did have some sort of problem, statistically speaking I would have heard of this problem by now considering that DiskMax 4 has been around for 2 years and it has a considerablely large user base (100,000+ recurring users since metrics were implemented in Jan, 2010).

You might want to run chkdsk on your HDD to see what is actually wrong. I think I remember this problem being discussed on neowin some time in the past but I can't seem to recollect the details - it might be caused by some application running in the background. A similar problem (saying that the file was in use) used to crop up for users who had disabled their 'Application Experience' service.

[Reacon]

Good program. Could use a bit of streamlining, but I have been using it for some months, and will continue.