Copyright: Copyright®1995 Peng Software.All rights reserved.
Citation: Copyright®1995 Peng Software.All rights reserved.


Main Dialog

You should be able to find most of the help you need in this help file.  Click on the controls in the figure below for information about them.  If you need further help, please refer to the technical support section.

Vac maintains a log file, VAC.LOG, that log all activities and the files deleted.  You can use this information to recover deleted files if necessary.

Note:  If you are unsure about whether to skip or delete read-only files and hidden files, skip them for maximum safety.

A tip for using Vac.


Delete Read-Only and Hidden Files
If this box is checked, Vac will delete every read-only file and hidden file it finds without prompting the user, unless the file is new.

Do not check this box if you are unsure.


Skip Read Only and Hidden Files
If this box is checked, Vac will skip every read-only file and hidden file it finds without prompting the user.

Check this box if you are unsure.


Target drives
Select the drives that you want Vac to search.


Prompt for action
Prompt you for appropriate action when Vac encounters a read-only file or hidden file.


Files to be deleted
Wildcards for the files to be deleted.

For example, if you enter "clean*.bak" (not including the quotes), any file with a name that starts with "clean" and an extension of "bak" will be targeted for deletion.

Notice that each wildcard is delimited with a semicolon ";".


Days old
You can specify that new files are to be skipped.  For safety, Vac will not delete files less than 3 days old.


Default
Reset the files to be deleted to the default setting, namely *.tmp;


Choices

Windows, DOS and many applications often generate files for temporary use.  However, due to unexpected computer shutdown or bugs, the temporary files might be left on the hard drive and take up megabytes of your precious disk space.  The temporary files usually have extension "tmp", or begin with a tilde "~".  Check one or both of the first two checkboxes to remove these temporary files.

Many applications, such as word processors, would automaticly generate backup files for your saved work.  These files take up considerable space.  If you already have a good backup system (such as tape backup), or find these backup files unnecessary, check the "*.bak" box to remove them.


Clean

Click here to begin cleaning the hard drive.

After clicking here, you will see a dialog box which shows you the cleaning process.

Click the Cancel button any time to abort the whole operation.

After the job is done, a dialog box will display the results.


Exit
Click here to exit Vac.  The current settings will be saved.


About
Click here to display information about Vac.


Read-Only Files
Read-only files deny any attempts to modify them.  A file is usually made read-only, either by the operating system or the user, to prevent accidental deletion.

Refer to your operatng system manual for more information.


Hidden Files
Hidden files are files hidden from usual file listing.  A file is often made hidden, either by the operating system or user, to prevent tampering.

Refer to your operatng system manual for more information.


Technical Support

I accidentally deleted some files that I did not intend to delete.  How do I recover them?

MS-DOS comes with UNDELETE.EXE and Microsoft Undelete for Windows (MS-DOS 6.0 and above).  Please refer to your MS-DOS documentation or Windows documentation about how to use these utilities.

How to contact Peng Software?

Peng Software has a CompuServe account.  In case you encounter any problem, you can reach Peng's Software at the following email address:

72633.2422@compuserve.com

Or, you can mail your questions to the following mailing address:

74, Jalan SS 2/3,

47300 Petaling Jaya,

Selangor,

Malaysia.

Please include as much information as you can, especially the following:

The operating system you are using: MS Windows 3.1, Windows NT, or OS/2.

Your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT

The ini file VAC.INI

The log file VAC.LOG

A detail description of the problem you encounter --

how it happened, what error message did you receive, etc.


A tip for using Vac

Sometimes, you might have many files with the same extension, but only a few of them are essential.  You can use File Manager to set the attributes of the essential files to read-only, and make Vac skip all read-only files.

For example, programmers usually generate megabytes of OBJ files, but only some of them are frequently re-used, and others are not essential since they can be regenerated.  The few important OBJ files can be marked as read-only and Vac can be set to skip read-only files.  Vac will delete all the non-necessary OBJ files and free megabytes of disk space.