           WinTidy - Identify and Remove Unwanted Files

WinTidy helps you control disk space usage.  There are many programs that 
generate backup files that can be safely deleted once a project has been 
completed, and program developers may wish to delete those "intermediate" 
files and pre-compiled headers that typically clutter up C++ or Delphi 
projects.  WinTidy identifies these files, and will allow you to try and 
delete them.  It does *not* delete the files automatically, unless a special
command-line option is explicitly set.

   ========================== WARNING ==============================
    You accept any resonsibility for deleting files on your system.
     Take a backup if you are at all uncertain what you are doing!
   ========================== WARNING ==============================


Usage:

Extract WinTidy.exe from the zip file to a convenient location, and run it!
You need no other files from the .ZIP, they are provided for your interest.
WinTidy uses no other DLLs.  Press the Find button to search for unwanted 
files.  WinTidy normally scans all locally-connected hard disks.  You can 
select or unselect individual drives in the Select Drives list box.  You 
can also choose a common sub-directory tree to scan across all selected 
hard disks by entering a directory specification in the Directory Mask.  
In this way you can scan, say, all the directories called \TEMP on every 
drive.  Leaving the mask as its default "\" scans the entire drive.

Optionally, if you make an icon or shortcut for WinTidy, you can have one 
parameter which causes the directory mask to be preset to that parameter.  
The files are presented in a list box in size order, so you can concentrate 
on removing the largest files first.  Maximum results for minimum effort!  
Select the files you want to delete in the list box, and then press the 
Delete button.

Normally, for safety, WinTidy will not actually delete files, but instead 
will move them to the Recycle Bin.  This means that the disk space will not
actually be returned until the Recycle Bin is emptied.  In the options 
dialog, the pre-version 2.1 behaviour (to use Borland's Erase function) can
be restored.

If you become completely happy with the operation of WinTidy and wish to
completely automate directory searching and file deletion, it is possible
to use a second command-line parameter which must be exactly "-auto_delete".

There are two further command-line parameters which allow you to specify a
command separated list of files either to be kept, or to be deleted, 
for example:

  -keep=C:\cache\*.htm,"D:\safe files\*.*"
  -delete=E:\temp\*.gif,"C:\unsafe files\*.*"

Note that file specifications with embedded spaces must be in double quotes.


Command Line Parameters for WinTidy:

 WinTidy  <path>  [-auto_delete]  [-keep=<wildcards>]  [-delete=<wildcards>]

where

 <path>       is a directory specification without a disk drive
              e.g.  \Windows\Temp
              must be the first parameter

 [-auto_delete]  must be the second parameter

 <wildcards>  are one or more comma separated wildcard file specifications
              e.g.  C:\cache\*.htm,"D:\safe files\*.*"
              Note that the disk specification IS required.

 multiple "-keep=" and "-delete=" parameters are allowed.  

I don't know what  the maximum length of a command line under Windows 95 
and Windows NT 4 actually is!


What files are "unwanted"?

As supplied, the program regards the following files as unwanted.  To change
this requires editing the registry entries:

  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\David J Taylor\Windows Tidy\FilesToFind
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\David J Taylor\Windows Tidy\ExtraFilesToFind

   *.tmp    ~*.*     *.~*     *.?~?    
   *.aps    *.bak    *.bk?    *.bsc
   *.dmp    *.dsm    *.ilk    *.pch    
   *.rws    *.sbr    *.$$$    backup*.wbk

There is also an option to be rather more agressive in selecting files, when
you are getting really desparate for space.  This seeks out Windows 95 and 
NT help file searching add-ons, the .FTS and .GID files.  These can be 
recreated by Windows when required.  See the Options, What-to-find menu to 
change this choice.

By default, WinTidy ignores files that have the hidden, read-only or system
attributes set, or have zero size.  This is primarily a safety measure since
such files are often required by Windows.  Use the Options, Ignore menu to
alter this behaviour.

To recover even more disk space, you may also want to empty the cache of 
any Web browsers you have, particularly if you have one installed which is 
no longer in use.  If you run both Windows 95 and NT, you might want to 
delete NT's PAGEFILE.SYS in 95's autoexec.bat, and 95's WIN386.SWP in NT's 
autoexec.nt.


Notes:

The program is written with Borland's Delphi 2.01, and full source is 
included.  You do not need access to Delphi 2.01 to run WinTidy, which runs 
on Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0.


Release information:

1996 Apr 16  V2.0.2  First Freeware released version
1996 Sep 19  V2.0.4  Update btnSelectAllClick to use more efficient method
1997 Mar 16  V2.1.0  Add option to ignore ReadOnly, Hidden and System files
                     Add option to ingore zero-length files
                     Add multiple drive search
                     Add -auto_delete 2nd command-line parameter
                     Save options in the registry
                     By default, use the Recycle Bin for deleting files

Contacting the author:

This program is Freeware, but remains copyright of David Taylor, Edinburgh, 
1996-1997.  This program is provided "as is", without any support.  Whilst 
I cannot answer queries relating to the use of this program, I'd welcome 
any comments or suggestions for improvements you may have.


david.taylor@gecm.com
david_j_taylor@compuserve.com
1997 March 16
