''PC Tools - Registry Mechanic' - history wiped

IM

Left my PC for an hour or so just now, and left Firefox open, with a large number of tabs active.

I came back, to find that 'PC Tools - Registry Mechanic' has run, un-prompted and deleted all my browsing history. I tried a web chat thingy but all I got was "Unfortunately there is no way to return that information once it has been deleted. Is there anything else we can help you with today?"

So angry about this. Cannot believe a programme can start running without my permission, not have a validation/check box before it deletes my data, and doesn't have any back-up.

Is there anything I can do?

fenlander_uk

It hasn't deleted your data - just your browser history (it sees this as 'system clutter'). It probably also deleted your browser cache and the contents of your Recycle Bin.

Did Registry Mechanic come pre-installed on your computer, or did you install it? Clearly, however it got on to your machine you haven't configured it - it is your machine after all, so it is your responsibility to set it up as you wish. That includes telling it what you want it to remove and what to leave, and whether you wish it to run unattended to a schedule.

For what it's worth, most programs of this type do little of any value to keep your PC working smoothly. There's no way I'd leave one to run unattended. If you don't like what it does, either configure it to suit your needs or uninstall it.

Notmyrealname

IM wrote: »

[/FONT]So angry about this. Cannot believe a programme can start running without my permission, not have a validation/check box before it deletes my data, and doesn't have any back-up.

Is there anything I can do?

But it did run with your permission. You installed it and you configured it.

andy2004

well its would be easy to get back the data from your browsing history.
recuva < download onto another partition. preferably on a different computer, and preferably a portable version as you dont want to install it, but run it on the system that was lost and run a scan in the firefox profiles folder.
it will scan for all the data that was in their recover to another device.
create a new profile and copy this data into that folder, tell firefox to use that new profile and you should have everything back.

macman

What's critical about your browsing history? As long as your Favourites are there, surely that's the most important archive.
And do you not maintain a back up of your own?

IM

I'm normally pretty careful to de-select the 'extras' like this that often come with downloads of other software - I guess I missed this one.

My wife has sheepishly admitted that she clicked 'OK' to 'something' asking for permission, assuming I had set it up....

Looking at the schedule on it (before I uninstalled) it looked as though it had defaulted to run every day - but this seems to have been the first time it actually managed to do so.

My normal scheduled clean-up tool is set to only delete the history from IE and Chrome. With Firefox, I do this manually, as I tend to have a large number of tabs open until I get around to bookmarking or closing. This was the case on Sunday - I'd been doing some research and had left maybe 15 tabs open whilst I went for dinner. It's far from the end of the world, it's just a pain to try and re-trace my Google steps.

macman

Why not just do a System Restore back to the latest date prior to the deletion?

pcilliterate

The same thing just happened to me but on Google Chrome!!

I was using my younger brothers laptop(teenager) as I currently don't have one to do some important work(I am a female in my 20's and have no technical computer knowledge!)

The reason why I mentioned my brother was because he denies he downloaded the PC Tools progamme and I wasn't even at home the day it was installed so he must have accidently clicked on something(pop-up) and accepted the download. I am annoyed that something that can wipe your documents can be so EASILY installed without having to VERIFY anything, neither promt you before it DELETES and closes your windows! I wasn't even aware it was downloaded as it was only 2 days ago.

On the PC Tools help page it only allows registered paid users to access online chat help or contact details, and you cannot contact them without verifying you are registered without a matching email(neither of us did this), why does it allow a programme download without giving an email address??????

I had about 8tabs open with important research infor for my work, and history that I had from previous days which took me hrs to find some sites so that is why HISTORY is important to me(in reply to a comment on history)-so how do I get this infor back???
Apparently there were 555registry issues, how do I know what else was deleted that was not JUNK?

I just downloaded PC TOOLS FILE RECOVER and it has been scanning for over an hour and is only at 63.3%!!
Anyone know if this will recover my History+everything that was supposedly TRASH?????

Will SAMSUNG RECOVERY SOLUTION 4 be of any use?????(another programme my bro has on his laptop)

Help would be greatly appreciated:):):)

pcilliterate

Oh and as for the settings it was set automatically on a Daily Scanning schedule-it shouldn't have these options unless you set them-as it has only beel downloaded 2dys ago I wasn't able to spot it in time to change this/delete it.

There should be a PROMPT before it closes our open windows/documents-and allow you to agree/confirm before it deletes, NEITHER was asked-it just went ahead and did it and had to download PC TOOLS FILE RECOVER as there were no otions to select in recovery.

I am SO ANNOYED it is this easy for a programme to set up on your computer without you having to confirm settings and deletion!! Not to mention lack of ways to contact them on their website for free download users!!!

macman

Why didn't you just do a system restore? The system should have created a restore point at the time you installed Registry Mechanic. Go back to there and your history will be restored.

pcilliterate

I have never done a System Restore before, am I supposed to use the Samsung Recovery Solution 4 programme on this laptop or is there another way to do it? Don't want to mess it up without knowing what to do first??

Would it also mean it would delete any documents created after the past date I restore it to?

Well the PC TOOLS Recovery I installed was a waste of time!

My scan took nearly 3hrs and said:
"Below is a list of the recoverable files found. Select the files to recover."

There is a very long list of recovered files with a checkbox to select which ones you want to recover, I selected all and the RECOVER button does not select(it is inactive-unhighlighted) there is a picture of a LOCK on it, I am guessing that means this feature is only available on PAID VERSIONS, why can't I click it!! What is the point of doing a 3hr scan and not allowing me to recover anything after!!!

I want to delete this bloody thing but don't want to if it is the only way to recover what it deleted

PLEASE HELP with recovery:(