Hello. I'm new to cakewalk. Just practicing getting to know the system. 
A curious thing happened to me last night. I had a few slivers of songs, noting important. I had asked about methods of cleaning unused audio, edits, etc. The 'clean audio' answer came up.
Still not really knowing how to use it, I dug into that option as deep as I could go. There was nothing I could lose by doing it. No real music. Only testing of mics, levels, a few harmonies. No big deal. If for some reason I lost every scrap it wouldn't bother me and I'd learn from it the easy way. I'm not at the system but from what I recall there's quite a few options in that area. I saw the program scan and return a list. I know now that I wasn't reading in cakewalkish. The fact that it read 'these are all cakewalk files' or something to that effect, apparently wasn't so. 
I honestly don't know that what I did created my problem or that it was just time for the problem to happen, but, today when I went to use it, windows explorer would not open. Nor would the recycle bin (win 7). A system restore fixed the issue, but I have a feeling something in that section might have done that. I just have no idea what. Or as I wondered, was it time for Windows to screw up. I just recently did a fresh reformat and install of windows along with cakewalk. Could the scan have returned something that when deleted would've taken windows explorer with it?
Now it's time to be a little more careful. Learn the meaning of the word recurse..

The only files that the Clean Audio routine lists are .wav files. I don't think deleting any of these (even system sound files) would prevent Windows Explorer from opening.
 
But it's good to pay attention to the directory you are pointing at. The "recurse" tick box confirms that all .wav files in the specified directory belong to SONAR, so any in there that aren't referenced by a SONAR project are fair game for removal.
 
HTH.

This is not possible.
We use "Clean Audio" over more than 10 years "daily" on a lot of computers. It only deletes .wav and .w64 files within the audiofolders. Nothing outside the audiofolders and nothing within any systemfiles.
 

Thank you.
Just asking.
I know I went nuts with the clean audio function. There was nothing to lose by it, unless it would somehow do damage to platinum itself. Of course, I had no way of knowing one way or another.
I let it do its thing, shut down for the evening, came back next morning and explorer.exe and recycle bin wouldn't work.
As I mentioned earlier, windows restore worked.
Ah well...

I'd never ... NEVER in a million years use the clean audio utility.
It's been notoriously dangerous for decades or more.

I prefer not to use the clean audio function because it's far too willing to find every single audio file on a computer and unless the list it generates is checked through for files that shouldn't be in there deleting any and all audio files that aren't used in a project.

But it's news to me that anything can delete Windows Explorer withiut at the very least requiring an administrator permission to do so. Explorer is such an integral part of Windows that it's usually locked solid and deleting it or quite a lot of other system files is like trying to format the C: drove from within Windows. It can't be done, not easily anyway.

I have seen desktop recycle bins disappear when instead of picking "empty bin" from its right-click menu I've hit "delete" instead by accident. I once used a cheap wireless mouse that was a bit glitchy and deleted the bin so often I used to know the incantations and sacrifices required to restore things to normal by heart.

What might have happened is the call to load Explorer on boot/login got scrambled somehow. It might be a good idea to check the drive for errors and take a look at its SMART status to be on the safe side. The error logs might throw some light on what happened as well.

Yeah, it was a strange little experience. Up to that point, everything was working perfectly. It's been about 2 to 3 weeks now since my full reformat.
Windows 7, taken from the protected hidden partition. All updates went well. Checked and updated all the drivers. Installed splat, then waves horizon bundle followed by the abbey road collection. Finally, went through the system with the Sweetwater latency suggestions, and a few that were suggested on this forum.
A defrag...iit looked and appeared to be running like a dream.
Then I threw a few prerecorded tunes at it, added some vocals...just easing around. Nothing serious. Moved track parts around...'discovered' track lanes! Played with those. I was purposely seeing if I could get any clicks or pops...nothing.
So then I tried 'clean audio'. No big deal if I lose any or all of what I had laid down. I was more interested in seeing what happened. I didn't fully understand 'recurse' but as I stated, no loss if I lose everything. Whatever came up in the window, I ok'd it.
Eventually I finishes for the night.
when I came in to use it the next morning explorer.exe would not work, nor recycle bin. The icons were there but they wouldn't respond.
Going into task manager, showed nothing. Normally this happens you can force it to stop then simply restart.
Explorer.exe was gone!
A system restore fixed it in no time.
But messing with that clean audio was the only thing I'd been doing.
I know windows pretty well. I know how to screw it up. I didn't.

Just my two synths