Why does the Disk Cleanup tool in Windows XP and Windows 2000 hang when I try to start it?

Mark Smith wrote: This is a known bug with Win2k and WinXP. The machine is hanging at Disk Cleanup because it is trying to tell you what old files should be compressed... Bad Thing.
Run regedit, move to the top of the hives (to My Computer)
Press Ctrl-F (Find) and type "Compress Old" (no quotes)
When regedit finds the offending key, press the Delete key and Enter. Disk Clean will fly now!

Whatever this means, it worked like a charm. I did the things listed by John Savill as well. But the regedit was what worked for me. Thank you Mark for the tip. I will write this down for future reference!

Yee Haaaa! Thank You! Fix My Disk cleanup Fuction all well in NY

Just fixed mine Mark. Been searching for days on how to fix this. Thanks alot. Keep up the good work. I just joined because of this seems you know what you are talking about.
Thanks again,
JoAnn

Mark Smith, your solution worked perfectly and I owe you a debt of gratitude. I would have had to do a fresh install of W2k to get this problem solved and you saved me tons of time. Now I know it's a known bug and will make sure I do it on all new installations. Thanks again. Stellar

Mark Smith wrote: "type "Compress Old" (no quotes)
When regedit finds the offending key, press the Delete key and Enter. Disk Clean will fly now!"

Fabulous advice. Worked perfectly in Win2k, and gets rid of that annoying compression testing as a bonus. Thank you.