CCleaner Issues

[Digerati]

I can't believe I am saying this.

If you don't have it, don't download it. If you have it, don't upgrade to V5.45. Avast has ruined one of the best utility programs ever.

CCleaner has been a favorite program of mine for many years. It was the one and only Registry cleaner I used, trusted, or recommended - mainly because it was NOT very aggressive.

The malware and certs issue a couple months back didn't really bother me. That was just an unintentional screw up. It happens to the best of programs and companies and I blamed Avast, not the CCleaner developers.

But these latest changes are all Avast's intentional doings - something I was afraid would happen when Piriform was bought by Avast. Too many times throughout history, we have seen great products ruined by new owners.

One of my favorite features of CCleaner over every other cleaner out there, including Windows own and excellent Disk Cleaner (which I also regularly recommend), is CCleaner's ability to clean cookies, but let you select which cookies you want to keep. So, for example, if I told CCleaner to keep Sysnative cookies, I could clean out the clutter with CCleaner, but not have to re-enter all my log-in credentials for Sysnative and other sites I frequently visit.

This is a sad day in world of computing.

For more background on the horrible changes, see CCleaner's Sketchy Data Collection Feature Automatically Re-Enables Itself.

Here’s What You Should Use Instead of CCleaner

Warning: DO NOT install the latest version of CCleaner [Updated]

FWIW, it seems Avast is hearing (whether they are really listening is another issue) and according to their forum admin, they have pulled V5.45 and are working on the issues raised. We'll see. That said, I can really hold a grudge when the "mistakes" made were intentional.

 

[xilolee]

Well, now you can try wise disk cleaner! :thumbsup2:

 

[Digerati]

I've tried them all. I trust Wise for Registry cleaning even less.

 

[Corrine]

Not happy that those changes had been made to CCleaner but at least they listened to the users.

 

[Digerati]

but at least they listened to the users.

It would seem the former Piriform developers still have some pull at Avast. I hope that continues. I would hate to see such a fine program go by the wayside

 

[xrobwx71]

I know this is an old thread but I thought I'd add System Ninja has been good for me. It was recommended by user jenae at Bleeping Computer and I've been using it ever since. He had stated somewhere it was written by some of his former students and he vouched for it.

 

[Corrine]

Bumping this old post to update with the latest news.

I have always discouraged the use of registry cleaners and now Windows Defender is detecting CCleaner as a Potentially Unwanted Application (PUA). From Bleeping Computer at Microsoft now detects CCleaner as a Potentially Unwanted Application:

In a new threat entry added today to the Microsoft Security Intelligence site, Microsoft is now classifying CCleaner as a PUA:Win32/CCleaner threat.

This page does not provide any information as to why Microsoft is now classifying CCleaner as a PUP/PUA, but Microsoft has stated that they do not support Registry cleaners and that they should not be used.

"Some products such as registry cleaning utilities suggest that the registry needs regular maintenance or cleaning. However, serious issues can occur when you modify the registry incorrectly using these types of utilities. These issues might require users to reinstall the operating system due to instability. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved without a reinstallation of the Operating System as the extent of the changes made by registry cleaning utilities varies from application to application," Microsoft states in a support bulletin from 2018.

 

[Digerati]

I really wish the same ancient, outdated news would stop being rehashed and repeated year after year. CCleaner is not some fly-by-night "we can make it better than new" program from some off-the-wall startup out of some backstreet garage in North Korea or China. And Piriform and now Avast is not some shady back-alley company either. CCleaner has been around for over 15 years. Does it really make sense it would remain so popular if it was constantly causing "serious issues" that forced its users (and there are millions and millions of us) to reinstall our operating systems?

Not all registry cleaners are the same. And not all are snake oil remedies.

That Microsoft article may have been updated in April 2018, but that same verbatim warning extracted from it was originally created way back in XP days, if not before. And just like rogue security programs back then, there were some wonderall system "optimizers" that did more harm than good that, sadly gave all cleaning programs a bad name that has unjustly stuck.

Between me and several trusted colleagues, I am confident I am not exaggerating when I say we have used CCleaner's registry cleaner 1000s of times on many 100s of computers and never, not once ever had it brick a system that force a reinstall of the OS. At worse, a simple reboot was all that was needed to make all good again.

Is Comodo some fly-by-night company that makes programs that haphazardly destroys operating systems?

What about AVG?

Norton Utilities?

What about driver cleaners? Don't pretend for a second they only purge file remnants from drives. This is especially true of graphics driver cleaners. They dig into the Registry too.

How about the often recommended Revo Uninstaller?

What about "tweaker" programs like the often recommended Winaero?

If they walk like a duck, and quack like a duck... . Why not ban them too?

What does, "Microsoft cannot guarantee" have to do with anything? Microsoft cannot guarantee any 3rd party app, driver, add-on, or hardware device will not trash the OS. They can't even guarantee one of their own updates won't trash the OS.

Would it better to just let users use Regedit? Windows own registry editor that (1) makes changes in real-time and (2) NEVER EVER offers to make a backup and (3) doesn't even have a backup feature (only the vague export/import options)?

I am NOT suggesting everyone go out and start using a Registry cleaner. The fact is, and this is especially true with Windows 10, the Registry rarely, if ever, "needs" cleaning. But just because something is not needed, that does NOT mean using it will break Windows. And it especially does not suggest it will force users to reinstall their operating systems.

CCleaner is staying in my toolbag and I will continue to use and recommend it when I feel it can be of use. And FTR, CCleaner's Registry cleaner excels at resolving issues where the user is trying to install a different brand graphics card (replacing NVIDIA with AMD or vice versa) and the driver install constantly fails even after using the applicable NVIDIA or AMD graphics removal program. I'm just saying.

 

[A Guy]

I have "vetted" my cleaners. I use a few on my home PC. I used to use them after I made my weekly images, but after vetting each one, I now clean before I make images. If one should "turn bad" I'd have a week old image to restore. CCleaner is the mildest registry cleaner I have. It's never caused me any issues, but then I am running an older CCleaner before it changed, and it is not my 1st line cleaner anyway

A Guy

 

[xrobwx71]

I quit using CCleaner when they were acquired by Avast. System Ninja is a good alternative according to a source I trust. System Ninja has a registry cleaning function but it doesn't come installed you have to download and install a separate plugin to use it.

My opinion is similar to Bill's as far as the registry goes. My perception of telling people to stay away from the registry cleaners? An OP that starts a thread with "I know nothing about computers" are the ones I discourage from messing with the registry.

 

[Digerati]

I quit using CCleaner when they were acquired by Avast.

But this is really just a biased impulse - a bias I shared, BTW, because I was never a fan of Avast and I was afraid they would muck it all up. So I was not happy at all when I heard that Avast bought Piriform. And the certificate security issue right after the acquisition didn't help suppress my biases either. But I was greatly relieved when we learned Piriform still develops and maintains CCleaner.

I think if Avast already had a system cleaner and they bought Piriform to merge the products and/or squash the competition, CCleaner would be history. But Avast is just the parent company and except for now sharing some infrastructure overhead, Piriform is mostly autonomous. A very good thing.

That said, I will note it is through that shared infrastructure overhead where badguys have had their successes. Fortunately, those hacks did not result in widespread compromises - contrary to all the exaggerated bad press and FUD we were bombarded with.

The biggest problem with Avast acquiring Piriform is that now CC is an even bigger target.

I tried System Ninja last time you promoted it. But frankly, I'm with A Guy on this. One of CCleaner's greatest assets is that it is NOT too aggressive. I found System Ninja to be too aggressive for me. For example, I just ran CCleaner. Then I ran System Ninja and it found another 346 items it calls "Junk".

Now ~40 of those items are cookies I have told CCleaner to keep. So I understand those. But the other ~300 are not. I did not let SN delete them.

This brings up another point. Another of CCleaner's greatest assets, if not the most important to me is users can tell CC which cookies to keep. So, for example, I have CC set to keep cookies from sysnative.com. So now, after running CC, I don't have to look up my PW in my PW manager and enter my credentials again for Sysnative, or all the other sites I visit regularly. I love that feature - especially now that I have unique passwords for just about every site.

If not for the ability to designate which cookies to keep, I would just be using Windows own Disk Cleanup to clean out the clutter. Because frankly, it is very good too.

Having said that and to its credit, SN is not as aggressive as some other cleaners.

And while SN's registry cleaner is an added plug-in, I note according to the SN website, SN makes it clear that their plug-ins,

...are considered to be unsupported and used at your own risk.

...developed by programmers not associated with SingularLabs...

That scares me and for sure, I would not use it. While CC's registry cleaning feature is totally supported by a dedicated staff of experts. HUGE difference.

If you like SN, that's fine. I just don't believe Avast's acquisition of Piriform is reason enough to dismiss or abandon CCleaner.

 

[xrobwx71]

Jenae was the person that recommended SN to me. He stated some of his students were developers on it. I trusted him at his word so I started using it and it has worked for me.

I've used them all, on multiple computers for many years.

I just don't believe Avast's acquisition of Piriform is reason enough to dismiss or abandon CCleaner.

I did abandon it per Avast's reputation and will continue to dismiss it.

As I've said before, this doesn't detract from my admiring and respecting your experience and knowledge and is not personal.

 

[xilolee]

I've tried them all. I trust Wise for Registry cleaning even less.

With Wise registry cleaner you can put in the ignore list the items you want to keep.
The problem is you have to do it one by one...
I always tried to inform them about it and to change that behavior, allowing multiple selections, but I didn't succeed.
By the way, after I excluded all doubtful entries, it works well.
The same is valid for Wise disk cleaner, and it allows to customize it for cleaning other files/folders, just like CCleaner.
You have both of this tools in Wise care 365.

Another tool I like is kerish doctor, but it doesn't allow customizations and the license should be buyed and renewed each year (I got it as a giveaway).

 

[Digerati]

Well, I am not sure I am smart enough to decide which Registry entries are safe to keep. So I just let CCleaner decide and so far, that has never been a problem. But you can highlight multiple items and select or deselect them for deletion, or add them to the Exclude list if you choose.

And with the disk cleaner in CCleaner, you can select multiple cookies then slide them over to the "Cookies to Keep" panel. But I have always done that one at a time anyway. However, you can export the entire Cookies to Keep list, then import it. This is nice if you have to reinstall CCleaner or if you want to use that same list on a different machine.

I do like and trust Wise for cleaning out disk clutter. I am just hesitant to trust it for Registry cleaning. It is too aggressive for me. For example, I have never been a fan of defragging the Registry which Wise does.

Having said that, I have not seen any reports that Wise bricked any ones system. :)

 

[xilolee]

Well, I am not sure I am smart enough to decide which Registry entries are safe to keep. So I just let CCleaner decide and so far, that has never been a problem. But you can highlight multiple items and select or deselect them for deletion, or add them to the Exclude list if you choose.

And with the disk cleaner in CCleaner, you can select multiple cookies then slide them over to the "Cookies to Keep" panel. But I have always done that one at a time anyway. However, you can export the entire Cookies to Keep list, then import it. This is nice if you have to reinstall CCleaner or if you want to use that same list on a different machine.

I do like and trust Wise for cleaning out disk clutter. I am just hesitant to trust it for Registry cleaning. It is too aggressive for me. For example, I have never been a fan of defragging the Registry which Wise does.

Having said that, I have not seen any reports that Wise bricked any ones system. :)

The defrag isn't mandatory.

 

[Digerati]

That's good. I note I made that initial comment about trusting it less than CC for Registry cleaning 2 years ago. I have not tried it since. So your endorsement is good enough for me! :) I believe it also is not bricking computers or forcing users to reinstall their operating systems.

 

[xilolee]

I don't think I had problems with those two programs (CCleaner and Wise care)... I remember something bad with piriform defraggler instead.
The defrag at reboot time, particularly.
A current problem with Wise care 365 is with the wipe function, when it searchs for files remnants (if they didn't solve it in the meanwhile...).

 

[Digerati]

I've had no problems with CCleaner's Drive Wiper feature. And I like how you can tell it to wipe only the free space. However, it (like other wipe programs) should be more clear IMO that wipe programs don't work efficiently on SSDs due to TRIM and wear-leveling. But that's another issue.

As for Defraggler, I tried it years ago. It worked, but I found all 3rd party defragging programs pointless. Windows defrag is plenty good. Yes, some of the 3rd party defrag programs may do a more efficient job at defragging, but that level of defragging is not necessary and actually just increases wear on the drives.

It is important to remember that literally, within seconds of normal use after defragging, fragmentation starts again. This happens as Windows and our apps open, modify and close files. They download update and temp files, etc. So any extra defragging advantage a 3rd party defragger may have provided is quickly negated anyway.

Plus hard drives these days are HUGE and fast. That means there's typically lots of free space and, because finding the first segment of the file is the most time consuming, what's important is making sure files are intact. It is no longer necessary to jam all the files at the beginning of the disk, or to consolidate all the free space.

If you are that low on free disk space that you need to consolidate it, then it is counterproductive to download and install a 3rd party defragger that takes up more of that space. Windows defragger is already in there. Plus, you clearly need to buy more space, or start deleting/moving programs off that disk.

And since Windows defragger runs automatically (if needed) once a week, our hard drives should never get to the point fragmentation becomes a performance issue anyway.