Dont install or upgrade to CCleaner 5.45

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 1, 2018
Updated • Aug 2, 2018
Software
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175

Piriform/Avast released CCleaner 5.45 recently to the public that Windows users may not want to install or upgrade to.

The changelog of the new release highlights the change in euphemistic terms: "Added more detailed reporting for bug fixes and product improvements". The company added privacy options to CCleaner in May and stated back then that it collected only anonymous data from free users and did not display the options to free users because of that.

CCleaner users who run the new release may notice two changes immediately: It is nearly impossible to disable the monitoring part of CCleaner (Active Monitoring), and there are not any privacy settings anymore in the free version of the program.

ccleaner 5.45

While you may go to Options > Monitoring to disable "Enable system monitoring" and "Enable Active Monitoring" there, you will notice that the monitoring turns itself on again on the next start.

Note that you can't close CCleaner anymore using interface controls; A click on the x-icon minimizes the program, and the right-click system tray icon displays no option to terminate the program. The only option that is available is to terminate CCleaner forcefully.

The only workaround requires three steps:

  1. Disable the monitoring in CCleaner.
  2. Disable the startup item of the application (don't delete it because it will be recreated automatically).
  3. Forcefully terminate CCleaner using the Task Manager or third-party process management software.

Active Monitoring defaults to on and since it is impossible to close CCleaner using interface controls, it reports back to Piriform/Avast regularly.

Piriform addressed user concerns in a post on the official forum. A Piriform admin confirmed in the post that the company extended the analytics functionality of the software "in order to gain greater insight into how our users interact with the software".

Piriform states that the data is completely anonymous, and that it uses the data to "rapidly detect bugs, identify pain points in the UI design, and also understand which areas of functionality [the company] should focus [...] time on".

The company reiterated in the post that it does not collect personally identifiable information about free users but failed to disclose what data it collects and how it stores, shares, and processes the data.

The extended analytics functionality was added to the Active Monitoring in CCleaner 5.45; Piriform's representative admitted that the solution was not the best.

The company promises to do better by separating Active Monitoring and the anonymous collecting of usage analytics in the user interface so that users can (better) control the two features. Users will have options to enable none, some or all of the functions directly from the user interface.

The new release is weeks away according to the post and users who upgrade to version 5.45 are stuck with a program that runs constantly in the background and reports analytics data back to Piriform. Most users may not be tech savvy enough to disable the monitoring component (and thus the sending of analytics data).

Update: Piriform contacted Ghacks about the controversy surrounding the last version of CCleaner. The company plans to release a fact sheet that outlines which data it collects, its purpose, and how it is processed.

Closing Words

CCleaner was a program that worked fine out of the box for years but that is not really the case anymore. While the cleaning works as good as it did years ago, recent decisions to push the monitoring functionality, introduce advertising popups for pro upgrades, hack, and analytics/privacy controversy have painted the program and the company in a bad light.

The battle to win back user trust is an uphill one. If you ask me, Piriform needs to implement clear and functional opt-out options (better opt-in but that won't be happening) and reveal exactly what data it collects and how that data is stored, shared and processed.

Now You: What is your take on the recent version? (via Techdows)

Summary
Dont install or upgrade to CCleaner 5.45
Article Name
Dont install or upgrade to CCleaner 5.45
Description
Piriform/Avast released CCleaner 5.45 recently to the public that Windows users may not want to install or upgrade to. 
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. umair said on July 5, 2023 at 11:01 am
    Reply

    great

  2. umair said on June 27, 2023 at 5:35 pm
    Reply

    i like this website thanks

  3. Anonymous said on January 16, 2021 at 12:17 pm
    Reply

    my (rather outdated) 2 cents
    attempting to (elevated or not) run the hash checked “CCleaner-5-32-6129.exe” on windows 10 yields:
    This app can’t run because it causes *security and perfomance* issues… check for an *updated* version…
    and upon following the “learn more” button you are downloading the latest version in one click
    so you “Learn” not to use the last known (really) FREE version.

    Conclusion: find an alternative (read the other comments) or get (or stay) married with the syndicate

  4. Anonymous said on March 7, 2019 at 10:54 pm
    Reply

    : Anonee Mouse said on August 1, 2018 at 8:56 pm
    Block their servers from contacting your computer, either
    with the HOSTS file or firewall

    0.0.0.0 ipm-provider.ff.avast.com
    0.0.0.0 ipm-provider.ns1.ff.avast.com
    0.0.0.0 license.piriform.com
    0.0.0.0 staging-web.ccleaner.com

    The above worked for me ! :0)

    I had fought with this in a variety of ways (see below),
    however the hosts change worked !!

    I had disabled the CCLeaner start up task in Task Manager

    I had changed everything in CCleaner to stop connections (Ver 5.52)

    I unchecked everything (CCleaner > Options > Settings) for:
    – running when Windows starts
    – informing me of updates

    And in (CCleaner > Options > Monitoring), unchecked:
    – system monitoring
    – browser monitoring
    – active monitoring

    Despite that, I was getting ongoing inundation of the firewall,
    with CCleaner wanting out to IP addresses in the rough range of:

    151.101.XXX.XXX

    Having used previous version this was not an issue

    WIth the changes to the host file as per Anonee Mouse, those now
    all redirect to 127.0.0.1

    = Success !!

    No more firewall innundation = :0)

  5. Camilo Castelo said on February 23, 2019 at 1:58 am
    Reply

    These FUCKING BASTARDS intalled Avast on my PC without my consent. I always verify aaaaaall hidden options to see if they’re inserting shenanigans during the installation process. There was nothing different, no Avast offer in the options and even without any explicit offer, the FUCKING PROGRAM AVAST got installed. I’ve used Avast for long long years. Two years ago it got really an annoying program and I deleted it. And the same thing happens now with CCleaner. Fuck you, Piriform! Fuck you a thousant times!

  6. noman said on February 16, 2019 at 1:06 pm
    Reply

    nice its really help me i have Putlocker9 alternatives you have to see

  7. Daniel said on September 30, 2018 at 9:18 pm
    Reply

    I had stopped using CCleaner .

  8. Parcke075 said on September 12, 2018 at 10:34 pm
    Reply

    I’m not sure about where CC Cleaner development comes from, but I’m very cautious about software made in China or any other communist or socialist country.

    On July 24th 2018, the CIA released a report titled “Foreign Economic Espionage in Cyberspace” where it indicated that China used CCleaner in order to use it as a back door to companies in the United States. -wikipedia

    Disclaimer: Wikipedia is correct sometimes, and sometimes not, but do your own research.

  9. anoncloud said on September 8, 2018 at 10:52 pm
    Reply

    I havent updated since 4.18 when they introduced their metro interface for idiots. They attitude towards their users stank then!
    As for antivirus i havent used any since 2009 when avast became far too invasive. They are all basically spyware. I only had to clean up a virus 3 times due to me trying to be to clever with certain dodgy software.

  10. weitergedacht said on August 8, 2018 at 1:21 pm
    Reply

    I’d suggest disabling the \CCUpdater Task described as “CCleaner Emergency updater”…
    That should give Piriform the ability to reverse all the steps we did here simply through an update.

    To harden then Piriform would then likely integrate a silent auto upgrade upon executing CCleaner manually. (Users will then react renaming the separate updater .exe) -> To harden against that then Piriform will likely integrate the updater process into the ccleaner.exe, not into an external .exe (users will then likely edit their hosts file so that the server isn’t reachable) -> To harden against that Piriform will likely hardcode the update-server-IPs into the program so it can’t be a simple host blocking (users will then likely enter a manual antivirus rule to block ccleaner completely from network) – Maybe Piriform will then integrate the updater like a botnet-worm, so they can “infiltrate” PCs with updates for CCleaner carried unknowingly by users on USB-Sticks and other storage devices.
    And then Antivirus Databases will list CCleaner and block them from the majority of PCs on the world…

    Keep on the fight Piriform – you’ll loose no matter what…

  11. hostile177 said on August 7, 2018 at 9:56 pm
    Reply

    Uninstalled.
    I have no patience for this nonsense anymore.

  12. carlo said on August 7, 2018 at 10:50 am
    Reply

    New version of CCleaner HIJACK CHROME browser to trovi.com! Comodo Cloud antivirus blocked some attempts by CCleaner to modify search setting in Chrome. Disabling antivirus, CCleaner set Bing search with trovi.com HIJACKING!

    1. OldNavyGuy said on August 7, 2018 at 7:15 pm
      Reply

      Did you download CCleaner from the Piriform site?

      There have been no reports on the Piriform user forums about browser hijacks.

      Download and run the free version of Malwarebytes.

  13. Hawk said on August 6, 2018 at 4:27 pm
    Reply

    I’m using portable 5.45.6611 and don’t have this problem.

  14. Buck said on August 6, 2018 at 6:55 am
    Reply

    I’ve used CCleaner for almost 15 years.. noticed the persistent monitoring problem on my machine and had already force disabled it. But decided after reading this that I would just find something else.

    Tried out bleachbit, Wise utilities and looked at GlarySoft suite.

    Decided to go with Wise Disk Cleaner and Wise Registry Cleaner. Noticed the preview list in bleachbit was picking up more stuff than I felt was appropriate, though I do think it would be safe and not problematic.
    Also, Wise maintains portable versions of their software which is really nice. CCleaner doesn’t have that blatantly advertised as Wise does. I dislike the system tuneup stuff in the registry cleaner, some of those things could have a wonky effect on a system so I didn’t and wouldn’t run any of those.

    Otherwise looks great. Dropped folders for “Wise Disk Cleaner” and “Wise Registry Cleaner” right in my C drive and looking forward to using these going forward.

    1. OldNavyGuy said on August 7, 2018 at 2:37 am
      Reply

      “Decided to go with Wise Disk Cleaner and Wise Registry Cleaner”.

      Both are decent apps, but be aware that in the Slimming System section of Disk Cleaner, removing some entries will trigger errors in System File Checker (sfc).

      I would limit usage in that section to items such as downloaded installation files and installer cache, when they are presented.

  15. Dual Windows & Mac User said on August 6, 2018 at 1:18 am
    Reply

    Martin,
    Thanks for going Public. You got Avast to pull Version 545, you did it! Not the Public.
    Martin spoke, Martin was not afraid of Avast. This is quite an honor Martin! Thank you.

    Martin, you do Windows.
    Some users are dual Windows & Mac users, we need the first Avast CCleaner version removed.
    Other issues, details in the Piriform Discussion Forums under CCleaner Mac.
    Could you please write another article?

  16. Doc said on August 5, 2018 at 7:32 am
    Reply

    “Dont install…” “Don’t” oops…

  17. SAMUEL DIAZ said on August 4, 2018 at 8:45 pm
    Reply

    Great article, thank a lot posting this !
    It is really very strange why companies like this one they spend time and money to create a FREE program ? How then they gain money ?
    This version was impossible for the common user to understand what was going on and was hard to close the program if you are not an expert.
    So… what was all this for ?
    For collecting anonymous data ? Hm.. excuse me, but this is not very satifactory !
    I will remove Ccleaner and i will never use it again.
    Trust is now lost !
    Just think, why a company makes FREE software ?
    Maybe now…we got the answer…………….
    LETS MAKE A POWERFUL OPEN SOURCE (FREE SOFTWARE) CLEANER FOR THE F0CKING WIN$DOWS !!! NOW !!!

    1. owl said on August 5, 2018 at 8:28 am
      Reply

      ・CCleaner’s usage on Windows has become obsolete
      https://www.lunarsoft.net/featured/ccleaner-s-usage-on-windows-has-become-obsolete
      ・CCleaner Alternatives and Similar Software
      https://alternativeto.net/software/ccleaner/
      ・BleachBit is a free and open-source disk space cleaner, privacy manager, and computer system optimizer.
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BleachBit
      ・ghacks.net “BleachBit 2.0 temporary file cleaner review”
      https://www.ghacks.net/2018/02/28/bleachbit-2-0-temporary-file-cleaner-review/

  18. NORBERT GOSTISCHA said on August 4, 2018 at 4:07 pm
    Reply

    From Avast:
    You spoke, we listened. Here’s what we’re doing:

    We will separate out Active Monitoring (junk cleaning alerts and browser cleaning alerts) and heartbeat (anonymous usage analytics) features in the UI and we will give you the ability to control these individually. You will have the options of enabling all, some or none of these functions, and this functionality will be uniquely controlled from the UI.
    We will take this opportunity to rename the Advanced Monitoring features in CCleaner to make their functions clearer.
    We will deliver these changes to the software in the coming weeks.

  19. C said on August 4, 2018 at 3:50 pm
    Reply

    I have used CCleaner for a long time. I always use the Portable 64 bit version.
    I had no problem with 5.45, but when I noticed that 5.45 was no longer available on
    their site I went back to 5.44.6575 64 bit Portable.

    I always copy the ccleaner.ini file to the new versions folder so I do not
    have to go through all the settings again,except for Skip user account control.
    All Monitoring is unchecked,check for update is unchecked & under privacy I
    have one box which is unchecked (Allow usage data…).

    I have CCleaner.exe Blocked using Windows Firewall Control, but one alarming thing
    I can tell you is that when I check my Connections Log there are still multiple attempts by CCleaner to access the internet.

    I will continue to use CCleaner becasue the problems reported are a none issue for
    me. I also agree with others if you don’t use the latest version your not getting Bug fixes
    & Cleaning improvements, plus continued compatibility with the latest version of Windows 10.

    C.

  20. Steve said on August 4, 2018 at 3:06 pm
    Reply

    quick follow-up note to this story; ghacks received a shout out in a BC followup to this story…

    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/ccleaner-v545-pulled-due-to-anger-over-usage-data-collection/

  21. me said on August 4, 2018 at 6:41 am
    Reply

    Version 5.45 has been pulled from Piriform download sites. Also removed from Filehippo.

  22. Nosferatu_uk said on August 3, 2018 at 9:30 pm
    Reply

    Ccleaner have yeilded and rolled back there version to 5.44, they have taken 5.45 offline on there main website. :D good job peeps, keep these data robbing scumbags in check >:D

    1. John said on August 4, 2018 at 2:29 pm
      Reply

      Nice news! I hope they will release a fixed version soon with no data slurping! :)

  23. Amir said on August 3, 2018 at 7:36 pm
    Reply

    I had version 5.43 working fine.
    Version 5.44 and 5.55“Added a check to prevent the use of the application in embargoed countries”
    I am located in one of embargoed countries.
    Installed last version and it closes itself everytime i click on Run Cleaner.

    Used VPN, but same result.

    Uninstalled and installed back version 5.43 , but same problem.
    Any suggestions?
    Thanks.

    1. pHROZEN gHOST said on August 4, 2018 at 12:31 am
      Reply

      You might want to try BleachBit or Wise (links above).

    2. a suggestion said on August 3, 2018 at 9:43 pm
      Reply

      Ditch Windows and switch to Linux.

    3. A different Martin said on August 3, 2018 at 9:09 pm
      Reply

      I wonder why CCleaner is embargoed in some countries. I can think of a few possible reasons, but it would just be evidence-free speculation on my part.

      Regardless, how about trying to uninstall CCleaner *completely* using Revo Uninstaller, and then looking for and deleting any remaining traces of it using *different* cleaning utilities (BleachBit, Wise, Glary, jv16, etc.)? Then download and use an earlier *portable* version of CCleaner, like 5.40, or as far back as 5.32.

      I have no idea how CCleaner implements its embargoed-country block, or where is might store a persistent record of that block, so that’s what I’d try first in your position.

  24. Sylvio Haas said on August 3, 2018 at 6:44 pm
    Reply

    Hi, Martin – Thank you for your advice, I’ve already uninstalled CCleaner. Someone here recommended WISE DISK CLEANER and WISE REGISTRY CLEANER. Do you recommend any of them? I’m afraid of using it before I hear from you!!! Thank you. Best

  25. pHROZEN gHOST said on August 3, 2018 at 6:10 pm
    Reply

    If you are thinking of using an older version oc CCleaner, you may want to consider this …

    Old versions of CCleaner could have problems with newer versions of programs and the Windows operating system. They might remove important files and cause problems or miss cache files and not free up enough space. New versions of CCleaner sometimes fix these issues.

    Use older CCleaner at your own risk!!!!!

    1. Tom Hawack said on August 3, 2018 at 6:21 pm
      Reply

      I think it’s good you point this out, pHROZEN gHOST. I’ve been moving around this idea myself. Independently of privacy issues born with Piriform being bought by Avast there must have been improvements as well, I had in mind the registry cleaning module and you bring up develop possible issues with Windows OSs. I think we should consider this, especially with really old versions of CCleaner; but what is old? What best compromise between an Avast invaded CCleaner and the application’s value to still clean correctly? That’s a debate.

  26. Erick said on August 3, 2018 at 2:06 pm
    Reply

    News about 5.45 removed now from official site.

  27. Anonymous said on August 3, 2018 at 8:02 am
    Reply

    “Updtae: Piriform contacted Ghacks about the controversy surrounding the last version of CCleaner. The company plans to release a fact sheet that outlines which data it collects, its purpose, and how it is processed.”

    No “controversy” for me, very clear indeed. What is not clear to me is what Piriform now has to do with the decisions of AVAST ruining the reputation of the software? At Piriform they should do better to shut up and leave the dirty work to AVAST Communication.

    1. Anonymous said on August 3, 2018 at 8:28 am
      Reply

      Or it was specified in their contract? Piriform must continue to provide customer service? in that case AVAST = double bad reputation for the price of one.

  28. Anonymous said on August 3, 2018 at 12:24 am
    Reply

    Hahaha…

    Knew it! So glad I didn’t reinstalled this piece of shit since that last incident.

    It’s only downhill from now on.

  29. ULBoom said on August 3, 2018 at 12:19 am
    Reply

    “Update: Piriform contacted Ghacks about the controversy surrounding the last version of CCleaner. The company plans to release a fact sheet that outlines which data it collects, its purpose, and how it is processed.” Sounds like they’ve acquired some crummy management with infamous piriform.

    Good they did that but even they don’t know what data they’ll collect. They can give categories and claim anonymity but how can they know what personal data is on each device they infiltrate? They can’t.

    I have CC v5.40.6411 installed for some of the easy chores it does but had to block it in the firewall to keep it quiet. This current behavior is total BS; Beside AV’s, etc., I’m not aware of any other utility that minimizes to the task bar without notifying users except some free junkware which de facto includes CCleaner now.

    Too bad, CC was good long ago. So was Avast. Wouldn’t bother me a bit if both disappeared.

    If you’re interested in Glary Utilities (this, like most all fixer suites, makes lots of connections but they’re legitimate and can be blocked easily) there’s a lifetime key available for Pro, it’s no secret, so key away!
    License Name: EaseUS Users
    License Code: 3788-6167-9582-3423-62

  30. Kurt said on August 2, 2018 at 11:16 pm
    Reply

    I am very happy with ‘Wisecleaner’, free version, using it since Ccleaner introduced a virus about a year ago (after it was taken over by Avast).

  31. anon said on August 2, 2018 at 5:12 pm
    Reply

    “While you may go to Options > Monitoring to disable “Enable system monitoring” and “Enable Active Monitoring” there, you will notice that the monitoring turns itself on again on the next start.”

    Isn’t this just plain deceptiveness?

  32. John said on August 2, 2018 at 3:42 pm
    Reply

    Using portable v5.45.6611 (64-bit) & it has NOT activated any monitoring at all since downloading this version.

  33. NORBERT GOSTISCHA said on August 2, 2018 at 2:24 pm
    Reply

    I posted my concerns directly with Avast and received the following reply to the concerns raised here:
    “There is some confusion around GDPR-related privacy settings, browser and system monitoring (or ’active monitoring’, which essentially triggers cleaning), and the reporting of anonymous usage data. We’re currently working on our next version, in which all data functions will be separate and their meaning clear so users can configure each function individually, according to their needs.”
    I’m now anxiously waiting for that next release.

    1. Tom Hawack said on August 2, 2018 at 2:42 pm
      Reply

      A typical “one step backwards – two steps forwards” process, IMO. One step backwards when awareness focuses on a company’s arguable policies and/or behaviors, two steps forwards when the buzz has moved elsewhere.

      The problematic is neither to consider a non-forgiveness attitude nor to deny that mistakes may be done by anyone, companies included, but to legitimate a user’s decisions towards companies who dared initiate such behaviors and who seem to consider a pause only once people start to complain and sometimes a real u-turn with loss of users, especially customers.

  34. Raj said on August 2, 2018 at 2:23 pm
    Reply

    Hi Martin,

    Thanks for pointing this out. Uninstalled Ccleaner and I will stick to bleachbit.

  35. JohnH said on August 2, 2018 at 1:40 pm
    Reply

    For various reasons, but mainly including intrusiveness and aggressive “cleaning” so excessive that it forced me into a drive rebuild, I wouldn’t touch CCleaner. It targets people who know just enough to get themselves into major trouble.

  36. RPWheeler said on August 2, 2018 at 1:35 pm
    Reply

    I was unhappy with where CCleaner headed since introducing of “active monitoring”, so I switched to BleachBit long time ago.

    This post confirms that I took right decision.

  37. owl said on August 2, 2018 at 12:14 pm
    Reply

    In the past there was a case to “destroy the profiles of Firefox and Thunderbird”.
    One year ago “ver.5.33 is malware infection & diffusion damage: the delivery server infected with malware, the infected file was delivered for about one month, and it was installed on the terminal of 2.27 million users There is a case “incident.
    Although it is popular application in the world, it is unrelated, because I judged it as an untrustworthy solution and never used it.
    What Martin pointed out is a very important fact.
    Thank you for the quick, NEWS!

  38. asd said on August 2, 2018 at 11:08 am
    Reply

    CrapCleaner crapped itself…

  39. Tarun said on August 2, 2018 at 7:29 am
    Reply

    Not surprised by this at all. Said it years ago that CCleaner is obsolete. Way too many issues.

    https://www.lunarsoft.net/featured/ccleaner-s-usage-on-windows-has-become-obsolete

  40. Anonymous said on August 2, 2018 at 4:42 am
    Reply

    Haven’t used it in aeons. Mostly use portable stuff when dealing with Windows for clients anyway as I don’t run Windows anymore. I usually run Glary Utilities by Glarysoft and combine that with final cleaning by Bleachbit. On linux, I use scripts for cleaning.

  41. Jack E. Alexander said on August 2, 2018 at 4:25 am
    Reply

    The new portable version doesn’t work with CCEnhancer. After years of using it, I pulled it from my machine. The monitoring issue was too much to deal with. Now have v. v.5.43.6522 and the other one available above from the web archive.

    1. A different Martin said on August 3, 2018 at 12:21 am
      Reply

      If you were previously using an installed version of CCleaner, are you sure you didn’t just forget to reconfigure CCEnhancer so that it knows where CCleaner’s portable program folder is located?

      If you’re using the portable version of CCEnhancer, I believe you can just put it in the same folder as CCleaner, whether portable or installed. (I used to do this before switching to the installed version of CCEnhancer.)

      If you’re using the installed version of CCEnhancer, it looks like you should do CCEnhancer > Features > Add Portable Location, and specify CCleaner’s portable program folder there. Or, if you re-install CCEnhancer and it doesn’t find registry entries for an installed version of CCleaner, the installer supposedly asks you where CCleaner’s portable program folder is located. (I’ve never used portable CCleaner, so I’ve never done either.)

      Anyway, forgetting to point CCEnhancer to CCleaner’s portable folder struck me as the most likely explanation.

      For what it’s worth, I just downgraded to CCleaner 5.40.

      And by the way, I’ve been waiting for a shoe like this to drop ever since Avast acquired Piriform.

    2. royce said on August 2, 2018 at 4:51 pm
      Reply

      Ditto, CCEnhancer essential, back to v5.43.6522

  42. OldNavyGuy said on August 2, 2018 at 3:19 am
    Reply

    “A Piriform admin confirmed in the post that the company extended the analytics functionality of the software “in order to gain greater insight into how our users interact with the software”.”

    Doesn’t sound any different than what Windows 10 does.

    If your worried, uncheck the monitoring options and add a firewall rule to block outgoing connections from CCleaner.

    1. John Fenderson said on August 2, 2018 at 5:32 pm
      Reply

      “Doesn’t sound any different than what Windows 10 does.”

      Yeah, and that’s a real problem.

      1. OldNavyGuy said on August 2, 2018 at 8:32 pm
        Reply

        One way to find out is run Wireshark and analyze the packets.

        Most people would rather just repeat the FUD on collecting metrics.

  43. TekWarfare said on August 2, 2018 at 2:40 am
    Reply

    I’ve been running the portable version of 5.45.6611 for the past few days and don’t exhibit any of the mentioned issues. I’m not sure if it phones home though

  44. Robert said on August 2, 2018 at 1:48 am
    Reply

    I paid Piriform for a licensed copy a few years ago. Day before yesterday I got an email from Avast telling me that my subscription was about to expire and how to renew it. I didn’t buy a subscription. Ccleaner has now been totally uninstalled for good. They should rename Ccleaner back to Crap Cleaner because that’s what it is now.

  45. Robert Headley said on August 2, 2018 at 1:36 am
    Reply

    For me, once a piece of software starts doing something “Unwelcome” it is hard for me to ever fully appreciate it after that. IObit stealing from Malwarebytes, and CCleaner shipping at some point with a virus, (not intended) and I just am not interested in any of those options anymore. After a few months, I did give CCleaner another shot, but I will be looking for an alternative. I have lots of storage and an SSD so I never really NEEDED ccleaner, I actually liked the way the register cleaner on it worked though so I kept it around.

    Going to look around on https://alternativeto.net/software/ccleaner/ for an alternative.

  46. Zinc said on August 2, 2018 at 1:32 am
    Reply

    I rolled back to 5.43 and stopped upgrading.

    The pop-ups in 5.44 just caused the app to crash on my machines.

  47. Ayy said on August 2, 2018 at 1:05 am
    Reply

    “the data is completely anonymous” is total load of BS, they keep logs on their webserver when you send the request, so they know your IP and whatever other data they’ve extracted from your machine, and of course that is all stored in a database. Avast can go to hell.

  48. bob said on August 2, 2018 at 12:21 am
    Reply

    remember you have a hosts file to stop it reporting back

  49. Ron said on August 1, 2018 at 10:53 pm
    Reply

    Switch to either Wise Care 365 or Bleachbit.

  50. Xmou5e said on August 1, 2018 at 10:52 pm
    Reply

    In case someone missed an alternative to CC, here it is… :)
    I have used WiseDisk with good result, it’s as capable as CC and very fast and lean.
    https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/wise-disk-cleaner-portable

  51. Amir said on August 1, 2018 at 10:25 pm
    Reply

    Why they added “Added a check to prevent the use of the application in embargoed countries”?

  52. Werner said on August 1, 2018 at 9:58 pm
    Reply

    Looks like Periform wants us to pirate the pro version, challenge accepted!

  53. stefann said on August 1, 2018 at 9:08 pm
    Reply

    I’m still on version 5.21. Ofcourse it is blocked by the firewall, as most of my installed software are.

  54. Anonee Mouse said on August 1, 2018 at 8:56 pm
    Reply

    Block their servers from contacting your computer, either with the HOSTS file or firewall

    0.0.0.0 ipm-provider.ff.avast.com
    0.0.0.0 ipm-provider.ns1.ff.avast.com
    0.0.0.0 license.piriform.com
    0.0.0.0 staging-web.ccleaner.com

    1. user7843 said on August 2, 2018 at 9:21 am
      Reply

      If that host file stops working even for a day it will sent all the historic data stored in one go (probably).

  55. nno said on August 1, 2018 at 8:51 pm
    Reply

    I don’t get why people still use Ccleaner!

    – Windows now has many scheduled tasks to automatically clean temp files.

    – Web browsers all have an option to clean the cache or even delete it when closed.
    For Firefox, last I checked, Ccleaner deleted the sqlite files instead of cleaning their content properly, making Firefox slower at startup because it had to recreate them. This sometimes caused profile corruption and unhappy users on Mozilla forums.

    – The registry cleaning thing is an aberration causing many problems and offering no performance gain whatsoever.

    Just try using your PC without Ccleaner for a few weeks, you won’t even notice it’s gone, and in the long run, you might avoid problems only a complete Windows re installation can fix.

    1. mondo_dicko said on August 3, 2018 at 5:59 am
      Reply

      I never use CCleaner to clean registry files. I use it to clean out bloated temp files made by 3rd party programs. Things that Windows Disk Cleanup can’t get at.

    2. manouche said on August 2, 2018 at 8:36 am
      Reply

      Mon Dieu

      Finally, one voice of reason!

      Everyone else agrees that they agree.
      Only their agreements version numbers differ this time, what a rare moment of peace and harmony … -`ღ´…-schmatz…-`ღ´-

  56. KnightKrawler said on August 1, 2018 at 8:01 pm
    Reply

    To stop CCleaner from starting at startup:
    Run CCleaner, under TOOLS go to STARTUP
    Highlight the entry for CCleaner
    Right click on the entry
    Choose Open in RegEdit and delete the entry.

  57. Paul(us) said on August 1, 2018 at 7:35 pm
    Reply

    I have figured out that after I removed from task management (startup tab) the CCleaner auto startup option and also after that (not before) I had to remove in system configuration (MSConfig) the startup entry the problem was not appearing anymore and everything was working like before.

  58. Kevin said on August 1, 2018 at 6:44 pm
    Reply

    Just use Bleachbit. It’s FOSS (free open source software). This means that someone can’t buy it out tomorrow and then take the product in a user hostile direction. Or at least, if they do, anyone is free to take the code of the last good version of Bleachbit, fork it, and continue development, thereby making any hostile takeover by business interests a pointless waste of time.

  59. Sidney said on August 1, 2018 at 6:22 pm
    Reply

    You can disable the monitoring even in the free version.

  60. ilev said on August 1, 2018 at 5:28 pm
    Reply

    I am running Portable CCleaner 5.43, no ads, no monitoring.

  61. Anonymous said on August 1, 2018 at 5:07 pm
    Reply

    Friendly reminder that CCleaner version 5.32 was the last good version of the program before Piriform was acquired by the so-called antivirus company Avast on July 19, 2017.

    5.33 was “accidentally” bundled with malware. More bloat, advertisements and tracking have been added with recent updates. Your only real options are to either downgrade to v5.32, install another disk cleaning utility or stick to the native Disk Cleanup and Defragmenter (Windows). As a general rule you should try avoiding programs that can “clean” your registry as they can break your system.

    Here are the archived download links for CCleaner – along with other programs made by Piriform – with the lastest updates before the buyout.

    CCleaner:
    https://web.archive.org/web/20170720074311/https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download
    https://archive.is/CIg9r

    Defraggler:
    https://web.archive.org/web/20170720074645/https://www.piriform.com/defraggler/download
    https://archive.is/9lvzi

    Recuva:
    https://web.archive.org/web/20170720083652/https://www.piriform.com/recuva/download
    https://archive.is/Nb4EI

    Speccy:
    https://web.archive.org/web/20170720084041/https://www.piriform.com/speccy/download
    https://archive.is/0KFNJ

  62. John Fenderson said on August 1, 2018 at 4:59 pm
    Reply

    “Piriform states that the data is completely anonymous”

    There’s no such thing as completely anonymous data collection. Since Big Data is a thing, anyone can be identified based on shockingly few, non-PII, data points.

  63. Anonymous said on August 1, 2018 at 4:28 pm
    Reply

    That’s an other bad move from Piriform. But for those who control what is allowed to start or not on their system, and what is allowed to access internet or not, it’s a lesser issue.

  64. clairvaux said on August 1, 2018 at 3:56 pm
    Reply

    That’s nice to know. Welcome to the era of Ingsoc, where a software upgrade is increasingly a downgrade.

    I have similarly downgraded, a few days ago, a program that I like very much, the screenshot utility Pic Pick. No surveillance shenanigans (apparently), but lauching the program takes way longer with the new version. It is a major hindrance for such a piece of software, which must be summoned in a short order and be done with equally quicky. Also, some basic functions such as copy the screenshot, to paste it where you want it, now take more clicks, and are more difficult to find. But, hey, we have now some extra functions (I haven’t really understood what they are), and the interface is blue instead of white !

    More to the point, it really seems that the economics of the software market are now biased against users. Anything that publishers do to earn money seems to go against their customers’ best interests.

    I haven’t used C-Cleaner for a while. I have v.5.37.6309 64-bit, free, and to me, the whole Monitoring panel is greyed out. It’s a “feature” reserved for the paying version. I’m glad I get to have the free product, and don’t get the “benefits” of the “professional” version.

    The new system you describe is properly outrageous, and of course nobody, or no business in their right mind would “upgrade” to that.

    Trust, people, trust ! Trust is an essential commodity in business. It’s difficult to earn, and easy to lose. If you undermine trust in your brand (speaking of brands…), you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

    Globalisation may be the culprit here. While it offers spectacular economies of scale and leverage for investment, therefore providing customers with very cheap, or even free software, it also means that developers must go that route (there’s no other choice), and therefore put numbers before quality.

    The un-politically correct truth is that you can “sell” (or give away) programs to tens of millions of people before hitting a few that will put privacy before price, because many people in the world are dirt poor, and a lot of them are, frankly, not very bright.

  65. jfjb said on August 1, 2018 at 3:36 pm
    Reply

    Do NOT 5.45 ?

    ==> 5.39 was already amputated

    at least mine is: v5.39.6.399 64-bit is without privacy settings
    If one is a programmer, one knows what GUI can be used for, behind the screen.

  66. Mark Hazard said on August 1, 2018 at 3:15 pm
    Reply

    I don’t have any problem with CCleaner Pro 5.45. It is not sending the computer ads, and the computer is not sending Piriform data, AFAIK. So to maintain privacy, send Piriform some money.

  67. Millenicide said on August 1, 2018 at 3:11 pm
    Reply

    Which version was the last one that Piriform controlled before avast started adding things? 5.37?

    1. Anonymous said on August 1, 2018 at 4:44 pm
      Reply

      v5.32.6129

  68. dark said on August 1, 2018 at 2:33 pm
    Reply

    If you use Simplewall in whitelist mode, CCleaner won’t have access to the internet without your permission. Same with Windows 10 spying, no access to the internet without your permission.

    https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall

  69. Anonymous said on August 1, 2018 at 2:29 pm
    Reply

    Lot of anti-virus companies prefer to work in dark mode and need your blood to survive.

    1. Anonymous said on August 2, 2018 at 4:07 am
      Reply

      Almost all the old reliable AV programs have turned into spyware. So now we see the standard business plan of these companies is the same as of a drug dealer. It’s free at first and when you become dependent on it then they start to extort you for all you have. Too bad the US government is more interested in spying than consumer rights. The average US politician is too clueless to realize that these programs are spying on them too.

  70. Straspey said on August 1, 2018 at 2:24 pm
    Reply

    I’m running version 5.40.6411 – which predates the sale of Piriform to Avast – and does not have any of these issues.

    The good news is that you can download this version – or even an older one – over at FileHippo – which maintains an archive of older versions. Just go to the CCleaner page on FileHippo and look at the menu on the upper right to locate and download an older and more friendly version of CCleaner.

    https://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

    1. Anonymous said on August 1, 2018 at 7:39 pm
      Reply

      “I’m running version 5.40.6411 – which predates the sale of Piriform to Avast”

      This is incorrect. CCleaner version v5.32.6129 was the last known version prior to the acquisition (which was announced on 19 July 2017) as it was released 8 days before the sale on 11 July 2017.

      1. pHROZEN gHOST said on August 2, 2018 at 12:02 am
        Reply

        Agreed. The bloat came with the new ownership.

    2. Thorky said on August 1, 2018 at 4:38 pm
      Reply

      A good idea! And to stop the Update-Info on CCleaner-Start-Window, open ccleaner.ini in the program’s directory with the editor. In the first line you find UpdateCheck=1. Change it to 0. CCleaner will no longer search for Updates any more.

      Moreover change LatestICS= & NewVersion= to 5.40.6411. Thats it. :)

      1. Amir said on August 3, 2018 at 7:43 pm
        Reply

        Any idea about my problem I posted today?

    3. jfjb said on August 1, 2018 at 3:54 pm
      Reply

      What are you talking about or from?

      I’m running 5.39 … ok, portable, but it does NOT have privacy settings

  71. Henk said on August 1, 2018 at 1:55 pm
    Reply

    Funny how different people here consider rather different versions of CCleaner the last known good version. Well, OK, here are my two cents! For me, the LKG is v5.32.6129 (11 July 2017). Just to indicate the recent bloat, the v5.43 installer last May was 15,1 Mb while this v5.32 from a year ago was 9,2 Mb.

    So version 5.32 is what I install when people want it. Switch off the monitoring, switch off the updater and you’re set. If you can, also take a quick look in Windows Task Scheduler and Windows Services and remove any leftover CC entries. You may also block in- and outgoing CC traffic in the firewall as it doesn’t need an internet connection to work.

    To change or update cleaning behavior, you can add and/or edit a winapp2.ini file in the CCleaner program folder. That way, if your older CC version appears to miss important new temp or cache locations, you can fairly easily make amends for that.

    Meanwhile, my favorite replacement for CC is Bleachbit. The Linux version of that one was how I first got to know it, and the Windows version is not bad either.

    1. pHROZEN gHOST said on August 1, 2018 at 3:05 pm
      Reply

      Note: V5.32 is the last version before Avast took ownership of Piriform.

  72. Pete said on August 1, 2018 at 1:08 pm
    Reply

    https://privazer.com/
    This alternative prog works well for me

  73. Microfix said on August 1, 2018 at 1:06 pm
    Reply

    As someone has already stated, GDPR should do something about this but, it’s FREE to use and at your own risk. Distinguishing where FREE lays in GDPR is probably an exploit to GDPR in itself now used by Piriform/ Avast.
    This should be addressed IMHO

    1. John Fenderson said on August 1, 2018 at 5:52 pm
      Reply

      I know that this is being pedantic, but if data collection is required for its use, then it’s not free. The price may not be money, but you’re absolutely paying.

  74. Quantum777 said on August 1, 2018 at 1:02 pm
    Reply

    YES VERY ANNOYING PIRIFORM!!!
    Uninstalled after repeated tries to stop active monitoring turning on.

  75. Anonymous said on August 1, 2018 at 12:58 pm
    Reply

    Delete Reg Key startup

  76. Tom Hawack said on August 1, 2018 at 12:50 pm
    Reply

    Thank you VERY MUCH Martin for bringing this news to our attention.

    For my case I downgraded CCleaner (before this 5.45) to 5.40.6411, the latest non-adware non-tracking version, and no longer updated since.
    Previous versions of CCleaner available at https://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/history/

    I have no words for Avast’s policy regarding it’s lack of respect for users of CCleaner.

    1. TelV said on September 14, 2018 at 10:49 am
      Reply

      @Tom Hawack,

      According to this blog post on Borncity.com this morning, CCleaner now updates silently and automatically to v5.46: https://borncity.com/win/2018/09/12/ccleaner-forces-update-from-v5-38-to-v5-46/

    2. Sophie said on August 1, 2018 at 6:46 pm
      Reply

      Tom, Avast have a really poor track record anyway, so none of this is a surprise.

      1. Tom Hawack said on August 1, 2018 at 7:13 pm
        Reply

        @Sophie, yes… and the worst is that they insist even after complaints about previous versions. As always the company counts on all those who install blindly and never visit blogs like Ghacks and others.

  77. noe said on August 1, 2018 at 12:38 pm
    Reply

    .. right, do not forget to block every v.5.44 ccleaner file in the ccleaner-folder (after the generic.dwtkrxa trojan is deleted) per windows firewall. easy/simple tool and one you can trust: https://www.sordum.org/9470/windows-update-blocker-v1-1/ . i do not update ccleaner anymore :/ .

  78. Franck said on August 1, 2018 at 12:37 pm
    Reply

    Thanks a lot for the warning

  79. o_O said on August 1, 2018 at 12:34 pm
    Reply

    Another one bites the dust… Thank you for notifying us, Martin!

  80. Weilan said on August 1, 2018 at 12:09 pm
    Reply

    CCleaner used to be the staple of free cleaning tools, but it has now fallen all the way to the bottom. Such a shame… I liked it, but have now switched to Wise:

    Wise Disc Cleaner
    Wise Program Uninstaller
    Wise Registry Cleaner
    Wise Memory Optimizer
    Wise Game Booster

    They have been doing a great job. Another good alternatives are:

    Glary Utilities
    jv16 Powertools
    System Ninja with registry cleaner plugin

    Don’t use IObit stuff (I only use their Driver Booster, because it’s frankly the best), because their software is riddled with annoying ads, when you install them, they automically pin themselves to the taskbar, start auto running and scanning, shove ads in your face, download stuff to show you more ads…etc. Just stay away from IObit.

    I’m not sure if BleachBit is good, seems kind of barebones to me and as if it doesn’t do that good of a job.

  81. Tom said on August 1, 2018 at 12:08 pm
    Reply

    I added a Windows Firewall rule to prevent CCleaner from using the network connection and haven’t had problems yet.

  82. Robert G. said on August 1, 2018 at 12:07 pm
    Reply

    The problem with ccleaner64.exe /auto isn’t always solved with this release. Avast is a bad compagny for me.

  83. snoozelight said on August 1, 2018 at 12:05 pm
    Reply

    I blocked all internet access and deleted the startup entry. It has not reappeared and monitoring has remained off.

  84. John said on August 1, 2018 at 12:02 pm
    Reply

    Thank you very much Martin for this article, your workaround is working like a charm.
    Very appreciated! :)

  85. mileslevy said on August 1, 2018 at 12:01 pm
    Reply

    I have not updated since May (5.43) as it does not surprise me that a new owner would make bad mods….
    Thanks for the warning, I will pass it around to my tech friends.

  86. Steve said on August 1, 2018 at 11:47 am
    Reply

    Get the Pro version and you won’t have the problems mentioned.
    Two clicks to Disable all Monitoring. 👌
    Simple as that.

  87. Jucarl said on August 1, 2018 at 11:41 am
    Reply

    Portable version is safe?. Thanks.

    1. Adrian Kentleton said on August 1, 2018 at 6:31 pm
      Reply

      @Jucari: If that was a question to which you wanted an answer, the answer is, CCleaner Portable appears to be. However, need to prevent it having internet access, and, in the circumstances, you need to check each updated version to make sure they haven’t introduced other injurious features.

  88. noe said on August 1, 2018 at 11:17 am
    Reply

    .. previous ccleaner v5.44: eset nod32 warning: “a variant of generik.dwtkrxa trojan – cleaned by deleting” . alternatives (please no product from wisecleaner.com) one can trust ?

  89. d3x said on August 1, 2018 at 11:02 am
    Reply

    First they got rid of Portable download, and now they do this :[

    1. Adrian Kentleton said on August 1, 2018 at 6:28 pm
      Reply

      @d3x: Portable version still available here: https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds

      1. d3x said on August 1, 2018 at 10:04 pm
        Reply

        Why don’t they link to this website anywhere?

      2. Tom Hawack said on August 1, 2018 at 10:14 pm
        Reply

        Some do; I have in mind http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Technology/Internet which often publishes links to Ghacks’ articles.

      3. d3x said on August 2, 2018 at 12:57 pm
        Reply

        I didn’t mean ghacks but https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds. I looked around ccleaner website and I couldn’t find it.

  90. Adrian Kentleton said on August 1, 2018 at 10:56 am
    Reply

    Bit puzzled by this. I’m running CCleaner Portable v5.45 on Win 7, and have it totally blocked by firewall from connecting to the internet, so perhaps unsurprisingly, most of above appears to be untrue for me. Can turn off monitoring permanently, does terminate by ‘Xing’ the GUI; however, as stated, there are no ‘Privacy Controls’.

    1. Gary D said on August 1, 2018 at 2:48 pm
      Reply

      @ Adrian Kentleton

      I blocked CCleaner with my firewall. Also, I added ccleaner.com and piriform.com, together with avast.com, to “my filters” in ublock origin dashboard. With these in place, there is no connection or data transfer to either piriform or avast. Result !!
      I believe many people are getting over excited about ccleaner/avast “spying” when the solution is very simple. Try my solution. It works !! :)

      1. Tom Hawack said on August 1, 2018 at 2:59 pm
        Reply

        @Gary D,

        “Also, I added ccleaner.com and piriform.com, together with avast.com, to “my filters” in ublock origin dashboard. With these in place, there is no connection or data transfer to either piriform or avast.”

        CCleaner is not a browser application, it connects to its servers via Windows, Firefox/uBlock has nothing to do in this scenario.

      2. Sophie said on August 1, 2018 at 6:44 pm
        Reply

        @ Tom – agreed Tom! I found myself thinking just the same thing….then went on to read your own comment. What CC cleaner may or may not be doing, I don’t see how anything UBO is doing for your browser can stop that. As you say, its a completely different scenario.

      3. Tom Hawack said on August 1, 2018 at 7:10 pm
        Reply

        @Sophie, yeah (I mean “yes”, the weather is so hot here!) that’s what I meant.
        Hi there :=)

      4. Gary D said on August 1, 2018 at 5:52 pm
        Reply

        @ Tom Hawack

        You are wrong. ccleaner.EXE is blocked by Windows Firewall Control.
        NB I donated $10 to the developer which was an excellent investment :) Remember the uproar when the developer DARED to request a donation for the full version.

        Access to the sites ccleaner.COM, piriform.COM and avast.COM are not possible with “my filters” in ubo set to block them.

        As I said before, try it. In England, this is known as “Belt and Braces”.

      5. Seban said on August 2, 2018 at 5:18 am
        Reply

        Hi Gary,

        I have to agree with Tom and Sophie.

        Ublock blocks sites from connecting when you use the browser. If you want to block IPs system wide, you can for example use the host file (1). HostsMan (2) is a tool to load and update malware and ad blocking lists. Some of these lists are featured in Ublock, look out for ‘host’ in their name. HostsMan offers some lists as well.

        (1) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)
        (2) http://www.abelhadigital.com/hostsman/

        More info:
        https://www.ghacks.net/2007/12/16/a-windows-hosts-manager/
        http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

      6. Tom Hawack said on August 1, 2018 at 7:08 pm
        Reply

        @Gary D (August 1, 2018 at 5:52 pm) I’m not saying ccleaner.exe is not blocked (blockable) by Windows Firewall, I’m stating your first comment which was,

        “Also, I added ccleaner.com and piriform.com, together with avast.com, to “my filters” in ublock origin dashboard. With these in place, there is no connection or data transfer to either piriform or avast.”

        And that ‘uBlock Origin’ protects a browser, not CCleaner which is external to the browser of course.

    2. Tom Hawack said on August 1, 2018 at 1:51 pm
      Reply

      Have a look in your Windows’ Task Scheduler, CCleaner has its entries which you may as well disable.

      1. Adrian Kentleton said on August 1, 2018 at 6:24 pm
        Reply

        @Tom Hawack: There are no entries relating to CCleaner in Task Scheduler on my PC

      2. Tom Hawack said on August 1, 2018 at 7:02 pm
        Reply

        @Adrian Kentleton, I think CCleaner sets some of them as hidden.
        You may run NirSoft’s TaskSchedulerView application at https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/task_scheduler_view.html to be sure. It’s a non-install application.

      3. Adrian Kentleton said on August 1, 2018 at 8:45 pm
        Reply

        @Tom Hawack: You can see hidden tasks using Task Scheduler’s ‘View’ option. The Nirsoft utility is useful, though, for providing an alphabetical list (no having to wade through all those folders) or for sorting, by hidden or not, and in various other ways. There are no (hidden or otherwise) CCleaner tasks on my PC!

      4. Tom Hawack said on August 1, 2018 at 9:08 pm
        Reply

        @Adrian Kentleton, ” You can see hidden tasks using Task Scheduler’s ‘View’ option.” … and you can learn every day! For my defense I hardly run Windows’ Task Scheduler, did at the beginning to disable several Microsoft privacy-related entries and then more or less forgot it. Many thanks for this information :=)
        From there on your comment of NirSoft’s utility meets mine, and sets aside what I thought was specific to the latter.

      5. Tom Hawack said on August 1, 2018 at 9:13 pm
        Reply

        EDIT : @Adrian Kentleton, you’re running CCleaner 5.45 and me version 5.32, I have the CCleaner entries in Task Scheduler (‘CCleanerSkipUAC’ and ‘CCleaner Update’) which you don’t : strange, unless to consider that CCleaner portable doesn’t install these tasks as CCleaner Installer does (I have CCleaner via installer). If that’s the reason it’s good to know and news as far as I’m concerned.

      6. Tom Hawack said on August 1, 2018 at 10:30 pm
        Reply

        EDIT 2 — Not my day …
        I’m running CCleaner 5.40.6411 (installer) – latest non-adware non-tracking

        I mixed up because I have both installers in my software folder and peeked it too quickly :
        CCleaner 5.32.6129 (installer) – last version before Avast took ownership of Piriform

  91. Latz said on August 1, 2018 at 10:47 am
    Reply

    Thank you for this notice. In daily life you can’t check all updates of installed tools for hidden features like this and honestly, I don’t want to spend too much time on things like this neither.

    The main problem for me is now, that I’m not aware of any tool with similar features.

  92. AxMi-24 said on August 1, 2018 at 10:37 am
    Reply

    It is time for EU to start dishing out those GDPR fines. Seems that everyone and their dog is wanting to “monitor” us to death. From MS’s new “we will track everything you do so that we can reboot the system at less inconvenient time instead of just letting you handle it” to this crap.

    If only the said monitoring actually improved the bug situation but as evidenced by the new champion of monitoring MS, it has absolutely no effect on quality of the final product.

    1. P said on August 1, 2018 at 7:48 pm
      Reply

      No need for gdpr garbage, let the free market decide. Stop using ccleaner and it will vanish into the dustbin of history.

      1. Tom Hawack said on August 2, 2018 at 10:21 am
        Reply

        Freedom is the master-word, but to what extent? My freedom stops where yours starts? Freedom, equality … brotherhood. Ethics is the only alternative to conciliate apparently antagonist rights of freedom and equality. The other big problem, maybe the main one, is conceiving equality as a parasite within a philosophy which fundamentally defines life as a jungle where the strongest only survive, which is true for animals but arguable for “human animals”.

        Interventionism is unfortunately necessary given the markets’ view is guided only by profit and interventionism will slowly but surely back up as markets will progressively take ethics in consideration as a parameter as valuable as profit. It’ll come, one day or another; some companies in the past few years have tried to integrate ethics in their business plans but the trend at this time is a decrease because those companies were then faced to a lack of competitiveness. Tough, but the only condition of free markets’ survival. Otherwise?

      2. Anonymous said on August 2, 2018 at 4:54 am
        Reply

        The free market only works with transparency. If customers don’t understand how shit a product is, they will not stop using it. And there’s no reason for spyware to be transparent about what they’re doing.

        Sure, at some point, enough news articles might’ve been written to reach 90% of people, but even then this software probably won’t vanish. Because there’s almost no cost for replicating software. It’s been written, just upload it onto a server and wait for the user data to come in.

        There’s still gonna be people using CCleaner years from now, if no legal repercussions are made.

    2. stilofilos said on August 1, 2018 at 12:15 pm
      Reply

      AxMi-24 : Exactly my thought, too . Let’s hope someone at the EU commission is reading ghacks…
      This behaviour is clearly blatantly in breach of the law and its intention. Looks like businesses are making a sport of challenging the law : the stricter the law, the more aggression from their side, and the not informed consumer is duped and ridiculed. Sad I had already dumped them, I would have done it with the more pleasure at this occasion.

      1. ShintoPlasm said on August 1, 2018 at 1:22 pm
        Reply

        You can report concerns about software’s (mis)use of your data to your country’s data protection authority, no need to wait for the EU Commission. In the UK that’s the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

      2. John Fenderson said on August 1, 2018 at 5:00 pm
        Reply

        Doesn’t help much in places like the US, which has no “data protection authority”.

  93. Tom said on August 1, 2018 at 10:18 am
    Reply

    Install – run – uninstall

    1. manouche said on August 1, 2018 at 3:30 pm
      Reply

      Huuh raaah

      Easy – simple – clean solution

      and if you do it in the night, than you got a CCleaner Nightly … no automatic updates anymore!

    2. Tom Hawack said on August 1, 2018 at 1:48 pm
      Reply

      Veni, Vidi, no Vici (what the heck)!
      Excellent summary, Tom :=)

  94. Avi said on August 1, 2018 at 10:17 am
    Reply

    CCleaner used to be named Crap Cleaner, long time ago. Now, it becomes the kind software the original Crap Cleaner was supposed to clean.

  95. Joe said on August 1, 2018 at 10:11 am
    Reply

    I’ve been using CCleaner for years, but based on what you are saying, I may want to move away from it. Which alternatives do you recommend?

    1. Xmou5e said on August 1, 2018 at 10:44 pm
      Reply

      Besides CC and BB I have been using WiseDisk Cleaner, it appears to be very capable and fast, the only thing I get wary of when such good SW are offered fro free is the potential 3-letter agency backports etc.. haha :D
      https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/wise-disk-cleaner-portable

    2. Gerard said on August 1, 2018 at 12:38 pm
      Reply

      BleachBit (www.bleachbit.org) is a free and open-source disk cleaner for Linux distributions, MacOS and MS Windows. Open source helps with transparency as anyone can inspect the code. Bleachbit does not include a registry cleaner. However, there are plenty of free registry cleaners available, should you want to use one.
      I use the Linux build of BleachBit, but there are severable reviews of the MS Windows build on the web. Martin reviewed BleachBit in february this year.

      1. svim said on August 1, 2018 at 7:02 pm
        Reply

        +1 for BleachBit
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BleachBit

        As for CCleaner, once one has to enable firewall rules to safely use it, that should a good incentive to look for a viable alternative.

      2. Rush said on August 1, 2018 at 11:07 pm
        Reply

        About Bleach Bit,

        I use CC v5.31.6105 (64 bit) I can clean while connected to Wi-Fi. I use a program:
        LiveTcpUdpWatch and note that CC does not send cleaning data.

        Bleach-Bit does. When I did use Bleach-Bit, I made sure was not connected to the Wi-Fi when I cleaned. I don’t know if they save your cleaning data to be sent later when you’re not looking.

        But Clearly, for me, the older versions of CCleaner IS the cleaner of choice.

      3. Heimen Stoffels said on August 3, 2018 at 6:40 pm
        Reply

        What are you talking about? Bleachbit doesn’t send any data back whatsoever. In fact, it doesn’t even collect data in the first place.

    3. klaas said on August 1, 2018 at 10:26 am
      Reply

      There is Wise Disk Cleaner, which is more aggressive than CCleaner, but I have not experienced any problems with it.
      I use CCleaner for registry clean ups, and there is Wise Care 365. CCleaner does a good job there, and I have not had the courage to use Wise Care 365 for the registry.

      1. stilofilos said on August 1, 2018 at 11:57 am
        Reply

        Klaas, I am using Wise Care 365 since a couple of years now instead of CC, with daily runs of Registry Cleaner, Common Cleaner and Privacy Protector, and about weekly a PC Checkup after that. Never had any issue with it. And my PCs do keep running smoothly indeed, both XP and Win7.

      2. klaas said on August 1, 2018 at 12:36 pm
        Reply

        @stilofilos: have you used the “system tuneup” part of WC 365? If so, no probs?

      3. stilofilos said on August 1, 2018 at 2:28 pm
        Reply

        @Klaas : No, I never used System Tuneup. Registry defrag is said to be not needed anyway, and for disk defrag I use IOBit Smart Defrag (only very occasionally).
        Startups can easily be removed manually if ever needed. And things as cryptic as ‘system optimizer’ can not really lure me into using either.
        I only use the parts I mentioned in my first reply.

      4. klaas said on August 1, 2018 at 12:12 pm
        Reply

        @stilofilos: thanks for your reply and reassurance about WC365. I have been very uncomfortable with is happening at CCleaner, and was looking to ditch it. Now I will take the plung :-) Thanks again.

  96. Yuliya said on August 1, 2018 at 10:10 am
    Reply

    I did not update CCleaner since 2014. v4.19.0.4867 is simply excellent and nothing new, worthy of any value at least, has been added to the program since.

    1. Collin Chaffin said on August 4, 2018 at 6:51 am
      Reply

      I’m a ccleaner user (for many years) and couldn’t agree more with your view. Now you need to do a piece on what to use instead of the very popular open-source encoding tool Handbrake. At least until it’s forked and the apparently the basic error checking that I’m pretty certain was present years ago and now admittedly is absolutely void can be properly added back. I just tried to report a very critical bug where Handbrake flat out incorrectly is reporting it’s encoding jobs as fully successful even in cases where less than 1% of the source could even be read. The developers just admitted that not only does Handbrake NOT perform even the most basic source input integrity validation (think: can I actually read the media I’m to encode, duh!) but that WHEN IT REPORTS AN ALL-GREEN JOB SUCCESS after a terminating failure to read a FULLY CORRUPT input source causes it to crash out of encoding just 2gb into a 40 GB source, leaving a mere TWO MINUTE movie (instead of two HOURS it should be), and does in fact bury a line in the log that it MAY have had a problem (but then decides to end the log with a return 0=success) – that is proper and we as Handbrake users and I quote:

      “looking at the logs is not sufficient to tell if you have good encodes. No matter what software you use, the only way to be sure is to watch the entire file and pay very close attention to it”

      http://bit.ly/2n8Lyrx

      So in other words if you are a fan of Handbrake – from the mouth of the DEVs don’t trust the app to properly fail if it can’t read source in the GUI, or the log, and instead you’d better CLOSELY EXAMINE EVERY PIXEL IT PRODUCES YOURSELF, BY EYE. 1% in my case was easy to spot, but better hope you don’t have 98% complete encodes, or good luck re-watching every one a frame at a time as apparently that is the only way the HB DEVs care to offer for you to know what their app did with your media. Bet this is news to EVERY HB user that has been trusting Handbrake for years with their valuable media, and not just me. In my 30yrs in this industry, I’ve never heard such absurd claims and justifications for frankly lazy coding with just a lack of basic error checking. I mean heck, the code is there to add a vague log entry to recognize SOMETHING happened, why not flip the simple switch to fail a job and perhaps add the word ERROR when the darned source cannot be read…..seems like awfully common sense to me.

      I’m sorry but in no universe does: a ~2hr Bluray encode in 30 seconds, turn GREEN in front of my eyes to shout it’s binary “Yeah!”, show a big SUCCESS return ZERO in the encode log, and upon playing find only the first 2 MINUTES encoded, and then load the same source in A DOZEN other video apps and have EVERY single one except Handbrake quickly report that my source movie is corrupt and not fully readable: cry out as anything resembling normal or acceptable as stated by the HB team.

      Perhaps if this gets exposure, the HB DEVs will throw in the towel and add the basic source checking that I truly believe may have already been present years ago as was simply removed with some refactoring.

    2. highenergy said on August 3, 2018 at 11:52 pm
      Reply

      in your case version 4.17.4808 would be even better as thats last one without both “Active Monitoring” and sending telemetry

      installer version of 4.17.4808:

      https://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/58488/

      portable version of 4.17.4808:

      https://www85.zippyshare.com/v/L8msIoi4/file.html

      me, i use version 5.32.6129, last one before avast buyout

      installer version of 5.32.6129:

      https://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/76624/

      portable version of 5.32.6129:

      https://www26.zippyshare.com/v/z50Q9KO7/file.html

    3. Banana said on August 3, 2018 at 6:00 am
      Reply

      Version 4.x was the final version before Avast purchased Piriform. People should use alternatives like BleachBit. This software won’t work forever.

      https://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/history/5/

    4. Ted Tomasz said on August 2, 2018 at 7:10 pm
      Reply

      I checked, and yes CCleaner automatically reinstates “Monitoring” after it is “unchecked” followed by a reboot. I did a “full shut”, vs ordinary “power-down”.
      Upon reboot CCleaner communicates with these four IPs:
      151.101.198.202
      5.45.58.147 host=r-147-58-45-5.ff.avast.com
      151.101.26.109
      77.234.41.92 host=r-92-41-234-77.ff.avast.com
      = = = =
      Decidedly NOT nice!!

    5. Anonymous said on August 1, 2018 at 5:42 pm
      Reply

      Do get rid of it, it has to be disabled from the Task Scheduler.

    6. aeboe said on August 1, 2018 at 2:03 pm
      Reply

      Is this true?
      Didn’t CCleaner have a vulnerability issue last year?
      Anyway, I installed the older version, in terms of cleaning speed, I’m impressed!
      With the same Winapp2, it took only 10 secs, while the latest version took more than one min.
      So, how much older version should I roll back to?

      1. Ayia said on August 1, 2018 at 5:15 pm
        Reply

        CCleaner had their servers compromised and a malicious installation file was put in place. Although the malware from what I heard only activated if the computer was apart of a corporate network.

        After that hack and this I’m now looking for alternatives. I’m done with CCleaner and their product.

      2. Heimen Stoffels said on August 3, 2018 at 6:38 pm
        Reply

        In that case you might want to take a look at Bleachbit (which is well-known on Linux, but also has a Linux version). It’s not as clean as CCleaner’s interface, but it works well (even with winapp2!) and most of all: it’s open source AND does NOT send anything back to the servers.

      3. Yuliya said on August 1, 2018 at 3:27 pm
        Reply

        I don’t know what someone could exploit on something which is only running on demand and usually it’s the only (minus Windows core processes) program running at that time. I also use the portable version, so there is no system integration in any way.

        Here is the original portable version downloaded from Piriform at the time it was still being served:
        www23.zippyshare.com/v/PlQHM9NZ/file.html

      4. Xmou5e said on August 1, 2018 at 10:36 pm
        Reply

        Thanks Yuliya!
        Just checked on Virustotal and it was ok.
        SHA256 = 9bc2e72462f5b01b5f40b824817a243cf92d8c46b02ab884bd11c3fe222e58c9

      5. Yuliya said on August 1, 2018 at 3:29 pm
        Reply

        Btw, I uploaded this right now. It’s not just “some link found online”, so it’s clean.

    7. aeboe said on August 1, 2018 at 2:02 pm
      Reply

      Is this true?
      Didn’t CCleaner have a vulnerability issue last year?
      Anyway, I also installed the older version, and in terms of cleaning speed, I’m impressed!
      With the same winapp2, it took only 10 secs, while the latest version took more than 100 secs.
      So, how much older version should I roll back to?

      1. BM said on August 1, 2018 at 5:04 pm
        Reply

        To add to Martin’s article on one point, in case anyone runs into this issue…

        In prior version of CCleaner, one must uncheck “Enable System Monitoring” before unchecking “Enable Active Monitoring”, just doing so with the active monitoring alone doesn’t work, and there is no indication that the other must be done first.

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