CCleaner 5.46 ships with clearer privacy options

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 30, 2018
Updated • Aug 30, 2018
Software
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69

CCleaner 5.46 is now available; the new version promises better privacy options, clearer explanation of privacy-related features, and a data fact sheet that highlights what is collected and why.

The past couple of months were rough for CCleaner, a popular program to clean temporary files and remove other unwanted bits of data from Windows systems.

Piriform, maker of CCleaner and an Avast company, introduced a new privacy page back in May in the program so that users could disable the collection of data for analytical purposes among other things.

The introduction of the new privacy option caused confusion among free users of CCleaner as none of the options were selectable. Since options were checked by default, the privacy page suggested that free users could not disable the collection of anonymous data at all.

A Piriform representative contacted me shortly thereafter with a statement that revealed that the company was not collecting personally identifiable information from free users and that this was the reason why the privacy options were not available to them.

The company released CCleaner 5.44 a month later and with it a new advertisement popup that advertised the Pro version of the software.

Then came CCleaner 5.45 and all hell broke lose. The two main changes in this release was met with negative feedback: CCleaner's Active Monitoring component could not be disabled anymore in the program, and the privacy settings were all removed for free versions of the application.

Piriform did extend the analytics function of the software and integrated the extended collecting of data in the Active Monitoring component.

The backlash caught the company unprepared and a decision was made to pull version 5.45 again. Enter CCleaner 5.46, released today.

CCleaner 5.46

The first change that free users of the software will notice is that the Privacy options are once again included in the program. Even better, free users can uncheck the option to send anonymous usage data.

The privacy page highlights that "only anonymous, non-personally identifiable data is collected by the application".

Piriform added a link to the new data factsheet on the page that points to a page on the official CCleaner website.

A table on the page lists data groups, e.g. usage data, offer data, or product maintenance, the information that is collected and why it is collected.

Usage Data, for instance, collects data about basic interactions with CCleaner such as views or button clicks, and performance indicators.

According to the data factsheet,no user-specific data is collected. Here is the full list of what is collected:

  • Installation event, product edition, product version, license status, country, language, and operating system version information
  • License Key and type of license.
  • Basic interaction data (views, clicks) and performance indicators.
  • If Chrome is installed.
  • If Antivirus is installed
  • Operating system version and language.
  • For crashes, apps running at the time of the crash, CCleaner version and build.

CCleaner users can uncheck "Help improve CCleaner by sending anonymous usage data" to block the sending of the data.

A switch to Smart Cleaning reveals the Piriform separated the collecting of anonymous usage statistics and the program's Active Monitoring component again.

The feature was named Monitoring previously but the company decided to rename it to make its purpose clearer. Piriform notes that Smart Cleaning does not report usage data when it is enabled.

CCleaner users can disable Smart Cleaning entirely in the new version. CCleaner's background process will close when that is done and Smart Cleaning won't run automatically anymore on system start.

Piriform furthermore wants to make sure that users understand that usage data is only collected about CCleaner and its use but not about interactions with other programs on the system.

The company stated in an email that the reported data in CCleaner is "anonymous, aggregated, statistical data" that it uses to "spot product usage trends" and that it does not "report personal data".

Data "is collected in accordance with data processing best practices and domestics laws", and that the company cannot "connect statistical data with any personal data" that is stored elsewhere by the company, for instance the email address if a user subscribed to the newsletter.

Piriform states that the company does not share personal data with third parties, but that it uses Google Analytics to analyze "some anonymous data".

Tip: CCleaner users who prefer to use an alternative may want to check out Bleachbit.

Now You: What is your take on the new version? Will you use it?

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CCleaner 5.46 ships with clearer privacy options
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CCleaner 5.46 ships with clearer privacy options
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CCleaner 5.46 is now available that promises better privacy options, clearer explanation of privacy-related features, and a privacy sheet that highlights what is collected and why.
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Comments

  1. A different Martin said on September 3, 2018 at 10:57 pm
    Reply

    Well … the comments on CCleaner and Waterfox I got notified about via email haven’t posted yet, but if I don’t respond to them now, I might forget.

    I use CCEnhancer to make CCleaner target various additional apps, and CCEnhancer’s winapp2.ini file *seems* to include all the appropriate registry and folder entries for Waterfox. But sure enough, CCleaner still doesn’t detect whether Waterfox is running, and the only Waterfox file it ever finds and cleans is the parent.lock file in the roaming Waterfox profile. I don’t care that much, since I almost never use Waterfox and probably won’t unless Pale Moon gets irretrievably broken. However, I am curious as to why it doesn’t work.

    One thing I *do* find annoying is that CCEnhanced CCleaner lumps all Firefox-family browsers in with Firefox in its settings, its “running/skipped” detection, and its detection and cleaning summaries. I’d prefer them to be separated out by browser. But it looks like it might be too much work to figure out and reorganize the browser-related sections in winapp2.ini, and then maintain those customizations when CCEnhancer’s master winapp2.ini file gets updated. The whole point of using CCEnhancer is to not have to spend a lot of time customizing and tweaking CCleaner.

    In case it’s relevant, I use Windows 7 SP1 (x64, up to date on security patches), CCleaner 5.40.6411 (x64, installed rather than portable, with registry entries rather than a ccleaner.ini file), and Waterfox 56.2.2 (x64, installed).

  2. Mike J. said on September 3, 2018 at 7:26 pm
    Reply

    I read this here thing because verybody knows way more than I. I have a query: does CCleaner clean Waterfox?? I never see it ”running,”

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on September 3, 2018 at 8:18 pm
      Reply

      CCleaner does not clean Waterfox files anymore since Waterfox moved to its own profile folder a while ago. This thread on the Piriform forum may help: https://forum.piriform.com/topic/49017-cleaning-waterfox-profile-historycache-with-ccleaner-win-7/

  3. A different Martin said on September 1, 2018 at 8:39 pm
    Reply

    I’m running CCleaner on Windows 7 and I downgraded to 5.40 after the 5.45 debacle. I have something like eight different browsers installed (plus Tor Browser!), and I like CCleaner’s ability to selectively delete (or preserve) cookies across multiple browsers in a single cleaning operation. If I were running Windows 10, which seems to change how it does things fairly frequently, I might be more concerned with keeping CCleaner up to date, but for now, I’m not sure I see a good reason to update on Windows 7.

  4. ULBoom said on August 31, 2018 at 4:35 pm
    Reply

    Words matter, especially in legal issues.
    Data “is collected in accordance with data processing best practices and domestics laws”…
    Domestics are people who work in someone’s home. As written, this statement is meaningless within the context of CC’s intent. Miss the little stuff and trust can easily be lost in the big stuff.

    I’ve never quite understood the huge list of Cookies on Computer displayed by CC. I can’t find them anywhere, either by searching or by using myriad similar utilities. Are they really there or a subliminal upgrade hint? A “feature” no one else has?

    Data collection can be disabled in your firewall but as noted above, the more recent versions of CC only run for a short period of time before crashing if you do that. That’s deliberate and makes piriform’s appeals to innocence seem phony.

    All these junk cleaners miss things and they all, to a degree function as a shell for operations you can perform yourself, if you know how. That’s not a slam, few users want to spend forever learning how to do these things.

    At least Revo is stubborn about warning you to carefully look at what it’s removing; deleting without examining what any of them find (line by line, argh!) is very likely to eventually hose the OS.

    I don’t use any of these mainstream utilities these days, just a few from nirsoft. I made some bat programs to delete junk and run them every so often along with understanding the firewall, registry, gpeditor better.

    1. owl said on September 4, 2018 at 8:08 am
      Reply

      ULBoom said:
      I don’t use any of these mainstream utilities these days, just a few from nirsoft. I made some bat programs to delete junk and run them every so often along with understanding the firewall, registry, gpeditor better.

      It was very helpful. nirsoft, and try to take advantage of the gpeditor. “Local Computer Policy”, which was the understanding of unusable in Win10 Home, I found also workarounds.
      https://www.billionwallet.com/goods/windows10/windows10_gpedit.html
      Thank you ULBoom

  5. Ban me said on August 31, 2018 at 4:05 pm
    Reply

    P.S. Martin Brinkmann helped with his sensationalistic thread title that CCleaner collects data without any research.

    1. Tom Hawack said on August 31, 2018 at 4:17 pm
      Reply

      Don’t ban ‘Ban me’, it’s Friday, maybe he’s had a tough week with a tough job, maybe his girl-friend just quit a gut having had a tough week with a tough job and a lovely girl-friend. Who knows? Poor little things when bored start behaving differently often than whom they really are. Not always, though :=)

      1. Lilly said on August 31, 2018 at 11:33 pm
        Reply

        Just wondering how you justify your pompous attitude. Guess, you need this platform pretty bad.

  6. Anonymous said on August 31, 2018 at 3:00 pm
    Reply

    “ships with” …. sigh…

  7. Lone bear said on August 31, 2018 at 11:31 am
    Reply

    CCleaner 5.46.6652

    Free version Privacy Setting
    [ ] Help improve CCleaner by sending anonymous usage data

    Professional version Privacy Setting
    [ ] Help improve CCleaner by sending anonymous usage data
    [ ] Help improve our other apps by sending anonymous usage data to CCleaner
    [ ] Show offers for our other products

    Yeah, free users can’t op-out from being spying, pro users might not be spared, who knows.

  8. altest said on August 31, 2018 at 10:59 am
    Reply

    You all realize that Virus Total is a bunch of AV products, some of which False Positive stuff like crazy – and VT keeps them despite this. Which hurts legit software vendors and products.

    VT has it’s uses but if you see some AV you’ve never heard of say “Trojan found” or “Unsafe”, nope – it isn’t.

    1. Tom Hawack said on August 31, 2018 at 11:43 am
      Reply

      Not to mention what is either an obsession, incompetence or a deliberate policy regarding specific applications/software. I have in mind Nirsoft.net and its quality and 100% clean guaranteed applications, some of which are still checked positive by one or more AV available on VirusTotal : https://www.virustotal.com/#/domain/nirsoft.net

  9. Linux 10 said on August 31, 2018 at 5:27 am
    Reply

    Wise Disk Cleaner cleans out way more garbage than CCleaner. Use the portable version a couple of times per year and throw it away after every use. CCleaner is good for uninstalling Windows 10 apps, which it actually doesn’t remove from your system just hides them from you. Use the portable version once after a clean Windows 10 install and throw it away. Oh and if some garbage program messes up file associations, CCleaner can fix that with its registry cleaner. You really don’t need to have CC or WDC installed at any point in your life anymore. Also, the portable version of CC doesn’t add a task in task scheduler like the install version does. That task is most likely there just to try and force Avast AV down your throat. Avast which is a behemoth of bloatware these days..Avast must be in panic-mode now..

  10. objection! said on August 31, 2018 at 4:29 am
    Reply

    Let’s not forget facts here. The CCleaner breach/hack which produced a build that was meant to infect computers was not carried out by Avast. Also: the intended targets were huuuge companies Cisco, MS, et al) in an apparent industrial espionage scheme. On top of THAT, only 32 bit systems were even affected.

    I’m all for holding their feet to the fire if they actually did something malicious on purpose. At best one can say they were lax in their security practices. Give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they weren’t casting such a wide net to spy on tech freaking giants in a heavy-handed way like this! Come on, people…

    https://www.pcworld.com/article/3225407/security/ccleaner-downloads-infected-malware.html

    Would I use this at work? Absolutely not. At home, yeah it’s fine, and certain settings can be disabled. Use CCenhancer to download definitions -and- trim the winapp2.ini file for best results. Side benefit: CCleaner will start up much much faster.

  11. google analytical spynet said on August 31, 2018 at 3:20 am
    Reply

    “it uses Google Analytics to analyze “some anonymous data”.

    Your IP sent by CC cleaner… checked against your Google account… checked against your Windows PID… then they have YOU forever.

  12. Steve Hardy said on August 31, 2018 at 12:19 am
    Reply

    So I used Revo and uninstalled my version of CC. Checked the registry and all that stuff for “residue”. I downloaded the portable version and configured with CCenhancer and the selections I wanted. Ran it. Blocked via a firewall any internet communication attempts. Monitored TCP connections for awhile to see if anything showed up. Oh – I got rid of all the Avast cookies and they did not reappear when I closed / restarted the app. I still use BleachBit / DISM / Wise Disk Cleaner (all internet connections blocked here too). I;’ll keep an eye on it.

  13. Belga said on August 30, 2018 at 7:46 pm
    Reply

    One of the right-click options on the recycle bin has not worked for several versions (“Run Ccleaner”).
    This is always the case although they are aware.

    1. Belga said on August 30, 2018 at 8:06 pm
      Reply

      Off topic : Your link in the email to “Manage subscriptions” show the message below and always result in … nothing but a new link of the same ilk:

      “Woohaa the link to manage your subscriptions has expired, don’t worry, just enter your email below and a new link will be send.”

      1. Martin Brinkmann said on August 30, 2018 at 9:21 pm
        Reply

        Can you please try again, I made a change that may have corrected the issue.

      2. Belga said on August 30, 2018 at 10:26 pm
        Reply

        “Error 404 – Page Not Found” now…

      3. Martin Brinkmann said on August 31, 2018 at 4:08 am
        Reply

        Sorry, I should have been clearer: this is the new page: https://www.ghacks.net/subscription-management/

      4. Belga said on August 31, 2018 at 11:02 am
        Reply

        I will also try to be clearer.
        As soon as we subscribe to a post, we receive an email “To manage your subscriptions, please enter your email address here below. We will send you a message containing the link to access your personal management page.” (message received with your link)
        It has a non-clickable link; it must be “copy / paste” in the browser. When I do this (even immediately), I get the page with the mention “Woohaa the link to manage your subscriptions has expired”.
        So I reintroduce my email address and I receive a new message with a non-clickable link that leads to the same result.
        I tried in Waterfox and IE.

      5. Martin Brinkmann said on August 31, 2018 at 11:21 am
        Reply

        Please send me the email that you have received using the contact form, I take a look at it! Thanks.

      6. Belga said on August 31, 2018 at 8:19 am
        Reply

        Same thing.

  14. Kwasiarz said on August 30, 2018 at 7:40 pm
    Reply

    What’s the last version of pre avast CCleaner?

    1. wasd- said on August 30, 2018 at 8:30 pm
      Reply

      5.32.6129

      1. Rush said on August 31, 2018 at 12:02 am
        Reply

        IMO: I have tried bleachbit, (I would run CC after the program, and CC always cleaned junk Bb

        missed.

        I used, “cleanafterme” (which temporarily disabled drivers on mass storage
        devices, which I had to re-start to fix)

        I always find my way back to CCv5.32.6129 in tandem with

        CC Enhancer v4.5.2 from SingularLabs available for download in portable including English portable.

        Earlier CC versions:
        http://www.oldversion.com/
        https://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/history/

        I am suspicious of downloading earlier versions from the Piriform website. Trust issues.

    2. Yuliya said on August 30, 2018 at 8:03 pm
      Reply

      5.32.6129

  15. Anonymous said on August 30, 2018 at 6:47 pm
    Reply

    Let’s also remind people who didn’t get the news or forgot them, that when avast bought ccleaner, the official ccleaner release included for some time a full-fledged malware that infected lots of users.
    And now that.
    Who is going to give them not a second chance, but a third, or fourth … ?

  16. dark said on August 30, 2018 at 6:12 pm
    Reply

    Use BleachBit instead. Stick to open source software’s as much as possible.

  17. John G. said on August 30, 2018 at 5:33 pm
    Reply

    Unable to download at this moment: “We’re having a few issues at the moment. Our team will have everything back to normal as soon as possible, please check back later!”.

    1. Yuliya said on August 30, 2018 at 5:37 pm
      Reply
      1. John G. said on August 30, 2018 at 7:43 pm
        Reply

        Thanks @Yuliya, the link provideb by you worked fine! :)

  18. RichardT said on August 30, 2018 at 5:24 pm
    Reply

    It can take an age to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. People will then wonder if they can ever trust this product again.

  19. Tom Hawack said on August 30, 2018 at 5:07 pm
    Reply

    Backed up my ccleaner.ini file (Options / Advanced / Set all settings to INI file)
    Uninstalled CCleaner 5.40.6411
    Installed CCleaner slim (5.46.0.6652)
    Pasted the saved ccleaner.ini file (in CCleaner’s folder)
    Ran CCleaner 5.46, proceeded to privacy settings
    — At this point, all seems ok —
    Ran Ccleaner via it’s AUTO feature : C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner64.exe /AUTO
    CCleaner 5.46 crashed — Same happened with CCleaner post version 5.40.6411
    I believe the crash is related to a connection blocked by me, not sure
    — At this point, not ok —
    Uninstalled CCleaner 5.46
    Installed previous CCleaner 5.40.6411
    — At this point, all is ok except that I lost 10 valuable minutes to realize that CCleaner is now on another orbit, 5.46 included. I’ll remain with 5.40 until it gets too old, after what i’ll switch to another cleaner.
    — end

    1. Yuliya said on August 30, 2018 at 5:23 pm
      Reply

      I was never aware of this /AUTO flag. This version indeed crashes if run without internet access. I tested these versions:

      4.19.4867 OK
      5.32.6129 OK
      5.43.6522 OK
      5.46.6652 Bad

      The 64-bit executable, all portable, no internet.

      1. EP said on August 31, 2018 at 6:30 pm
        Reply

        what about v5.44 Yuliya? did you test that version?

      2. Yuliya said on August 31, 2018 at 8:39 pm
        Reply

        EP, versia 5.44 is the one with the popup ad. It’s not worth testing at all, let alone using it.
        4.19 works perfectly well on all Win7, Win8.1 and Win10. Consider 5.32 if you use it to clean browser related stuff, 4.19 doesn’t pick up well newer Firefox or Chromium. 5.43 seems fine as well, though go to Options > Privacy and disable data collection first (preferably while disconnected from the internet).

      3. EP said on September 1, 2018 at 5:46 pm
        Reply

        I ran CCleaner64.exe /auto (v5.44) on a Win7 x64 computer and it worked fine without crashing.

      4. Tom Hawack said on September 1, 2018 at 6:05 pm
        Reply

        @EP, so that version makes it as well, good to know.
        Added to Yuliya’s list and my v5.40 experience above mentioned we now have, concerning CCleaner64.exe /auto

        4.19.4867 OK
        5.32.6129 OK
        5.40.6411 OK
        5.43.6522 OK
        5.44.???? OK
        5.46.6652 Bad

        So what happened to CCleaner after version 5.44 to make it crash when ran with /AUTO?

      5. Tom Hawack said on September 1, 2018 at 6:08 pm
        Reply

        So what happened to CCleaner after version 5.44 to make it crash when ran with /AUTO,
        *** provided all CCleaner connections attempts are blocked ***

      6. Tom Hawack said on August 30, 2018 at 5:42 pm
        Reply

        @Yuliya, thanks for sharing this valuable information, appreciated. So it appears that after the 5.40 I’m running flawlessly with /AUTO included, 5.43.6522 handles it as well. Good to know.

  20. K@ said on August 30, 2018 at 5:03 pm
    Reply

    A trust, once broken, is difficult, if not impossible, to repair.

    CCleaner went into the bin and it’ll stay there, along with Avast virus checker.

    Bunch of cowboys.

    1. Rush said on August 30, 2018 at 9:11 pm
      Reply

      @K@You’re right.

      It is a very longgggggg… and winding road between betrayal and trust.

  21. Yuliya said on August 30, 2018 at 4:46 pm
    Reply

    Cute, they whitelist avast cookies by default: imgur.com/B0wPZaP
    Here everything under “Smart Cleaning” is grayed out and disabled, not just the [PRO} badged fields. The upgrade to pro propaganda popup nonsense seems to be gone as well.
    Eh, nothing spectacular. I still believe you should stick with 4.19.4867 which is the last good version with a decent UI and no nonsense in it; or 5.32.6129, wich is the last version before Avast took over.

  22. jasray said on August 30, 2018 at 4:46 pm
    Reply

    CCleaner isn’t so bad, and one could easily shutdown the monitoring on any version. It isnt’ really that great at cleaning when compared to some of the other programs mentioned in comments above.

    Here’s a new one for me, though: “Pocket” sent me an email last week detailing ten sites I had placed into my personal, private Pocket account. That’s a scary thought. Back to bookmarks, I guess. And this is new. I’ve used Pocket rather than bookmarking for around six years. Suddenly, I discover they are watching my surfing activity. Hmmmm . . . any news on the development?

    1. John Fenderson said on August 30, 2018 at 11:38 pm
      Reply

      Pocket has always been clear on this point — it’s using an external server to provide those services. They aren’t watching your general websurfing, but every time you “pocket” something, they know (because they must) what it is you’ve “pocketed”. This isn’t new or hidden behavior (and is one the the primary reasons why I don’t use Pocket).

      1. jasray said on August 31, 2018 at 3:44 am
        Reply

        Thanks . . . although I assumed “pocketed” items were generally “exposed” to the public, it’s a first for me to have the Team send me a personal e-mail showing me the items I’ve “pocketed” over the week. The world goes on . . . .

  23. Tom Hawack said on August 30, 2018 at 4:05 pm
    Reply

    No data collection, anonymous or not. If a software collects and I can block it, fine; if I can’t block it then I uninstall it. I am more and more fed up with data collecting which has become a natural fact. Unless data exchange is required given the nature of the software I’ll block it’s connection to the Web.

    Concerning this cleaned-up CCleaner I’ll give it a try and see if it runs correctly with its ears and mouth shut; if no, exit CCleaner 5.46.

    1. klaas said on August 30, 2018 at 6:09 pm
      Reply

      @Tom: why not use Wise Disk Cleaner and/or Wise Care 365? I use the Common Cleaner and the Reg Cleaner, and they do a more thorough job than CCleaner, without any probs. Naturally, in Acryic I have blocked their outgoing connections.

      1. Tom Hawack said on August 30, 2018 at 6:32 pm
        Reply

        @klaas, because… I have my habits! I’ve been using CCleaner for so long… and if I run now an older version it still does the job I need, at least on Windows 7. On Win10 I’m not sure I’d run an older version of CCleaner given its settings which need to meet latest Win10 modifications…

        From Wise I have their ‘Registry Cleaner’ and of course I could try their ‘Disk Cleaner’ … maybe, but you’re right and I’m wrong : discovering is necessary to improve. I’mm asume this paradox for the time being :=) ‘Wise Cleaner’? Too heavy as i see it.

        For quick cleaning, non automated (not fond of automatic pilots, I prefer to feel the engine!) I have a little batch file which runs Nirsoft’s CleanAfterMe followed by CCleaner64.exe /AUTO

        We’ll see…

      2. klaas said on August 31, 2018 at 6:36 am
        Reply

        @Tom
        > “…. non automated (not fond of automatic pilots, I prefer to feel the engine!) …. followed by CCleaner64.exe /AUTO”

        This is going a bit off topic, but isn’t there a contradiction there? You don’t like automatic pilots, but then use CCleaner on automatic pilot …. duh. I am must be missing something in your reasoning :-)

      3. Tom Hawack said on August 31, 2018 at 9:01 am
        Reply

        @klaas, CCleaner64.exe /AUTO doesn’t mean CCleaner is run in automatic mode, it’s only a command-line to call CCleaner, have it perform automatically my settings, and exit. No whatever background monitoring, it’s only a touch ‘n’ go. It’s as if I opened CCleaner, had it cleanup and close it afterwards.

      4. klaas said on August 30, 2018 at 6:09 pm
        Reply

        edit: Acrylic.

      5. klaas said on August 31, 2018 at 4:52 am
        Reply

        edit2: Acrylic is just against ads, like HostsMan. The phone home can be stopped with the Firewall.

  24. /!\ sarcasm said on August 30, 2018 at 4:00 pm
    Reply

    “Active Monitoring” renamed in “Smart Cleaning”. About “Firefox Monitor” Mozilla should learn missteps from Avast, may be “Smart Security”?

  25. klaas said on August 30, 2018 at 3:21 pm
    Reply

    Too late, uninstalled CCleaner after 8 years’ use.

  26. noemata said on August 30, 2018 at 3:16 pm
    Reply

    downloaded and installed:

    “ccleaner slim” (comes without toolbar)

    – after a complete deinstallation of v. 5.44 with revo – uninstaller (intensive mode):

    download page: https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds

    virustotal = CLEAN: https://www.virustotal.com/de/file/76f4ba02c9644e5ed6b919b8e7224e4e9f3fc866f4f81c6ed8dd41b42ee3b099/analysis/1535634027/

    start the app. “smart cleaning” = disabled (2 settings). “privacy” = “help improve blabla ..” = disabled (one setting) .

    right after: adwcleaner: no threats. mwb: no threats.

  27. Steve Hardy said on August 30, 2018 at 2:51 pm
    Reply

    Yeah well. All this program is supposed to do is get rid of useless files that take up space. Simple need simple app. Now it’s been or is being monetized and all sorts of stuff happens – from software being installed to “monitoring”. I’ve used this app since the beginning of time but the heck with it. Bleachbit works just fine. Faster too. I’m going to try PrivaZer as well.

  28. Weilan said on August 30, 2018 at 2:25 pm
    Reply

    Everyone should dump this, it was good 5 years ago, but now the virus spreading company known as Avast! owns it and it has corrupted it.

    Move to other alternatives like Wise Disc Cleaner/Registry Cleaner, Glary Utilities, jv16 PowerTools, just stay away from this garbage.

    1. Anders said on August 30, 2018 at 11:13 pm
      Reply

      Advice from someone calling Avast “virus spreading company” should be ignored.

      1. Tom Hawack said on August 30, 2018 at 11:35 pm
        Reply

        Maybe ignore only the “virus spreading company” formulation without discrediting the comment’s remaining value. That’s what happens when you plead for a valuable idea by means of wrong assertions : you quickly get brought down and the idea with you, most unfortunately when the idea itself remains pertinent. Don’t bring to your opponents the argument to beak what you’re striving to demonstrate.

      2. Lessismore said on August 31, 2018 at 1:24 pm
        Reply

        Tom, it’s getting old reading your autocratical comments.

      3. Tom Hawack said on August 31, 2018 at 1:50 pm
        Reply

        @Lessismore, I’m afraid I haven’t understood the slightest word of your comment :=)

      4. Anders said on August 31, 2018 at 3:53 pm
        Reply

        @Tom, that idea started wrong nd it should be shut down. The rest of advice is also total crap like your “text”.

      5. Tom Hawack said on August 31, 2018 at 3:58 pm
        Reply

        @Anders, ah, ok. Now I get it. Thanks for putting that in an understandable way.

    2. Caution said on August 30, 2018 at 9:31 pm
      Reply

      I cannot follow your recommendation for Wise Cleaner. A short test on Virus Total showed 13/68
      warnings. I advise caution.

  29. David said on August 30, 2018 at 2:24 pm
    Reply

    Is the popup ad still there in free version?

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