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28-03-2020, 01:14 PM
1

Is CCleaner Safe? - MUO article extract and link

Is CCleaner Safe? Not Quite.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/stop-u...eaner-windows/

Updated November 26, 2019

Some Windows software has become so ingrained into PC users’ minds that we don’t think twice to recommend them. Unfortunately, this leads to major issues when a popular tool goes rogue.
That’s exactly what’s happened with CCleaner. Once everyone’s favorite Windows maintenance utility, its increasingly shady behavior means that you should now leave it in the dust.

Why Is CCleaner No Longer Safe?

CCleaner, once a tidy app with no history of issues, has had several major problems in less than a year after Avast purchased CCleaner developer Piriform.

CCleaner Silently Forces Updates

The latest CCleaner controversy comes from ignoring user preferences about checking for updates.

CCleaner’s Monitoring

CCleaner’s biggest recent controversy came in version 5.45. This included a feature called “Active Monitoring,” a fairly standard feature that collects anonymized information about your system.

As it turns out, if you disabled Active Monitoring in CCleaner, the software automatically re-enabled it after you rebooted or reopened CCleaner. This is extremely suspicious behaviour.

CCleaner was much harder to quit

When you clicked the X to close the software, it instead minimized to your System Tray. If you right-clicked its icon, there was no option to exit CCleaner. This means you had to close it using the Task Manager, which novice users might not know how to do.
Thus, CCleaner now ran constantly in the background, collecting data for Avast.

CCleaner was hacked and distributed malware.

The 32-bit version was infected with a Trojan that collected information about systems it was installed on. It also had the capability to run code on affected systems.

Thankfully, the company caught it before a widespread attack could happen. But it’s pretty embarrassing that a top-tier security company like Avast had such an embarrassing slip-up.

CCleaner annoying pop-ups

CCleaner shows pop-ups harassing you to upgrade to the paid version (which has an automatic cleaning feature). And installing CCleaner sometimes shows an offer to install Avast, which you must uncheck to avoid.
Last November was about the time that I became sick of the CCleaner pop-ups and I uninstalled the software - I'm even more glad that I did now .....

I will have to dissociate my PCs from all Piriform products in the near future ..... these include Recuva, Defraggler and Speccy ....
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28-03-2020, 04:59 PM
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Re: Is CCleaner Safe? - MUO article extract and link

No its not I deleated two years ago with the othe con site called Avast

After I got rid of Norton.

They are just con jobs.
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28-03-2020, 05:20 PM
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Re: Is CCleaner Safe? - MUO article extract and link

Have uninstalled .
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28-03-2020, 05:44 PM
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Re: Is CCleaner Safe? - MUO article extract and link

Originally Posted by Zuleika ->
Have uninstalled .
Excellent .....

I'd found a video for you but, although you don't need it now, someone else might, so here it is:

How to Uninstall CCleaner Software easily New or Delete CCleaner Completely from your PC simple way



Also, a document version:

https://www.anysoftwaretools.com/how...tall-ccleaner/

How to Uninstall CCleaner on PC (Windows)

Using either Control Panel or Apps & Features

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28-03-2020, 06:01 PM
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Re: Is CCleaner Safe? - MUO article extract and link

Originally Posted by Omah ->
Is CCleaner Safe? Not Quite.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/stop-u...eaner-windows/

Updated November 26, 2019



Last November was about the time that I became sick of the CCleaner pop-ups and I uninstalled the software - I'm even more glad that I did now .....

I will have to dissociate my PCs from all Piriform products in the near future ..... these include Recuva, Defraggler and Speccy ....
Thanks for the warning, Omah.
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28-03-2020, 06:21 PM
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Re: Is CCleaner Safe? - MUO article extract and link

Ccleaner was hacked way back in 2017 but was fixed as soon as the news came out. I use the `Pro` version and have had no problems with it whatsoever.

A bit more here:

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to...-hack-3664179/
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28-03-2020, 11:35 PM
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Re: Is CCleaner Safe? - MUO article extract and link

Originally Posted by Judd ->
Ccleaner was hacked way back in 2017 but was fixed as soon as the news came out. I use the `Pro` version and have had no problems with it whatsoever.

A bit more here:

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to...-hack-3664179/
I feel the same, still use the free version of ccleaner occasionally mainly to tidy up the registry, it still asks if you want to up date however I removed it from the tray (that did annoy me).

There is an open source program that does more or less the same job as ccleaner called Bleachbit that I use on my laptops.

https://www.bleachbit.org/

If you are concerned about Ccleaner then installing that might cheer you up.

Personally I try to use open source programs where I can, you can't beat the price and it encourages the writers.
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28-03-2020, 11:58 PM
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Re: Is CCleaner Safe? - MUO article extract and link

I haven't used CCleaner for a good while. PrivaZer does a good job of cleaning up. Free and donor versions are available.
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29-03-2020, 01:13 AM
9

Re: Is CCleaner Safe? - MUO article extract and link

Originally Posted by mart ->
I haven't used CCleaner for a good while. PrivaZer does a good job of cleaning up. Free and donor versions are available.
I use the donor version .....
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29-03-2020, 09:42 AM
10

Re: Is CCleaner Safe? - MUO article extract and link

Originally Posted by Omah ->
I use the donor version .....
Me too.
 
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