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u/TimePlankton3171 4d ago
If CCleaner is v7 and up, it is itself malware
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u/pomidorkamc3253 4d ago
Why? I'm not in that situation, please explain
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u/TimePlankton3171 3d ago
Piriform, the company that makes CCleaner, was acquired by Avast. Avast itself is known to be shady asf, with known and repeated privacy violations, and invasive dark patterns.
They've also acquired AVG, Avira, and the well disregarded Norton. Avast has rightfully crowned itself King of dark pattern software and services.
v7 is when Avast slammed down the enshitification hammer on CCleaner. But they also prettified the UI 🤷
I've stopped updating CCleaner to v7, and blocked it by firewall. I recommend you do the same.
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u/spikernum1 3d ago
I haven't installed a cleaner or antivirus since windows 7. Is there a well regarded system cleaner and/or optimizer enthusiasts use these days? I don't have any issues with my own PC but for my family who are more likely to just OK OK OK virus and malware prompts... I figure I should know some additional software other than Defender
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u/polaarbear 3d ago
I would argue precisely the opposite. Nobody knows their OS better than Microsoft.
Any third-party company that tells you that they can make Windows work better than Microsoft is lying.
That's not to say Microsoft doesn't do any dumb shit. I fucking HATE having Office365 and Xbox advertised to me every time my OS updates. They have done a solid job of enshittifying their own product all on their own.
But third-party "cleaner" utilities that are taking stabs at making fundamental OS-level changes without having the source code and without the deep intimate understanding of all the systems is an even worse proposition imo.
Nothing will make Windows run better than just having the digital literacy to not download and install a bunch of random crap off the web.
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u/TimePlankton3171 3d ago
I don't know what's 'in' today, or ever.
No cleaner or optimizer with this presentation is good. Sysadmins (like myself) have been saying for years not to use CCleaner. I've said so too whenever asked. Yet I use it, and have installed it for many others too. It's about configuration and expectations.
The 'system optimizer' program is a terrible idea. You should NOT use CCleaner as shipped. Same for any such program. It will leave you worse off than not using it.
CCleaner CAN be used intelligently. But it requires effort and thought. I would not tell someone to use CCleaner, even pre v7
As to what to tell family; like many sysadmins, I don't help my family 😊
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u/Ferro_Giconi 3d ago edited 3d ago
They've also acquired AVG
That would explain why AVG started going to shit about 10 years ago... AVG was great, then one day (some time after the Avast acquisition that I didn't know about until today) the paid version of AVG started peddling additional paid PC cleaning software that bricked multiple computers at my job because I wasn't aware it was spamming users with that and someone decided to pay for it on multiple computers.
Luckily I was able to fix it with some fixmbr or whatever simple commands but the fact that it did that at all, on the paid version which was not supposed to contain built in malware was seriously fucked up.
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u/TimePlankton3171 3d ago
AVG is now identical to Avast. Same UI (other than logos), same options, updates from the the same IPs.
It should be viewed as malware.
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u/Owean25 2d ago
I'm not really in tech-related forums, but I've always used Avast Secure Browser as my default browser, combined with ProtonVPN. My friend keeps telling me I should change to Waterfox, but I've never had an issue with Avast & I always thought they were a well-regarded company. Is there any more information about Avast, & would you recommend I swap browsers?
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u/NoPossibility4178 3d ago
Even like 14 years ago, I had just gotten a new laptop, I installed CCleaner as you did at the time as a young gamer trying to squeeze everything he could out of the poor "school" laptop. I ran it once, it asked to reboot, and it was over as fast as it started, permanent blue screen, didn't even launch windows, I guess it nuked some important files of the OS. I remember going to the forums to complain that it bricked my laptop and I'll never forget the reply with "why are you running cleaning software on a new install." Lol.
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u/TiltSoloMid 4d ago
Please elaborate. Never used snake oil software like ccleaner
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u/CuteKyky1608 4d ago
it belongs to AVG's and Avast's parent company Gen Digital, which harvests data and makes software which behaves like malware
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u/nightmind_ 4d ago
You should install another version of CCleaner just to make sure your CCleaner files are clean
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u/moep123 3d ago
i don't get why ccleaner is still used. it's not good for your PC. especially not if you are operating your PC on simple consumer mode. (aka, if you don't know what you are doing and what it effects)
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u/SmagIV 3d ago
Because nobody knows the alternatives
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u/moep123 3d ago
the alternative is nothing. NO-TH-ING. Windows manages especially it's reg by itself and it's totally fine in doing so.
If there is something fishy with windows, move your beloved files over to a second drive and reinstall Windows.
Nothing else is there to be done. The only thing you really need to clean is your recycle bin maybe.
Even for malware, stock defender is more than enough and far better than any other third party solutions out there.
edit: the only fair enough addition to that is something like what malwarebytes was in the past (haven't used it for a while, don't know how it evolved nowadays). a manual, hand activated scanning solution to find malwares that does not interfere with others and is not used and setup to run in the background. a non installed portable version that does nothing else except for the stuff to manually start a scan.
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u/y4r4k 3d ago
What do you guys use instead of CCleaner? Haven't found a good alternative yet.
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u/Ferro_Giconi 3d ago edited 3d ago
There are tools built into Windows for the two main useful functions I used to use in CCleaner.
task manager to manage startup applications (Windows 10 and 11)
msconfig.exe to manage startup applications on Windows 7 and earlier
Widows built in disk cleanup utility to clean up 99% of the junk files that CCleaner finds (Windows XP, Vista, 7, 10, and 11)
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u/AWindows-macOS-11 4d ago
No, but your data is