I've been using REG Cleaner FOREVER and there is NOTHING WRONG with it, I can REALLY see the Benefits of it BECAUSE I have an HDD on Purpose, with an SSD you CAN'T Really Feel the Diference, SPECIALLY when your BOOTING UP the system (In Chris's UBER Rig, maybe he THINKS the Reg Cleaner Doesn't do NOTHING, but thats WRONG ""IN PRAXIS"", maybe he FORGETS all those INVALID REFERENCES in the Registry Actually DO TAX your CPU's))
I used to call it C-C-Cleaner too and I'll never stop... What a throwback though its been ages since I last heard that! (especially with the CC at the start haha)
I remember while working for a really big biz/IT consultancy, seeing CCleaner on state government owned systems and when I made a comment about it being a potential security risk, I got laughed at by both people on my team and the client (a large state government agency). 🤦♂️
@Grayson Peddie I believe there have been a few exploits in CCleaner in the past. If i remember correctly there was an exploit in the registry cleaner that could inject malware into the registry. Unfortunately when i tried to find this all i kept getting was the malware version from 2017 so don't take my word for it.
Some of my state's web interfaces said "best viewed with IE6" and wasn't changed until about 2020. The back end was even more dated. There were web interfaces that stopped taking user requests after like 8pm.
Any software used by a state agency can be a vulnerability. The most dangerous vulnerability to state and federal agencies are improper browser usage and configuration. Many state agencies still have web apps dependent on java. I was shocked to find out not just the agency I work for but many still use Internet Explorer for web app compatibility! They should be using Edge in IE mode or even Chrome with IE tab extension for Java compatibility until they figure a way to eliminate Java usage.
Just wanted to reiterate this point of how important hardening your browser is. Most organizations do things to educate staff about Phishing attacks but what I never see happen is discussion on hardening browsers! The biggest thing holding browser security back is ad revenue. Big players don't like ad blockers or savvy script controls to stop their ridiculous ads and the vulnerabilities they bring. If you use Firefox with noscript extension, you can go to the nastiest of sites and be fairly "safe". So even if an employee clicks a link, their PC and the network has another strong layer of protection. Now noscript is difficult to teach staff to use and so are most ad blockers but a focus needs to be towards this integration and congress needs to reign in ad standards. They should just be simple bitmaps that do nothing but sit there, no scripts used but simple billboards. But due to greed this is why we can't have nice things and the whole world is less secure.
CCleaner also has a portable version, without installing anything or the nag screens and notificiations. If you use it just for cleaning files and the registry its a good option.
I think I stopped calling it CC Cleaner after about a week when I realized it was C Cleaner. But I stopped using it around Windows 7. Microsoft really did change some things and I'm not sure CCleaner changed with it. There were some great malware removers out there for WinXP that stopped being updated after Win7.
Glad you did this, as I was a bit unsure about CCleaner I started using it some time ago as it was (and is still) very strong recommended at a forum that I am active in. As time went on I had a feeling it was not performing so well. I caught your video in May, 2019 where you mentioned BB. So I went over to using that. It seemed better.
2 of 3 ( having to split as that comment police bot keeps deleting the full post :( … not unusual ) I mentioned my decision at the forum and got some hate. I don’t understand why they love CCleaner so much. On every new CC release they announce it in a new Thread. The don’t do that for everything. Strange. ( When I questioned them about the safety of using the registry bit of it, they said it was OK. I did not take that advice! - I leave any messing with the registry from what I pick up from following your Debloat/ optimisation stuff)
3 of 3 I often use BleachBit and my copy version of your Debloat script as my main cleaning up/ refreshing stuff . I was a bit surprised BleachBit did not get into your new utility tool thing. Not complaining though,- that winget interface of yours is getting a bit bloated, careful you don’t become the thing you swore to destroy, lol! Alan
I used to use CCleaner, just for the file cleaning part, but yeah it has gotten bloated so I'm now moving to BleachBit (Which I already use on Linux). Plus I would like to mention that Windows has its own basic "disk cleanup" utility, which is fairly decent. I still like their Defrag utility though as it's a bit more verbose than what comes with Windows.
I have used IObit in the last few years with software that would not uninstall correctly from Win 10. After using IObit simply uninstalled it to avoid it being resident bloatware.
When I was still using Windows 7 and had little idea about computers and operating systems, CCleaner was mandatory. Right next to Defraggler, Tune Up Utitlities and Avira Free Anti Virus.
This brings me back to when I used to install a bunch of random stuff from Softonic and source forge because of tutorials on RUclips showing me how to do cool stuff. On one hand, I ended up hosting my own Wamp server at 15. But on the other hand, I accrued so much malware from shady sites without knowing better that a bunch of crap I never installed ended up being installed on my computer. Like desktop strippers and obscure screensavers. You windows 10 kids will never know how bad viruses used to be for Windows XP.
God, that reminds me of the viruses I used to gather on my first computer that wasn’t the family pc when I was 11. The computer was a pre-owned HP laptop. It ran like garbage, had so much random trash on it, and yet somehow still works.
I do use CCleaner occasionally. I'm from the era that this tool was beneficial but I will re-evaluate continue using CCleaner after your elaboration. Just used winget and indeed, more than twice the number of upgrades showed up. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and provide "food for thoughts" on my side. Cheers!
I have mainly use CCleaner to clean up my registry. Found it funny when you said do not use that function and really didn't say why other than there were a problems back in the day with programs polluting the registry. But didn't really justify not using it today. My reasons for using it is, whether the game is AAA or an indie one, it most likely left problems on your PC after uninstalling. This can also be the case with regular programs as well.
I've been using CCleaner for a few years and I've never had any problems and in fact I find it really useful. It found drivers for my old hardware that other driver updaters including windows couldn't find
I got to push back for several reasons. 1) It's convenient you happened to highlight only it's flaws according to your personal preference without looking at any positives (e.g. driver updater - HUGE!) 2) It does show all the tasks and then some on services just like everything else if you clicked advanced which you also conveniently overlooked (and will remove almost as good as the paid version of Revo); 3) You recommended Bleach Bit when is great.....for linux. Not Windows. It bricks your machine and will very easily delete several critical processes and core startup functions that will result in blue screens for days. I've done it on accident a few times and then tested a bit. Bleach Bit is for advanced users who know what they are doing whereas most lay people do select all and go about their business. CCleaner is meant for Windows. 4) It has an option to select so that it doesn't collect any data under privacy. Pretty lazy on your behalf to knock them for a routine and basically by law required for any commercial products these days. 5) It will securely wipe with multi-passes any other HDDs faster and more efficiently than say MiniTool and you don't need to pay for multiple subscriptions. Same goes for Trend-Micros cleaner, etc. It's a one stop shop. 6) Now I've used your toolbox macro and several other programs you have recommended and they end up causing me more issues and time having to go back and fix things that are not well documented or explained that they are doing to my system (Tron even uses some services that haven't been updated since Windows 8 sadly). So, CCleaner is not a bad application and for most lay people not tech savvy or have an education in Comp Sci; for as bad as Microsoft is itself at patching and securing an OS, CCleaner has a place and would recommend maybe not running a video based on one's own pre-conceived biases until you've actually thoroughly gone through and checked with out off camera and given it an honest look.
driver updater isn't available in the free version, and you probably shouldn't be using a 3rd party program to download drivers. easy way to install malware.
Great video, Chris! I stopped using CCleaner around the time I started my transition to Linux, which is almost 5 years ago. It used to be great software. Nowadays on Windows I just use the built in stuff mostly, and sometimes BleachBit if needed.
Literally, CCleaner is one of the reasons I perma-switched to Linux. All these apps designed for "optimization" were putting my PC at risk. Windows 7 was breaking my WiFi driver every boot. I started with Mint 15 and now I run Manjaro or Fedora pretty exclusively. I have 0 problems running Windows only games and software if I need it. And most of the stuff I thought I "needed" 10 years ago....1. I really didn't need them and 2. The ones I did need have mostly superior FOSS alternatives.
Pro tip (for CCleaner): Make sure to always uncheck the tick inside options --> Privacy --> Improvements! You never know what kind of "Improvements" data is being shared due to the "very good" reputation of this software! Extreme Pro tip (again for CCleaner only): The above setting shall be overridden within 30 days (as far as I can recall) so if one decides to not share data, they need to perform the procedure again in 30 days!
I use CCleaner free version but I have it locked down, no checking for updates, does not show up in details that's it's running in the background. I mostly use it to clean cookies. I've never used it to clean registry.
When you ran the installer you should have chosen customisation for your install to debloat. Also with your firewall block access for CCleaner. Also click privacy in settings & disable anonymous data collection if you dont block it with firewall. Also you can download 3rd party CCenhancer for getting extra cleaning feature's. Also by cleaning your system often you actually make it slower because the cache will be then created once again by the apps. Also sometimes CCleaner can break things for e.g. I once had a Sony VAIO Windows 7 notebook after running CCleaner I had lost access to my office scanner although it could print but the scanner would not pick up. Although other systems had no issues after running CCleaner you really have to be careful with what you clean.
I had the exact same issue with my printer / scanner after the Windows 10 patch Tuesday security update. I have to reinstall the driver to remedy the problem. Also, never use registry cleaners because those can cause these types of issues.
@@geojohnson5613 thanks for the info. These cleaners can free up some space but you have to be careful with what you select to clean. It was weird because it was like the only notebook with preinstalled Windows that was having this problem. I had two restore Windows from scratch & I found out only after 2nd install that is was CCleaner that was making this problem so I had to restore Windows the 3rd time but this time after setting apps & all users files I skipped CCleaner. So yeah these tools can give you some real big problems & their other ways to clean up temp files without using such harsh utilities. Windows tools & just manual clean up although this takes up more time. Also their are those people who wouldn't care to clean up the system after all drivers & app installs. I always like to tweak the system for best system performance for the end user although they would never know. I'm a perfectionist.
Hi Chris. Yes, I run Windows 10 and I still use Ccleaner. But, I do no install the program. I only use the portable version and even then, I open the folder and delete everything but the ccleaner64.exe file. I have storage sense enabled but still find that Ccleaner finds a lot to remove. Agree that you should never use the registry cleaner option. I do not use any of the other Ccleaner features, only the cleaner. I think it is still useful if used in this manner.
Several good free programs suffered similar fates. I used this and suggested it to many people. Like so much of our world, greed took over and ruined a good program.
Been using it sadly on a bunch of PC’s, I use autoruns to chop out all of its processes after running it, and admittedly I’ve been cleaning the registry with it. I kinda like doing that after gutting windows of edge, OneDrive, and all of its bloat, and to be fair a mix of that with DISM and SFC has kept these systems running for years without much degradation to performance or hiccups. I get the systems a bit gutted and then setup for their work in the office, and it feels good to have stripped down systems. I actually even spend the time to delete edge from programs 86, program data, and on the user app data. Call me paranoid but I clean house, and prevent it from coming back, and my systems have been rock solid.
I remember that I used it once or twice, it felt weird and full of nonsense. I have no clue why and how this program got this massive popularity even on android. I see a lot of people still using this program, convincing them to get past it is just a waste of time. Thank u Chris I have all my clues cleared now. Edit: I used to call it C C Cleaner too :)
I feel the same way about CCleaner! I also had some nostalgia and laughs watching this. Specially the installation process lol. Thank you for the great content!
Registry cleaner is safe to use as far as I'm concerned. Been using it for years and nothing bad happened to my system. CCleaner is definitely way too bloated these days, there's no denying. But if you know what you're doing and what to do, it's still pretty alright. Like obviously disable smart cleaning stuff, disable its startup sequence, tick/untick stuff to clean, etc. It's quite aggressive when it comes to cleaning if you leave it as is
Thanks for your video, Chris. I still use C-C Free in pre-Windows 11 environments on my personal machines; have used it on other people's as well to quickly clean a system in dire need. While able to use the Windows-based tools, C-C is easier for the type of thing I'm normally doing. I forgot BleachBit exists for Windows, though I add it to my Linux machines.
I stopped using it a while back, it turned from a great tool to major nagware constantly sitting in your system tray telling you to pay for the pro version
my understanding is to avoid piriform these days. Spend money elsewhere, and the alternative free stuff is better. Cleanup? Bleachbit Updates? Ninite or Chocolatey Registry issues? AusLogics or reinstall. Startup programs? Autoruns Even their other offerings... Fragmentation? DiskPerfect or built-in Deleted files? Paid tools or PhotoRec
I still use CCleaner Pro and would rate it as 'ok' rather than 'awful product'. I use it because I find the CCleaner interface convenient and reliable for the handful of functions that I routinely use. However, I do agree most of CCleaner's useful functionality can be achieved in other ways for free, as Chris describes - if 1) you know how and 2) are happy running multiple utilities. Most software should be used with some awareness of what is going on - both good and not good. Such knowledge is even more important before running any command line or PowerShell scripts with Administrator privileges.
yeah I really don't think it's awful product, it's kinda good to be honest. some people I know just use pc a lot and I don't never clean nothing, even the trash can, so when I run this on their pcs, I delete a lot of garbage, and this helps me to keep their pcs nice and fresh.
I use the business version of CCleanerCloud. We have LoB apps that generate many gigs of temp files. Not to mention browser caches. I use CCleaner to get rid of the files on a schedule plus it gives me certain insights at a quick glance when needed. For updating I use ninite pro for peripheral apps and Ivanti for Windows patching. I don't defrag since we're 100% SSD and I don't really use any of the other features. $2 /machine is woth it to me to handle those cleaning tasks automatically.
I still use CCleaner but I keep it “under control” on my main PC. I’ve used it several times, as recently as this year, to save a near-broken Windows 10 install and genuinely speed up the machine it was installed on. It took it from unusably slow to usably slow.
Really, most of the speed up is placebo effect. If you use a stop watch and record times before and after, you won't see ANY significant difference in speed.
Great video: 1) I used to call it 'C - C - Cleaner' all the time. 2) I've been looking for an alternative to Microsoft's 'Mouse Without Borders' for a while now. I'll check out 'Synergy' after the video.
Oh Kevin! Please check with any technician and he will advise you to never use any registry cleaner. They can really mess up a system to the point that Windows will have to be reinstalled. Registry cleaners do NOTHING to improve performance. Never use them! Don't believe marketing claims of making a PC faster using cleaners or utilities. Deleting junk files is a good thing to do to recover disk space but it won't make your PC run any faster. Install an SSD drive and more RAM if you want to make a PC run quicker.
Time was on my side back then... I ordered CCleaner Premium with the Backup-CD, because if I'm already ordering, why not get the CD as well? The beauty being, I now have the infected version of CCleaner on CD, ready to install whenever I please. :D Yeah, not my best purchase.
This sorta reminds me of Spybot, a Windows program that was frequently praised in the early-to-mid-2000s for getting rid of spyware and some other unwanted stuff. It somehow continues to exist even though the last time I saw anyone recommend it was like 2005 and what few recent mentions of it I can find are just "stop using it, it's outdated."
I think maybe the "immunization" than add bad URLs to hosts and other places depending of the browser are install on the computer worth it, I used that part on some computers until Windows 8 come to light, and nothing else of that program
Thanks Chris! I used to be a huge crap cleaner fan and just kept using it out of habit. Live and learn. Winget is a game changer thanks. Any other tools that could help diagnose/fix why my fairly new win10 system has 7-9% constant CPU usage (high power usage). If it wasn't for star citizen I'd just boot into linux and that would fix the problem. :)
In comparison to you, I'm a noob user. In comparison to say, a regular mom, I might be an intermediate/advanced user. Sometimes I feel you try to cater your content to as much people as possible, making them concise, short and clear (they are great videos), but you then come up with solutions like the WinGet upgrade thing. I cannot see someone thinking CCleaner is good and using that and then going "Oh right, I forgot about winget!". It could be really cool if you give these options in the end for "more advanced users/people interested in it" but in the middle, comparing something like CCleaner tell people how to go to sites and check for correct downloads or to use Microsoft's App Store (as good or bad as that may be, is what a lot of regular people would use, even me sometimes for ease of access).
I recommend using autostarts to deactivate your autostart stuff and nirsoft serviwin to set all services to manual. And geek uninstaller for uninstalling needs.
Hi! You can always use the portable Version which doesn't install anything... - just for getting an overview i think it's not completely useless. The only thing I use is the uninstaller since a lot of programs are a bit hard to remove ...
DO NOT USE REGISTRY CLEANERS. They do nothing to speed up your system and they can, and do, corrupt you Windows OS. Yes, you can get away with it most of the time but day will come when you may regret using it.
I use CC Pro on my personal systems and have for many, many years. I've even used it as an enterprise solution to keep endpoints clean and operating efficiently. While there are open source tools that do similar things, those tools carry just as much, if not more risk of security compromise and malware distribution. So that's not a good reason to skip CC. Every bloody software package has vulnerabilities at one point or another. Hell, even security apps have vulnerabilities. Just the world we live in. Bottom line: I have many systems in my home and in my lab, so CC is useful to me. However... Having said all that, I just learned a new trick from this video. I had never heard of winget before. Completely blew me away. Immediately ran it and had 18 apps needing upgrades and it was a snap to use. Shared it with my two security analysts and I'll have them look at it as a simple way to quickly update endpoints when we find them improperly maintained by IT. So, thanks for that tip!
Open source has More? More? Do you even know what you are talking about? In 25 years as a Linux user I have never heard such silliness except from people who don't know of that in which they speak. If Open Source software carried MORE risk of compromise and malware why do 80% of enterprise servers, almost 90% of the internet and every one of the TOP 200 Super computers IN THE WORLD run Linux? Linux is OPEN SOURCE. So all these IT professionals at these top companies are idiots then? SILLINESS!
@@joetheman74 No need to get irritated. Was not a personal attack. Your enterprise Linux systems that you mention have support contracts, most likely RedHat based or are CentOS forks. Great OS! Completely different class of software from what the discussion is about... A well known utility used on Windows systems. Far, far greater risk of compromised code on open source software then on commercial software. But nothing is perfect, as I said. Be at peace man.
8:54 appwiz is not the same os CCleaner uninstaller, as CCleaner's can uninstall almost all built-in apps, where appwiz won't even show those apps. I would love if you showed a way to do this without Ccleaner, a way that actually shows you what's installed
Hi Chris, I love your channel for basic sys admin tools for Win 10. I have not used CCleaner much but have used Advanced System Care as it seems to work well and not have huge impact. I also use Norton for Security. The general theme I get from what you say is that once you know the internals of Windows, you can find system options/tweaks/etc that may do a better job for both maintaining sys adm and security. I have found solutions w/in your debloat scripts and others, but do not find any easy set of routines that are in one place, and I do not want to have to dig through several articles that may have actions that either I cannot understand/undo, or may impact each other. I am looking for speed, performance, and simplicity for a moderate techie who ideally can use built in routines to clean up junk, optimize and more. If Win truly is the pits for this, then I guess Linux is the way to go except for the few apps that require Win. Many thanks, Ken.
I used this in the Windows 7 years to clean up certain registry files that like you said wouldn't go away . It definitely would have been useful if it was around on m y Windows 95/98 machine with a 750MB HDD. Today things are different storage is dirt cheap compared to back in the day and most drives start off at around 256GB which is way more than enough for most people anyway. I just use the Windows cleaner once in a while as it's good enough for what I need and I really don't have to worry about managing disk drives that are hovering around 80-95%.
Been using CCleaner for years but I've been thinking about getting rid of it and after watching this video I uninstalled it. Thanks for the info Chris!
What is effective at cleaning registry dregs? Now I use Revo uninstaller but previously ccleaner was supposedly safe for cleaning unlinked registry keys?
I currently use CCleaner and have done since XP myself. I am starting to agree that this program is getting worse. interesting that Avast is the parent company, I did not know this. Additionally I was unaware of the Winget command so informative video, thank you
I started using CCleaner about 15 years ago after seeing the company I worked for use it, and back in those days it was only a 3MB download. I will admit I still have CCleaner, however I bought a 2 year licence shortly after Avast bought out CCleaner, but at the time of my purchasing the licence I didn't know then Avast had bought them out, and prior I was happy with the Pro version. Later on I found out about the shady deals Avast were doing through CCleaner so I've cancelled my auto-renew of my licence. Until the licence expires I may as well still use it but I have disabled some of the services as mentioned in your video. Once my licence expires, my copy of CCleaner will be completely removed never again to grace my storage drives.
I first started using CCleaner around 2009 or so, back when I had Windows XP/Vista. To be honest, back then, it was a great program, as Microsoft's Disk Cleanup program didn't do much in terms of cleaning up your system. I've used that program on my old PC, until that PC eventually stopped working in 2017. When I got my new PC in 2018, I initially didn't install CCleaner, only installing it around early 2019, when my laptop became very sluggish. Nowadays, I rarely use CCleaner, because I know now it's essentially nothing more than bloatware. (Yet my boomer mother still uses CCleaner a lot, claiming it to be a fix-all solution for her laptop)
I don't run or install CCleaner much at all these days. Back when I used to use it, I would only run a couple of its functions. I can admit I *have* and *did* run the registry cleaner function but I NEVER had any problems with the system misbehaving or running poorly afterward. It's been soooo long since I've run it, I forget all the details. I *believe* CCleaner's registry cleaner function was fairly benign, in that it didn't go very deeply into the registry. I think a video examining way registry cleaning is bad would be good. I mean actually run a handful of cleaners on a test Windows box and see how Windows performs afterward. I think I pretty much stopped bothering with CCleaner around the time of Windows 8. Anyway, great video! Thanks for posting!
Thanks, some gaming enhancing videos (2 of the top 3 results) had ccleaner in them so I downloaded it but then I thought about trying to use it properly and found your video and then uninstalled it, luckily I only had it for a day and used it once.
This wasn't the old ccleaner I used to back in the win7 days, its now bloated just like other snake oil programs claiming to improve system performance but does the opposite. Good thing I have switched to bleachbit for the past few years and using built-in in stuffs
Used it for a looong time with excellent results UNTIL Piriform was bought. After that was downhill all the way. Now it's unusable and not trustworthy. There are alternatives, fortunately. Related: I hope Wise Registry Cleaner keeps being cool. Love that tool.
i dont use cclear anymore since the app hacked and used to be trojan in my pc, and i do not use and install any other registry cleaner anymore and my windows pc works perfectly.thanks for this video.
I used to use it every single time I ran the computer, that was more than 10 years ago. CCleaner is a program that has pretty much become obsolete. Now it does do a lot of strange irrelevant background stuff that isn't related to what your settings should reflect (compared to what it did when I was first using it). It's more focused on monitoring your usage and possibly even farming your data in processes that aren't fully explained. I'm always on the lookout for something different that will be relevant to daily usage so thanks for the BleachBit suggestion, I'll give it a go and see if I like it or if it's appropriate for my needs.
I used winget upgrade... It started to upgrade my stable Visual Studio to a preview version. Evil. It didn't even asked if I wanted to install it. BTW, the list of programs to update was so long and unreadable so I didn't even know what was happening. A lot of huge hogs I wouldn't upgrade unless I absolutely had to... Nah, it was not a good idea to run it, fortunately the good old "Ctrl+C" helped. I guess I have to "read the friendly manual" before playing with winget upgrade again ;)
Was the name of the task they added to your computer "CCleaner Update?" Or something like that. That's only the name -- a label. Who knows what's really going on in that process, such as advertising delivery -- maybe even dreaded pop-ups. The reason I had to give up CCleaner a long time ago was all the adware pestering, which probably provides the bulk of their revenue. And then one day, one of their executives figured out that the more ads they can push, the more revenue they get, mostly by virtue of the good reputation they used to have. I think there's more to the reason you can't undelete the new "Update" process than their benevolent concern for the smooth running of your computer. My hypothesis is that the reason you can't delete the Update process they added to your computer is that they'll be damned if they'll let you use their maintenance functions unless you get a lifetime of advertising, as much advertising as they can manage to push at you. By making their Update process un-delete-able, they're protecting their revenues. Chris mentioned that most of their functions haven't changed over the years. I think there's some guy living in his parents basement that's simply raking in adware revenues. And if (s)he does any coding, all their efforts go into adware enhancement, not to improve any of the legacy maintenance functions, obviously. Same with Glary, a similar maintenance package, used to be good, now it's an Advertisement Delivery System. If you have a hard drive, Defraggler v2.22.995 (64-bit) is an old version that's adware-free, never screwed up my ancient laptop. On my laptop, I also have Eusing Free Registry Cleaner v4.2 and Eusing Free Registry Defrag v.2.3, old versions, never pestered by adware. I always backup registries, easy within the Registry Cleaner before I do the processes. Eusing has never screwed up anything. I looked up Eusing Free Registry Cleaner 4.2, an old version, and filehippo came up as a source of old app versions. Love the hippo. Someone's advice about updating: If you don't have any problem with an app, don't update it. With their tendency to morph into advertising-delivery-systems, it's probably good advice. I don't think Chris mentioned, but his "old" computer must have a solid state drive. Everything just pops up immediately. Nice. Oh; Chris doesn't like registry cleaners. Well, my Eusings work nice on Windows 7 🤢
As soon as you created this channel Chris, I've followed it from the beginning, you commented on Bleach Bit, I downloaded, installed and used it ever since. I abandoned ccleaner from that day on.
I have been using CCleaner to clean my register since 15 years old and I never had issues. I ❤CCleaner. I use Kaspersky Internet Security and Malwerbytes. Both never detected a malware.
Just know that Ccleaner does not remove malware unless they happen to reside in the Windows cache or temporary Internet files. Leave the registry alone. The cleaners do nothing to increase performance and can corrupt the Windows OS.
@@geojohnson5613 I don't use Ccleaner to remove malware. I said I use Kaspersky Internet Security and Malwarebyte to do that. I only use Ccleaner to clean my register. I used it since 15 years and it never has corrupted my Windows.
During Windows XP era, I use to have a Norton Utilities program similar to CC Clear and a yearly subscription to Norton Anti-virus. With the change of times, you can find other software that does the functions and CC Cleaner became less useful after Windows 8 came out.
I have not used Ccleaner in years. Sometimes I use Glary Utilities instead. What I miss is like a tool that combines all the build in windows tools into one pane/GUI. Over the years windows have added tons of small great tools.
I use CC cleaner weekly as part of my routine + With remarks: 1. trash - ok 2. apps - ok 3. regs (need backup) & visual validation ourselves 4. browser cleaning - as necessary only
I used to use it. I quit using it in 2017 right after the Avast purchase. Everything Avast produces is malware, so I just washed my hands of ccleaner the instant they bought it.
Ah, this used to be good when it first came out. It actually helped in the sense that it just cleared unused clutter and repaired my registry. Or atleast I thought it did I was young, I noticed one year installing the latest version it just caused my computer to become slow somehow. Once I got rid of it I never had these issues again. My trust in anti-virus/ malware/ auto update and clean clutter programs plummeted
Concider even now with win 10 and 11 we still desperately need a regestry cleaner as uninstall leaves behind masses of broken regstery entries what alternatives to Cleaner are there? I stopped using Ccleaner when it became adware when pilform was sold to avast a data collecting company.
A month after installing it, strange things began to happen on the PC and I had not installed anything during that month. that has happened to me several times until I discarded that software and problems stopped appearing
I remember had a work system that was acting up (20 minutes to load and needed to be turned on, then restarted every morning) and the IT department put ccleaner on, that is what I put on my grandma's computer when its working fine and she just wants to complain so company will come over and visit. Happy to say he was fired, the computer was replaced after the owner watched what was happening to the computer and it wasn't me just being a slow starter.
So, I removed CCCleaner, what about Speccy? From the same company? I use this to get a fast oversight of my computer, and thermals especially. So I can imagine this is also bloatware for now?
I used to have it, but I uninstalled it when I looked through task manager and found it running when it shouldn't have been running... Now my computer doesn't have any previous listings anymore...
I'm guilty! Me too, started using it waaaaay back in the 90s! Goddess help me. I even used regclean!! But, guess I lucked out, no harm done AFAIK. Old habits die hard.... it's like trying to use windows defrag when you have an SSD I guess....well, thank you kindly for the update....cheers.
I still use Ccleaner today (from XP, Win 7, and Win 10). I use it for cleaning of files and the registry and have never noticed any issues. The first time I used it for the registry cleaning, I did hold my breath even though I supposedly backed up the registry. To be safe, I also used regedit to backup. The rest of the built-in apps are window dressing.
C - C - Cleaner.... is actually CCleaner. Thanks internet.
I thought only me spelt CCleaner as C C Cleaner
I've always called it CC Cleaner too haha
It’s c cleaner ..written tht way…and read tht way…not cc cleaner
I've been using REG Cleaner FOREVER and there is NOTHING WRONG with it, I can REALLY see the Benefits of it BECAUSE I have an HDD on Purpose, with an SSD you CAN'T Really Feel the Diference, SPECIALLY when your BOOTING UP the system (In Chris's UBER Rig, maybe he THINKS the Reg Cleaner Doesn't do NOTHING, but thats WRONG ""IN PRAXIS"", maybe he FORGETS all those INVALID REFERENCES in the Registry Actually DO TAX your CPU's))
I used to call it C-C-Cleaner too and I'll never stop... What a throwback though its been ages since I last heard that! (especially with the CC at the start haha)
Aah the old "C-C-Cleaner"
I used to read it like that for a long time
I still read it like that even though I know it's wrong...
What's wrong with us
Ha ha, I did this myself.
Ccleaner actually means "crap cleaner", really it does.
I remember while working for a really big biz/IT consultancy, seeing CCleaner on state government owned systems and when I made a comment about it being a potential security risk, I got laughed at by both people on my team and the client (a large state government agency). 🤦♂️
@Grayson Peddie I believe there have been a few exploits in CCleaner in the past. If i remember correctly there was an exploit in the registry cleaner that could inject malware into the registry.
Unfortunately when i tried to find this all i kept getting was the malware version from 2017 so don't take my word for it.
Well the Gov Can Ph u kc up a train wreck.
Some of my state's web interfaces said "best viewed with IE6" and wasn't changed until about 2020. The back end was even more dated. There were web interfaces that stopped taking user requests after like 8pm.
Any software used by a state agency can be a vulnerability. The most dangerous vulnerability to state and federal agencies are improper browser usage and configuration. Many state agencies still have web apps dependent on java. I was shocked to find out not just the agency I work for but many still use Internet Explorer for web app compatibility! They should be using Edge in IE mode or even Chrome with IE tab extension for Java compatibility until they figure a way to eliminate Java usage.
Just wanted to reiterate this point of how important hardening your browser is. Most organizations do things to educate staff about Phishing attacks but what I never see happen is discussion on hardening browsers!
The biggest thing holding browser security back is ad revenue. Big players don't like ad blockers or savvy script controls to stop their ridiculous ads and the vulnerabilities they bring.
If you use Firefox with noscript extension, you can go to the nastiest of sites and be fairly "safe". So even if an employee clicks a link, their PC and the network has another strong layer of protection. Now noscript is difficult to teach staff to use and so are most ad blockers but a focus needs to be towards this integration and congress needs to reign in ad standards. They should just be simple bitmaps that do nothing but sit there, no scripts used but simple billboards.
But due to greed this is why we can't have nice things and the whole world is less secure.
CCleaner also has a portable version, without installing anything or the nag screens and notificiations. If you use it just for cleaning files and the registry its a good option.
@@Shmityorshen Windows Defender: Hey trojans
Not since version 6, but PortableApps has one. Clean.
I think I stopped calling it CC Cleaner after about a week when I realized it was C Cleaner. But I stopped using it around Windows 7. Microsoft really did change some things and I'm not sure CCleaner changed with it. There were some great malware removers out there for WinXP that stopped being updated after Win7.
I guess you could say CC - leaner makes your system leaner ;)
It helps to remember it was originally called CrapCleaner and they changed it later to be more "professional" and "corporate". 😉
I miss cobra and combofix badly
I never did call it C Cleaner. I have always called it by its original name. Crap Cleaner.
I still call it C C cleaner, even when knowing it's C Cleaner, and i don't care, I will still call it C C Cleaner
Glad you did this, as I was a bit unsure about CCleaner
I started using it some time ago as it was (and is still) very strong recommended at a forum that I am active in.
As time went on I had a feeling it was not performing so well.
I caught your video in May, 2019 where you mentioned BB.
So I went over to using that. It seemed better.
2 of 3 ( having to split as that comment police bot keeps deleting the full post :( … not unusual )
I mentioned my decision at the forum and got some hate. I don’t understand why they love CCleaner so much. On every new CC release they announce it in a new Thread. The don’t do that for everything. Strange. ( When I questioned them about the safety of using the registry bit of it, they said it was OK. I did not take that advice! - I leave any messing with the registry from what I pick up from following your Debloat/ optimisation stuff)
3 of 3
I often use BleachBit and my copy version of your Debloat script as my main cleaning up/ refreshing stuff .
I was a bit surprised BleachBit did not get into your new utility tool thing. Not complaining though,- that winget interface of yours is getting a bit bloated, careful you don’t become the thing you swore to destroy, lol!
Alan
I used to use CCleaner, just for the file cleaning part, but yeah it has gotten bloated so I'm now moving to BleachBit (Which I already use on Linux). Plus I would like to mention that Windows has its own basic "disk cleanup" utility, which is fairly decent. I still like their Defrag utility though as it's a bit more verbose than what comes with Windows.
BleachBit don't clean viruses like Windows off your system tho :D
@@zeocamo Nether does CCleaner or Windows' Disk Cleanup utility. For that use an antivirus program.
@@GeekIWG well, then it is good i use linux since windows 98
@@zeocamo Just re-read your comment, you were calling Windows itself a virus, weren't you? 😂 Yep, in that case Linux is the cure!
@@zeocamo lol
I would love to see this deep dive on RevoUninstaller/IObit and its legitimacy as a better uninstaller (whether it should be used or is harmful).
Been using Revo for Years. It's been a God send. For the most part. Non savvy can destroy a system Fast with it though.
I use revo Uninstaller because it at least tries to remove registry and files after you uninstall. I use the portable apps version though.
I have used IObit in the last few years with software that would not uninstall correctly from Win 10. After using IObit simply uninstalled it to avoid it being resident bloatware.
When I was still using Windows 7 and had little idea about computers and operating systems, CCleaner was mandatory. Right next to Defraggler, Tune Up Utitlities and Avira Free Anti Virus.
Oh yeah Tune Up Utilities, i loved that program back then, and same i didn't knew shit about computers all those programs just looked cool to me lol
This test also points out very cleared that on MS Windows you don't really have control over your system.
This brings me back to when I used to install a bunch of random stuff from Softonic and source forge because of tutorials on RUclips showing me how to do cool stuff.
On one hand, I ended up hosting my own Wamp server at 15. But on the other hand, I accrued so much malware from shady sites without knowing better that a bunch of crap I never installed ended up being installed on my computer. Like desktop strippers and obscure screensavers.
You windows 10 kids will never know how bad viruses used to be for Windows XP.
i used to use windows vista
I used to use Windows 3.1 and before that DOS. Seen enough weird stuff.
@@BernhardErnst Like that photo of that girl and the pony? Uhh, so I heard. :)
God, that reminds me of the viruses I used to gather on my first computer that wasn’t the family pc when I was 11. The computer was a pre-owned HP laptop. It ran like garbage, had so much random trash on it, and yet somehow still works.
Windows ME viruses were next fucking level.
I do use CCleaner occasionally. I'm from the era that this tool was beneficial but I will re-evaluate continue using CCleaner after your elaboration. Just used winget and indeed, more than twice the number of upgrades showed up.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and provide "food for thoughts" on my side.
Cheers!
I have mainly use CCleaner to clean up my registry. Found it funny when you said do not use that function and really didn't say why other than there were a problems back in the day with programs polluting the registry. But didn't really justify not using it today. My reasons for using it is, whether the game is AAA or an indie one, it most likely left problems on your PC after uninstalling. This can also be the case with regular programs as well.
I've been using CCleaner for a few years and I've never had any problems and in fact I find it really useful. It found drivers for my old hardware that other driver updaters including windows couldn't find
For driver issues I rely on Driver Booster, from iObit. It has solved 99% of my driver issues
@@Shmityorshen Seems someone has an unhealthy relationship with rubbers.
I got to push back for several reasons. 1) It's convenient you happened to highlight only it's flaws according to your personal preference without looking at any positives (e.g. driver updater - HUGE!) 2) It does show all the tasks and then some on services just like everything else if you clicked advanced which you also conveniently overlooked (and will remove almost as good as the paid version of Revo); 3) You recommended Bleach Bit when is great.....for linux. Not Windows. It bricks your machine and will very easily delete several critical processes and core startup functions that will result in blue screens for days. I've done it on accident a few times and then tested a bit. Bleach Bit is for advanced users who know what they are doing whereas most lay people do select all and go about their business. CCleaner is meant for Windows. 4) It has an option to select so that it doesn't collect any data under privacy. Pretty lazy on your behalf to knock them for a routine and basically by law required for any commercial products these days. 5) It will securely wipe with multi-passes any other HDDs faster and more efficiently than say MiniTool and you don't need to pay for multiple subscriptions. Same goes for Trend-Micros cleaner, etc. It's a one stop shop. 6) Now I've used your toolbox macro and several other programs you have recommended and they end up causing me more issues and time having to go back and fix things that are not well documented or explained that they are doing to my system (Tron even uses some services that haven't been updated since Windows 8 sadly).
So, CCleaner is not a bad application and for most lay people not tech savvy or have an education in Comp Sci; for as bad as Microsoft is itself at patching and securing an OS, CCleaner has a place and would recommend maybe not running a video based on one's own pre-conceived biases until you've actually thoroughly gone through and checked with out off camera and given it an honest look.
driver updater isn't available in the free version, and you probably shouldn't be using a 3rd party program to download drivers. easy way to install malware.
Great video, Chris! I stopped using CCleaner around the time I started my transition to Linux, which is almost 5 years ago. It used to be great software. Nowadays on Windows I just use the built in stuff mostly, and sometimes BleachBit if needed.
Literally, CCleaner is one of the reasons I perma-switched to Linux. All these apps designed for "optimization" were putting my PC at risk. Windows 7 was breaking my WiFi driver every boot. I started with Mint 15 and now I run Manjaro or Fedora pretty exclusively. I have 0 problems running Windows only games and software if I need it. And most of the stuff I thought I "needed" 10 years ago....1. I really didn't need them and 2. The ones I did need have mostly superior FOSS alternatives.
It's sad that there is an increase in Linux malware being produced:/
A useful and competent explanation, so I tried it and it turned out that everything works fine. Special thanks to the author for such useful content.
Pro tip (for CCleaner): Make sure to always uncheck the tick inside options --> Privacy --> Improvements! You never know what kind of "Improvements" data is being shared due to the "very good" reputation of this software!
Extreme Pro tip (again for CCleaner only): The above setting shall be overridden within 30 days (as far as I can recall) so if one decides to not share data, they need to perform the procedure again in 30 days!
Chris please pin this :p
@@Shmityorshen No it doesn't
I use CCleaner free version but I have it locked down, no checking for updates, does not show up in details that's it's running in the background. I mostly use it to clean cookies. I've never used it to clean registry.
When you ran the installer you should have chosen customisation for your install to debloat. Also with your firewall block access for CCleaner. Also click privacy in settings & disable anonymous data collection if you dont block it with firewall. Also you can download 3rd party CCenhancer for getting extra cleaning feature's. Also by cleaning your system often you actually make it slower because the cache will be then created once again by the apps. Also sometimes CCleaner can break things for e.g. I once had a Sony VAIO Windows 7 notebook after running CCleaner I had lost access to my office scanner although it could print but the scanner would not pick up. Although other systems had no issues after running CCleaner you really have to be careful with what you clean.
I had the exact same issue with my printer / scanner after the Windows 10 patch Tuesday security update. I have to reinstall the driver to remedy the problem. Also, never use registry cleaners because those can cause these types of issues.
@@geojohnson5613 thanks for the info. These cleaners can free up some space but you have to be careful with what you select to clean. It was weird because it was like the only notebook with preinstalled Windows that was having this problem. I had two restore Windows from scratch & I found out only after 2nd install that is was CCleaner that was making this problem so I had to restore Windows the 3rd time but this time after setting apps & all users files I skipped CCleaner. So yeah these tools can give you some real big problems & their other ways to clean up temp files without using such harsh utilities. Windows tools & just manual clean up although this takes up more time. Also their are those people who wouldn't care to clean up the system after all drivers & app installs. I always like to tweak the system for best system performance for the end user although they would never know. I'm a perfectionist.
Hi Chris. Yes, I run Windows 10 and I still use Ccleaner. But, I do no install the program. I only use the portable version and even then, I open the folder and delete everything but the ccleaner64.exe file. I have storage sense enabled but still find that Ccleaner finds a lot to remove. Agree that you should never use the registry cleaner option. I do not use any of the other Ccleaner features, only the cleaner. I think it is still useful if used in this manner.
Several good free programs suffered similar fates. I used this and suggested it to many people. Like so much of our world, greed took over and ruined a good program.
Been using it sadly on a bunch of PC’s, I use autoruns to chop out all of its processes after running it, and admittedly I’ve been cleaning the registry with it. I kinda like doing that after gutting windows of edge, OneDrive, and all of its bloat, and to be fair a mix of that with DISM and SFC has kept these systems running for years without much degradation to performance or hiccups. I get the systems a bit gutted and then setup for their work in the office, and it feels good to have stripped down systems. I actually even spend the time to delete edge from programs 86, program data, and on the user app data. Call me paranoid but I clean house, and prevent it from coming back, and my systems have been rock solid.
winget upgrade --all
I did not know about it - thanks.
This is very disappointing to me, as I've been using CCleaner for over a decade.
LOL!
Yep. Me too. I use it to clean the registry. Everything is fine.
Salted, I still use it but only the portable version. It doesn't need to be installed to work to accomplish removing junk files.
The driver update part is working decent, it fixed my audio problems on my Lenovo Legion 5 Pro
I remember that I used it once or twice, it felt weird and full of nonsense. I have no clue why and how this program got this massive popularity even on android.
I see a lot of people still using this program, convincing them to get past it is just a waste of time. Thank u Chris I have all my clues cleared now.
Edit:
I used to call it C C Cleaner too :)
I feel the same way about CCleaner! I also had some nostalgia and laughs watching this. Specially the installation process lol. Thank you for the great content!
Registry cleaner is safe to use as far as I'm concerned. Been using it for years and nothing bad happened to my system.
CCleaner is definitely way too bloated these days, there's no denying. But if you know what you're doing and what to do, it's still pretty alright. Like obviously disable smart cleaning stuff, disable its startup sequence, tick/untick stuff to clean, etc. It's quite aggressive when it comes to cleaning if you leave it as is
Another CCleaner registry cleaner user here..no issues so far.
Thanks for your video, Chris.
I still use C-C Free in pre-Windows 11 environments on my personal machines; have used it on other people's as well to quickly clean a system in dire need. While able to use the Windows-based tools, C-C is easier for the type of thing I'm normally doing. I forgot BleachBit exists for Windows, though I add it to my Linux machines.
Why does everyone call it cc cleaner?
because even the smartest people dont pay attention to shit
Me too. Always called it cc cleaner.
How many times did you say CC Cleaner lol it can catch you out.
drink game
THANK YOU MY BROTHER FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY AND ANOTHER FAMILY!!!
I stopped using it a while back, it turned from a great tool to major nagware constantly sitting in your system tray telling you to pay for the pro version
my understanding is to avoid piriform these days. Spend money elsewhere, and the alternative free stuff is better.
Cleanup? Bleachbit
Updates? Ninite or Chocolatey
Registry issues? AusLogics or reinstall.
Startup programs? Autoruns
Even their other offerings...
Fragmentation? DiskPerfect or built-in
Deleted files? Paid tools or PhotoRec
I still use CCleaner Pro and would rate it as 'ok' rather than 'awful product'.
I use it because I find the CCleaner interface convenient and reliable for the handful of functions that I routinely use. However, I do agree most of CCleaner's useful functionality can be achieved in other ways for free, as Chris describes - if 1) you know how and 2) are happy running multiple utilities.
Most software should be used with some awareness of what is going on - both good and not good. Such knowledge is even more important before running any command line or PowerShell scripts with Administrator privileges.
yeah I really don't think it's awful product, it's kinda good to be honest.
some people I know just use pc a lot and I don't never clean nothing, even the trash can, so when I run this on their pcs, I delete a lot of garbage, and this helps me to keep their pcs nice and fresh.
I use the business version of CCleanerCloud. We have LoB apps that generate many gigs of temp files. Not to mention browser caches. I use CCleaner to get rid of the files on a schedule plus it gives me certain insights at a quick glance when needed. For updating I use ninite pro for peripheral apps and Ivanti for Windows patching. I don't defrag since we're 100% SSD and I don't really use any of the other features. $2 /machine is woth it to me to handle those cleaning tasks automatically.
I still use CCleaner but I keep it “under control” on my main PC. I’ve used it several times, as recently as this year, to save a near-broken Windows 10 install and genuinely speed up the machine it was installed on. It took it from unusably slow to usably slow.
Really, most of the speed up is placebo effect. If you use a stop watch and record times before and after, you won't see ANY significant difference in speed.
@@geojohnson5613 Nah there was a massive difference. Turning the thing on went from 10 minutes+ to a 60 second sort of ballpark.
Great video: 1) I used to call it 'C - C - Cleaner' all the time. 2) I've been looking for an alternative to Microsoft's 'Mouse Without Borders' for a while now. I'll check out 'Synergy' after the video.
Just a question. Why Are you against using the registry cleaner? That is the only reason I use that product.
Oh Kevin! Please check with any technician and he will advise you to never use any registry cleaner. They can really mess up a system to the point that Windows will have to be reinstalled. Registry cleaners do NOTHING to improve performance. Never use them! Don't believe marketing claims of making a PC faster using cleaners or utilities. Deleting junk files is a good thing to do to recover disk space but it won't make your PC run any faster. Install an SSD drive and more RAM if you want to make a PC run quicker.
Time was on my side back then... I ordered CCleaner Premium with the Backup-CD, because if I'm already ordering, why not get the CD as well? The beauty being, I now have the infected version of CCleaner on CD, ready to install whenever I please. :D Yeah, not my best purchase.
This sorta reminds me of Spybot, a Windows program that was frequently praised in the early-to-mid-2000s for getting rid of spyware and some other unwanted stuff. It somehow continues to exist even though the last time I saw anyone recommend it was like 2005 and what few recent mentions of it I can find are just "stop using it, it's outdated."
That rings bells!
Holy, I haven't heard about spybot in a bit.
I think maybe the "immunization" than add bad URLs to hosts and other places depending of the browser are install on the computer worth it, I used that part on some computers until Windows 8 come to light, and nothing else of that program
@@rogerbowen5753 I also heard a Siren wailing !!! Lol !
Spybot Search and Destroy; used it many times. when bison still roamed prairie. Last update on Cnet Downloads is dated 2017.
Yes, I had this, and it didn't do a lot to my computer but it caused a few minor problems, resetting my PC fixed it.
I like using Revo Uninstaller if I have issues with a program because it shows you the leftover files a reg key and let you remove them,
Revo Uninstaller it is for me also.
Have a look at hibit uninstaller.
DUDE! just found your channel! BIGGEST THANK YOU EVER! If you are ever in NY lmk I will buy you a brew, soda, burger, whatever! 🍻
Thanks Chris! I used to be a huge crap cleaner fan and just kept using it out of habit. Live and learn. Winget is a game changer thanks.
Any other tools that could help diagnose/fix why my fairly new win10 system has 7-9% constant CPU usage (high power usage). If it wasn't for star citizen I'd just boot into linux and that would fix the problem. :)
IT WORKED, THANKS I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS FOREVER, BUT NO TUTORIAL COULD EXPLAIN IT AS YOU DID
In comparison to you, I'm a noob user. In comparison to say, a regular mom, I might be an intermediate/advanced user.
Sometimes I feel you try to cater your content to as much people as possible, making them concise, short and clear (they are great videos), but you then come up with solutions like the WinGet upgrade thing.
I cannot see someone thinking CCleaner is good and using that and then going "Oh right, I forgot about winget!".
It could be really cool if you give these options in the end for "more advanced users/people interested in it" but in the middle, comparing something like CCleaner tell people how to go to sites and check for correct downloads or to use Microsoft's App Store (as good or bad as that may be, is what a lot of regular people would use, even me sometimes for ease of access).
I recommend using autostarts to deactivate your autostart stuff and nirsoft serviwin to set all services to manual. And geek uninstaller for uninstalling needs.
Hi!
You can always use the portable Version which doesn't install anything... - just for getting an overview i think it's not completely useless. The only thing I use is the uninstaller since a lot of programs are a bit hard to remove ...
There are much better programs out there. Don't use this.
@@mjdxp5688 Sure - which ones to use on a portable stick without installation?
@@MrPiedroKulman I believe BleachBit has a portable option available on Windows.
@@mjdxp5688 I didn't know - I'll check it out!
I only used to use the Registry Cleaner option of CCleaner.
I wish you or someone can make a secure safe open-source Registry Cleaner tool.
I use the Registry Cleaner and Windows works fine.
DO NOT USE REGISTRY CLEANERS. They do nothing to speed up your system and they can, and do, corrupt you Windows OS. Yes, you can get away with it most of the time but day will come when you may regret using it.
I use CC Pro on my personal systems and have for many, many years. I've even used it as an enterprise solution to keep endpoints clean and operating efficiently. While there are open source tools that do similar things, those tools carry just as much, if not more risk of security compromise and malware distribution. So that's not a good reason to skip CC. Every bloody software package has vulnerabilities at one point or another. Hell, even security apps have vulnerabilities. Just the world we live in. Bottom line: I have many systems in my home and in my lab, so CC is useful to me. However...
Having said all that, I just learned a new trick from this video. I had never heard of winget before. Completely blew me away. Immediately ran it and had 18 apps needing upgrades and it was a snap to use. Shared it with my two security analysts and I'll have them look at it as a simple way to quickly update endpoints when we find them improperly maintained by IT. So, thanks for that tip!
Open source has More? More? Do you even know what you are talking about? In 25 years as a Linux user I have never heard such silliness except from people who don't know of that in which they speak. If Open Source software carried MORE risk of compromise and malware why do 80% of enterprise servers, almost 90% of the internet and every one of the TOP 200 Super computers IN THE WORLD run Linux? Linux is OPEN SOURCE. So all these IT professionals at these top companies are idiots then? SILLINESS!
@@joetheman74 No need to get irritated. Was not a personal attack. Your enterprise Linux systems that you mention have support contracts, most likely RedHat based or are CentOS forks. Great OS! Completely different class of software from what the discussion is about... A well known utility used on Windows systems. Far, far greater risk of compromised code on open source software then on commercial software. But nothing is perfect, as I said. Be at peace man.
8:54 appwiz is not the same os CCleaner uninstaller, as CCleaner's can uninstall almost all built-in apps, where appwiz won't even show those apps. I would love if you showed a way to do this without Ccleaner, a way that actually shows you what's installed
Hi Chris, I love your channel for basic sys admin tools for Win 10. I have not used CCleaner much but have used Advanced System Care as it seems to work well and not have huge impact. I also use Norton for Security.
The general theme I get from what you say is that once you know the internals of Windows, you can find system options/tweaks/etc that may do a better job for both maintaining sys adm and security. I have found solutions w/in your debloat scripts and others, but do not find any easy set of routines that are in one place, and I do not want to have to dig through several articles that may have actions that either I cannot understand/undo, or may impact each other. I am looking for speed, performance, and simplicity for a moderate techie who ideally can use built in routines to clean up junk, optimize and more. If Win truly is the pits for this, then I guess Linux is the way to go except for the few apps that require Win. Many thanks, Ken.
I used this in the Windows 7 years to clean up certain registry files that like you said wouldn't go away . It definitely would have been useful if it was around on m y Windows 95/98 machine with a 750MB HDD. Today things are different storage is dirt cheap compared to back in the day and most drives start off at around 256GB which is way more than enough for most people anyway.
I just use the Windows cleaner once in a while as it's good enough for what I need and I really don't have to worry about managing disk drives that are hovering around 80-95%.
Why do people C C Cleaner, it's C Cleaner
reading is a bother
Been using CCleaner for years but I've been thinking about getting rid of it and after watching this video I uninstalled it. Thanks for the info Chris!
Dude its not CC Cleaner.. Its Just C Cleaner 😊
What is effective at cleaning registry dregs? Now I use Revo uninstaller but previously ccleaner was supposedly safe for cleaning unlinked registry keys?
Why do people say Cee Cee Cleaner instead of Cee Cleaner? 😄
because reading is overrated
Great! and I just bought the paid version of CCleaner. You couldn't have told me this sooner? Damn you Chris!
I always buy it. I search out that I get the cheapest renewal. It’s partly useful..
C Cleaner
I currently use CCleaner and have done since XP myself. I am starting to agree that this program is getting worse. interesting that Avast is the parent company, I did not know this. Additionally I was unaware of the Winget command so informative video, thank you
CCleaner is terrible BleachBit 1000 Times Better
How does BleachBit compare with Wise Registry Cleaner?
I started using CCleaner about 15 years ago after seeing the company I worked for use it, and back in those days it was only a 3MB download.
I will admit I still have CCleaner, however I bought a 2 year licence shortly after Avast bought out CCleaner, but at the time of my purchasing the licence I didn't know then Avast had bought them out, and prior I was happy with the Pro version. Later on I found out about the shady deals Avast were doing through CCleaner so I've cancelled my auto-renew of my licence. Until the licence expires I may as well still use it but I have disabled some of the services as mentioned in your video.
Once my licence expires, my copy of CCleaner will be completely removed never again to grace my storage drives.
I first started using CCleaner around 2009 or so, back when I had Windows XP/Vista. To be honest, back then, it was a great program, as Microsoft's Disk Cleanup program didn't do much in terms of cleaning up your system. I've used that program on my old PC, until that PC eventually stopped working in 2017. When I got my new PC in 2018, I initially didn't install CCleaner, only installing it around early 2019, when my laptop became very sluggish.
Nowadays, I rarely use CCleaner, because I know now it's essentially nothing more than bloatware. (Yet my boomer mother still uses CCleaner a lot, claiming it to be a fix-all solution for her laptop)
It's from the Monster called GREED. It has ruined most things worth having.
I don't run or install CCleaner much at all these days. Back when I used to use it, I would only run a couple of its functions. I can admit I *have* and *did* run the registry cleaner function but I NEVER had any problems with the system misbehaving or running poorly afterward. It's been soooo long since I've run it, I forget all the details. I *believe* CCleaner's registry cleaner function was fairly benign, in that it didn't go very deeply into the registry. I think a video examining way registry cleaning is bad would be good. I mean actually run a handful of cleaners on a test Windows box and see how Windows performs afterward. I think I pretty much stopped bothering with CCleaner around the time of Windows 8. Anyway, great video! Thanks for posting!
Thanks, some gaming enhancing videos (2 of the top 3 results) had ccleaner in them so I downloaded it but then I thought about trying to use it properly and found your video and then uninstalled it, luckily I only had it for a day and used it once.
This wasn't the old ccleaner I used to back in the win7 days, its now bloated just like other snake oil programs claiming to improve system performance but does the opposite. Good thing I have switched to bleachbit for the past few years and using built-in in stuffs
Used it for a looong time with excellent results UNTIL Piriform was bought. After that was downhill all the way. Now it's unusable and not trustworthy. There are alternatives, fortunately. Related: I hope Wise Registry Cleaner keeps being cool. Love that tool.
Yeah, it happened at our job sites. Since that happened, it has been not allowed anymore. I wondered if it was still bad.
i dont use cclear anymore since the app hacked and used to be trojan in my pc, and i do not use and install any other registry cleaner anymore and my windows pc works perfectly.thanks for this video.
I used to use it every single time I ran the computer, that was more than 10 years ago. CCleaner is a program that has pretty much become obsolete. Now it does do a lot of strange irrelevant background stuff that isn't related to what your settings should reflect (compared to what it did when I was first using it). It's more focused on monitoring your usage and possibly even farming your data in processes that aren't fully explained. I'm always on the lookout for something different that will be relevant to daily usage so thanks for the BleachBit suggestion, I'll give it a go and see if I like it or if it's appropriate for my needs.
I used winget upgrade... It started to upgrade my stable Visual Studio to a preview version. Evil. It didn't even asked if I wanted to install it. BTW, the list of programs to update was so long and unreadable so I didn't even know what was happening. A lot of huge hogs I wouldn't upgrade unless I absolutely had to... Nah, it was not a good idea to run it, fortunately the good old "Ctrl+C" helped. I guess I have to "read the friendly manual" before playing with winget upgrade again ;)
Was the name of the task they added to your computer "CCleaner Update?" Or something like that. That's only the name -- a label. Who knows what's really going on in that process, such as advertising delivery -- maybe even dreaded pop-ups.
The reason I had to give up CCleaner a long time ago was all the adware pestering, which probably provides the bulk of their revenue. And then one day, one of their executives figured out that the more ads they can push, the more revenue they get, mostly by virtue of the good reputation they used to have.
I think there's more to the reason you can't undelete the new "Update" process than their benevolent concern for the smooth running of your computer.
My hypothesis is that the reason you can't delete the Update process they added to your computer is that they'll be damned if they'll let you use their maintenance functions unless you get a lifetime of advertising, as much advertising as they can manage to push at you. By making their Update process un-delete-able, they're protecting their revenues.
Chris mentioned that most of their functions haven't changed over the years. I think there's some guy living in his parents basement that's simply raking in adware revenues. And if (s)he does any coding, all their efforts go into adware enhancement, not to improve any of the legacy maintenance functions, obviously.
Same with Glary, a similar maintenance package, used to be good, now it's an Advertisement Delivery System.
If you have a hard drive, Defraggler v2.22.995 (64-bit) is an old version that's adware-free, never screwed up my ancient laptop. On my laptop, I also have Eusing Free Registry Cleaner v4.2 and Eusing Free Registry Defrag v.2.3, old versions, never pestered by adware. I always backup registries, easy within the Registry Cleaner before I do the processes. Eusing has never screwed up anything. I looked up Eusing Free Registry Cleaner 4.2, an old version, and filehippo came up as a source of old app versions. Love the hippo.
Someone's advice about updating: If you don't have any problem with an app, don't update it. With their tendency to morph into advertising-delivery-systems, it's probably good advice.
I don't think Chris mentioned, but his "old" computer must have a solid state drive. Everything just pops up immediately. Nice.
Oh; Chris doesn't like registry cleaners. Well, my Eusings work nice on Windows 7
🤢
As soon as you created this channel Chris, I've followed it from the beginning, you commented on Bleach Bit, I downloaded, installed and used it ever since. I abandoned ccleaner from that day on.
I have been using CCleaner to clean my register since 15 years old and I never had issues. I ❤CCleaner. I use Kaspersky Internet Security and Malwerbytes. Both never detected a malware.
Just know that Ccleaner does not remove malware unless they happen to reside in the Windows cache or temporary Internet files. Leave the registry alone. The cleaners do nothing to increase performance and can corrupt the Windows OS.
@@geojohnson5613 I don't use Ccleaner to remove malware. I said I use Kaspersky Internet Security and Malwarebyte to do that. I only use Ccleaner to clean my register. I used it since 15 years and it never has corrupted my Windows.
Kaspersky Internet Security and Malwerbytes - wow! I use KTS - Total security.
During Windows XP era, I use to have a Norton Utilities program similar to CC Clear and a yearly subscription to Norton Anti-virus. With the change of times, you can find other software that does the functions and CC Cleaner became less useful after Windows 8 came out.
I have not used Ccleaner in years. Sometimes I use Glary Utilities instead. What I miss is like a tool that combines all the build in windows tools into one pane/GUI. Over the years windows have added tons of small great tools.
Any alternative to CCleaner now?
I use CC cleaner weekly as part of my routine + With remarks:
1. trash - ok
2. apps - ok
3. regs (need backup) & visual validation ourselves
4. browser cleaning - as necessary only
i used to use ccleaner until i found your video, i've learnt a lot thanks to your video, i uninstalled ccleaner and i'm never touching it again
Still using Windows 7 and CC cleaner. I scrub my registry once a week. I don't use most of the other features. I also reset my indexes etc.
i use ccleaner on windows 10 only to clena browser cache here and other junck works fine for me here
I used to use it. I quit using it in 2017 right after the Avast purchase. Everything Avast produces is malware, so I just washed my hands of ccleaner the instant they bought it.
Ah, this used to be good when it first came out. It actually helped in the sense that it just cleared unused clutter and repaired my registry. Or atleast I thought it did I was young, I noticed one year installing the latest version it just caused my computer to become slow somehow. Once I got rid of it I never had these issues again. My trust in anti-virus/ malware/ auto update and clean clutter programs plummeted
I still keep CCleaner to strip out left over installation registry entries that Revo Uninstaller misses.
Nostalgia - it was one of my favourite piece of utility back in the days.
PortableApps has a portable version of CCleaner, something that Piriform used to provide, but stopped after version 6 came out.
Concider even now with win 10 and 11 we still desperately need a regestry cleaner as uninstall leaves behind masses of broken regstery entries what alternatives to Cleaner are there?
I stopped using Ccleaner when it became adware when pilform was sold to avast a data collecting company.
I remember having a manager calling it C-C-Cleaner.... I wanted to die everyday.
I'll see if I can go through the video...
A month after installing it, strange things began to happen on the PC and I had not installed anything during that month.
that has happened to me several times until I discarded that software and problems stopped appearing
I remember had a work system that was acting up (20 minutes to load and needed to be turned on, then restarted every morning) and the IT department put ccleaner on, that is what I put on my grandma's computer when its working fine and she just wants to complain so company will come over and visit. Happy to say he was fired, the computer was replaced after the owner watched what was happening to the computer and it wasn't me just being a slow starter.
So, I removed CCCleaner, what about Speccy? From the same company? I use this to get a fast oversight of my computer, and thermals especially. So I can imagine this is also bloatware for now?
Ok. . . That winget upgrade is magic! thank you for sharing, I didn't know it was a thing that existed by default :)
I used to have it, but I uninstalled it when I looked through task manager and found it running when it shouldn't have been running... Now my computer doesn't have any previous listings anymore...
Thankyou Chris! as ever your videos are intuitive and always a helpful resource for the Lay Windows user. :)
I'm guilty! Me too, started using it waaaaay back in the 90s! Goddess help me. I even used regclean!! But, guess I lucked out, no harm done AFAIK.
Old habits die hard.... it's like trying to use windows defrag when you have an SSD I guess....well, thank you kindly for the update....cheers.
I still use Ccleaner today (from XP, Win 7, and Win 10). I use it for cleaning of files and the registry and have never noticed any issues. The first time I used it for the registry cleaning, I did hold my breath even though I supposedly backed up the registry. To be safe, I also used regedit to backup. The rest of the built-in apps are window dressing.