CCleaner, becoming infamous?

For a long time that I've been disliking CCleaner, due to certain behaviors. Behaviors such as, displaying information that X amount of files will be deleted and once I press the clean button, more files will actually be deleted; sometimes, it reports there's nothing to clean, but I still click the clean button, and it does delete stuff.

Yesterday, while using a tool named Everything, I noticed there were a lot of TMP files of an application I use, and whose temp files folder I added to CCleaner, so that it would delete the files every time I run it. Many of those files were months old, and obviously recent ones as well! There were more than 500MB of these files. Insane! I wonder how many more stuff it says it cleans, but it doesn't. I didn't even bother checking it out; it's already failing quite a lot. I'm running an older laptop now, since my main one went kaput, and 500MB is a lot.

I've been wanting to give BleachBit a try for a long time, and CCleaner no longer impresses me, to be honest. If BleachBit behaves, then I'll keep it; but CCleaner is gone.

CCleaner used to be great, but I can't stop having the feeling that it's loosing quality.

I remember, sometime ago, someone mentioned similar experiences to these ones.

 

i tried bleachbit...it couldnt detect anything more than CCleaner..
But it found prefetch cache, but i dont want to delete those...
Im happy with ccleaner

 

Add CCEnhancer, Google it, you will LOVE IT.
It's not malware, it just downloads a set of custom rules and it is awesome.

 

thanks for the info

 

Maybe you'll like to try nCleaner: http://www.nkprods.com/ncleaner/

I've worked in a place were we use nCleaner before running the anti malware tools, and it seems to work fine. Its also a very complete application IMO.

 

How will CCEnhancer solve CCleaner's issues? CCEnhancer only adds more stuff to be cleaned, isn't that right? It only adds a winapp2.ini file, if I'm not mistaken. It won't fix CCleaner's issues. Sadly...

The same way I added stuff to CCleaner, and it's failing to clean them. I thought it always cleaning the stuff I added, but at some point it started to fail.

It isn't about detecting more; it's about cleaning what it should be cleaning. It's failing to do it. Maybe BleachBit will efficiently delete what is told to clean. That's all I want. I'll see how it behaves; hopefully, it will work.

Otherwise, I'll just create a bat file that does it. Life is never simple.

 

Thanks. I'll take a look at it. By the way, there's also AppCleaner by UpdateStar , which I mentioned sometime ago, and totally forgot about it. I didn't try it, but will see if it works OK.

It's time to look for CCleaner alternatives. At least, for now.

 

Report the bug on CCleaner forum, they always answer: http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showforum=8

It's still the best cleaner, most frequently updated and all.

I read BleachBit is using the Winapp2.ini developed by CCleaner users on CCleaner forum, however I don't think this will add all CCleaner's power to BleachBit, because Winapp2.ini from CCleaner forum is designed to complement CCleaner and doesn't delete traces that CCleaner already deletes..

 

I expect CCleaner has rules regarding what it deletes from the user and Windows temp folders and what it leaves alone. I don't know how it decides, but this may be the cause of the problem. I often check the temp folders after running disk cleanup (which also leaves a lot behind) and CCleaner, and delete what is left with Total Commander. This has never caused problems because files in use are locked. When tmp files that are months old are being left behind by the "cleaners" it suggests something is wrong with their logic.

 

So, in CCleaner, you clicked "Options", then "Include", added the folder so that it appeared in the "Custom files to delete and folders to empty" list *but* the files were still there after you clicked "Run Cleaner"? That's rather odd as I must have over a dozen entries in that field and CCleaner gets rid of every single file (and folder) that I have manually added to the list. This must be some sort of configuration issue or the like.

 

Yep. I even, explicitly, told CCleaner to look for and clean *.tmp files, as there are other file types in the same folder, such as configuration files. I always thought CCleaner was deleting them; I had no reasons to believe otherwise.

I even removed the inclusions, reopened CCleaner and re-added them to the inclusions. No deal.

 

Some time ago I stopped with CCleaner and I tried the BleachBit, I honestly I find it fantastic, also used it in Ubuntu.

I have these problems with CCleaner you reported, with BleachBit there is no such thing.

But the fact is that CCleaner is friendly and supported, both are good, but CCleaner has its problems.

 

Any File Cleaning Utility Must Have Full NTFS Permissions (Full Control) To Effectively Remove Selected Files.

NTFS = New Technology File System

The file cleaning utility must be run from an Administrative Account and/or as Administrator with
Full Administrative Rights (Full Control).

Sometimes the NTFS Permissions become altered/edited by the installation of some software programs, especially
security software programs, yielding adverse results with System Utility Software Programs.
This can be corrected by Editing the NTFS Access Control List.

The easiest and most effective way is to run the following Batch File that will Restore and/or Edit the NTFS Access
Control List and restore Full Control to Administrators, Administrator, Owner, System.

Note that one can add Full Control to any user account by appending the user account name to the following line:
cacls * /e /t /c /g Administrators:F Administrator:F Owner:F System:F

Example: cacls * /e /t /c /g Administrators:F Administrator:F Owner:F System:F Wilders:F


01) Copy the following code in the Quote below to Notepad.
02) Save the file as an Batch file (.bat): setacls.bat
03) From an Administrative Accounts Command Prompt type the following Syntax and the Drive Letter for the Drive to
Edit the NTFS Access Control List for that Drive: setacls.bat C: or setacls.bat D: and so forth.

04) This Batch File can be run any time there is an noticable alteration in the NTFS Access Control List.
05) From an Command Prompt type: cacls then press Enter for information regarding the options used in the following
Batch File.

Also note what Victek123 stated in Post #9, perhaps CCleaner has Rules regarding what it deletes, and might be true.
The Delete Rules for CCleaner can only be Hard Coded in the Executable, or Edits the NTFS Access Control List when
CCleaner is Installed, and/or both.

EDIT: completeness


HKEY1952

 

I appreciate all that, but CCleaner can't handle files that a standard user (reduced administrator account) can handle. There are no issues with permissions, at all.

No administrative privileges are required to delete the files in question. Not that it matters, since CCleaner already starts with such rights.

And, CCleaner automatically asks for administrative privileges, when in a reduced administrator account.

-edit-

I did notice what Victek123 mentioned. But, I'm not talking about a temp folder, at all. It's just a folder where the program saves the configuration files and its own temp folders. So, to clarify, the temp files are not in the system/user Temp folders.

 

This program has a name? Maybe someone else use it too and can tell us if he has the same issues that you have with Ccleaner

 

OH Yes, at least two administrative privileges are required to delete any files:

Administrators and System

Administrators and System are at the top of the NTFS Hierarchy.

Administrators Own the Container and System Takes Ownership of the Files.

RUN as Administrator


EDIT: clarity


HKEY1952

 

@m00nbl00d

Want your issue really fixed? Make a new thread on the CCleaner Bug Reporting forum: http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showforum=8

To keep whining about it on Wilders will hardly help at all, lol.

 

Tried SlimCleaner ?

 

This page says the people running the free version won't get support.

So, if I register there, will I get in touch with the development team, or simply community users willing to help? Because, if it's the latter, I can do that here just fine, can't I/we?

Please, note that I'm only asking because their official website states there's no support. Only paid users will get support.


Thanks

 

Official support by Piriform is paid, free unofficial support is provided by the community on Piriform's forum.

For matters related to bug reporting/suggestions, you can get in touch with Piriform bug fixing/dev team on the forum without paying anything.*

That's why I'm suggesting you to post there:

CCleaner Bug Reporting ( Is CCleaner not working properly on your system? Then let us know ) - http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showforum=8

CCleaner Suggestions ( Post your suggestions to improve CCleaner or to improve this Forum ) - http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showforum=14

*as demonstrated in this thread (see last post)

 

I agree. All I use it for now is to save certain cookies in IE9. My regrets now are that I never used it for that. Somehow I feel it's botched up something that keeps me from using Wilders email notifications properly. https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=312232

 

This is something i've experienced for a Long time When i scan with the Windows option it shows Lots of entries to be cleaned, but when i scan with the Applications options



it shows NOTHING to be cleaned ? But when run, it does clean them ! I'm running in Admin on XP/SP2.

 

The index.dat File(s) are Corrupted

To correct:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1979855&postcount=18


HKEY1952

 

Yes, that behavior is quite annoying, isn't it? I know a few people who have also reported that same issue. One I have also experienced.

I'm talking about people with Windows XP, Vista or 7. I run 7 myself. We all have different systems and applications, and different machines, so it isn't specific to one system. It's a general bug in CCleaner, and one that has never disappeared in months. Only very recently I found about this specific bug, because I used to right-click the Recycle bin and clean with CCleaner from there, instead of opening it first. Only after I was told by other people is that I started to manually opening CCleaner.

I wonder if the fine folks at Piriform do run CCleaner before releasing it; or as soon as they finish developing they simply release it?

That's one bug that shouldn't go unnoticed... IMHO.

 

I've noticed the same bugs and moved on to Bleachbit about 6 months ago. Also I've seen on Wilders others have mentioned that files were recoverable after wiping with ccleaner.

At least the developer of Bleachbit provides some insight as to what his software can and cannot do. Link -http://bleachbit.sourceforge.net/documentation/shred-files-wipe-disk

Scroll down to "Limits of shredding files and wiping free disk space" and he tells you that slack space is overwritten when erasing files but not when wiping free space. With ccleaner I could never be sure of what it was doing.