Is CCleaner Malware? 

C - C - Cleaner.... is actually CCleaner. Thanks internet.

Aah the old "C-C-Cleaner"

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). 🤦‍♂️

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.

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 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.

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 RU-vid 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.

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.

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).

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.

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!

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.

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.

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 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.

winget upgrade --all I did not know about it - thanks.

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.

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

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.

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!

This is very disappointing to me, as I've been using CCleaner for over a decade.

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 :)

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 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!

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."

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.

Why does everyone call it cc cleaner?

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.

The driver update part is working decent, it fixed my audio problems on my Lenovo Legion 5 Pro

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!

Thankyou Chris! as ever your videos are intuitive and always a helpful resource for the Lay Windows user. :)

How many times did you say CC Cleaner lol it can catch you out.

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. :)

I still do on my Windows machine (which I haven't fired up since building a new Linux box - thanks Chris for the tutorials in getting started there!). The main use was to find larger folders when space started filling up, not for clearing any files. It was one of the best visualizers to explore the file system by folder size.

THANK YOU MY BROTHER FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY AND ANOTHER FAMILY!!!

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.

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

Ok. . . That winget upgrade is magic! thank you for sharing, I didn't know it was a thing that existed by default :)

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.

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.

Just a question. Why Are you against using the registry cleaner? That is the only reason I use that product.

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! 🍻

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.

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

Why do people C C Cleaner, it's C Cleaner

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...

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 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!

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 really appreciate you researching and explaining this. What is your opinion on superantispyware, malwarebytes, or other similar free softwares?

IT WORKED, THANKS I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS FOREVER, BUT NO TUTORIAL COULD EXPLAIN IT AS YOU DID

Dude its not CC Cleaner.. Its Just C Cleaner 😊

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,

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

Thanks Chris Titus Tech

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.

Why do people say Cee Cee Cleaner instead of Cee Cleaner? 😄

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.

Nostalgia - it was one of my favourite piece of utility back in the days.

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 ...

C Cleaner

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.

Didn't know until now that Bleachbit also exists for Windows. Thanks, Chris!

CCleaner is terrible BleachBit 1000 Times Better

I used a lot of software to update my stuff on windows. And there, you made me discover winget... THANK YOU

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!

I used to have it just because the former tech had it on all of our computers. I had it basically lying there for the longest time and really only used it for registry cleaning several years ago. Probably several months ago, I got these popups that annoyed the crap out of me and I couldn't just close things out easily without the task manager. I got rid of it because I was tired of it and suddenly realized I wasn't using it anymore anyway. I definitely used it around the Windows 7 era as you mentioned, but I stopped using it since I grew sick of it. I really started to do a reality test for why to even use it to this day!

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.

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 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%.

I used it years ago too. Thanks for the video on it.

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

Great! and I just bought the paid version of CCleaner. You couldn't have told me this sooner? Damn you Chris!

I’m just now learning people did not think this was NOT malware.

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.

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

thank you for sharing this with us!!!

I never had heard of "winget upgrade --all" before. Thanks.

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.

Great work 🥳🥳🥳 Thank you 💜💜💜

I remember when it was called "Crap Cleaner", now it's just crap itself.

I used it a long time ago too, and one day it showed me it's true intentions. I had noticed one time after using the registry cleaner that it cleared out the stuff from a trial software and the very next update made it ignore those registry entries.

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

Interesting video. I've never used anything but the file cleaner and registry cleaner, with no problems with either one. I would never use anything else offered in the program, just as a matter of principle. That said, what do you recommend as a registry cleaner?

When your pc feels under the weather, you know its time for a ccleaner.

It's kinda ironic that there's an ad from Avast on an article about CCleaner's malware. Lol. Avast acquired Piriform just before the malware debacle.

I never knew this program existed, now after so many times you said C C Cleaner, it's now stuck in my subconscious mind. 😮

OMFG the winget upgrade --all command is amazing!

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.

I used to use this program at college back in the mid-2010s and even my professors recommended it but this was before the trojan controversy.

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.

Installed, everything works, thanks!

Worked , thanks a lot!

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.

Great you solved one headache for me, thanks

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.

I still remember, when botched update of CC Cleaner bricked my work laptop almost 10 years ago. Then few years later there was scandal about what it was sending to HQ. Never again.

I actually didn't know any of this till today. I will uninstalling it today. Thank you for pointing it out.

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)