New C Cleaner

I see that the C Cleaner people are remarkably insistent on me upgrading to the latest new version. (I have been using the previous version regularly). So much so that I am beginning to get suspicious.  Am I right to tread carefully?

CCleaner new one has more stuff in including Driver Updater.   

GEN is the company which owns CCleaner and Lifelock, AVG, AVAST, Norton, Norton LifeLock, Norton Reputation Defender, Money Lion, Go BankingRates and AVIRA  They bought out the household division of Norton and created NortonLifeLock (i run Norton360) They are nag nag nag for me to check settings in Norton saying drivers are out dated and to use Driver Updater which when clicked is a Pay Program then when close it with out they then offer try for 15days.

They are overly aggressive to the point of obnoxious.  If was not for the Norton Firewall I would have changed already to another program.   Norton also plays nicely for me with Windows and Malwarebytes.

So yes.  Go into your Firewall Settings and block it from contacting out to the net.  ConfigureDefender brings our Defender Hidden Menu as well WFC (Windows Firewall Control) Developer works for Malwarebytes thus name and colours brings out hidden controls or do a google search for Defender hidden controls so can block or what ever you want to do if there is a setting for it.

Suggest as per other users whom have gone up and back down, do not Update it.   As well do not use it to do registry stuff.  Windows likes it's registry just fine with out your help and does certain repairs itself.

Edited by Pkshadow, 11 November 2025 - 05:35 PM.

Thanks. I am with you at least part of the way.  Up to now I have just used the previous  default C Cleaner to do its standard clean - and nothing else (though I seem to remember using C C to doctor the start-up  menu) - at the end of every session, and it reported on the no of kbs / mbs that it had deleted. I resisted the C C add-ons and from what I could judge 'it did what it said on the tin'. I have regarded the Registry as strictly off limits.

Alongside that I use Bitdefender Total Security so I am not au fait with using Defender and WFC as you recommend.  I believe that using Bitdefender is in place of using Defender.  As a fall-back I could just continue to say no each time C C asks to install the new version. Not very smart but ...

I also run Malwarebytes Free edition so as not to conflict with Bitdefender. MWB drops numerous hints about upgrading.

A case perhaps of if it ain't broke ...?

I too was nagged multiple times per day by GEN, until I dropped CCleaner. There are other free options available that ALSO don't require running as a system tray app.

The subreddits seem to like BleachBit, while some recommend using Microsoft PC Manager. I ended up using HDCleaner because it has specific settings for most apps. I compared it to BleachBit but not to Microsoft PC Manager.

For any apps, I recommend setting the cleaning options to closely match what you had in CCleaner, executing it, and seeing if the results are acceptable. DON'T use the default options, as they may clean more than you want. Removing too much Windows data will reduce its footprint but will come at the cost of needing to recreate those files on startup or during some executions. Removing even more than that probably would break your system.

I had to experiment until the cleaning became acceptable.

Edited by Dill2046, 12 November 2025 - 04:49 AM.

Microsoft PC Manager  - https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9pm860492szd?hl=en-US&gl=CA     Is ok, need to watch do not delete all your cookies from Primary Browser.  I do mine by hand as only have about 6 that sneak past the way am setup and browse.

It came out last year and it's Web Page is still down but is in the MS Store above URL     It is ok,   also has ram cleaner which am not that fond of ever using but is a fast way to get to Disk Cleanup which has been on the Start Menu and still is since 1995.

CCleaner new one has more stuff in including Driver Updater.   

Actually; No it doesn't.

As it stands currently CCleaner7 has much less 'stuff' than the old CCleaner - and there are many user complaints about what were 'Standard' tools and features in CCleaner having gone missing in CCleaner7.
(PS. There has been a Driver Updater in CCleaner for several years now).

Disclosure: For those who don't already know; I am a moderator on the official CCleaner User Forum.
https://community.ccleaner.com/

CCleaner7 is a dog, it was released before it was anywhere near ready.

In my opinion CCleaner7 as it currently stands is a dangerous tool for the unwary or unthinking user. (Precisely the non-techies that it is now targeted at).
It can quite easily 'break' their computers with just a few clicks if they are not careful what they are doing.

I have already seen several instances of people crippling their computers just by incautiously using the default settings/options in CCleaner7, resulting in them having to Repair and/or Reinstall Windows and various applications.

If you are having issues with CCleaner 7  - and thousands of users are - then consider going back to v6.39:

How to Roll Back from CCleaner7 to CCleaner v6.39: https://community.ccleaner.com/t/how-to-roll-back-from-v7-to-v6-39/156249

Follow ***ALL*** of the instructions given there, particularly about turning off the Automatic Updating and deleting 'CCupdate.exe'. 
If you do not follow the instructions than your newly rolled-back CCleaner will simply update itself to CCleaner7 again.

(If you haven't had CCleaner uodate itself to v7 yet then turning off the automatic updating in your current v6.39 and deleting the 'CCupdate.exe' should prevent it from updating).

Edited by Nukecad, 12 November 2025 - 05:32 AM.

I see that the C Cleaner people are remarkably insistent on me upgrading to the latest new version. (I have been using the previous version regularly). So much so that I am beginning to get suspicious.  Am I right to tread carefully?

Yes, it’s wise to be cautious. CCleaner often pushes upgrades aggressively, sometimes adding new features or bundled software you might not want. If your current version works fine and you don’t need the latest features, it’s safe to skip the upgrade

The subreddits seem to like BleachBit, while some recommend using Microsoft PC Manager. I ended up using HDCleaner because it has specific settings for most apps. I compared it to BleachBit but not to Microsoft PC Manager.

For any apps, I recommend setting the cleaning options to closely match what you had in CCleaner, executing it, and seeing if the results are acceptable. DON'T use the default options, as they may clean more than you want. Removing too much Windows data will reduce its footprint but will come at the cost of needing to recreate those files on startup or during some executions. Removing even more than that probably would break your system.

 

I had to experiment until the cleaning became acceptable.

That is the point. With the old C Cleaner (v 6?) I did just follow the defaults without doing any of the clever stuff and no harm seemed to be done. But as you say v. 7 might require more sophisticated handling. I'm hoping to end up with a relatively fool-proof alternative. Are the three cleaners that you mention all on Playstore / Androids, but not for Windows?

Microsoft PC Manager is in the Windows store.  BleachBit and HDCleaner are not; you have to download them from their own distribution points.

https://www.bleachbit.org/download
https://kurtzimmermann.com/downhd_en.html

If you are looking for out-of-the-box default options that work well, I can't say anything because I didn't try any (including CCleaner, al least recently).  Reportedly, some people had problems with HDCleaner.  @Nukecad's advice regarding CCleaner seems solid, though.

Edited by Dill2046, 12 November 2025 - 06:23 PM.

Yes, I researched some reviews of HDCleaner and these seem to be distinctly mixed. I'm coming round to the advice in Nukecad's post # 8