Windows 10 turns thumbs down on CCleaner | Hacker News Reader

Windows 10 turns thumbs down on CCleaner

techxplore.com

24 pointssamizdis18 comments

The headline is misleading. The installer for the free version of CCleaner includes numerous bloatware applications with privacy concerns. So Microsoft’s issue is not CCleaner itself but the fact that it installs a bunch of unwanted garbage, unless you’re tech-savvy enough to uncheck some boxes during the install.

IMO it’s shady as hell to install or side-load other apps unless the user specifically opts-in. I have no desire to download and inspect the CCleaner Free installer, but I’ve seen numerous examples on other offenders where you have to go into the “Custom install” option just to get the boxes to uncheck in order to not change your browser homepage, install a toolbar, or other types of bullshit.

Registry cleaners and driver installation software seem to be popular for bundling stuff with them. I think the android version of CCleaner literally installed ads on the phone.

I'm also doubting the positive effect claimed by such programs.

Registry cleaners are absolutely a theatrical sham.

The worst part is they are more likely to do harm than any positive effects simply by the nature of "registry cleaning". The registry is an extremely MRU (Most Recently Used) optimized database. At best "regular cleaning" just trashes MRU statistics deoptimizing exactly what the OS tries to optimize in the first place. The registry is also heavily optimized to be read heavy rather than write heavy. At worst that MRU churn from "regular cleaning" directly becomes a cause for database corruption simply by the volume of writes it forces and the likelihood that a power loss or similar occurs during those writes. The number of times I've seen friends/family regularly using CCleaner and then complaining about corrupt registry hives and needing to drastically recover Windows is far too many.

It's true for most freeware, unfortunately. Project gets a good reputation, and looks to cash in; unfortunately the options are limited. Often times it's not even the original authors, who sold out, and moved on.

Especially shady if your product is supposed to remove that kind of malware

This is why Foxit is dead to me. We truly live in a brave new world, where these projects get sold to someone that just wants to cash in. It's not enough to know that a project was once reputable.

I think the new management plead ignorance ("did you not want spyware?"), and supposedly doesn't do that anymore, but I refuse to deal with them now.

Microsoft should take a hard look at why people feel the need to use software like this. Personally I just accept that using Windows is going to be a terrible experience, something that you do for work because you have to, but people I've met who try to make it less terrible have used CCleaner in the past. They use CCleaner on a new machine to strip out OEM crapware, and install it first as a matter of habit. Microsoft needs to lead here and not, for instance, allow a Windows 10 Pro machine like the one I was provisioned for work to be sold with BS like "Xbox Console Companion."

If it was just software that sat there dormant until it was used it wouldn't be so bad but Windows seems to have this nasty culture of every program coming with startup scripts, scheduled tasks, and backup services because I guess every program is some team's pet app.

CCleaner does not remove OEM crapware. It "cleans up the registry" and does other stuff that with time has been incorporated into Windows 10 itself.

I think it offered some capabilities to free up disk space but Storage Sense is now part of Windows.

The idea that Windows is some kind of nightmare to work with just isn't my experience at all. It is stable, and the performance is fine. OEM crapware sucks, admittedly, but it isn't as bad as it used to be.

One could reasonably complain that Windows 10 is invasive to your privacy, or adds to the cost of a new computer. And it still lets idiots get into trouble, but only after clicking that they are sure that they are an idiot a few times in a row.

Apple solves that by only letting people do things that they are approved to do by Apple, for a meager 30% fee on every transaction. So the question users need to ask is whether the 30% idiot tax is worth it.

To be honest, I've never taken the time to figure out how MacOS works. It's like an OS written for cultists. From the strange way the pointing device works, to the icons that don't mean anything to me, to the names that don't make sense (it's called Finder but I can't figure out how to give it find(1) arguments; isn't this supposed to be a Unix?), it seems designed to isolate the initiated and alienate the outsider.

On the other hand, what I dislike about using Windows is the familiar list of complaints: invasive and hostile telemetry, heavily mouse-driven user interface, I-know-better-than-you automatic reboots at awkward times, incredibly poor performance on older hardware, advertisements and unwanted widgets baked into the start menu, garbage applications I didn't want that are installed because Microsoft wants them there, inconsistent application installation behavior, deeply incapable budget SKUs for cheaper hardware, path length limits, people running everything with administrator privileges, weird file locking behavior (ever tried to write to a file that's opened the wrong way for reading?), fragile support for terrible hardware that works just long enough to make a buck, ... I could go on all day. Basically, my problem with Windows is that when you use it, you've paid to have an experience that's worse than what you can get for free in every way that matters to me but one. The only thing Windows has going for it is that it runs Excel like a champ.

Revo Uninstaller, found on Ninite.com, does the crapware removal well.

My 6-year old Windows 10 desktop has been going strong since day 1 without CCleaner or anything similar.

This isn’t a tech problem, it’s a people problem. Throw anything but an iPad in their hands and it’ll be unrecognizable in a year. Doesn’t matter if it’s Linux, Windows, or Mac

> why people feel the need to use software like this

The same reason people download executables from the internet that claim it will give them more RAM - personal ignorance and hyper-suggestibility.

> They use CCleaner on a new machine to strip out OEM crapware

.. Perhaps you're one of those people.. you do know CCleaner doesn't do that, right?

Nope. I only use Windows if I'm getting paid to, and in that case system administration is Somebody Else's Problem. I've never been to CCleaner's website, let alone installed or run it. I'm going off second-hand reports from people who think CCleaner purges crapware from their PCs. Evidently it does not. I should stop making ill-informed comments on the internet, but it's just so much fun!

"The free version of CCleaner is packaged with Google Chrome browser"

Guessing that's the real motivation for this change.

Google Toolbar, Avast Free Antivirus and AVG Antivirus Free.

There's a lot more stuff being installed than just Google Chrome. I'd definitely classify two seperate antivirus programs as problematic.

Yes. Bundling a utility with spyware is not good for Windows users.

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