w33d3r
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Posts posted by w33d3r
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On 30/10/2018 at 00:29, hazelnut said:
..and that's the reason you are giving as to why people who have opted out are still being tracked??
Really this has got to stop. Piriform/Avast are using users as info collecting machines.
CCleaner is supposed to be a junk cleaner.. it's now turning into something sinister.
+1
Avast has ruined what used to be an old favourite, trusted and reliable tool.
(sorry weeder, no competition software allowed to be named)
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Its still doing it even today
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I do not read the forum, so would not know about the frequency of other reports .. But I guess those are just confirming my experience ?
Anyway the release notes for this version reads as follows :
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download
v5.16.5551 (22 Mar 2016)- Added Opera GPU and Application cache cleaning.- Improved Google Chrome cleaning: IndexedDB, Quote Manager DB and Service Worker cache.- Improved Microsoft Edge Temporary Files cleaning.- Update Google Chrome Browser Plug-in management.- Improved keyboard navigation.- Updated various translations.- Minor GUI improvements.- Minor bug fixes.[my bold]I am guessing that because every version of CCleaner which I have had installed before now which did not behave like the current version - That one of the above emboldened new features is the code responsible for the problemSo it should not be too much of a trace back for the programmers of CCleaner to find what it is doing wrong / or provide an option to disable what it is doing for usersI have given a link to the plugin being affectedI have no idea what files are being touched by CCleaner to cause the problem. So would not know what to exclude.Do Piriform expect users to have to do such investigations for their softwares unforeseen consequences ? -
Hi I have installed the latest CCleaner v5.16.5551
And noticed every time I use it, then Load Google Chrome, EFFs Privacy Badger plugin is opening a new tab with its welcome screen as if its the first time you have installed Privacy Badger ..
https://www.eff.org/privacybadger
This plugin learns over time how to block sites, so wiping out its history files is undesireable, because CCleaner is effectively wiping out everything it has learned
And there is no obvious option that I can see to turn off cleaning of this Chrome plugin
If you have introduced cleaning out of Chrome plugins, then you should also provide options PER PLUGIN to disable cleaning them out aswell
At the moment I am not inclined to use CCleaner because it is wiping out the protection that Privacy Badger has learned.
Here is a screenshot of Privacy Badger, while visiting a popular news paper site .. There are a lot more trackers than just the visible 5 ( you need to scroll down through them all which I cannot show in a screenshot ), and trust me they are all green ( allowed ). Which means normally the majority of these which usually have Red or at least Yellow settings which have been learned by cross comparison with other websites using the same trackers .. have been wiped
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Understood, and apologies for linking the tool, in hindsight it does seem a bit rude.But imho, the reason I suggest it is because having an up to date hosts file can prevent a huge amount of the junk getting on your machine to begin with.
Prevention being better than a cure, and where malware is concerned ( quite often related to junk files ), is relative. /imho
CCleaner although not an anti-malware solution, is quite often used by malware help forums such as bleepingcomputers forum as part of the process to helping people recover their systems to normal, because they recognise it does help in cleaning out residue files or deviously linked temporary files.
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Are you guys aware of Comodo Dragon
Its another Chromium fork, and similar to SRWare Iron in its purpose ( Security and Privacy, stripping out google )
It already has its own clean out options in advanced settings, and I dont know if CCleaner would be able to do anything additionally, but just thought it worth a note here.
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Just a suggestion as another very nice feature CCleaner could have ..
I use MVPS Hosts file
It can either be updated manually ..
Or by the linked utilities Hostman, or HostsXpert
Neither of which work very nicely on Win 7 ( well they mostly work as advertised but there are a couple of problems with both )
Recently noticed MVPS org have added a new utility to the ones listed .. {Competing Product)
Which seems to be another pretender to the throne of Ultimate Registry Cleaner ( We know better )
But it does also incorporate updating the MVPS Hosts file
CCleaner imho would be the better tool to implement this feature.
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Guys I dont know if this has been looked at its been a while since I popped in but ... You already have Thunderbird covered I think.
Just did a complete re-arrange of my HD, new partition layout and complete reformat, install win7 and setup from the ground ..
Long story short. CCleaner was one of the first utilities I installed, then watched for detections as I installed others
http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=1541120Capture2.PNG
I dont have firefox installed - That was Thunderbird.
I think I have mentioned in the past elsewhere on the forum that I had firefox installed at one point and uninstalled it after switching to SRWare Iron - Yet Firefox was still being detected ... Now I know why, it was Thunderbird all along (I have not installed firefox at all this time round.
And yes cookies etc do get cleaned out with it, I dont have a screenshot of the run prior to the one above but there were quite a few entries cleaned for firefox after setting up Thunderbird.
Those five internet cache files you can see cleaned out I think can be directly associated with the five email addresses I have setup which are checked when Thunderbird launches
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Hi guys, ref SRWare Iron 9.0.600.1
I have posted this problem in the WinApp2.ini thread before now but no-one has replied the problem apart from telling me the latest version of CCleaner now supports SRWare Iron.
I do not have Google Chrome installed. And after every cleanout CCleaner is not picking up anything from SRWare Iron.
SRWare Iron is the Installer version (as opposed to the portable version), which has installed consistently to the same default location for quite a few versions now.
I have reverted on a few occasions to not using the winapp2.ini (as is the case currently), did a complete un-install of CCleaner this time round with the latest update and re-installed just to use with its default options and no .ini (after the advice that CCleaner now natively supports detection of SRWare Iron)
Result as above in the screenshot. Something is obviously being detected but confused as Google Chrome, and not cleaning out.
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the issue I see here with what you posted was you didn't have the excludekey thus deleted the entire is directory thus when you updated winapp2 and ccleaner it no longer saw anything
Aah, I see my bad, thank you.
Edit: Erm, just checked, Version 3.02.1343 CCleaner, downloaded a fresh version of the latest winapp2.ini linked in the OP (without any meddling by myself) - CCleaner is not listing Microsoft Silverlight for cleanout anywhere
OS = Win 7 x 32
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Thank you, posted in suggestions, and will keep the link for the other topic bookmarked and see if it develops into a similar.
@ Moderators - May as well close this topic
P.S Merry Christmas.
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Hi guys, I posted this elsewhere and was directed to try posting the same here...
Not sure if these topics have been mentioned before, but the latest incarnations of Mozilla Thunderbird email client has an option in its preferences to restrict or not cookies.
Whether they equate to the same as web browsers, or some other storage method I dont know.
Anyway - Question, will CCleaner be detecting Thunderbird in future and offering to clean out that too? (it does not seem to at the moment)
Further question - Geo location; Is there anything stored locally with Geo location abilities enabled - If so can these be cleaned out with CCleaner?.
In both Firefox and Thunderbird (and presumeably Seamonkey) Geo location is on by default, and not easily disabled - In firefox you have to enter about:config in the address bar, say yes to the dragons, then type Geo in the filter box, then double click the Geo location entry to make it False.
In Thunderbird, among the preferences you will find a Config button which will pop up Thunderbirds equivalent of about:config then do the same as per Firefox.
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Winapp2.ini - Didn't CCleaner used to recognise if a user has Microsoft Silverlight installed? (well, I say if, more like who hasn't the way MS force feed it via windows update)
Just tried the current version of CCleaner with your most up to date ini and nothing seems to come up on any lists.
Anyway, if not, I believe the following could be added
[silverlight] LangSecRef=3022 Detect=HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Silverlight Default=True FileKey1=%userprofile%\AppData\LocalLow\Microsoft\Silverlight|*.*|RECURSE
For cleaning out MS LSOs (Local Shared Objects), similar to Adobe's
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oooookay. Dont everyone shout at once
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Hi guys, not sure if this has been mentioned, but the latest incarnations of Mozilla Thunderbird email client has an option in its preferences to restrict or not cookies.
Whether they equate to the same as web browsers, or some other storage method I dont know.
Anyway - Question, will CCleaner be detecting Thunderbird in future and offering to clean out that too? (it does not seem to at the moment)
Further question - Geo location; Is there anything stored locally with Geo location abilities enabled - If so can these be cleaned out with CCleaner?.
In both Firefox and Thunderbird (and presumeably Seamonkey) Geo location is on by default, and not easily disabled - In firefox you have to enter about:config in the address bar, say yes to the dragons, then type Geo in the filter box, then double click the Geo location entry to make it False.
In Thunderbird, among the preferences you will find a Config button which will pop up Thunderbirds equivalent of about:config then do the same as per Firefox.
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Nope, I just refuse to be cattle for big co's offering shiny sweeties with a hidden agenda they obfuscate. Hence the reason for development of such wonderful utilities as CCleaner, which is very good at weeding and cleaning out history, isn't that why we are here?
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Yes, but forgetting about Flash cookies also means no saved games in Flash games
Yes you are right, games like Brain buddies on facebook, broken because of the reliance on LSO's which anyone conscious of their privacy is not going to allow. Its a shame, but thats what flash is about, free stuff in exchange for tracking everything you do. Advertising/marketing is the value of flash
Newer versions of flash are getting more efficient at its ability to track you, the LSO settings only adjustable on adobes website is completely ignored if you are using private modes of browsing in the newer versions of browsers, when flash detects you are in-private, incognito etc it uses ram as a temporary storage and also increases the amount it can store to make up for the fact that it now has to respect your privacy mode and so attempts to grab more info about you in a shorter time.... the LSO settings are disregarded in those modes.
Flash also has realtime high speed communications with its behaviour tracking partners (all the time you are choosing subjects on youtube interested digital eyes are recording your choices, your personality, the likelyhood of your future choices as a picture of you is collated), and can utilise what adobe/omniture calls a clickmap, which can see where you're mouse is hovering, how long it stays there, what you click on... etc
Flash is also no longer dependant on javascript (though that still can be used), flashes actionscript now integrates with actionsource to provide functions totally transparent to the user.
Flash is getting sneakier, the worst thing is its installed in just about everyones computers because most websites use it. You cant browse for ten minutes without flash installed before something is bugging you to install it. I am looking forward to html5 but I do hope we have total control on the domain storage features on the computers we own.
Personally if its so privacy invasive that to restrict its abilities breaks it, then I dont want it. I object to the 'market penetration' of flash because it makes anyone with tighter privacy settings/habits feel bullied into installing software just to be part of the crowd and stay current.
The BBC recently is using flash for news clips, at the moment it will not work unless you allow LSO's to be set. Since this was found out the BBC have made the excuse on a blog that it is a transitional stage while they upgrade to the newer methods of flash. If nobody had noticed they would have left it as is no doubt.
For UK users who are forced by law to pay a license because of the BBC, we should be able to view anything BBC without any fees nor have to agree to any usage/privacy policies related to advertising and marketing. Infuriating.
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The cleaner I made will detect the Non-Internet Explorer installation of Flash. It looks for the file NPSWF32.dll which is exactly what Firefox references but doesn't state the path when typing into Firefox's address bar:
about:plugins
I don't know if this works with Opera since in the past it stored the Flash plugin in it's own program folder. I also don't know if it will work with Chrome/Chromium based browsers, etc., it works with Firefox though.
This is the cleaner I made *Adobe Flash Player (Non-IE), requires winapp2.ini to work:
[*Adobe Flash Player (Non-IE)] LangSecRef=3023 DetectFile=%windir%\system32\Macromed\Flash\NPSWF32.dll Default=False FileKey1=%appdata%\Adobe\Flash Player|*.*|RECURSE FileKey2=%appdata%\Macromedia\Flash Player|*.*|RECURSE
Note that it has to be ticked to be activated in order to clean. It will be listed in the following CCleaner area:
Cleaner -> Applications -> Multimedia
Or....
Dont let flash player have the ability to save to its destinations in the first place, no matter what browser you are using....
<https://nodpi.org/forum/index.php/topic,1969.0.html>
Its a batch file you have to run as administrator once for each user - Forget about flash cookies after that
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What do I need to UNCHECK from the Applications Set Up to retain my Chrome passwords? I've had this problem since using CCleander; otherwise the program has been great!
The most user friendly settings for chrome are un-check Form data and Internet History, the rest keep checked to clean out. I think, this is how it works with SRWare Iron anyway, haven't used googles privacy intrusive by default tracking beast for ages.
Having the above un-checked will keep your passwords, and also the fav icons on your bookmarks (strangely, why that comes under Internet History is wierd, but fav icons are included in chromes internet history database)
If you are only concerned with passwords then I am pretty sure its just form data (which is also weird because if you want to get rid of history of addresses, post codes, credit details etc you cant if you want to preserve your passwords)
Google being sneaky?
Easy way to check anyway, go into your options and write down your passwords, check everything in CCleaner and clean it out.
Go to a site needing one of your passwords, save it.
Go back to ccleaner, uncheck form data, clean out. Then go back to the site and see if your password is remembered.
I wish CCleaner recognised SRWare Iron, and that there was some way of separating passwords from form data so the rest of form data could be cleaned out, similarly with fav icons from internet history.
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You can also go to the Adobe (Macromedia) site and use their Manager to deal with Flash Cookies:
Here is the address:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/document...gs_manager.html
Which would give him a settings.sol file which he doesn't want either. The settings.sol file is where you're suggested method saves those settings, and isn't always reliable... see these posts in the thread I linked to -https://nodpi.org/forum/index.php/topic,196...5.html#msg22215
"I've used the Flash Player settings set not to store anything, and I've just noticed that the WaitroseLive online mag totally ignores the settings and stores stuff anyway."
https://nodpi.org/forum/index.php/topic,196...5.html#msg24065
"BTW - I have just been playing with my Flash setting and have discovered that there is a 'never' option as well as the 0Kb option. However, deleting domains from the list does not delete the directory that contains the LSO data for that domain: the .sol file is still there also.
A little more playing and checking the Macromedia settings again had re-enabled 100Kb storage and 3rd party content as default.
HOW DOES THE MACRIMEDIA SETTING WORK WHEN IT RE-INVENTS THE SETTINGS EACH TIME YOU VISIT "
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Thanks... you're right, but actually i'd like settings to be wiped out as well..
If anyone wants to completely block flash (and silverlight) Local Shared Objects, have a look at this.....
https://nodpi.org/forum/index.php/topic,1969.0.html
You just copy the code into notepad, and save it as a .bat file, then run it as per instructions for your operating system.
(it has to be run from an administrators account and further has to be run with right click 'run as administrator' for vista and 7 users).
Works a treat, if you have other limited users accounts on the same computer, temporarily make them admin, log in to their account and run it for them too, then change them back to limited users.
The batch file just creates a file where previously there were flash folders, giving the new files the same name as the original folders (without a dot extension), so the original folders cant be remade by anything wanting to save an LSO there... result = the LSO doesn't go anywhere.
Neat. And you never have to worry about cleaning them out again.
P.S - The author has lots of notes in the second post on that thread, the only downside I have seen as mentioned there some of those free flash games wont be able to make their saves, but makes you wonder why the games are free in the first place, if they are using flash cookie storage what else are they saving about you which wont clean out?.
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Hi there
Even after running CCleaner, I notice that when I open a new tab, my most visited sites still appear.
How do I get CCleaner to clear these as well? Makes me wonder what other Chrome history is'nt being cleared.
Anyone also have this issue?
Thanks
StephenK
Hope your ready for a heap of information.........Yeah, google chrome is advertising/tracking mad which isn't surprising thats googles main business.
But you can stop it all, the one thing you cant really restrict is cookies, anyway solutions are as follows.....
1. Cookies - Wrench/Options/Under the hood - Restrict how third party cookies can be used
Best option at the moment, allow all is obviously bad, and Block all would be an infuriating browsing
experience. ( But if you really like Chrome, Privacy blacklists are in development, which will include
cookies - http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=16932 )
2. Wrench/Options/Under the hood - de-select all those first five check boxes in the privacy section
(although you may want to leave the anti-phishing/malware on, there is potential for this to be used
for tracking purposes but the advantage of using it outweighs the concern I feel).
After 2. above, the Omnibar will function just like an address bar now, and your machine will be more responsive doing less look-ahead with DNS-pre-fetching - Chrome will be quicker (Controversially its supposed to help speed up browsing, but with multiple tabs in their own sandboxed processes combined with a slower machine and low hard drive space it becomes detrimental). And its used by google for URL tracking.
Now for your particular nagging concern you need to be in full incognito mode. The new tab defaults to opening your most visited page, after doing the following instead you will get a message saying 'You have gone incognito...' etc etc, thats because in full incognito there is no browsing history for chrome to build a most visited page from......
Right click the Chrome icon on your desktop/quicklaunch (wherever you launch it from), choose properties, and in the target field of the icon properties left click, then use your cursor keys to go right to the very end then press spacebar once then type -incognito
"C:\~path~to~chrome~\chrome.exe" -incognito
So it should end up like these.....
Vista users
"C:\Users\~User name~\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" -incognito
XP users
"C:\documents and settings\~user name~\local settings\application data\google\chrome\application\chrome.exe" -incognito
Three curiosities about this mode you should be aware of.
1. In full incognito you will not be asked to save passwords.
2. The little fav Icons graphics on your bookmarks will not update/save when you create a new bookmark.
3. The Most visited page is completely disfunctional (because no browsing history is being saved for the most visited to use),
Also you need to set a home page, in wrench icon, options, basics, homepage section select Always use this page and in the little box at the side of that type in a preferred home page ( https://ssl.scroogle.org/ for instance ( have a read here http://www.scroogle.org/ for why I use that one ) )
And - Enable the home page button - Wrench/Options/Basics Put a check in the box next to 'Show Home Button on the toolbar', you then get a home button next to the address/omnibar - Useful for when you open a new tab and you no longer have the most visited page.
Have a copy of the chrome icon somewhere else too (without the -incognito switch set), right click, send to desktop, rename it chrome normal. Just for the purpose of updating fav icons/passwords for instance. After using chrome in its normal mode to update passwords/fav icons and before you close it - Clear your browsing history ... Wrench/Options/(I think its on the middle tab now) Clear browsing data, select all check boxes except passwords, choose Everything from the drop down button near the bottom, then hit the Clear Browsing data button. Now when you load in incognito again nothing will be left behind from using chrome normally.
One more thing - Google chrome has a unique ID number when it installs - The following disables it....
http://www.fileheap.com/software-chrome-pr...load-51940.html
Install/use it/then go to control panel/add remove programs and un-install it (not needed after the jobs done)
After the above, sadly you will notice that CCleaner still finds Chrome history to clean out, not as much as before but still in full incognito you would expect nothing left eh?, not so ....
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chro...86f6f&hl=en
No official google chrome employees answering yet, but thats not unusual either when it comes to privacy issues, ask google about something which breaks advertising/tracking potential and they are all over the problem like a rash. Ever noticed how much attention any YouTube problems get with official responses? (see flash cookies below)
Finally -
Google chrome also has no stable extension mechanism yet, add-ons are coming but its all a bit cludgy at the moment and I dont see anywhere any guarantee that the currently available extensions do not break anything with regards to privileges in chrome...... so
If you want a firefox ad-block plus equivalent, heres the best method (and in fact with the following you dont need ad-block plus in firefox either, the hosts file does the same job........
To block sites for everything that tries to access the internet, including Chrome/Internet Explorer/Firefox/Any messengers.... you get the picture - With a hosts file (please dont run away, its easy and takes like ten seconds to update once you are comfortable with it). Another benefit is bad sites and adverts will be blocked also, and you can add your own entries quite easily (more on this at the end).
(this part not required for vista users - if thats you skip this paragraph) - First if you are using windows XP, you need to stop a service running .
Go to Start, then run, type "services.msc" (no quotes), Scroll down to "DNS Client", Right-click and select: Properties, Click the drop-down arrow for "Startup type", Select: Manual, or Disabled (recommended) click Apply/Ok and restart.
Download HostsXpert here..... http://tinyurl.com/ygfax5d
(Theres an Orange Icon next to download here), Your browser will ask to open it or save it, save the zip file somewhere on your hard drive. Then after it downloads right click the saved zip file and choose Extract. This will unzip the compressed files. You should now have a HostsXpert file and a help file wherever you extracted it, these can be moved to wherever you want or just doubleclick HostXpert where it is... it runs from anywhere.
Once HostsXpert is up and running, if the top left toggle button reads Make read only, that means your current hosts file can at the moment be written to, so leave it and you can download/update/edit it. If it reads Make Writeable instead, click it.
Now click the Download button, then click mvps.org, and choose replace (not merge).
A green progress bar at the bottom gets to the end, and when this activity finishes the update is done, thousands of site names have now been entered into your hosts file and nothing on your computer will go to any of those sites, even little adverts which are associated with bad sites on a web page will not appear on that page because their dns is blocked.
Now if you dont want to add your own sites just do 2. below, for adding your own files read 1. below then continue with 2....
1. Use windows Notepad (Start, Run, type Notepad), and start making your own hosts mini file by typing 127.0.0.1 followed by two spaces and then the address of the site you want to block like this..
127.0.0.1 www.badsite1.com
127.0.0.1 badsite2.org
127.0.0.1 badsite2.net
Then go to File menu, save as, and save this text file as myhosts.txt (for example)
Quit notepad
Go back to HostsXpert
Click File Handling button, click Import Options, click Merge Hosts file, and select your myhosts.txt file you just made, this will merge your sites to block with all the ones you downloaded.
2. Now click on the File Handling button, and now click Make read only to help protect the file, and quit HostsXpert
For more information on this subject read here...... http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
Ehm... Finally (again), if you want to block Local Shared Objects (Flash super cookies)
https://nodpi.org/forum/index.php/topic,1969.0.html
Aswell as the main .bat file, that thread has loads of useful advice throughout its 8 pages (including advice to stop clickonce functionality if you have any concern about that issue).
The above was probably a bit overkill but hope it helps.
Edit: Forgot to mention Iron, Germany is really privacy concious after the wall came down ...
http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_i...ome_vs_iron.php
Have a read of the features v chrome down the page, Iron does not update as much as chrome, but he uses the latest stable and converts the source minus privacy issues. And you still have sandboxed processes - http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/small_26.html
I am using it to type this. Apply the above tips ref' full incognito/home page etc = Just about my ideal browser, once the privacy blacklist is incorporated it will be.
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Cool seems like in-directly I made a contribution. Going to add it to the ini file too.
Understood, and apologies for linking the tool, in hindsight it does seem a bit rude.
Which would give him a settings.sol file which he doesn't want either. The settings.sol file is where you're suggested method saves those settings, and isn't always reliable... see these posts in the thread I linked to -
Hope your ready for a heap of information.........
Browser pop-up ad for CCleaner upon startup
in CCleaner
Posted
If you can remember, what did you install before this started happening ?
Whatever it was, dont trust the company who created its installer ever again. Browser hijacks are an old and unwelcome trick. Installers from less reputable companies do such things like browser hijacks, pups (probably unwanted programs) and adware. Sometimes they will have a custom button in the installer which will then let you see all the extra stuff the installer will do, and because most people just click next, everything gets installed because you allowed it to happen. Then there are some which just brazenly dont give a damn.
Didnt CCleaner get bought by another company recently?, and started pushing adverts through windows notifications or its own systray app (edit: See this topic ..
.. and also Moderator Hazelnuts response to Piriform Stephens BS answer).
Anyway whatever did it .. Your homepage has been changed, and somehow the browser is auto loading (there are a few ways that can be done)
Even if you uninstalled the culprit that made these changes, the changes would remain.