Andavari

Does the System Restore tool in Windows quickly show what Restore Points you have available? One thing that was discovered a while back is corrupted Restore Points can give CCleaner issues, see here: https://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=44795

How many overwrites are you trying to perform? The general consensus is nowadays with modern hard disks (even from many years ago) that more than a 1-pass overwrite isn't necessary.

Today I switched back to Avira Free Antivirus v15.0.9.504 found on OldApps.com here, it's the last version that works for Windows XP, and although it will update the program files it remains compatible. Now I'm not having to put up with all the bugs I was encountering with Panda Free Antivirus, good riddance to it.

Even though the old versions on FileHippo aren't portable you can unpack them with 7-Zip or 7-Zip Portable which negates having to install them. Old versions of CCleaner are also available at: http://www.oldapps.com/ccleaner.php http://www.oldversion.com/windows/ccleaner/

I don't really care, however it's usually frowned upon. Kind of a forum etiquette thing.

I don't understand why a government would even use Windows (especially Win10 with it's built-in keylogging). One would think they'd use Linux to eliminate allot of malware issues, etc., then they could periodically scan with something like ClamAV just to be safe.

It doesn't keep a history of what, when, or how much it has cleaned. Although it's been asked for before.

What exactly are you using in CCleaner, the Advanced section, the registry cleaner, etc?

You've got two of these going, one on this forum, and one here: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/646571/what-download-sites-do-you-prefer/

On Windows XP the update replaces the following files with new versions: C:\WINDOWS\system32\xpsp4res.dll C:\WINDOWS\system32\DllCache\srv.sys C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\srv.sys

Since CCleaner is closed-source software it's very highly unlikely they will reveal the info. With that in mind there's a YouTube video by Barnacules explaining how to do this on your own using the built in Powershell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnAzCnbDNr8

Can you elaborate a little more with perhaps a screenshot?

Zemana does work differently being it's cloud-based, however it also installs a local signature. Probably why in several YouTube reviews of Zemana vs Malwarebytes and other products that it does so well.

Well I won't be installing Malwarebytes 3 anytime soon, let them bugfix it for a few more months then perhaps I'll install it.

Should work especially good for Win10 S users to un-cripple their OSes without having to pay Microsoft a sort of "ransom" to unlock them in order to get a full working OS.

It was last updated December 2016. There aren't really any definitions, as in it doesn't, won't, can't download any and the only update is when there's a new version released. By rare updates I'm referring to don't expect to see a new version for several months, maybe even a year or longer - that is as long as they actively support and develop it, however it's the only one from a big time antivirus vendor that still gets any sort of attention to my knowledge. The others that are several years old I wouldn't even bother with, not even on this old WinXP Pro computer I'm using. The link I provided states it works up to Win7. I haven't tried it on Win10 such as on my mothers laptop and I won't since I installed Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (the old v2 without issues) on that laptop. Edit: I think it's still safe to recommend Malwarebytes, as long as people change the scan settings to scan for rootkits. I find it rather strange that the default settings don't have rootkit scanning enabled by default, since on Win10 systems it takes mere seconds to scan for them whereas on older OSes like XP it takes a bit longer to scan for them.

Two standalones that I've used in years past don't even run quite right anymore (they did at one time though) on the OSes they're supposed support, those being Panda Anti-Rootkit, and Sophos Anti-Rootkit - and one of them modifies a system .INI file, don't remember which one though. After both of those starting not working correctly years ago I switched to Trend Micro RootkitBuster which works without issue.

We've been told by the admin that you can get direct support for this issue from Piriform by emailing them at: support@piriform.com

We've been told by the admin that you can get direct support for this issue from Piriform by emailing them at: support@piriform.com

I've split this into its own unique topic since it was originally in the suggestions post about adding new Chromium-based browsers.

I've seen Win10 systems act weird after cleaning everything listed as invalid in the registry section of CCleaner - although you really shouldn't be doing that especially without a good backup in place, and I'm not referring to the .REG backup that CCleaner will create I'm referring to a full registry backup such as with System Restore. When the weirdness happens it usually takes several reboots for it to sometimes self-correct some things, and in other instances it requires an automatic update be applied to correct others before it starts acting more-or-less normal again. Being that Win10 is still relatively new cleaning it's registry in my opinion is something to completely avoid - unless of course it's some specific Microsoft Fixit that is downloaded from Microsoft or from the PC manufacturer to fix a known particular issue.

I was referring to the cloud-based storage, as in it's uploaded onto a server which Recuva would have zero access to.

It won't.

I don't necessarily think they'll disappear, sure there may be more buyouts like when Avast bought AVG, and perhaps they'll reduce their prices - they'd surely be more desirable if they were $19.95 to $24.95 per year versus what they are now. While if I had a compatible system that could run MSE/Windows Defender I'd use it - if it were optimized. You may find the MSE/Windows Defender reviews on the TPSC YouTube page interesting, as in it failing.

Could just be crappy new drivers or drivers your system doesn't like, try an older version of drivers and see if they give you any issues. Could also be the GPU (graphics card) is starting to die. At 2 years old that's the longest any of them have ever lasted in my system before needing replacement - and I don't play any PC games. If you have another GPU that's not being used anymore which is compatible with your system you could use it to test with to figure out if that MSI GPU you have is starting to fail.