lmacri

According to the AskVG article [Tip] Customize and Control CCleaner Automatic Updates Settings, the Emergency Updater introduced in v5.36 can be disabled in v5.50 (released 29-Nov-2018) by disabling Options | Updates | Important Updates (highly recommended). Could someone please confirm this is correct, and that disabling this setting actually disables the Windows scheduled task CCleaner Update? ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security v22.15.1.8 * CCleaner Portable v5.47.6716

I'm thoroughly confused. The v5.48 release notes at https://www.ccleaner.com/news/release-announcements/2018/10/25/ccleaner-v5486834 state that "in the future we will add support for opting out of feature previews, so if you’re not interested in potentially being selected for this, you can remain on version 5.47 for the time being." The v5.50 release notes posted today at https://www.ccleaner.com/news/release-announcements/2018/11/29/ccleaner-v5506911 state in part: I read today's blog entry Introducing New and Improved CCleaner Update Settings! and still have no idea if Feature Previews would fall into the category of "Important Updates (highly recommended)" or "Product Updates (recommended)" - or perhaps neither. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security v22.15.1.8 * CCleaner Portable v5.47.6716

Hi Aelson: Just an FYI that I unzipped the portable build of CCleaner v5.49.6856 (rel. 12-Nov-2018) on a USB thumb drive and can't see any new setting in the GUI that would allow users to opt out of the Feature Previews added in v5.48. There's also no mention of an opt-out setting in the v5.49 release announcement at https://www.ccleaner.com/news/release-announcements. I'll guess be sticking with the old CCleaner v5.47.6716 until someone from Avast/Piriform can clarify what's going on with Feature Previews and the possibility of unexpected (forced) product updates for beta-testing. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security v22.15.1.8 * CCleaner Portable v5.47.6716

This could be related to the issue reported on 03-Oct-2018 in dstaggs' thread CCleaner Disk Analyzer - reported file sizes are large and wrong.

Hi Stephen Piriform: Today's change log for v5.47.6716 at https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/version-history does not mention the bug fix "Calling the Windows 'ping' function is now done explicitly from the /system32/ directory (fixes a potential vulnerability)" that is included in the original list of bug fixes for v5.47.6701 in Vishal Gupta's 18-Sep-2017 askvg.com article CCleaner 5.47 Now Available for Download. Was this vulnerability left unpatched to expedite the release of the new v5.47.6716? ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * NS v22.15.1.8 * CCleaner Portable v5.47.6716

I'm not exactly sure what's going on but it appears that CCleaner v5.47.6701 was released to the public yesterday (18-Sep-2018) at https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/download and then quickly pulled because of a bug where Options | Privacy | Help Improve CCleaner by Sending Anonymous Usage Data would automatically re-enable itself at the next launch after being disabled by the user. See patrickdrd's 18-Sep-2018 post in the thread CC 5.44.6575: /Auto and Trash Bin Context "Run" No Longer Works and Stephen Piriform's response <here> about v5.46 being re-posted to the update servers. Can any of the beta testers reproduce this bug with beta version CCleaner Beta v5.47.6700, or was this "bug" introduced in v5.47.6701? ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * NS v22.15.1.8 * CCleaner Portable v5.46.6652

Hi cliftonprince: If you disable Options | Settings | Inform Me of Updates to CCleaner, Options | Privacy | Help Improve CCleaner by Sending Anonymous Usage Data and Options | Monitoring | Enable Active Monitoring in v5.46 , my understanding is that v5.46 will still be collecting limited data and phoning home - see the table in the new Data Factsheet at https://www.ccleaner.com/about/data-factsheet. The previous v5.45 was even more intrusive than v5.46 because the CCleaner executable would continue to run after the program interface was closed in v5.45 even if you disabled Active Monitoring and you would have to manually kill the ccleaner.exe (or ccleaner64.exe) process in your Windows Task Manager to stop the collection of "heartbeat" data - see Avast employee Paul Piriform's 27-Jul-2018 post in the thread Piriform Personal Security Concern with CCleaner Latest v. 5.45.6611. I would also suggest using the portable build of CCleaner that does not require installation on your hard drive. Just download the zipped file (e.g., ccsetup546.zip) from the builds page at https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds and save it to a folder on a removable USB thumb drive (e.g., F:\CCleaner). Then unzip that file on your USB thumb drive and double-click the correct executable (ccleaner.exe for 32-bit OSs; ccleaner64.exe for 64-bit OSs) to run the program. I've tested with CCleaner Portable v5.46 and I can't see any trace of the Emergency Updater (i.e., no bundled ccupdate.exe and no scheduled tasks associated with CCleaner created in my Windows Task Scheduler) - at least on my 32-bit OS. As a precaution I've blocked all traffic for the CCleaner executable through my firewall, but as you noted in a previous post, that only prevents me from running a check for available program updates on the Avast/Piriform servers. The v5.32 you're currently using might eventually cause problems because this version has out-of-date digital signatures (e.g., it might be flagged as a possible threat by your antivirus). If you want to minimize the amount of collected data being sent back Avast/Piriform I wouldn't advise rolling back any further than v5.35.6210 released on 20-Sep-2017 since the v5.35 executables are signed with newer digital signatures (i.e., it was released after the bundled Floxif malware of v5.33 and old digital signatures of v5.34 but prior to the Emergency Updater of v5.36). Just keep in mind these earlier versions of CCleaner were optimized for older versions/builds of your Windows OS and browser and might not work correctly if you use v5.35 to clean the current software installed on your system. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.15.0.18 * CCleaner Portable 5.35.6210

Hi arensky: See APMichael's screenshot in kiddac's thread Avast Hidden Install as well as Martin Brinkmann's Nov 2017 article Avast Bundles CCleaner with Avast Free Antivirus on ghacks.net. If you are using the standard installer (i.e., rather than the slim installer or portable build at https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds) to perform a new CCleaner installation you must ensure the checkbox to install the bundled Avast Free Antivirus is disabled in the installation wizard. It might be advisable to run the Avast uninstall utility (available at https://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility) to ensure any orphaned registry entries and files left behind after the Avast Free Antivirus uninstall are wiped off your friend's computer so these remnants don't interfere with their preferred AV. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.15.0.88 * CCleaner Portable v5.35.6210

I have no idea if any Piriform/Avast employees are monitoring this thread, but I felt I should post another update now that v5.45 has been pulled from the download servers and v5.44 (i.e., the version that wipes my restore points) is now the "recommended" version. I haven't had any further volsnap errors logged in my Event Viewer since I stopped using CCleaner Portable v5.44 on 10-Jul-2018. The vssadmin list shadowstorage command shows I've continued to accumulate restore points since then and I maxed out my allotted 33 GB of reserved disk space on my C:\ drive some time around 12-Aug-2018... ..and my current CCleaner Portable v5.35 shows I currently have 15 restore points dating back to 26-Jul-2018. As expected, my oldest restore point is deleted before a new restore point can be created now that I've maxed out my allotted disk space for saving restore points. Just an FYI that I decided to roll back all the way to CCleaner Portable v5.35.6210 (rel. 20-Sep-2017) using a ccsetup535.zip file I found on my external backup drive. This version was released after the bundled Floxif malware of v5.33 and has newer digital signatures than v5.34 but does not include unwanted features like the Emergency Updater of v5.36, intrusive pop-up advertisements of v5.44 or the Active Monitoring that runs continuously in the background (even when disabled) of v5.45. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.15.0.88 * Malwarebytes v3.5.1-1.0.365 * CCleaner Portable v5.35.6210 HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Hi BigMart: Go to Control Panel | System and Maintenance | System and confirm you have the latest Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Vista installed as shown below. If you have Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed and IE9 continues to crash when you try to launch this browser, there is another way to check if you are affected by this common Windows Update problem. Run a manual Windows Update (Control Panel | System and Maintenance | Windows Update | Check for Updates). If your Windows Update hangs at "Checking for updates..." for more than 10 or 20 min and fails to run to completion then you're likely affected and will continue to have problems performing any CPU-intensive task until you fix Windows Update. From the VistaForums FAQ at How to Fix Vista SP2 "Checking for Updates..." Hangs and Slow Windows Updates: If IE9 is crashing on launch then I suspect that being unable to install CCleaner is just a symptom of a bigger problem. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.15.0.88 * CCleaner Portable v5.35.6210 HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

+1. Well stated.

Hi BigMart: Just a word of caution that I stopped using the CCleaner Portable v5.44 currently posted at https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds because that version appears to wipe all system restore points off my 32-bit Vista SP2 machine. See my posts in sethm1's thread System Restore Points are Missing in the CCleaner Bug Reporting board for further details. I can't be 100% certain that CCleaner Portable v5.44 is responsible but none of the Avast / Piriform employees have bothered to reply in sethm1's thread or provide an alternate explanation for the test results I've posted. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.15.0.88 * Malwarebytes Free 3.5.1-1.0.365 * CCleaner Portable v5.35.6210 HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Hi BigMart: I have a 32-bit Vista SP2 OS and my default web browser is Firefox ESR v52.9.0 (the only fully supported major browser for Win XP and Vista). If you have a slow internet connection you might find that downloads from FileHippo.com eventually time out because the sponsored video takes too much time to load on the download page. Pause the video as soon as it starts playing and the pop-up to save the CCleaner installer might appear. Please note that Microsoft ended extended support for for Vista SP2 and IE9 back in April 2017. Open your IE9 browser, go to Help | About Internet Explorer and let us know if you have Update Versions 9.0.60 / KB4014661 (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9: April 11, 2017) as shown below. There is a known issue with Windows Update on Vista SP2 computers where the Windows Update Agent can saturate an entire CPU core for hours or even days (see the pinned FAQ How to Fix Vista SP2 "Checking for Updates..." Hangs and Slow Windows Updates in the VistaForums) and can seriously degrade the performance of Vista SP2 computers. The KB number in the Update Version of your IE9 browser should give us a good indication of the last time that Windows Update ran to completion on your computer. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.15.0.88 * Malwarebytes Free 3.5.1-1.0.365 * CCleaner Portable v5.35.6210 HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Hi mta: I downloaded the "standard" ccsetup535.exe installer for CCleaner v5.35.6210 (rel. 20-Sep-2017) from FileHippo at https://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/78119/. If I go to File | Open Archive with my 32-bit WinRAR v5.60 and choose All archives including self-extracting as the file type I get the following "The archive is either in unknown format or damaged" error when I try to extract ccsetup535.exe, and I can't see any simple simple way (e.g., using right-click menus or wizards) to unpack the .exe executable with WinRAR. I thought I found a possible workaround (i.e., go to Options | Settings | Security | Prohibited File Types, enable the File types to exclude from extracting check box and delete *.exe from the list of prohibited file types) but that didn't help. I don't know if unpacking ccsetup535.exe is a straightforward process with 32-bit 7-Zip v18.05 but at this point I think I'd rather ditch CCleaner altogether and move on to another disk cleaning utility if this means I have to install another file archiver like 7-Zip to roll back CCleaner Portable to an earlier version. I was hoping Avast/Piriform would have a FTP site where users could download .zip files for older CCleaner Portable versions but that doesn't seem to be the case. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.2.13 * Wise Disk Cleaner Portable v9.7.6

Does anyone know of a reputable download site that has older versions of CCleaner Portable (ccsetup5xx.zip)? I'd like to revert back to v5.34 or v5.35, i.e., after the bundled Floxif malware of v5.33 but prior to the Emergency Updater of v5.36, intrusive pop-up advertisements of v5.44 or the latest Active Monitoring fiasco of v5.45. I can't downgrade to the CCleaner Portable v5.44 posted at https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds as suggested in this thread because that version wipes every system restore point off my 32-bit OS. See my posts in sethm1's thread System Restore Points are Missing in the CCleaner Bug Reporting board for further details. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.2.13 * Wise Disk Cleaner Portable v9.7.6

Can anyone answer my question about whether it is necessary to create a new ccleaner.ini file and re-customize configuration settings every time CCleaner Portable is updated? Stephen Piriform posted today in Changes in v5.45 and Your Feedback that CCleaner v5.45 has been pulled and the old v5.44 installers have been re-posted to the download page at https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds. It's good to see that Avast has agreed to address the obvious problems with Active Monitoring in v5.45, but I don't want to revert back to v5.44 when I've provided evidence in this thread that the 32-bit CCleaner Portable v5.44 was silently wiping my system restore points. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.2.13 * Malwarebytes v3.5.1-1.0.365 * CCleaner Portable 5.45.6611 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.2.1.470

Hi nukecad: Extended support for my Vista SP2 OS ended on 11-Apr-2017. That's not a good thing from a security standpoint but it makes troubleshooting third-party applications much easier for me since I haven't had any updates for Vista SP2 / IE9 delivered via Windows Update since April 2017. As previously noted, all my testing over the past month has pointed to CCleaner Portable v5.44 as the cause of my volsnap errors and disappearing system restore points on my 32-bit machine - just too bad no one from Avast / Piriform has shown any interest in helping us diagnose the problem. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.2.13 * Malwarebytes v3.5.1-1.0.365 * CCleaner Portable 5.45.6611 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.1.2.407

Hi sethm1: Just to clarify, there are lots of new bugs in CCleaner v5.45, especially with the Active Monitoring feature in the 64-bit ccleaner64.exe version (see Ron2017's thread Piriform Personal Security Concern with CCleaner Latest v. 5.45.6611 for a good discussion), so I'm not actually endorsing that you use CCleaner Portable v5.45. I only wanted to report back and let you know that my 32-bit CCleaner Portable v5.45 doesn't seem to be wiping my system restore points like the previous version. I'm not a big fan of Privacy Eraser either - especially the fact that users can only see a summary of the number of items that will be cleaned and total disk space recovered but can't view a detailed list of each file and/or registry items that will be deleted during the disk clean. I was just using Privacy Eraser to monitor my system restore points while testing CCleaner because I wanted to make sure that my system restore points would continue to accumulate after I stopped using the previous CCleaner Portable v5.44 on 10-Jul-2018. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.2.13 * Malwarebytes v3.5.1-1.0.365 * CCleaner Portable 5.45.6611 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.1.2.407

Hi jagga: Just a caveat to my previous post. I just read arensky's 28-Jul-2018 post in Cleaner Free 5.45.6611 64 Bit : Active Monitoring Issue and they noted that the problem with the Enabled Active Monitoring setting re-enabling itself after the program is closed only occurs on their machine with the 64-bit CCleaner (ccleaner64.exe) but not with 32-bit CCleaner (ccleaner.exe). Since I tested with the 32-bit version of CCleaner Portable v5.45 I can't guarantee that a 64-bit version of CCleaner Portable v5.45 would behave the same way and leave Enable Active Monitoring (and hence the new "heartbeat" submissions) disabled like my 32-bit version. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.2.13 * CCleaner Portable 5.45.6611

Good news. I've been testing 32-bit CCleaner Portable v5.45 since 26-Jul-2018 and so far this latest version hasn't wiped any system restore points (RPs). I have a few more tests to run so I'll post back later if my RPs start disappearing again. I haven't had any further volsnap errors in my Event Viewer since 10-Jul-2018 (i.e., since I stopped using v5.44) , none of the RPs created on my machine between 11-Jul-2018 and 28-Jul-2018 have been deleted and today's vssadmin list shadowstorage command shows that I've only used ~ 18 GB of the 33 GB max space allotted for RPs. One thing I did differently this time is that when I unzipped ccsetup545.zip on my USB drive I did not copy over the ccleaner.ini file I was using with v5.44. Instead, I ran CCleaner Portable v5.45 to generate a brand new ccleaner.ini file and then re-configured all my personalized settings from scratch. Is it necessary (or at least a best practice standard) to create a new ccleaner.ini file every time CCleaner Portable is updated? It's difficult for me know if there was a bug in v5.44 that was deleting my RPs and/or the registry keys that were pointing to my RPs when no one from Avast/Piriform has shown any interest in viewing a debug log. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.2.13 * Malwarebytes v3.5.1-1.0.365 * CCleaner Portable 5.45.6611 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.1.2.407

If the Show CCleaner in the Windows Notification Area setting is disabled in CCleaner Portable v5.45 there is no CCleaner icon displayed in the system tray and no CCleaner application button displayed on the main taskbar when the CCleaner GUI is minimized. As a result, the user is unable to re-open the interface or exit CCleaner. I have a 32-bit OS and cannot confirm if this bug also exists in the 64-bit version of CCleaner Portable v5.45. To reproduce the problem: Start CCleaner Portable v5.45 (I am using the 32-bit version) Disable Options | Settings | Show CCleaner in the Windows Notification Area (enabled by default) Click the Minimize ("-") button in the top right corner of the CCleaner interface Result: There is no icon in the system tray or application button on the taskbar and the user is unable to restore the CCleaner GUI and/or exit CCleaner. Process Explorer shows that the ccleaner.exe process is still loaded into memory after the GUI vanishes. Possible Solution: When the Show CCleaner in the Windows Notification Area setting is disabled in CCleaner Portable, ensure that the CCleaner application button remains displayed on the taskbar (see image below) after the GUI is minimized so that the user still has the ability to Restore / Maximize / Close the application and terminate the CCleaner executable. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.2.13 * CCleaner Portable 5.45.6611

Hi jagga: I normally run the portable version of CCleaner Free on my 32-bit Vista SP2 machine from a USB thumb drive. I've been testing CCleaner Portable v5.45.6611 for a few days and don't see any obvious evidence that the portable version continues to monitor my system after the program is closed. I can't see anything associated with CCleaner in my startup items or Windows Task Scheduler, and I've confirmed that the settings at Options | Monitoring | Enabled Active Monitoring and Options | Settings | Inform me of updates to CCleaner are both disabled by default and remain disabled after CCleaner is closed and restarted and/or my system is re-booted. According to employee Paul Piriform's comment <above> the new "heartbeat" data will not be collected as long as Options | Monitoring | Enabled Active Monitoring remains disabled, and if that's correct then that would suggest that heartbeat data is not being collected on my system with my current settings. One thing I noticed is that the CCleaner icon shown in the image below appears in my system tray when the CCleaner interface is minimized. If I disable the setting at Options | Settings | Show CCleaner in the Windows notification area (which is enabled by default) that icon does not appear in the system tray when CCleaner is minimized, but unfortunately if you do disable that setting then you have no way of opening the CCleaner interface again and the executable stays loaded in memory as a running process without any way to stop it (unless you kill the process in Task Manager or re-boot your system). I'll have to play around with this setting a bit more but that might be a bug in CCleaner Portable v5.45 that needs to be fixed. Instead of disconnecting from the internet every time you run CCleaner, it might be easier to create a program rule that will block all incoming and outgoing traffic for the CCleaner executable through your firewall so that CCleaner can't send data back to the Avast/Piriform servers. Unfortunately that would also mean that checks for CCleaner updates probably wouldn't work so you would likely have to download new versions and install them manually. I use the two-way Norton Smart Firewall that comes bundled with my Norton Security antivirus and preventing 32-bit ccleaner.exe traffic through my firewall would be relatively simple: ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.2.13 * CCleaner Portable 5.45.6611

Further to my post <here> of 11-Jul-2018 I have additional evidence that CCleaner v5.44 is wiping my system restore points (RPs) on my C:\ drive (but not my D:\ drive). I haven't run CCleaner Portable v5.44 since 10-Jul-2018 and the last volsnap error logged in my Event Viewer occurred 10-Jul-2018 @ 5:49 PM. The Privacy Eraser Portable v4.38 image below shows that the five RPs created for my C:\ drive since that date have not been deleted and the attached .txt file of the output from a vssadmin list shadows command shows that I also have 11 restore points dating back to 02-Jul-2018 for my D:\ drive (i.e., pre-dating the last time the RPs for my C:\ drive were wiped), so it appears that CCleaner Portable is only deleting the RPs for my C:\ drive and leaving the RPs for my D:\ drive (my HP_RECOVERY drive for emergency factory resets) untouched. lmacri RPs C and D Drive Since 11 Jul 2018.txt The vssadmin list shadowstorage command shows ~ 10 GB of my allotted 33 GB of disk space is currently being used for RPs on my C:\ drive. I'm beginning to wonder now if this issue only occurs with 32-bit operating systems or just the portable version of CCleaner. When I update (unzip) a new version of CCleaner Portable on my USB thumb drive I normally copy the ccleaner.ini file from the previous version to the location of the new 32-bit ccleaner.exe executable. Are CCleaner Portable users now required to create a new ccleaner.ini file and re-create all their custom settings every time the product is updated to avoid corruption of the ccleaner.ini file? ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.2.13 * Malwarebytes v3.5.1-1.0.365 * CCleaner Portable 5.44.6575 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.1.2.407

Hi nukecad: It's unlikely that disk defragmenters are part of my problem. My automatic Windows disk defrags are disabled and I haven't run a manual disk defrag for several months. Like registry cleaners, I believe that disk defrags do very little to improve system performance and can do more harm than good if they're run indiscriminately. I'm aware of the known issue with third-party disk defragmenters and system restore points. See my 2014/2015 thread Full Defrag Wipes All Restore Points about Piriform's own Defraggler wiping my system restore points. At that time Piriform Support couldn't replicate the problem on their test system so I stopped using Defraggler for full disk defrags on my Vista SP2 machine and I now use Vista's built-in Windows Disk Defragmenter (WDD) if I need to defrag. As an extra precaution, I always run a thorough Check Disk (chkdsk /r) first before running a WDD defrag just to make sure I don't have any bad sectors on my hard drive. The fact that I've run into a similar problem with volsnap erros and disappearing restore points in the past with another Piriform product makes me even more suspicious that CCleaner is the culprit this time. What ever other theories you come up with for my disappearing restore points would have to take into account that: My latest volsnap errors (and disappearing restore points) only started after a recent CCleaner update. I didn't have a volsnap error the entire week I stopped using CCleaner. My volsnap errors returned immediately after I resumed using CCleaner. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.2.13 * Malwarebytes v3.5.1-1.0.365 * CCleaner Portable 5.44.6575 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.1.2.407

Further to my post <here> of 08-Jul-2018, I have more evidence that this problem could be associated with CCleaner v5.44. I ran CCleaner v5.44 the mornings of 08-Jul-2018 and 09-Jul-2018. I had ~98 GB of used disk space the morning of 10-Jul-2018 but when I checked again in the evening my used disk space had dropped by about 10 GB to 88 GB, there was another volsnap error in my Event Viewer, and the vssadmin list shadowstorage command showed 0 GB of my allotted 33 GB of disk space for restore points (RPs) was being used (i.e., all my RPs had been wiped). I checked with CCleaner and confirmed that the 7 or 8 RPs that had been created the previous week (i.e., the week I stopped using CCleaner and ran Malwarebytes Threat Scans) had all disappeared, including the latest RP created. I don't know if it's relevant, but after cleaning my disk with CCleaner on 09-Jul-2018 I used the registry cleaner to remove one orphaned registry entry left over after an uninstall of WinRAR v5.50. As a general rule I don't use any registry cleaners and only used CCleaner's to remove the last bits of WinRAR v5.50 to ensure I had a clean re-install of the new WinRAR v5.60. ----------- 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.2.13 * Malwarebytes v3.5.1-1.0.365 * CCleaner Portable 5.44.6575 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.1.2.407