nukecad

I believe that what you describe as 'hangs' is simply CCleaner taking a long time to wipe your free space. The settings that you have made will mean that it will take a very long time to wipe your free space, especially as you are doing it for all 3 of your drives. You have 'Wipe Free Space' selected in Custom Clean and the other settings apply it for all 3 of your drives. 'Wipe Free Space' is not meant for use on a regular basis and should hardly ever need to be used. You should have it unticked for normal cleaning. It is a tool to use when you are selling or passing on your computer or hard drive. It removes the remnants of deleted files so that they cannot be later recovered with a recovery tool. It will not 'clean up' your computer for normal use, or make it run any faster. Wipe Free Space is also not needed on an SSD and using it regularly, as you seem to be, can shorten the life of an SSD. So untick your drive if/when you do use Wipe Free Space. You then have 'Secure File Deletion' set for 7 passes, Wipe Alternate Data streams, & Wipe Cluster Tips. You do not need to use secure file deletion on an SSD. (And it can also shorten the life of an SSD if you do use it). With a modern HDD one pass is sufficent for secure file deletion, more passes are not needed on modern computers. With your disc setup I would suggest that you don't use secure file deletion, if you do then one pass only. Finally - I believe that by "your program loads the operating system very strongly" you are meaning that CCleaner is using a lot of the CPU? This is a known issue in certain circumstances, the cause and fix is now known, and it will be fixed in the next CCleaner update. In the meantime be sure to close CCleaner after using it, - it is only if you leave CCleaner open (or minimised to the taskbar) after use that the high CPU usage build up. It will be happening to you because you will have CCleaner open for a long time while attempting to wipe the free space on all 3 drives.

Yes, I did say tounge-in-cheek.

Partly tounge-in-cheek, but: Remember that it is the browser that changed things, not CCleaner which now has to catch up with what the browser programmers changed (as will all other 3rd party cleaners). So shouldn't you really be shouting at mozilla for changing things in the first place?

Requests to support are handled on a 'first come first served' basis, so new requests get queued and dealt with in order. Which may mean waiting awile for a response if they are busy. We are told that sending multiple emails/support forms can actually slow down the response. TBH though I don't see why they can't send an acknowledgement that your request has been received and will be actioned, I'll suggest it to the staff.

@Bethy54 Hi again, Things have been happening, and after some testing the cause of the rising CPU usage and computer slowdown issue has been pinned down, how to fix it is known, and it will be fixed in the next CCleaner update. (Apparently it was a problem with "leaking device context handles"). Hopefully that update will be soon, but I have no influence over when updates are released. Your posts, and having your machine checked over at Malwarebytes, has helped pin down just what the cause was. Thanks for doing that. From the testing that I did myself it does only happen when CCleaner is either left open on the dektop, or open and minimised. (Because of the nature of 'device context handles' Task Manager doesn't show it using up the CPU when it is minimised). Closing CCleaner stops it happening and frees up the CPU again. If CCleaner is not open (or not open and minimised) then it can't happen. (Because if CCleaner is closed it can't be using device context handles). What you did with AdvancedSetup over at Malwarebytes was simply to make sure that your machine did not have any malware/virus/other nasties, which is always a good thing to know and never a waste of time. So thanks again for doing that, it helped.

For those who don't have a ccleaner.ini, or don't want to edit it manually, you can apply the exclusion/workaround like this: After using Firefox close it again. Open ccleaner and go to Custom Clean. Click on Analyze Double click on 'Firefox - Internet Cache' (You may need to expand the window to see the full pathnames, but they may be the only two files there). Right click on '...\storage-sync-v2.sqlite-wal' Click on 'Add to Exclude list' Right click on '...\storage-sync-v2.sqlite-shm' Click on 'Add to Exclude list' Job done. Note also that Exclusions only apply to Custom Clean, Health Check ignores Exclusions. PS. If you don't have your Firefox synced with a Firefox account then you don't need this workaround.

Speed of defragmenting depends on quite a few things, including the total size of the drive, the free space available for the defragmenter to work with, and just what type of 'Defragment' you are doing. As said above there are different types of 'Drefragment' see the link below for more information. The larger drives available for home use these days means that of course they are going to take longer to do a full disc defrag (consolidation), the solution is to do a file defrag instead. With larger drives you are unlikely to be running out of free space, so what you want from a defrag is different to consolidating files to free up space. See this for more information on the different types of 'Defragment' that Defraggler can do, and how to specify each or a combination: https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/58213-program-increases-fragmentation/?tab=comments#comment-319520

ESET is currently doing that. You should note that the detection says 'Potentially unsafe application' which does not mean that what it is flagging is unsafe. AV's use that wording when there is something in the file that you may not want, although normally they say 'Potentially unwanted application'. (ESET likes to be dramatic). At the moment a few AV's have taken issue with the fact that the Standard CCleaner installer contains a 'bundled' offer for other software. Many free-to-use programmes (and some paid ones) include offers like that, it doesn't make them unsafe - If you don't want the offered software then simply don't accept the offer. Some AV's have also suddenly decided to take exception to CCleaner itself because it contains a Registry Cleaner - which can cause damage if used unnecessarily or incorrectly. (Some AV's are getting a bit "Granny knows best" overprotective). You can either tell ESET to ignore the warning, or try using the 'Slim' installer (which is the same but doesn't contain offers) from here: https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/builds PS. The CCleaner installers work on both 32-bit and 64-bit, one installer does both - another indication that ESET may be being overzealous?

If it's not been automatically updated then it does look like you will need to contact support to chase this up; we don't have access to individual licences on the forum The standard contact form is found here: https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/requests/new Or you can email them: support@ccleaner.com

Accepted, Have you had time to look at the testing/debugging issues that I raised yesterday?

I resent that somewhat. I didn't 'find a way to break it' - it was broken at the server end. I can't replicate it because I haven't tried to, - no point trying because it was broken at the server end.

I hope that's going to be something useful like which AV/version/definition is being used? Which Windows 10 version (and maybe build) would also be an improvement over just 'Windows 10 64-bit'.

Yes it's all a bit odd. PS. I've just been fixing up a laptop for a friend and after reinstalling Windows set the user account name to 'User' so they could change it to what they want later. So for now that one does have "C:\Users\User\....." as a valid pathname.

Just for info- You can achieve that with Snipping Tool, (at least with Win 8 or 10 - not sure about Win 7), I do it all the time. That's what the 'Delay' button in Snipping Tool is for. Simply set a delay for the snip (3 seconds is usually enough), click 'New', and drop down the context menu during the delay. Then after 3 secs the tool will freeze the screen with the menu dropped while you take the clip, eg:

Good spot on the filename @lmacri. That also seems an odd location to be downloading .exe files to. (But I guess some browsers may put '.part' files there?) Just what 'WQchxgI+.exe' is I don't know, and can't find anything on google. So why ESET thinks that file is CCleaner is also an odd one? An in-progress CCleaner installer download would be called 'ccsetup569.exe.part'. File Explorer shows it like this while it is downloading to your Downloads folder (this is a download from Firefox): Once the download is completed the '.part' file disappears and 'ccsetup.exe' will show the full filesize. (26,320 KB for ccsetup569.exe). PS. I'd still be careful at the moment with ESET and CCleaner or other already installed Piriform apps, as seen from my link above ESET may remove them unless you have made them exceptions.

I wasn't suggesting a scan in Defender - I was meaning a clean of Defender using CCleaner.

I'd tell ESET to 'Ignore' it for now, and be careful with ESET settings: Untick 'Copy to Quarantine' and tick both 'Exclude from detections'. Another user reports that ESET removed all his Piriform apps: https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/59009-eset-cleared-ccleaner-out-of-my-pc/?tab=comments#comment-322477

This was originally posted in a thread about Windows Defender - I've split it, and the relevant replies out into it's own ESET thread.

I'm not sure if running Custom Clean with Windows Defender selected would remove them? (OR - Applications tab, right click on Windows Defender and select clean). I do know that if you do clean that then Defender thinks that it has never scanned your machine. Mine resets back to last scan in Sept 2018 if I do that.

There has been something going on this week with Microsoft flagging the installers for CCleaner and the other Piriform apps as PUA's (Potentially Unwanted Applications). It was only the installers, not the apps themselves, and MS Defender didn't go as far as removing anything. It's ostensibly to do with the offers in the 'Standard' installers and nothing to do with the apps themselves once installed. It's supposed to have been sorted out with MS, at least partially, and the 'Standard' CCleaner installer has been slightly altered as well. Yours is the first report I've seen of any AV actually removing the apps themselves, I've left an alert about it for the staff. I'm guessing it's a knee jerk overreaction on the part of ESET. Try downloading and installing CCleaner using the 'Slim' installer from here (not the Standard installer): https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/builds However ESET may block it or simply remove it again, at least until ESET have a rethink and put their definitions back as there were. Please let us know how it goes.

Many things Microsoft/Windows use Internet Explorer's temporary file locations, it's just a convienent place to put temporary files without having to make separate places to put them. Apps that aren't even from Microsoft will use those locations for temporary files and for the same reason. For instance MS Edge (old edge) will do it, Skype will, so will any live tiles that you have on your menu (Weather, news, etc), and so on. If you are not actually using IE then that is why there are no cookies or sessions there, the files that are there are coming from other things than IE that are just using the location as a convinent place to put temporary files. They are all temporary files that can be deleted, but because of where they have been put CCleaner just calls them all 'Temporary Internet Files'.

Yep, the forum went down but only for a minute or so .

Microsoft seem to be having one their 'we don't like registry cleaners' months again, it's not the first time Defender has flagged or blocked CCleaner installers for a couple of days. MS are supposed to have now sorted out the current flag/block. Some say that they are still seeing it, if you are then try updating your Defender definitions. (There is some suspicion that it's more a case of 'We don't like competition to Edge Chromium from CCleaner Browser, and just which of the various CCleaner installers they are currently flagging/ blocking and which they weren't tends to support that suspicion).

@Jaime CCleaner I already did in the private staff forum. https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/45800-customer-support-requests-from-the-forum/page/47/?tab=comments#comment-322252

We now know there is a slowdown issue with the new version - if, and it seems only if, the CCleaner window is left open or minimised. Close the CCleaner window (after cleaning) and there is no issue. It's not unusual to ask someone to get their machine checked over if they are seeing/reporting strange behaviour that is affecting all of Windows. Strange behaviour affecting a whole machine is often/usually a sign of malware, so it needs to be ruled out first. I did the same with another user having this same slowdown issue and they did, once we had definitely ruled out any malware then we knew it wasn't that and could concentrate on tracking down the problem. However Dave was talking about the filepuma redirect that you got. A redirect like that may be a one off hijack and never happen again, (Tech support scammers often use those), or may be something in your browser. It isn't (normally) a file on your computer at all and an antivirus wouldn't find anything because where it is looking there is nothing to find. It could be something hiding in your browser or in a browser extension. If any similar redirect happens again then I'd try a scan with ADWCleaner. If you are using Chrome (any Chromium based browser) or Firefox then Malwarebytes Browser Guard can help protect against redirects and more.