nukecad

CCleaner is not a malware remover, it simply removes temporary files and other junk files. We are not allowed to give malware removal help here on this forum, but if you read #10 of these forum rules you will find a list of links to places where you can get one to one help: https://forum.piriform.com/announcement/15-forum-rules/

An SSD is a Solid-State Drive, as opposed to a HDD which has spinning magnetic disc(s). They should not (normally) be defragmented and they don't need to be wiped. Wiping free space is not going to speed anything up, if it's a HDD then defragmenting might do. Wiping free space is used to securely delete any old files on the HDD disc so they can't be recovered by recovery software. You would typically only use it if you were selling on the computer (or the disc) to someone else, so that they couldn't try and recover any files that you had normally deleted. Have a read of this article that explains about wiping free space, when and why you should do it, and why you shouldn't wipe an SSD: https://www.howtogeek.com/115573/htg-explains-why-you-only-have-to-wipe-a-disk-once-to-erase-it/ EDIT If your machine has suddenly started running slower then I would suspect another cause. Take a look in task manager (right click anywhere on the taskbar and select 'Task Manager) to see if something is hogging your CPU.

"Our system is currently unavailable due to maintenance", always good for a day off.

It has been known to happen occasionally, sometimes CC gets stuck loading and if you wait a while then the button becomes active again. I've had it in the past on a Windows machine. I captured some debug logs and it seemed to be an issue with CCleaner trying to check for updates but not making a connection. Try turning off your internet connection then running CCleaner and seeing if that stops it happening. CC should recognise that there is no internet so won't try to look for an update. It's not a regular workaround, but it would point out if that is the issue here. In the end though I would try uninstalling and reinstalling CCleaner, that usually fixes it.

1.68 tb is quite a lot to wipe and is going to take some time. I never take much notice of when a programme says it will take such and such a length of time to complete. That's only ever an estimate based on what it is seeing/doing at that time and is often way out, the programme usually finishes well before the estimate.

Did you try resetting the Recycle Bin? It won't do any harm and will rule that out as a possible cause.

How big is your drive? How many passes have you specified? Wiping a drive takes time, you have to write random data to all free space and then delete it again. Bigger disk or more passes will take more time.

Not sure why it's finding Opera, have you had it installed previously? I believe that Brave leaves nothing to be cleaned anyway, isn't that the whole point of Brave? Yandex I don't know. Try taking a look at the winapp2 topic on this forum.

We have seen this reported before, it was 1.5GB for that user. That was back in April so it does not seem to be a common issue. My best guess at the time was: However that is only a guess, I have no inside information on just what smart cleaner analyses. Another possibility is that your Recycle Bin may have become corrupted (it does happen) so Windows thinks there are still files in the bin, and so Smart Cleaning is reporting files that aren't actually there anymore. See this for how to fix a corrupted bin: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/recycle-bin-is-corrupted-windows

I'd seen that registry change, but don't like making reg changes just for a temporary work around. (You often forget to change them back again once no longer needed). Plus that would still leave Cortana enabled which I don't want. Hopefully MS will sort this out before they include it as an automatic update next patch Tuesday. I'm still not happy that they put a beta update with known problems out as an 'Optional' update to non-insider machines, without any warning at all. 'Optional' is not 'Experimental' - the Insider rings are supposed to be where experimental stuff gets put out.

Wiping Free Space can take a long time, days, as you are finding out. And of course the bigger the drive the longer it will take. It has to write random data to every bit of free space on the drive, and then delete it again. And you've told it to do that seven times. There is no need for multiple passes, one is entirely sufficient. So why does CC offer multiple passes? It's simply a hang over from the old days. Multiple overwrites may have been desirable back in the 1990's (even that's debatable), but they are not required with modern drives. Have a read of this article: https://www.howtogeek.com/115573/htg-explains-why-you-only-have-to-wipe-a-disk-once-to-erase-it/

That seems to have worked, Cortana is still in task manager but it's back to it's previous permanently suspended state. (I'll go check the camera and mic again). Go to Windows Update > View update history > Uninstall Updates. In the screen that comes up Double click on the update and then click Yes to uninstall it.

I've decided it's not actually doing anything and is stuck in a loop. So I'll try uninstalling the update.

From my phone. I'm sat here watching task manager on the laptop (I'm not that obsessive, I'm also watching the Belgian GP highlights on the TV). I've got the laptop in flight mode so no internet connection. Cortana is still running at 75-80% CPU and accessing the HD at 0.1 MB/s. To me that's confirmation of what I had guessed about it reading/indexing everything on disc, including the contents of text files, pdfs, etc. Edit. Looking closer (during an ad break in the GP) at the moment it's actually writing more to disc than it's reading.

I believe that I've worked out what is going on with Cortana, and it's MS making assumptions and being lazy again. It's already well known that they are making changes to Cortana and search. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/microsoft-announces-updated-cortana-app/ MS are simply assuming that everyone uses Cortana, and no one would have ever disabled it before now. So if you have Cortana in use / enabled then you will not see any issues. But - if you had Cortana disabled you will see issues because - Cortana has been turned on again as default by this update. (Regardless of your previous registry settings) Cortana now has to index everything on your computer to enable it to search. It's this initial indexing that is using all your CPU and slowing everything down. Once the initial indexing is done then it should stop hogging the CPU. I'm sure that it won't be long until the new registry settings to disable Cortana again are found and shared. The camera being turned on again (and maybe the microphone) are going to be part of the Cortana default settings.

Yes it was in development back then and had a few names like 'Simple Display' and 'Quick Clean' while they were trying out different things. PS. If you can see my signature below this post it links to a better verison of what I said in that screenshot.

I don't recall custom clean ever looking like that. There was for a short while a 'Quick Clean' option of Custom Clean that not everybody got to see. That was an early testing version of Easy Clean so had a similar screen - maybe that is what you are remembering. I'm guessing here that that is what you were seeing until a couple of days ago and now it's updated and showing the two different cleans. Edit. If you want to roll back a version (or two) and see if it's how you liked then 'filehipppo' has the older versions on the right of the page. (Google it). But if you are using PRO then CC will update again unless you tell it not to.

As I suspected when I went into Device Manager I fund that my previously disabled Camera had been turned back on. The microphone had been disabled in Bios/Uefi so doesn't show in device manager. I think I'll go offline for a while with this laptop.

It may well be that Cortana may stop hogging the CPU after a while of use , but that's not the point. I don't and never did want Cortana, I used a valid registry setting to turn it off, MS have no right to try and force me to use it again. I especially don't want it doing this - I've no doubt that when I look I'll find that my microphone and webcam have been turned on again.

I just installed KB4512941, (despite already reading this) - not happy. I had Cortana disabled/suspended on my laptop (registry hack). That update has re-enabled Cortana, and yes it was then immediatly taking 65% plus of my CPU. The changed registry entry is still as it was to disable Cortana - so MS have implemented something else. It's immediately apparent if you open the Start menu and start typing, instead of the previous behaviour it now opens a Cortana search window. Kill Cortana in task manager, start typing in the start menu and Cortana is back. Very sneaky by MS. (And no I don't use any of those 'shut up' apps mentioned before). Time to read some of the above links. EDIT - And the D*** thing keeps turning itself on again, hogging the CPU and slowing everything else down.

Are you using Easy Clean or Custom Clean? Easy Clean should leave your username/passwords alone. Custom Clean will remove them if it's set to do so; to stop it removing them do the following - For each browser where you want the details saving uncheck "Saved Passwords", and you may also need to uncheck "Saved Form Information". That's because some websites save your login information as a form rather than just a name/password. This shows them unticked for the Firefox browser: Also bear in mind that some websites, especially those dealing with money, paying bill, etc. may not allow the password to be auto-entered by your browser. As a security measure on those sites you have to type your details in each time.

Whilst I'm not familiar with the Mac version, CCleaner clears up junk - logfiles, temporary files, etc. it does not touch any files saved by the user. Many just go straight with the CCleaner default settings, which will clear the junk that most users want to get rid of. However it's always the case that what some may regard as junk to be deleted, others may want CCleaner to leave alone. In the end only you can decide what you want/need and what you can regularly clean up. I suggest that if you realy want to be careful then make a backup of everything to an external disc, untick everything in CC to start with, and then tick them in one at once, analyze, and see what is found under each category.

Plese don't post the same question in more than one place. I've answered your question in your other post.

Sounds as if you have changed the default to Custom Clean. Go to Options>Settings and change 'CCleaner Home Screen' back to Easy Clean.

That sound as if the Windows Error Reporting (werfault) is messed up, possiby as a result of the previous failed Windows upgrade. Try using the 'Advanced Startup' options to get Windows 10 into 'Safe Mode' and uninstalling from there. You can read more about the Windows 10 Advanced Startup and recovery mode options here: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2294-boot-advanced-startup-options-windows-10-a.html I usually use Option 6 described there - the 'Hard Reboot' option using the power button. Use the power button to turn on, then turn off again before it gets to the login screen, doing that 3 times should boot into Advanced Startup. (But you should read the other options as well, it's always useful to know about the other Advanced Startup options).