nukecad

@Gamma Cephei Let Dave continue to help you, but this 'software renewal scam' is a well know phishing tactic. There is an article about it at Malwarebytes labs if you are interested. (Malwarebytes is another 'big name' that the phishers use for this scam). https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cybercrime/2021/03/software-renewal-scammers-unmasked/ Sorry if you got caught by a scam like this. About the one comfort you can take is that if CCleaner wasn't a trusted name then the phishers wouldn't have tried using it to scam you. As said Dave will be able to look into things a bit deeper for you.

Where were you downloading from? A new subscription would not give you an old version. Where did you get the Key from.

0x2efd is a Windows error usually meaning that something couldn't connect to a server. It may be a temporary server outage, in which case try again a few hours later. If the error persists (longer than a day?) then it's less likely to be at the server end and more likely to be your Antivirus that is blocking the connection. Which antivirus are you using and what Windows version do you have?

The cleaning wouldn't remove any drivers. But if you have used the Driver Update tool (or the Registry Cleaner tool) then you could have messed one up. If you did use CCleaners' Driver Updater then see this: https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402564268429-I-m-having-a-problem-with-Driver-Updater-What-are-my-options- PS. 48GB is a lot to be cleaned, had you not done any cleaning for a while? You may want to check that you don't have a corrupted recycle bin which can cause false high figures, it's easy to fix. https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/60979-empty-recycle-bin-skipped-files/?tab=comments#comment-331053

No problem, it sounds like something got 'lost' during the update and reinstalling CCleaner put it back. Norton is good. (In fact they now own Piriform/CCleaner since they bough Avast). Microsoft Defender is now also fine, it ranks as good in tests as most that you can buy and better than many, and as it's already included with Windows why pay for something else? If you don't put another AV on your machine, or uninstall an AV that is there, Defender will take over automatically. Here's a current review, written 11 day ago (always check the date on any reviews you read for anything, things change): https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/windows-defender

If you reinstall CCleaner 'over the top' of your existing one then it will keep your licence. If you uninstall and reinstall then you will need to go to Options>About>Upgrade to Pro, enter your licence key and click Register. So make a note of your key before uninstalling. 21H2 is the latest Windows 10 so you are bang up to date with that. PS. AV is just shorthand for AntiVirus, Windows Defender is the standard one that all Windows 10 has and is very good - some people do like to use a different one though which can sometimes cause problems.

You may be interested in this, another user who had a similar problem with EDGE preloading and running in the background. I'd given them much the same answer as I gave you here.

Odd. (What happens if you click on 'Check for Updates' in CCleaner? It should tell you that CCleaner cannot be updated). The best I can suggest is that you re-install v5.88. Doing that should correct any registry entries that may be saying you still have v5.87. Download the 'Slim' installer from here (3rd one down) and double click it to re-install straight on top of your existing v5.88. ie. no need to uninstall first. It installs the same CCleaner, it's just a bit quicker on the install. (Because it misses the adverts out). https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds

What version is your CCleaner? Windows Defender does not like old CCleaner versions and will stop them from running, As a CCleaner version gets older it drops off Windows 'allowed' list. Also what Windows 10 version do you have now, and what AV are you using? As you just got a forced update you will previously have had Windows 10 1903, that became 'end of life' on 8th December so they are now forcing updates to it. Which version you have been updated to will depend on your computer. Seeing as CCleaner stopped working for you following a Windows Update there is something that you should check. Check Windows settings for Apps & features to make sure it hasn't defaulted to only allow apps from the Microsoft Store, it has been known to do that after a Windows Update. If it has then change it back to 'Anywhere'. The latest CCleaner version is 5.88, if you don't have it already then you can download the installer from here and simply install it on top of your current version, ie. no need to uninstall first. https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds If you are still having issues after doing that then would be the time to try uninstalling CCleaner and doing a fresh install. If you do uninstall then make a note of your registered name and licence key before uninstalling, you'll need it to re-register the new install.

Simply download and install the Free version. The simplest way to download the Free installer is from here: https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds Once installed open it and go to Options>About>Upgrade to Pro. Enter you registered name and key as asked then click on register. (The name/key will be shown in the one you already have installed in Options>About>License Information). There's more on registering, and what to do if you have problems here: https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/204043844-How-to-register-and-activate-CCleaner-Professional#if-you-get-an-error-saying-that-your-license-key-is-not-valid--0-9 If you only have a licence for one machine you should uninstall CCleaner Pro from the old one. (You can then put CCleaner Free on that machine). https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/204044464-How-many-computers-can-I-install-CCleaner-Professional-on- https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360028350711-How-many-computers-can-I-install-CCleaner-Professional-Plus-on-

Do you have the browser synced? Do you have browser pre-loading enabled? Microsoft News and Interests on your taskbar? Any Live Tiles on the Start Menu? All those and more can put cookies back on your machine straight after you have cleared them. It gets asked about so often that I wrote a post about it, have a read of the second half of this:

You are correct, If Health Check and Custom Clean did the same thing then there wouldn't be much point in having both of them. Generally you choose which one you want to use and stick with that. Health Check uses its own cleaning settings which you cannot customise. It's meant as a quick, easy, option for those who can't be bothered setting thing up and just want a 'default' clean. The Pro version runs two other tools as well, 'Startup' (Speed) and 'Software Updater' (Security) . You can also run those manually from the CCleaner Tools menu. Running Health Check will log you out of any websites because it will clear the browser session. Custom Clean lets you change what gets cleaned or not by using ticks/unticks. Cookies to keep, and Includes/Excludes. That's why its called 'Custom' - because you can customise what it cleans. The Custom Clean setting that logs you out of websites, or not, is 'Session' for whichever browser you use. Make sure that is unticked if you want to stay logged into sites, and remember not to use Health Check. You can set which one CCleaner shows you when you open it by going to Options>Settings and changing the 'CCleaner Home Screen'.

And your question is? I recommend that you get Revo Uninstaller, that is very good at getting rid of leftovers following an uninstall.

You need to use Custom Clean and not Health Check. And then untick the Taskbar Jumplists for Custom Clean. To make Custom Clean what CCleaner shows when you open it then: Options>Settings>CCleaner Home Screen

Are you using Health Check or Custom Clean? You can't set includes/excludes in Health Check, it isn't customisable. But even in Custom Clean excluding xlsx wouldn't work because those are the files themselves not the jumplist.

It's possibly down to the lack of free space on your drive, it's getting pretty full which can slow things down. (See your other post about shortcuts). Can you see what it's getting stuck on? You can read at the top of the results screen what it's doing. Or you can right click on each section under Brave and Analyze just that section in turn to see which one is taking the time. This is Edge but gives you the idea: When you find the one that is taking the time you may be able to untick it to exclude it from future cleaning. Depends what it is and if you can manage without cleaning it.

Custom Clean will clean Desktop Shortcuts - but it only clears broken shortcuts. (Health Check won't touch even the broken ones). If the shortcut is still valid then Custom Clean will leave it alone. That's to prevent someone accidentally deleting all their shortcuts, which could be annoying to say the least. eg. I have 20+ shortcuts on my desktop, they are all valid except for this one that I just made then deliberately removed the original file so that the shortcut no longer points to it. Custom Clean finds that broken shortcut to be cleaned, it ignores all the valid ones. PS. You definitely need to clear some space on that drive, it's generally rule of thumb that you have 15% free on a HDD, and 25% on a SDD unless it's overprovisioned then 10% (most modern SSDs are overprovisioned as standard) - but I guess that's why you are wanting to remove the shortcuts even though that's not going to clear much space.

I can see your problem. It's actually a missunderstanding of the differences between Health Check and Custom Clean. That pop-up 'Close & Analyze' box in your second screenshot is from Health Check. Which tells me that you are using Health Check to clean. (It's a different looking pop-up box in Custom Clean). You can untick Slack in that pop-up box and Health Check will then skip it, but you'd have to do that everytime you run Health Check. Unticking Slack in the lists for Custom Clean has no effect on Health Check. You cannot customise Health Check. Those ticks/unticks in the lists only apply to Custom Clean - they do not apply to Health Check which always uses it's own cleaning rules. If you want CCleaner to automatically leave Slack alone (and not give you that pop-up) then you have to stop using Health Check and only use Custom Clean with Slack unticked in the list. You can set Custom Clean to be the default that CCleaner opens to: Options>Settings>CCleaner Home Screen

A bit odd that that only one of them is being blocked for you, but odd things do happen. I'd check first if your McAfee is the latest version available. https://service.mcafee.com/?articleId=TS102018&page=shell&shell=article-view But don't just 'Check for Updates' in McAfee itself -That could tell you that the version you have is up to date with signatures, but it may be an older software version. We see a few AV's that do that, where you still have to go to the website to get the latest software version. McAfee say it themselves on their website, in a round about way: Then I'd check if your firewall is blocking the connection: https://service.mcafee.com/?articleId=TS101322&page=shell&shell=article-view https://service.mcafee.com/?articleId=TS100813&page=shell&shell=article-view

So you thought you'd try again? Brave or foolish depending on your point of view. That sounds like it can't connect to a server, so is constantly trying and that is slowing your internet down. Best I can suggest is to open Task Manager and 'End Task' on CCleaner. You might want to make a note of what driver it is stuck on, just in case you do need to reload/reinstall that one. Whether you then try Driver Updater again is of course up to you. (Personally I would never touch any automatic driver updater, why try to fix something that isn't broken).

And the email address to use has been given to you there - support@ccleaner.com PS. If you have an issue you should keep it in one thread, spreading it over multiple threads just gets confusing as nobody (including yourself) can easily keep track of what answers you may have already been given.

You need to be online of course, if you are online and it's still not connecting try again later. the server may be temporarily unavailable for maintenance or whatever. Is it just 'Security' or is it both 'Speed' and 'Security'? I believe they use different servers so if only one of them is unavailable it's probably a server side issue. If both are unavailable it's either because you are offline, or something is blocking the connections. If the problem persists (or if both buttons show unavailable when you are online) you should check that your Antivirus/Firewall is not blocking the connection. Which AV are you using?

if you are meaning AppCleaner then that is a tool for uninstalling apps, and searching for/removing any leftovers from the uninstall. It doesn't remove any other junk. CCleaner is a junk cleaner that removes junk files, temporary files, logfiles, browser history, cookies, etc. It also includes other tools including an uninstall tool (but that just uninstalls the app and doesn't search for uninstall leftovers). If you want an alternative to AppCleaner then Revo Uninstaller for Mac is a good one, there are others.

Make sure that you have checked that you are not letting background apps run, and that your Chrome is not synced. If you have set/allowed either of those then CCleaner cannot clean Chrome, or it will clean it from your machine but the info will get synced straight back from the cloud. See these: https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/204210674-Why-is-Chrome-cleaning-being-skipped-#change-chrome-s-settings-to-let-ccleaner-clean--0-2 https://silicophilic.com/ccleaner-not-cleaning-google-chrome/ Once you have checked those then if the issue still persists it indiates that something has indeed changed in Chrome. TBH I suspect that Chrome is now storing cookies in a different way, ie. in 'cookie-jars' with a seperate jar for each website. It's a security measure. If so that means that they will no longer be where CCleaner expects them to be, (and so CCleaner will need to be changed). Firefox started doing that a couple of months ago and CCleaner had to be changed to clean the new Firefox locations, it was only a matter of time until Chrome (and other browsers) followed suit.

CCleaner 5.88 is now available. I don't have Chrome so can't see if changes have been made?