Carl M

Yes, I was aware that the one article was old (from July, 2020) but was trying to point out that the issue addressed in the article with Windows Defender and CCleaner is still happening for Windows 10 users. In our cases, the issue with lost audio occurred during the free trial of CCleaner - sometime between 12/2/2021, and 12/17/2021. I did read on the CCleaner social media pages that an update was released on 12/14/2021 to fix some problems. Not sure if that is related to the issues we've experienced, or not. We were just hoping to get some help on this forum, since this all happened during a free trial of CCleaner, and this experience is our first and only impression of CCleaner thus far.

Hello - I am one of Steve's buddies referenced in the original post by Steve N. The audio issue mentioned OCCURRED DURING THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD of CCleaner, on two HP laptops (not Dell), and partially on one Lenovo laptop. The problem happened sometime 12\2\2021 and 12\17\2021 during the 2 or 3 times the application was run. Within a few days, all of our laptops started having issues - no audio on the HPs, and no microphone on the Lenovo. The day after that, at least two of us (maybe all three) started getting marketing pop-ups from CCleaner trying to get up to buy the product. I was leery about purchasing CCleaner since after running your tool just once or twice I had the first major issue with my HP laptop that I've ever experienced. While I was trying to figure out what happened to my laptop, and how to fix it, the trial period came to an end. It was almost as if the product caused the issue to make me HAVE to buy CCleaner to get the issue resolved (which is a form of entrapment, and not legal in the United States). Today, I decided to reach out to several IT Tech friends on social media about this issue, and learned one of them had issues too. One of those IT friends works at the National Security Administration in MD. He had other issues with your product, and just decided to uninstall CCleaner. He spent an hour on the phone with me today, shedding light on some potential fixes. For CCleaner to ignore a potential customer during (or just after) a trial period of your product because they are not a current paying customer is surely NOT going to ever convince that person to want to purchase your product, not good customer service (product tech support) and again, sure seems like entrapment. Right now, I'd just like to have my laptop back to what it was before I ever tried your product. Adding to my concern is this article I just came across today (from August, 2021)... Windows 10 is warning users not to install CCleaner | TechRadar Apparently, the problems noted in the article, etc. appear to still be an issue, and not fixed. I also came across this article (from July, 2020)... Microsoft now detects CCleaner as a Potentially Unwanted Application (bleepingcomputer.com).