/auto no longer works

CCleaner for Windows
1

Windows 11 Pro
CCleaner 7

With CCleaner 5.85, I can run the following command to run CCleaner to do its cleanup, and then unload:

“C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner64.exe” /AUTO

I would see its systray icon show momentarily while it was cleaning, and then disappear when CCleaner automatically unloaded after the cleanup. However, the following command for CCleaner 7 (*):

“C:\Program Files\Piriform\CCleaner 7\CCleaner.exe” /AUTO

never loads CCleaner at all. It never shows up in Task Manager’s Details pane. I noticed ccleaner.exe was still loaded after the attempted auto-clean along with its service. I killed that instance of ccleaner.exe, and stopped its service, but the above command using /auto still failed to even load CCleaner. The above command without the /auto works to load CCleaner, so the path and filename to the executable are correct.

(*) Sorry, I can only say it is version 7. There is no version info in the Help pane nor shown in the title bar, and they force using an online/web installer, so the user hasn’t a good clue what version they end up getting.

As a test, I would create a testme.txt file in the %temp% folder. CCleaner v5 with /auto worked to delete the test file. CCleaner v7 did not delete the file, but then CCleaner v7 didn’t even load when the /auto argument was added to the command line.

For some reason, Piriform decided to not only disable the /auto command-line argument, but also make CCleaner fail to even load. The online help (https://support.ccleaner.com/s/article/command-line-parameters-for-ccleaner-for-windows) still says /auto is a valid command-line argument, but testing proves otherwise.

In addition, v7 installs a service, but v5 does not. I don’t need nor want CCleaner running all the time. With the CCleaner service stopped, and loading CCleaner again, almost nothing is available anymore. Just the Cloud Drive Cleaner and Duplicate Finder show up in the left-side menu panel. After starting the service, all the other entries appear in the left-side menu panel. That CCleaner becomes unusable without a service running is sufficient for me to uninstall v7. In addition, the /auto argument doesn’t work anymore.

I’m not alone regarding /auto doing nothing, and not even loading CCleaner (usually invalid args do not stop a program from loading). Others have reported the same issue, but no resolution.

To add insult to injury, there is no standalone installer for CCleaner. Instead a stub installer is provided that has to connect to a server, and it only delivers the latest version. I see some users went back to v6, but I cannot get it from Piriform. Knowledge shows old versions, but the download link doesn’t point to them, only to the latest version which is an online installer (forget installing without an Internet connection). So, I’ll have to install the old v5.85 that I luckily kept in my downloads archive.

2

v5.85 is 4-years old.

If you want to use the older style CCleaner then at least get the last one - which is v6.39.
There are a couple of links you can get it from, both are given in this and have been used thousands of times in the past month:
How to Roll Back from v7 to v6.39
Follow ALL of the instructions, particularly about turning off the Automatic Updating and deleting ‘CCupdate.exe’.

3

Using an online search, I found a download for v6.39, downloaded that, and installed it (after uninstall the v7 mess, and performing remnant file and registry cleanup). I think it was the forum article you mentioned with a download link which was to https://download.ccleaner.com/ccsetup639.exe. The CCleaner site still had valid links to old versions, but trying to find a web page there to them seems impossible. I wasn’t going to attempt a version rollback: just uninstall v7, do the cleanup, and a fresh install of v6.39. In the release notes for CCleaner ( Knowledge ), I saw 6.39 listed, but all download links for all old versions point to the same download page that forces getting v7.

Since this was an install inside a virtual machine, this time I took a snapshot before the v6.39 install to make it easier to back out if I found it was just as screwed up as v7. Wish I had thought of doing a snapshot before the v7 install in the VM. When I’m done playing with Windows 11, and configuring it how I want (as best as can be done inside a VM), I’ll save an image backup of my Win10 disk (and check it can restore okay), and lay the Win11 image onto my disk, and then do all the driver updates. So far, v6.39 looks and behaves very much like my old v5.85.

To disable ads and unwanted Internet-accessing features, I added rules in the Windows Firewall that blocked outbound connects for ccleaner.exe, ccleaner64.exe, and ccsetup.exe. I could’ve just renamed ccsetup.exe to, say, ccsetup_OLD.exe, but possibly an update would replace the file by its original name. I definitely do NOT want v6.39 ever trying to update to that v7 garbage.

Wonder how many long-time CCleaner users they lost with v7. I suspect they figured to lure in a new audience of boobs instead of draw their old more-expert users.

4

Lierally the post before you tells you what to do to get 6.39 without the auto update to 7.

5

Probably depends on whatever sort order you chose to view the topics. I didn’t see a sort option in preferences, so I assume topics are sorted by most recent update. With the recent replies, mine is, at this moment, at the top of the list, so there is no post before mine. Perhaps you are referring to the post which was already linked in nukecad’s and my replies in this topic, and is dated Oct 8. My topic started on Oct 11. There are a lot of posts between.

6

All posts in threads are earliest on top and newest on bottom otherwise known as in time order.
Not to be pedantic but

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I said post not thread

7

Oh, I thought you meant the original thread by nukecad (3 days earlier) to which both nukecad and I already linked. I already mentioned that I found that article in a search before nukecad replied, as in “I think it was the forum article you mentioned” to nukecad. I posted, I did a search, found nukecad’s 3-day prior topic, used the link to install v6.39, and then I got notified of nukecad reply pointing to his prior topic. I cannot address replies to posts that don’t yet exist.

The link in the mentioned thread did help for me to get v6.39. Never found a nav path through their web site to find that link, so wonder how nukecad found it.

8

Sigh

Because he knows the method of getting a build hardlinked and used intuition to provide the 6.39 one, or at least that’s how i know it.