Avast auto install with CCleaner update without asking.

CCleaner for Windows
1

I have been using CCleaner for years and know about the option to install Avast when you initially install CCleaner, which was unchecked and it never installed as it should not have.

Yesterday my CCleaner auto updated itself in the morning and to my surprise Avast with no other notification also seemed to auto install itself along with the update that ran in the background.

I have now turned off auto updated for CCleaner, but when and why was this change made after years to have it randomly install Avast without asking?

2

The old installer that you describe with a tickbox for the offer(s) hasn't been used for a couple of years now. 

It was changed for the very reason that it was too easy to miss the offer and so get an unwanted install.

If you are going to be offered something by a CCleaner install/update now then it looks like this - so it's pretty hard to miss them, but see below.

This one is for AVG rather than Avast but the layout is the same. (Note that the CCleaner here is v5.86, so I took this screenshot 2 years ago in 2021) 

<a class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" data-extension="core_Attachment" data-fileext="png" data-fileid="15400" href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2021_10/image.png.cf017183d92fdfb4d99463fb9503c599.png" rel=""><img alt="image.png" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" data-extension="core_Attachment" data-fileid="15400" data-ratio="69.30" data-unique="51phjlxcp" width="1000" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2021_10/image.thumb.png.8d78ea866d696e4e2ce68f01813a0426.png"></a>

However there was for a time a random bug where very occasionally the image would not show and you only saw the 'Decline' and 'Accept' buttons. 

With no image showing you didn't know what you were declining/accepting and may have thought it was just CCleaner.


Again though that was fixed, and it's been a couple of years since we have seen any reports of that happening.

Can you remember if it's possible that this is what has happened to you here. 

ie. following the automatic update did you get a window like that in CCleaner but blank apart from the buttons, so you inadvertently clicked an 'Accept' button in an otherwise blank offer window?

Like I say that blank offer window issue was fixed, and we have had no reports of it happening since then, but sometimes odd bugs like that one can resurface.

A further question - What Antivirus you are using, and are you blocking any of CCleaner's connections, say with your Firewall settings, or using a Hosts file? 

One thing that <em>might</em> cause a blank offer screen (no image just the buttons) to happen is if you are blocking certain connections that CCleaner normally makes.

3

Thanks for the response, I can say for certain I have never clicked accept on a page like that or even a blank page that would have only an accept button.

I just noticed at 7AM after an auto update of CCleaner that I had an avast icon on my desktop.

I am running ESET Antivirus, I have never intentionally blocked any connections manually or seen any issues in all the years of having CCleaner installed up until this most recent update.

4

Thanks, it's a bit of a mystery then.

It might be that the 'blank offer screen' bug has resurfaced? 

It was very intermittent and random when it happened so the cause was hard to track down. (But if it has come back the devs now know what to look for).


I've had a look back and, as I remembered, it was at that time due to a blocked/broken link not displaying the offer, so you just saw the Decline/Accept buttons.

About all that we can do at the moment is keep an eye here on the forum for any other reports of unwanted installs happening. 

Since they changed the offer screen a couple of years ago such reports/complaints aren't something that we see nowadays, so if more do suddenly start being reported then it needs investigating/fixing.





Thanks again for your report.