Took all day, seems to have removed tons of dup files, but now, I can no longer use abby finereader to open pdf’s
Ouch, It is a mistake to remove all duplicate files.
In my opinion it’s a flaw in the new CCleaner 7 to search for them by default without giving any option to ignore them.
CCleaner always used to have the option to ‘Ignore’ system files
but with v7 it’s no longer there - which in my opinion makes it dangerous for unwary/unknowing users.
Although even with the older versions we would still get users deleting all of their duplicate system files not knowing what a mistake that was, it was less likely to happen because you had to select each file individually for deletion. (That was deliberate to make you think before deleting).
Now with CCleaner 7 you can ‘Bulk Select’ them all at once and delete them all without thinking just what you are doing.
Many System Files, and Application files need duplicates in different directories to work properly.
If you remove those needed duplicates then some parts will stop working.
Having already done the damage your options now are:
If you have a current system backup, or a Windows restore point, then you can try restoring that.
Otherwise if you are lucky then Windows will repair itself and put the duplicates back where they need to be, but you will most likely have to repair, or reinstall, any apps that have now stopped working properly.