CCleaner corrupting program files [Avira issue]

CCleaner for Windows CCleaner Windows Bug Reporting
21

Could your previous download have been corrupted?

Not in a way that would affect multiple exe files but nothing else, a corrupted install would almost certainly crash if you tried to run it - unless you got it from a dodgy site and it had been specifically modified to do so. (Never say never, strange hackers are out there).

Did you carry out any of the steps that AdvancedSetup recommended with the push notifications and cleaning up the Chrome?

He knows his stuff, even if he no longer recommends CCleaner. (That's fair enough it used to be a 'go to' recommendation from those experts but the newer features in CCleaner don't sit well with them).

22

...no, I've not gone that far. If I was still seeing the problem then that would be my next step, but as I said, at the moment, all seems to be well. The only other thing I've noticed is that the alarms I have set in windows no longer seem to work. I've reset a couple to see what happens.

A

23

Hi all

I’m experiencing the same issues.

After a Custom Clean with CCleaner, some EXE files are corrupted. The files are still there, but the content has been overwritten with spaces. The sizes of the files seems to be the original file sizes of the specific exe file.

It affects many major applications: Excel/Word, VLC Player, Defraggler, … The list is long. I have to reinstall every single application.

My system: Windows 10 with all updates, Ccleaner latest version (auto-updates). No malware, no virus.

DISM and SFC don’t help. The SSD is fully functional, no errors there.

Maybe we can find an explanation for that.

Greetings

Ron

24

Hmm, interesting. Have you tried uninstalling CCleaner and reinstalling? Seemed to work for me, though I have been advised by Malwarebytes moderators to run Microsoft Safety Scanner.

A

25

Hi @ronster,

Interesting to see a second report of this very odd behaviour.

I'll flag it up for the staff/developers to take a closer look at.

26

Heya @ronster, please email our team at support@ccleaner.com so they could have a look over your current situation.

27

I'm very eager to hear any outcomes from this. All is stable for me now, but I'm still finding apps that no longer work, all modified at the same date and time last week when I ran CCleaner.

A

28

Hello everyone

The problems persist. I uninstalled and freshly installed CCleaner (version 6.02.9938). Then I did a custom clean. The result was that again many recently executed EXE files were modified (even the CCleaner.exe ?). The files were changed when the program was deleting temporary files. Again, these EXE files were overwritten with all-spaces.

I was able to recover all the files because I had a fresh backup of my computer.

I emailed support as requested by Andrei and I'm excited to see how it goes (probably after the weekend).

Best regards 

Ron

29

It is very strange.

The fact that only the two of you, out of millions of CCleaner users, are seeing this is puzzling and an indication that there must be something different about, or installed on, your particular machines.

Once support have had a look specifically at your CCleaner for you then you may want to do as AW7 did and have an expert check your machine over for possible malware or other issues. 

See the posts above for where to get that done for free.

30

I've just had a popup saying that defender has blocked some features of msedge.exe.exe on the network. Not sure what this is but it doesn't look good. I've sent a message to malwarebytes too

31

A double ".exe.exe" like that always looks suspicious, as if something is trying to make you think it's the original app.

(It may just be Microsoft though, there a few mentions on the web about that particular popup and it may be related to an Edge update)???

I assume that you have PM'd AdvancedSetup to reopen your topic at Malwarebytes.

32

...yes I did straightaway. I thought you might be interested also, just in case it's relevant. Interesting that you mention an Edge update. I don't use Edge, but I did notice that it was using a lot of CPU on startup. I opened Edge and it mentioned that I was 'using the new version'. Looking again, it gives the version as 104.0.1293.47, and sure enough, there us an Edge subfolder with that name and today's date.

A

33

Hey all, just came here to say I experienced the same thing. I've had to reinstall countless programs since last using CCleaner. They seemed to have been modified/corrupted when it was ran yesterday. This seems to have corrupted recently accessed programs. I've been able to recover mostly everything it's just a pain to have to reinstall programs again.

I'm using version 6.02.9938

34

Hi @Oreo

I've flagged your report up to the Piriform staff.

You may also want to email support@ccleaner.com about it as well, give them a link to this thread if you do.

35
1 hour ago, nukecad said: 
<div class="ipsQuote_contents">
	<p>
		Hi <a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/profile/99904-oreo/?do=hovercard" data-mentionid="99904" href="<___base_url___>/profile/99904-oreo/" rel="">@Oreo</a>
	</p>

	<p>
		I've flagged your report up to the Piriform staff.
	</p>

	<p>
		You may also want to email support@ccleaner.com about it as well, give them a link to this thread if you do.
	</p>
</div>

Just wanted to follow up. Another person I work with also experienced the same issue this morning.

36

Hmm, it's getting interesting. The latest from my side is that investigating the msedge.exe.exe issue has drawn a blank. The system seems to be clean and the only thing left is a clean install of windows.....which I feel reluctant to do. Just out of interest, what machine are you both using? I have problems on my HP Pavilion desktop

A

37
11 hours ago, AW7 said: 
<div class="ipsQuote_contents ipsClearfix" data-gramm="false">
	<p>
		 Just out of interest, what machine are you both using? I have problems on my HP Pavilion desktop
	</p>
</div>

What machines and Windows versions (and antivirus) you are using may help to give a clue as to what may be going on, Especially if they all turn out to be the same.

That's usually the start of investigating something like this, and would be interesting to know to see if there is a 'quick' direction to start looking.

Other questions then come to mind, such as are your affected apps installed on C: or on another drive. 

Then there's the questions of what other softwares you are all using, and the thousands of settings that could have been changed in Windows itself or other apps.


But once you get into those it all starts to get too detailed to follow on a forum, so it's usually best to work with support

38

Yeah, a bit like a needle in a haystack but as more of a user of computers rather than an expert it feels like some sort of conflict going on.

Right, my Desktop PC is HP Pavilion 24-a205na, i5-7400T

Windows 10 Home (preinstalled), up to date.

Avira Security (free version)

Malwarebytes (free version.....you see a trend here ;) )

All affected apps are installed on my C drive - SanDisk 128GB SSD. Nothing on my D drive (1TB generic SCSI HDD) seems to have been touched. There again, most apps end up on C: by default.

Affected programs,

Edge, Chrome, Firefox (never IE)

MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams

LibreOffice, OpenOffice

ExamDiff, Inkscape, Notepad++, DiffPdf

Pandat (software that I use for work) This requires the use of a HASP dongle.

That's all I remember now. I have had one trouble-free run with CC since the problems started.....I've parked it for now but it still runs in the background.

The other thing to note is that all the affected exe files show identical modification time and date stamp, presumably the time that I ran CC. I should also say that running CC on my old Acer laptop running Win8.1 has caused me no grief at all. Again, I probably won't run CC again until you/we find out what's going on.

Hope all this helps,

A

39

When you have CCleaner open and are going to do a custom clean, what do you have selected under the Windows tab at the top under.. System and.. Advanced?

40

...attached. All advanced settings unchecked.

CC_settings_AW7.jpg