Ccleaner doesn't clean Microsoft Edge anymore.

Yesterday I noticed that I suddenly get personalised ads from Youtube altough I use Ccleaner and have a VPN.

At first i contacted my VPN supplier as I thought it was strange, because a VPN should make your details invisable.

The problem however lies deeper. Normally when I close my browser it erases my internethistory because i use smartclean in Ccleaner, but it doesn't work anymore.

I sincerely hate Google and try to avoid using it as much as possible. My search engine is Duckduck go, everything from google is uninstalled on my devices as much as possible, my internetbrowser is Microsoft edge but you can't avoid using youtube if you want information or reviews.

So normally when I startup youtube i get the standard warning I have to agree that youtube is using cookies followed by the message that I should login, which I don't because I dont want to and I don't have a Google account.

However 2 days ago, i got a different screen. Normally it's a small rectangular box which you click away by clicking "I agree". this time I got a full screen message which at first glance has the same message but changes your settings for Google cookies without your consent. Using cookies is one thing, Changing your settings without you knowing is criminal because normally when I do a manual cleaning, i get 2 digits in trackers. Today I got 1935 trackers and diving deeper in my settings, Google and all connected companies were in my safelist something I would NEVER EVER do!!!

I erased everything but I also noted that I don't get a notification anymore stating my internetbrowser is cleaned altough I have Smart clean on and the settings are on "Automatically cleaning with notification" and my history and cookies aren't cleaned anymore. Cleaning manually again delivered 883 trackers by just opening youtube.

HELP!!!!

There seems to be a couple of different things going one here, let's see if we can sort them out.

(Apologies if you already know this stuff, but it doesn't hurt to say it again, and it may help others).

First Edge and Smart Cleaning:

Edge has now gone Chromium based. (Old 'Microsoft Edge' has been disabled and is gradually being removed from users computers).


Make sure that your Smart Cleaning is set to clean 'Edge Chromium' and not (just) 'Microsoft Edge'.


Also make sure that your Custom Clean settings are set to clean Edge Chromium. (Smart Cleaning uses the Custom Clean settings).

As well as that:

There has recently been a new feature introduced in Edge Chromium called 'Startup Boost' and it was enabled by default.


Startup Boost pre-loaded Edge Chromium before you opened it, and left Edge Chromium still running in the background when you closed it.


Smart Cleaning wouldn't even know that you had closed Edge Chromium, because it was still running in the background.


In either of those cases CCleaner could not clean Edge Chromium because it was still open and still running in the background.


You have to turn off Startup Boost to be able to clean Edge Chromium, and to let Smart Cleaning recognise when you close it.

https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/60129-ms-edge-chromium-build-89/?tab=comments#comment-327619

PS. Microsoft have now bowed to pressure from user complaints and Startup Boost is no longer enabled by default - But if you had already had it enabled then you still have to turn it off yourself.

Next, Youtube:

Youtube is owned by Google; and Google are messing about. (as usual)


That full screen consent thing in Youtube may be an indication that you are seeing one of their new trials.

Google are trialing a new system which is basically a replacement for cookies.

It shouldn't currently affect users in the EU, because as you say it's illegal under GDPR

BUT- If you are using a VPN that says you are in another country then Google don’t know you are in the EU and so don’t know GDPR applies, and it may affect you.

Other than making sure that your VPN uses an EU country I'm not sure what you can do about that.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/google-testing-its-controversial-new-ad-targeting-tech-millions-browsers-heres

Hi Nukecad,

Thank you for your fast reply.

All settings for Ccleaner were on, so also for Microsoft edge Chromium. No suprises there.

Your second tip was probably the case. However, I did an update op Chromium yesterday an It seems that this did the trick. because after that there were just 5 trackers to be removed in stead of 3 digit numbers with the first of the 3 beeing a minimum of 5 by only opening Edge. I checked the settings and now startup boost is turned off by default due to the update probably.

However I still don't get the notification I normally get. After closing down Microsoft edge Ccleaner cleans now, but I don't get the notification eventough the settings are on "Automatically clean with notification", but as long as Ccleaner can do it's job it's not a major issue for me.

And Google, I'm from the Netherlands and I always sarcastically laugh when people complain about privacy issues with facebook but have a google account and Google chrome, search everything with google and are adicted to youtube. It's unbelievable how ignorant people can be.

For your Tips on VPN, I know. It's one of the two things the EU ever did well since the change of the millenium, next to the ban of charging huge amounts for Roaming in other EU countries, so wheh I do have to use youtube I make sure that i'm on a EU server.

Thanks a lot,

Regards

Sounds like it was Startup Boost causing what you were seeinhg then.

For the Smart Cleaning notifiction I would try changing it to one of the other Smart Cleaning options and closing CCleaner, open and close Edge to trigger a Smart Clean, then reopen CCleaner and set it back to Automatically clean with notification.

Sometimes a setting just gets stuck and changing it and then changing it back will unstick it.

As for Google/Youtube I'm not sure what to suggest, they sometimes act as if they are above the laws in any particular country.

(Im getting fed up with constant 'give us permission' poups and re-Captchas in Google search, which you get constantly if you are not signed in to Google, or if you clear their cookies).