CCleaner not working on Windows Vista 32-bit ?

The last functioning version of CCleaner on my HP Pavilion laptop is 4.10. All subsequent releases (up to 5.00) fail to run. They download; but as soon as it tries to start, I get a Windows error. Can anyone assist?

I have Vista, service pack 2, 1.9GHz processor with 3G RAM and loads of free hard drive space.

Perhaps CCleaner requires 1 or more DLLs that could possibly be missing from my laptop?

Any assistance would be appreciated.

What does the error you get say?

The utility starts and changes my colour scheme back to basic. Then this message appears.

CCleaner has stopped working

A problem caused the program to stop working correctly.

Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is

Available.

I would eliminate the possibility of a defective CC by uninstalling it completely, then reinstall.

My Vista x86 and Win7 x64 are running CC 4.17 without issues. http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/history

I have tried completely removing each version and reinstalling. Nothing changes.That is why I am expecting the CCleaner requires the presence of some DLLs or other system files that could possibly be missing from my laptop. I do not have any issues running it on other machines.

Your ordinary colour scheme, is there anything special about it? What is it, a vista stock one?

Does it affect the whole screen or mainly just the taskbar?

You are able to easily change the theme back?

The colour scheme is the regular old Vista one. When CCleaner starts up, a pop-up message says

The color scheme has been changed

The following program has performed an action that requires

Windows to termprarily change the color scheme to Windows

Vista Basic.

Program: <Unavailable>

Publisher: <Unavailable>

Process Identifier (PID): 6072

Windows will automatically changes the color scheme back to

Windows Vista Aero when this program or other programs

performing similar actions are no longer running.

It seems to only affect the CCleaner window. After I clear this message, it all reverts back to normal. So I tried setting my colour scheme to Vista Basic since it is not important to me. Now I do not get this message about the colour scheme; but CCleaner still stops working with the first message that I have identified in this thread.

Run System File Checker . . . http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2231/run_system_file_checker/

Open the Windows task manager (right-click on taskbar and select task manager)

Click on 'View' at the top and then 'select columns'.

Make sure there is a tick in PID.

Now when you run CCleaner with vista aero you will be able to open the task manager, look under the processes tab, and see which program has the PID of 6072.

By the way, is your Vista themes service running?

Now this is peculiar. I completely uninstalled CCleaner and the reinstalled it with the colour scheme set to Vista Basic. After this reinstallation, CCleaner still failed; but the colour scheme message did not occur. So I set the colour scheme back to Aero and still not colour scheme message. No program shows up in Task Manager with PID 6072; yet CCleaner still fails. I did verify that the theme service is running as well.

As Kroozer suggested, I ran the SFC utility as well. It claims to have corrected some files; but CCleaner still fails to work, even after a reboot and reinstall. I am still only able to run v4.10 successfully.

Did you check for disk errors? . . . http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Check-your-hard-disk-for-errors

Scheduled the check for disk errors on reboot. installed versions past 4.10 and they all failed, same as before. Still only v4.10 is the last one that works.

Could CCleaner require services that may not be running on my laptop?

Does it require the presence of any DLLs?

Again, I appreciate any help.

to rule out CC needing any system DLL's, have you tried installing the portable version of CC?

So running v5.0 from a USB still results in the same error conditions.

just so I understand - you ran the portable build from the USB stick, not the normal or slim builds?

if so, well, it was worth the effort if for no other reason than to remove that straw from being clutched later.

Yes, I downloaded the CCleaner Portable zip file onto a USB stick and unzipped it there.

Again, I get the same error conditions.

I have previously tried both the normal and slim versions without success as well.

just to get CC to at least run to completion, have you tried running it with the PC in Safe Mode?

Okay we are trying everything now!!

Can you run it under another user account?

You could make one just for the test and then delete it.

EDIT... Just thought.. did you clean any reg entries with 4.10?