CCleaner Stalling

CCleaner for Windows
1

From time to time someone posts that CCleaner has stalled or frozen and won't continue.

I just saw it for the first time on a win 7 laptop from which I was removing the Vosteran search addon from Firefox and IE.

I used ADWCleaner. When it runs, it installs itself at C:\AdwCleaner, and anything it deletes goes to a "Quarantine" folder there.

At the end of the removal, I deleted the files at C:\AdwCleaner, then ran CCleaner to clear out the leftovers.

CCleaner stalled on that Quarantine folder in the recycle bin.

In fact there were 2 or 3 files in the recycle bin that had been deleted from Quarantine, CCleaner wouldn't delete any of them.

No processes were running that would have locked those files.

I think CCleaner won't delete any files that are in use. For example, I run Firefox Portable in a sandbox, and CCleaner won't touch it while it is running, but will delete everything when it isn't running. But CCleaner doesn't stall in that case, it just leaves the active files untouched.

As a solution, I just restored the quarantined files to their original location, used CCleaner to delete what was left in the recycle bin (this part worked fine), then deleted the quarantined files again, opened the recycle bin, and deleted them directly from there. Worked OK.

And the point, for any who may still be awake: Those quarantined files must have had some special attribute that stopped CCleaner, but not normal deleting. It would be nice if there was some way for CCleaner to notify the user why it has stopped.

2

Although an avenue worth further investigating, I can at least attest to the fact that this isn't always the case.

In fact today, I ran Adaware on 3 different PC's followed by CC to remove crapware without CC stalling.

On the PC's next reboot, Adaware pops up it's "look what I found" box which I use as a reminder to remove its folder.

I then ran CC again, without problems. The hanging issue seems to be very isolated.

For all the times I have ran CC on all the countless PC's, I think it has only hung twice that I can recall.

But for the next few occasions I will make an extra note to definitely run Adaware first and monitor how CC then goes when the Adaware folder is in the Recycle Bin.

3

Hi, mta.

Ad-Aware is a legend. It is one of the software freebies that saved many of us for many years.

I had forgotten about it, had not even thought about it for removing Vosteran. . .thanks for the reminder.

Whaddaya know it is still free.

A few years ago it was part of a pretty common security setup which included such freeware as

  • EZAntivirus . . . wow, that one goes way back.

  • XoftSpy SE Antispyware,

  • Ad-Aware,

  • SuperAntiSpyware,

  • Spybot S&D with the Tea Timer, one of Hazelnuts favorites if memory serves :) .

  • SpywareBlaster.

  • SpywareGuard,

Those are all still going strong except SpywareGuard.

The good ole days, eh?

However, for removing Vosteran I was using was ADWCleaner, which targets toolbars & such.

ADWCleaner is available at:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

I must say here that the one has to be careful with ADWCleaner. It selected for deletion a big folder containing some "fixer" type software. Don't know why, the folder contained no malware, but luckily it was backed up. You can review everything ADWCleaner targets before deleting anything.

Ad-Aware is at:

http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
4

OMG, I had a complete 'brain on auto' mode in that other post.

I wrote Adaware (numerous times) but meant ADWCleaner - talk about a blonde moment.

Yep Adaware and Spybot were the stalwarts of the pc repair toolkit in their days.

I haven't used either for many many years. Adaware released some resource hungry anniversary edition and Spybot didn't release anything for years. so both got ditched - in favour for MalwareBytes I think. It was around then I discovered CC also.

I checked out your Adaware link, geez, they have moved on and up in the world.

5

. . . - talk about a blonde moment.

grrrrrrrrr

6

Oh dear. Run, mta run. :o

7

I think CCleaner won't delete any files that are in use.

..and the really bad thing is it won't schedule files to be deleted/removed on restart - something which could've and should've been implemented many years ago. It was a suggestion I posted in the Staff area just hoping CCleaner could be made to delete files on reboot - it needs that ability.

One suggestion is undo the delete from the Recycle Bin then use a freeware tool that can delete locked files such as Unlocker, or Malwarebytes FileASSASSIN. I won't recommend HijackThis for removal since some people have reported it hosing their Internet connection - probably from improper usage, etc.

8

grrrrrrrrr

Oh dear. Run, mta run. :o

:D I have to look no further than the mirror !!! :D