I just restarted my laptop and was greeted with a “Welcome to the New CCleaner” screen. Why did this happen when I have CCleaner set to not update itwels. I don’t need or want new features. I have been using CCleaner for many many years, and use it for just a few things that it is good at. I don’t want more bloat!!!
CCleaner have for a long time had a policy of updating versions that are more than one year old, even if you have automatic updating turned off.
It tells you so on the settings page.
This is from the v6.41 settings page:
Hi miztrniceguy:
If you were using CCleaner v6.39.11548 (rel. 20-Aug-2025) and were force-upgraded to CCleaner v7.x note that a newer CCleaner v6.41.11567 was released on 23-Jun-2026. If you want to downgrade to CCleaner v6.41 see nukecad’s instructions at How to Roll Back from v7 to v6.## (Now V6.41). In theory, using the “legacy” CCleaner v6.41 (intended for Win 7 and Win 8.1) should give you another year or so before you’re force-upgraded to CCleaner v7.x again.
I currently run CCleaner Free Portable v6.41.11567 from a removable USB stick. This edition does not require installation - I simply download the Portable ccsetup641.zip file from the official builds download page, save to any location (I prefer to run all my Portable apps from a removable USB stick), and unzip.
I’ve disabled both CCleaner settings at Options | Updates (see nukecad’s image <above>) to prevent Avast / Piriform from trying to force-upgrade me to CCleaner v7.x, but as an extra precaution I’ve also deleted all unnecessary folders and files [including the \x64 subfolder that contains CCleanerBugReport.exe, CCleanerCrashDump.exe, CCleanerDU.dll (CCleaner Driver Updater extension), etc.] to minimize any data telemetry being sent back to Avast / Piriform - see my 12-Jun-2026 post in Hmm888’s How much longer should we stay with version 6.39 for further details. That configuration works well for me because I only use the Custom Clean feature in CCleaner for routine disk and browser cleaning, although I will occasionally use tools like Registry (to clean up orphaned registry entries left behind after a program uninstall) and System Restore (to view a list of available Windows restore points). My current CCleaner Portable files look like this:
NOTE: CCleaner Portable stores custom configuration settings in the ccleaner.ini file, so if a new CCleaner Portable v6.x (ccsetup6xx.zip) is ever released in the future I will have to copy and paste my current ccleaner.ini file into the same folder where the new CCleaner64.exe and portable.dat files are located to keep my custom settings.
As I noted <here> in Hmm888’s topic, I refuse to use CCleaner v7.x in its current state so I’ve found another disk cleaner utility for my weekly disk cleanups, and I only keep the “legacy” CCleaner Free Portable v6.41 on a USB stick for running comparative tests with other disk cleaners.
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.7417 * Firefox v152.0.5 * HDCleaner Portable 64-Bit v2.095 * CCleaner Portable 64-bit v6.41.11567