Oh, and, no 3rd party A/V - just the built-in Microsoft Defender; and, yes, default installation path, and free edition (not trial/pro, although there is a chance that this installation, prior to the current uninstall/reinstall cycle, might have been either a trial or even a pro license at some point in its history).
It’s because those two settings are pre-ticked in the installer, and a silent install doesn’t let you untick them.
So Ninites silent install is always going to turn them on.
(However if you have already saved an INI file then that will turn them off again as soon as you run the newly installed CCleaner).
I explained that above, including a screenshot of the pre-ticked settings in the installer.
Let’s re-state this. Please, as a feature request, offer a switch on the installer, to allow silent update, explicitly respecting already-set user preferences. Or, some other way for Ninite/ any device management software, to achieve the sale - update an already-installed CCleaner installation without changing any user preferences.
I also think that we are not getting anywhere here. However I have no motive other than trying to help yourself and other users.
I’m telling you (at least I’m trying to) how to get the results that you want using things as they currently are - you can do that right now.
You instead appear to want CCleaner to make changes because Ninite does a silent install of CCleaner and not an update of CCleaner.
And yes the semantics are important, the two words mean different things.
There is no incentive for CCleaner to make changes, the update options they have work just fine. What Ninite are doing with using a silent install is not CCleaner’s problem.
You also appear to be under the misimpression that I work for CCleaner - I don’t.
(I am however someone who has been using computers for over 50 years, yes back in the 70’s and 80’s, and has been active on multiple fora helping many people over the past 20 of those years).
I think that as we are getting nowhere here then I will bow out of this thread; with one last comment.
That will basically make you do what I have been saying above, stop using Ninite to install new CCleaner versions, and instead do your CCleaner update from CCleaner itself.
As I say I don’t think this thread is going anywhere now other than round in circles, so will bow out.
@nukecad Yes, I was under the misimpression that you represented CCleaner in some way.
I’m also a technology and technology policy old fart. I started getting paid for this stuff in the early 1980s, after having begun playing with computers in the mid 1970s. I also spend a surprising amount of my time trying to make things better for the users (though in my case it’s more around policy and law, less around any one or another specific product).
I continue to insist that there’s value in software makers making their software manageable. .INI file workarounds and trusting the software’s own built-in updater simply are not good enough for environments which need central management, because they require manual oversight which is less efficient.
It’s a reasonable question, of course, whether CCleaner’s commercial model gives two shakes of a rat’s tail about environments that need central management.
Hi libove:
I’m not sure how much help I can offer troubleshooting your problem since I have a Win 10 OS and I usually log in to Windows with a Microsoft account with Adminstrator rights (and yes, I understand the security risks that poses). I also use CCleaner Free Portable, so my CCleaner settings are automatically saved in a file called ccleaner.ini ** instead of my registry.
Did you delete all CCleaner-related tasks in Task Scheduler (.g., CCleanerCrashReporting, CCleanerSkipUAC, etc.) before reinstalling CCleaner Free? When you reinstalled CCleaner Free v6.38 did you download the full offline installer for the Slim build (ccsetup638_slim.exe) from the official builds download page, and if so did you save ccsetup638_slim.exe to your desktop, right-click, and choose “Run as Administrator”?
Before attempting any further reinstalls launch your re-installed CCleaner v6.38 with Administrator rights by right-clicking the .exe executable (probably C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner64.exe) and choosing “Run as Administrator”. If you make a few random changes to your CCleaner settings, close CCleaner, and then re-start again with Administrator rights do those settings changes hold (i.e., persist with each launch of CCleaner)?
This is just a guess on my part, but I suspect your problem is unique to your system because of a glitch with the permissions of one of your Win 11 user profiles and not a widespread issue amongst CCleaner Free v6.38 users who use Ninite to update their installed edition of CCleaner. If that’s the case try nukecad’s suggestion to save your custom settings in ccleaner.ini while you’re troubleshooting your problem by enabling Options | Advanced | Save All Settings to INI File, which allows you to easily back up, transfer, or restore your settings. From the support article Change advanced settings in CCleaner for Windows:
You can use this option to copy your CCleaner settings to a new computer just by copying the ccleaner.ini file.
Also, once you’ve selected this setting, your desktop CCleaner installation is now a portable installation. Simply copy the contents of the CCleaner program directory onto a USB drive and you can use it on any other PC.
** NOTE : I take exception to Avast / Piriform referring to any installed edition of CCleaner as “portable” just because the settings are stored in ccleaner.ini. If you install with ccsetup638_slim.exe you still have files created in C:\Program Files\CCleaner\ and registry entries created in your registry, and you must still uninstall the program from Settings | Apps or Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features. A “true” portable app can be unzipped and run from any location, should not create registry entries (although my CCleaner Free Portable I run from a removable USB stick does create some registry entries and other unwanted bloat), and the unzipped files of a portable app can simply be deleted from your drive if you don’t want to use the app any more.
I also agree with nukecad’s suggestion to simply update CCleaner Free yourself when Ninite detects an available update. Asking the software devs at Avast / Piriform to make changes to CCleaner to fix a possible conflict with a third-party software updater probably isn’t going to happen. I rarely use CCleaner these days, primarily because of the abysmal support from their customer service reps and paid employees, and have moved on to another disk cleaner utility.
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.6093 * Firefox v141.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.25070.5-1.1.25070.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.3.6.205-138.0.5346 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * HDCleaner Portable 64-Bit 2.091 * CCleaner Free Portable v6.38.11537
Yes, I deleted all the Task Scheduler entries, too.
The reinstall was the normal full installer directly from CCleaner’s webpage, run without explicit elevation (That is, I just ran it, as little old me, then responded to the UAC prompt).
By the way, while it’s quite possible that there’s something about the way I use my Windows machines that is interacting badly with something that (I suspect that) CCleaner does (wrong), this problem of being unable to change certain settings happens on more than one machine, so it’s not just one isolated incidence of corruption.
Back on the machine where I did the uninstall/clean/install, if I launch CCleaner with explicit elevation, Settings changes do stick .. although checking the box to add the CCleaner context menu options to the Recycle Bin do NOT take effect in my logged-in user session; I suspect they would show up if I logged in as the local admin user with which I perform UAC elevations .. which would confirm my suspicion that CCleaner isn’t handling not-always-administrator user accounts and UAC correctly.
I agree with your contention that what CCleaner calls “portable” is not portable. Portable requires no installation at all in Windows, just copying files into a directory…
Just curious, what alternative cleaner do you more use these days?
thanks,
Jay
Hi libove:
Please see the private message I sent you.
——————
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.6093 * Firefox v141.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.25070.5-1.1.25070.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.3.6.205-138.0.5346 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * HDCleaner Portable 64-Bit 2.091 * CCleaner Free Portable v6.38.11537
Edit to my report that changes did not appear in the context menu of the Recycle Bin - probably the changes DID appear; I’m still not used to Windows 11 hiding menu items behind the “More …” context menu option, especially on short context menus. Yes, the options took effect.
I performed another test. I again cleanly uninstalled, then I temporarily added my user account to the local Administrators group, and re-installed. This time, at the UAC elevation prompt, I just clicked “yes”, instead of having to give an entirely different account with admin privileges. The installation worked as expected. I went through a first-run experience, declined the optional gunk, set my preferences, exited and re-ran CCleaner, and all worked - as would be expected.
I then removed my account from the local Administrators group, logged out and back in, and tried to run CCleaner. It would not open - the window never appeared; however, in Task Manager, I saw a never-ending cycling of one-or-two-each CCleaner.exe and CCleaner64.exe processes (rolling through Process ID numbers). To kill the cycle I had to log out - there was no user-visible process to try to ‘x’ out, and the process IDs rolled too fast to be able to successfully select and terminate them in process manager. (I didn’t try taskkill /IM “ccleaner*.exe” because I couldn’t remember the taskkill command at the moment).
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I’m not just here on CCleaner forum, you’ll find me on other techie fora too, and in the past I modded an Autocad forum, for the past 12 years or so my main focus has been giving advice on disability and benefits/welfare fora here in the UK.
The points that you make there are valid points.
However I find it best to help users with what they can do now rather than trying to get any company to change it;s product(s).
(Although we mods here have had some success with getting changes made to CCleaner in the past, but that doesn’t happen quickly).
I’m not quite sure if by “Central management” here you are meaning managing endpoints on a network?
If you are then there’s a different usage case to the home user, and there’s a different CCleaner product for businesses/organisations that specifically manages endpoints, ‘CCleaner Cloud’.
I will make another, possibly useful or at least informative, addition to this thread though:
The permissions issue that you are seeing when installing CCleaner in/from different accounts may well be due to an installer bug that we have known about for some time.
The bug isn’t CCleaner itself, it’s the installer that has the bug.
On some systems if CCleaner is installed from a non-admin account then it does not get the elevated permissions that it needs.
(We haven’t been able to pin down why some systems and not others, it appears to be how the individual computer has been set up. - I guess the CClener devs can’t pin it down either and it’s difficult to fix a bug when you can’t pin down what triggers it. Your comment about the “cycling of one-or-two-each CCleaner.exe and CCleaner64.exe processes” may be of help to them there, I don’t think anyone has noticed that before).
We do have a workround for it though.
What you need to do in those cases is when installing CCleaner then on the last page of the installer tick ‘Run CCleaner’ and let the installer open it for that first time.
For some reason doing that means that the installer always gives CCleaner the elevated permissions it needs, and it opens and runs fine from then on.
(of course though if you are doing a silent install then you don’t see the installer pages so can’t tick or untick anything on them).
I see that another long time member here, lmacri, is now engaging with you so I’ll bow out again now, good luck getting your CCleaner to where you want to be. (or with an alternative cleaner if you choose to go that way).
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Hi libove:
As a quick test, log in to Windows with your local account (i.e., your regular account that does NOT have Administrator rights), create a shortcut on your desktop for C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner64.exe, and edit the properties of that shortcut so CCleaner64.exe launches with Administrator rights.
Then use that desktop shortcut to launch CCleaner Free while still logged in with the same local account and see if CCleaner Free launches correctly.
This won’t help if you’re logged in with this local account when Ninite tries to perform a silent install of the CCleaner installer (Slim build) to update CCleeaner, but the test results might provide some insight into what’s going on with the permissions for your local account.
Hi nukecad:
I’ve been using the Portable edition of CCleaner Free for over a decade and know nothing about possible bugs with the offline installer(s) but I did find kreien’s 05-Aug-2024 CCleaner Professional 6.26.111.69 - won’t start for local user after reading your latest comments. If you (or anyone else) have further insights or have a link to a newer thread discussing this bug I’d encourage you to keep posting here in libove’s topic, since this could explain why a recent automated update by Ninite seemed to corrupt libove’s CCleaner installation.
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.6093 * Firefox v141.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.25070.5-1.1.25070.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.3.6.205-138.0.5346 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * CCleaner Free Portable 6.38.11537 * HDCleaner Portable 64-Bit v2.091
I re-added my user to the local Administrators group, re-installed CCleaner, DID let CCleaner do a first run under the initial elevation, exited, re-ran CCleaner, everything worked fine (including adding and removing the CCleaner items to the Recycle Bin’s Context menu); I removed my user from the local Adminsitrators group, logged out and back in again, tried to run CCleaner .. and same problem: never ending cycle of one-or-two each CCleaner.exe CCleaner64.exe processes.
Reboot Windows (to stop that cycle), logged back in (as my normal, still-not-an-administrator user), ran CCleaner explicitly elevated (start → CCleaner → run as Administrator), and it ran fine .. though it showed some different options selected than it had shown before. During the still-elevated first-run before, I had de-selected automatically keep up to date and smart cleaning. Those WERE selected on this most recent run (as my non-privileged user, CCleaner explicitly started elevated).
I disabled those settings again, exited CCleaner, re-ran CCleaner again explicitly elevated, and now the options stay set.
Finally, I ran CCleaner NOT elevated, and the no-UI-ever-appears, CCleaner.exe&CCleaner64.exe processes cycle forever problem returned.
I uninstalled CCleaner again (this time, by using Ninite’s uninstall function - that worked way better!) and I installed CCleaner using Ninite; CCleaner will not start non-elevated (and also does not do the CCleaner.exe&CCleaner64.exe processes cycling thing - just one single CCleaner64.exe process briefly appears then exits, without ever showing a UI).
I ran CCleaner explicitly elevated once, which interstingly did not result in the CCleaner options being added to the Recycle Bin context menu, exited, then ran CCleaner without elevation, and it started successfully (but, turned back on the “keep automatically up to date” option, which I again disabled), exited, started CCleaner again without elevation, and it ran, respecting the user preferences.
For whatever all of this is worth…
To each their own, which types of “make the world” better they/we/you wish to pursue. Or, as my friends here in Spain might put it, we each choose our own windmills at which to tilt…
Central Management - I mean e.g. (Mobile) Device Management solutions, used by either central I.T. department pushing out software, monitoring that it stays patched-up-to-date, etc, or even as in my case “I’m the extended family’s I.T. guy”, so, again, pushing out software, monitoring that it stays patched-up-to-date. Examples include Ninite, Microsoft InTune, etc.
The fact that there is a business-oriented CCleaner product might be a reasonable explanation for not making CCleaner (not-cloud) be un-manageable centrally .. except that unless CCleaner Cloud integrates with Device Management solutions, the same basic concerns arise, just with a different user/administrator experience. So the recommendation to CCleaner to “play nice with central management solutions” stands.
Regarding whether the permissions issue comes from “CCleaner” or from “the installer”, unless “the installer” is MSI (Microsoft’s formal solution for software installation) and the bug occurs in MSI despite the CCleaner team using MSI entirely correctly, the bug is still coming from “CCleaner” (the company).
I’ve passed along the most recent posts in this thread to CCleaner’s support staff directly. We’ll see what they do with it.
I did try having the first-run be launched by the CCleaner installation at the very end, but that didn’t actually solve the problem.