- Added new executable: "CCUpdate.exe"
- Added new Windows Scheduled Task: "CCleaner Update"</em></p></div></blockquote>
I assume this Emergency Updater was added to allow Piriform to force an automatic product update if another critical security vulnerability is detected in CCleaner (e.g., similar to the Floxif trojan that was embedded in CCleaner v5.33.6162 as announced <here>).
Before I update to v5.36, could someone please tell me if this Emergency Updater is now included in both the Free and Professional versions of CCleaner, and whether the CCupdate.exe will now be loaded into memory at boot-up even though I’ve disabled my setting to start CCleaner at boot-up and turned off both System Monitoring and Active Monitoring at Options | Monitoring?
And no it's not loaded in memory on boot, it's a Task so it runs based on that, and what I did was delete the newly added Task and the CCUpdate.exe from the folder and it still runs like normal.
Thanks for the link to that update announcement. I haven't installed the v5.36 update yet but it sounds like the new Emergency Updater is included in both the Free and Professional versions of CCleaner.
What is the purpose of giving us the option to disable automatic updates at installation.... if you nevertheless inserted CCleaner exes into the Windows Task Scheduler itself to permanently run !
We are not complaining that you did so - but that you did not give us the *option* - just the option - to UNCHECK this at installation time and opt out of it.
We have to come here, start threads, and only then be told that you did this and how you did it and how to disable it.
An option, just an option at installation would keep *everyone* happy because they would have a *choice*.
No matter what the intent, people use computers differently. We have computer illiterate cousins and friends on whose computers we disable ALL updates because the moment something out of the ordinary happens like Firewalls intercepting CCleaner trying to phone home (!) guess who gets the call at 3am and has to drive 40 minutes to turn that off. It doesn't matter what the reason is, inserting yourself to run with Windows with no warning or OPT OUT option, is the exact _opposite_ of what the purpose of CCleaner is. Please make a CHECKABLE option to opt in or out of this intrusive behavior.
...We are not complaining that you did so - but that you did not give us the *option* - just the option - to UNCHECK this at installation time and opt out of it...
I agree with c627627 that Piriform should add an option to the CCleaner settings to give users a simple way to permanently disable this new Emergency Updater. CCleaner is a disk cleaner - not a real-time antivirus protecting my system from malware attacks - and users like myself who have already disabled the option to Automatically Check for Updates to CCleaner might not want CCUpdate.exe launching at boot-up and connecting to a remote server every day to check for "emergency" updates.
It's critical that Avast/Piriform explain to customers how they will improve their acceptance testing and release management to ensure the "security incident in September" (as it's referred to in the v5.36 announcement <here>) doesn't happen again. Knowing that CCleaner has an Emergency Updater that can perform a forced update if a digitally-signed and white-listed installer ever plants another backdoor Trojan on my computer doesn't do much to restore my confidence in the product.
The old saying "closing the barn door after the horse has already bolted" comes to mind.
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...According to Martin Brinkmann's ghacks.net article <em><a href="https://www.ghacks.net/2017/10/25/ccleaner-5-36-emergency-updater/" rel="external nofollow">CCleaner 5.36 Emergency Updater</a></em> this new feature is likely based on the <a href="https://www.ghacks.net/2012/06/30/avast-update-brings-emergency-updater-and-sitecorrect-features/" rel="external nofollow">Avast Antivirus Emergency Updater</a> introduced in 2012.
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<p>
I agree with c627627 that Piriform should <strong>add an option to the CCleaner settings</strong> to give users a simple way to permanently disable this new <strong>Emergency Updater</strong>. CCleaner is a disk cleaner - not a real-time antivirus protecting my system from malware attacks - and users like myself who have already disabled the option to <em>Automatically Check for Updates to CCleaner</em> might not want CCUpdate.exe launching at boot-up and connecting to a remote server every day to check for "emergency" updates...
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According to the AskVG article [Tip] Customize and Control CCleaner Automatic Updates Settings, the Emergency Updater introduced in v5.36 can be disabled in v5.50 (released 29-Nov-2018) by disabling Options | Updates | Important Updates (highly recommended). Could someone please confirm this is correct, and that disabling this setting actually disables the Windows scheduled task CCleaner Update?
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security v22.15.1.8 * CCleaner Portable v5.47.6716