Windows security centre reporting 'App or process blocked: CCleaner64.exe'

Hi I may have expanded my 'protected folders' to include Mydocuments, Pictures etc. thinking I was improving security but I may have caused a problem for CCleaner, I now get a message repeated every few hours or so 'App or process blocked: CCleaner64.exe' in notifications from Windows security centre, at least I'm hoping this is the issue and I've not been hacked or Ccleaner has been compromised?

The full text is:

App or process blocked: CCleaner64.exe


Protected folder: \Device\Harddisk0\DRO


Blocked by: Controlled folder access

Just wondering if anyone can shed any light on this, & if it's safe to allow Cccleaner to access these protected folders, I also get the notification when I run Ccleaner's 'clean up' tool for old cache files etc. I do wonder if this started cos I added my profile/mydocuments etc. to the protected folder list in the Win security centre..

thanks for any advice

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"\Device\Harddisk0\DR0" is disc '0' on your system, which is usually the system drive (where Windows itself is installed).

The junk files that CCleaner cleans will mostly be on that system drive, (some of them may even be in your Documents folder, it depends what apps you use. Some apps store temporary files in your Documents folder),

Controlled Folder Access gets cautious and will often stop non-microsoft apps deleting things from controlled folders.


So if CFA is blocking CCleaner you will have to change it's settings to allow CCleaner to do it's job.


* (You may find CFA interferes with other apps you have as well, see below).

As in that notification you got, Micosoft say about Controlled Folder Access:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/allow-an-app-to-access-controlled-folders-b5b6627a-b008-2ca2-7931-7e51e912b034

Quote
<div class="ipsQuote_contents ipsClearfix" data-gramm="false">
	<p>
		Occasionally, an app that is safe to use will be identified as harmful. This happens because Microsoft wants to keep you safe and will sometimes err on the side of caution; however, this might interfere with how you normally use your PC. You can add an app to the list of safe or allowed apps to prevent them from being blocked.
	</p>
</div>

To do that go to: Virus & threat protection settings>Manage settings.

Under Controlled folder access, select <em>Manage Controlled folder access</em>.


Next <em>Allow an app through controlled folder access</em> then <em>+ Add an allowed app</em>.


You will get an option to add a <em>Recently blocked app</em> or <em>Browse all apps</em>. If CCleaner has been blocked by CFA then it should be in the recently blocked list.

Of course the other option is to turn Controlled Folder Access off again.

* When I last turned it on I found that it was stopping my non-Microsoft Wordprocessor and Spreadsheet apps from saving files in my documents folder (It wouldn't let the old backup files be deleted/changed to make a new backup of a modified file).


I don't know if CFA has changed since, but at that time it was tending to block anything that wasn't Microsofts own apps.

Thanks tho what worries me is how Ccleaner needs to write to memory when it's not even running as a task or a process? I can't oddly see Ccleaner.exe in my task manager running? Maybe the defender message is from when Ccleaner was running and it's just shown repeatedly, also the reference to memory might I guess refer to the actual directory/file contents, but seems odd it refferes to 'memory'?

It's not necessarily about writing, CFA may be stopping it from deleting things. (Cleaning junk).

If you have Smart Cleaning enabled then that could be why you would see that message when CCleaner isn't open as such.

Smart Cleaning has tried to clean something but CFA stopped it?

Or possibly if you have check for updates on CCleaner is checking every couple of hours and then trying to make a note of the time it checked but CFA is stopping it making that note?

PS. I think by 'Memory' it just means storage memory - it is Controlled Folder Access, and Folders are file storage on your drive.