CC also installed Chrome

[Bart00]

CCleaner installation also installed Google Chrome without mention or option. Wonder what else was installed? I no longer trust products from Piriform and will recommend against them wherever I can.

[Dave CCleaner]

@Bart00: CCleaner has been offering Chrome in the installer since late 2010. If you were loading up the free installer there would have been a screen something like this:

Not everyone gets an offer, and for those who do they appear infrequently - the Chrome offer, for example, only appears every 6 months for each user.  We do get some people whose fingers are a bit too quick on the "next" button, so we have been working on making some changes to the installer flow to help ensure that only the people who want the offers end up installing the extra software.

[PaulAtreides]

You people really take us for idiots. That screenshot that you have is nowhere to be found. THIS is what we see:

That whole bottom part of your screenshot is completely absent. If I click on "Customize", I get the following two screens, neither of which mention Chrome anywhere:

Oh, but you want to make us believe it's OUR fault, that we just kept clicking on "Next" without reading. At least have the decency of OWNING up to your dawn practices.

This was the last time you violate me and my PC.

[Dave CCleaner]

14 hours ago, PaulAtreides said:

That screenshot that you have is nowhere to be found

Pretty sure that this has been covered here several times before (including in this very thread), but you will only see the Chrome offer banner if the Chrome offer is actually being made.  Chrome is only offered a maximum of once every 6 months per user, and overall only around 16% of installs are presented with a Chrome offer. You don't need to burrow down into "customize", etc - it will be right there on the front screen if you are one of the 16%.  If you are one of the 84% and don't see it, it is not because it is hidden - it is simply not there.

[PaulAtreides]

9 minutes ago, Dave CCleaner said:

Pretty sure that this has been covered here several times before (including in this very thread), but you will only see the Chrome offer banner if the Chrome offer is actually being made.  Chrome is only offered a maximum of once every 6 months per user, and overall only around 16% of installs are presented with a Chrome offer. You don't need to burrow down into "customize", etc - it will be right there on the front screen if you are one of the 16%.  If you are one of the 84% and don't see it, it is not because it is hidden - it is simply not there.

Ok, and so how do I opt out of having Chrome installed? So you are saying that I only have the choice of opting out of a Chrome install if the Chrome offer is being made. The rest of the time, it is installed by default with no warning and no way to opt out. How does this excuse your company again? So you admit that Chrome is installed by default when there is no option to not install it?

Before you ask, YES, Chrome was installed, and YES, I'm sure it was CCleaner that installed it.

Edited June 7, 2020 by PaulAtreides

[Nergal]

5 hours ago, PaulAtreides said:

The rest of the time, it is installed by default with no warning

No, the rest of the time no chrome offer or install.

[PaulAtreides]

2 minutes ago, Nergal said:

No, the rest of the time no chrome offer or install.

Ok... and that means what? That you don't belive your program installed Chrome on my PC? How is it that Chrome magically appeared (as in, the program launched) after the installation of CCleaner and magically became my default browser?

Actions speak louder than words. You can say that your program doesn't install Chrome but what happend proves that's not the case. I'm far from being the only person to complain about this so no, you can't chalk it up to not reading and just clicking "Next", which is what I see you tend to do to shut people up. Stop taking us for idiots and own up to your dubious practices. At least have the decency to do that.

[Dave CCleaner]

You will not get something that has not been offered.  And you will not get something that has been offered if you do not accept. Three possible scenarios:

1. If Chrome is offered and you accept -> Chrome installed
2. If Chrome is offered and you decline -> no Chrome installed
3. If Chrome is not offered -> no Chrome installed (but maybe offered something else instead on a later screen)

 

[hazelnut]

22 minutes ago, Dave CCleaner said:

 If Chrome is not offered -> no Chrome installed (but maybe offered something else instead on a later screen)

 

 

Offered something else? Such as?

[Dave CCleaner]

19 minutes ago, hazelnut said:

 

Offered something else? Such as?

 

At the moment the "something else" could be Avast AV, AVG AV, CCleaner Browser, Avast Secureline VPN ... or again, in a large percentage of cases, nothing.

       
 

       

 

[Nergal]

On 07/06/2020 at 11:42, PaulAtreides said:

Ok... and that means what? That you don't belive your program installed Chrome on my PC? How is it that Chrome magically appeared (as in, the program launched) after the installation of CCleaner and magically became my default browser?

Actions speak louder than words. You can say that your program doesn't install Chrome but what happend proves that's not the case. I'm far from being the only person to complain about this so no, you can't chalk it up to not reading and just clicking "Next", which is what I see you tend to do to shut people up. Stop taking us for idiots and own up to your dubious practices. At least have the decency to do that.

No what we're saying is your screenshot does not prove anything because the offer won't show the second time you ran the installer if it showed the first time. you missed it and chrome is installed (or if chrome was declined the offer won't show either)

[PaulAtreides]

Of course, I missed the HUGE A** Chrome icon on the install setup ! All I see is a company that will go to great lengths to place the blame on their users rather than own up to something.

I'll have you know that this is not the first time this has happened to me. Both times on a brand new computer that only had Windows installed. The first time, I also came looking for information. I accepted the possibility that I had too hastily gone through the setup and accepted the "blame" of it. This time, I can assure you, that I made sure to read EVERYTHING, to go into EVERY option.

What nerve to imply that I did not see an Icon that would have been impossible to miss, to imply that your company has NO fault, NO blame.

Edited June 8, 2020 by PaulAtreides

[Nergal]

I'm not a representative of the company, i'm a simple user like you

[Dave CCleaner]

22 hours ago, PaulAtreides said:

I can assure you, that I made sure to read EVERYTHING

With a user base larger than the size of most countries, and a couple of billion installations over the years I suspect that if CCleaner was secretly installing Chrome to 84% of users it probably would have been noticed by now.

That said, with so many possible configurations of computers, there is always the possibility that something will go weird on a small percentage of them.  If you can provide some additional information that might help us track down what might have caused a buggy install experience:

• Which version of CCleaner did you install when you noticed Chrome appear?
• Did Chrome start immediately after you installed CCleaner, or some time afterwards?
• What version (and build if Windows 10) of Windows are you using?
• What antivirus and firewall are you using (brand and version)?
• Have you configured your firewall to block traffic to specific domains?
• Are you using a screen reader or any other form of assistive technology?
• Do you still have Chrome installed?
• Is there anything in the registry key \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Common\Rlz\RLZs?  If so can you paste it here please?

[Zabiak]

Sorry Dave CCleaner I have to agree with Paul.

Just installed Free CCleaner v5.34.6207(64-bit) - (I had it saved) on Windows 7 Pro 64-BIT SP1. It INSTALLED Chrome exactly as Paul spelled out. Nothing on the install window whatsoever; and though I had the 9597KB .exe it says "it was Downloading" - found it confusing, but let it install. Once installed my screen flashed and lo behold there is Chrome icon and it immediately popped up. I immediately Unistalled via Program and Features

There is nothing in the location you suggested in the Registry, BUT there are ...\Google\Chrome Extensions & \Google\SoftwarRemovalTool\Cleaner & \Google\Update\ClientState\...

I also found new Folder under Program Files (x86)\Google created today AND in my Users\...\Local\Temp files I found "chrome_installer.log" - see Attached

For antivirus I am running Norton 360 v.22.22.1.58

I too am very disappointed in this - have been a user for many, many years. I do realize this is a Free version BUT, I will probably no longer use it. (BTW, on another PC also running Win 7 Pro, the CCleaner update from a previous CCleaner version DID NOT install Chrome; BUT this was the new fresh install)

chrome_installer.log

[nukecad]

It has to be asked - Why are you installing a version of CCleaner that is from 2017?
It's 5 years old, and 50+ versions out of date. To put it plainly - it is obsolete.

I strongly suggest that you stop using that old CCleaner v5.34 and install the latest v5.90.
Apart from anything else browsers have changed extensively since 2017, CCleaner v5.34 will not be cleaning them properly.

 

To your comments about using that obsolete installer:

Yes we know the offers in that old installer could be missed.

And yes - there was a very rare bug in that old installer where sometimes the offer would be there but it did not display properly on the screen, so you couldn't see that something needed to be unticked. (You couldn't even see the box to untick it).
I got that once myself, and an unwanted Chrome, about 7 years ago. I've installed CCleaner hundreds of times since and never got anything except CCleaner.

Regulars here knew that something odd could sometimes happen, but because it was extremely rare it took a long time to spot just what was happening and then catch it 'in the wild'  and confirm that it wasn't just a lack of user attention.

The installer was re-written in October 2019 so that if you did get an offer it would display the big blue 'Decline' and 'Accept' buttons as shown in the last set of screenshots above.
The installer has had other changes/updates since then.

So any comments made about what is now an obsolete installer will have no relevence at all to todays installer.

 

[Dave CCleaner]

14 hours ago, Zabiak said:

Just installed Free CCleaner v5.34.6207(64-bit) - (I had it saved) on Windows 7 Pro 64-BIT SP1. It INSTALLED Chrome exactly as Paul spelled out.

CCleaner 5.34.6207 was released in September 2017 and is now 67 versions out of date. 

The increased offer transparency (separate full screen offer format vs banner on the setup screen, accept/decline buttons vs pre-check and continue) started to be introduced in late 2019.  For Chrome this was in place in mid-2020. 

From 2010 to 2019 the offer was baked into the installer, so there is no way to retrospectively change it on older versions.

14 hours ago, Zabiak said:

I do realize this is a Free version BUT, I will probably no longer use it.

No longer using CCleaner 5.34 is a very good idea - given its age, I doubt it even still works properly.  CCleaner 5.46 is the oldest version that will even load on Windows 10 1909 and above.  With regards to CCleaner functionality, note that cleaning performance will degrade over time on older versions as changes to the operating system, browsers and other apps are reflected in changes to the cleaning rules.  For a variety of reasons, unless you are using Windows XP or Vista, we recommend against using outdated versions of CCleaner.  

[Zabiak]

Thanks for clarifying the version numbers.

YES, I do realize that it is suggested to always run the "latest" versions. From my nearly 40 years of writing and using software, I know that there is no such thing as "bug-free" software. Unless the underlying O/S has changed, the old software should work fine. As far as I know there is no software "bit-rot" unlike 'rot' in my very old car. Lot of times new software is worse than previous versions - I just watched Microsoft and their Updates over the many, many years. (and many other software releases with newly introduced problems)

As I mentioned I am running Windows 7, not Windows 10 which BTW in my opinion (Win10) is mostly full of useless app bloatware. Some of us 'older folks' do not need latest and the greatest gadgets, we are happy with just plain working programs.

But, thanks again for replying, obviously you know your CCleaner software better I do.

Regards

[redwolfe_98]

i had a similar experience. once, not too long ago, when installing ccleaner, it automatically installed the chrome browser, which i didn't like. there was no option for opting out of the chrome-install; no mention of chrome's being installed at all.

since then, i always use the ccleaner "slim"-install for installing ccleaner, assuming that, with it, no extra "crap" is going to be installed.

i realize that the ccleaner installer will not install the chrome browser if the chrome browser is already installed. in this case, i was doing a clean install of windows 10 and i opted to install ccleaner before installing the chrome browser. normally, the chrome browser would have been the first thing that i installed, which, i suppose, is the reason that i never noticed the problem before.