Share your ideas for CCleaner 6.0!

[Guest Stephen CCleaner]

Hi everyone, I'm pleased to share that we are now embarking on our next major version update - CCleaner 6.0 - and want it to be built in line with your needs.

Please use this thread to help us to understand what improvements or totally new features you'd like to see in the next evolution of CCleaner!

[Andavari]

Fonts/Text Accessibility:
* Bigger fonts/text inside CCleaner, or the ability for users to change the size and even the color.
* Properly space and wrap text in the Results window so that it doesn't run off.

 

Registry Cleaner:
* Fulfill the once promised move of the Registry Cleaner into the Tools section, and have a setting or tickbox to disable finding anything in C:\Windows.
* Registry Cleaner should be able to create a System Restore Point if the service is enabled on the system.

 

Bug Fix:
* Fix the random cosmetic doubling bug that lists cleaners twice.

 

Duplicate Finder:
* State that the hash (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256) or whatever it is that CCleaner uses matches on dups.
Example 1: SHA-256 matches, these files are identical.
Example 2: SHA-256 does not match, these files are not identical.
* Do not scan for dups in C:\Windows, AppData, ProgramData, i.e.; areas that shouldn't be messed with.

 

Drive Wiper / Secure Deletion / Wipe Free Space:
* Grey out the box so that selecting NAND flash based media isn't possible (eMMC, SD Memory Card, SSD, USB Flash Drive, etc).
* Fulfill the once promised option to override what a drive type actually is since they are sometimes incorrectly identified, i.e., when an HDD is identified as an SSD or vice-versa.

 

Unrealistic:
* Update/auto-update similar to how antivirus does to download new files without needing a new setup file, i.e.; CCleaner.exe, CCleaner64.exe, language files, etc.
* Or use Push Updates, example: https://network-box.com/faq-push-update-e

 

Critical:
Rework or switch the installer since NSIS has way too many failures both installing and now also uninstalling, others are Inno Setup, InstallShield, or whatever, or make your own.
Here's a short list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_installation_software

 

GUI Themes:
Ability to change colors or apply themes, both official and user/community created.

Community Winapp2.ini Improvements:
Remove the necessity to use often forgotten weird characters, such as: \|
Example, this: %ProgramFiles%\SomeApp\|*.log
Would become this (as Windows see's it): %ProgramFiles%\SomeApp\*.log

Auto maximize the CCleaner GUI window on displays that are now too small to fit the standard window size:
Inspired by this topic:
https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/60001-ccleaner-too-big-for-my-little-laptop-screen/
 

[Guest Stephen CCleaner]

Thanks very much Andavari for the feedback!

 

Quote

Fonts/Text Accessibility:
* Bigger fonts/text inside CCleaner, or the ability for users to change the size and even the color.
* Properly space and wrap text in the Results window so that it doesn't run off.

Yes! We'll be improving the cleaning UI and, more generally, building in flexibility in the UI so that content is responsive (window resizing, language changes, font resizing) and can support other customization such as light/dark themes.

 

Quote

Registry Cleaner:
* Fulfill the once promised move of the Registry Cleaner into the Tools section, and have a setting or tickbox to disable finding anything in C:\Windows.
* Registry Cleaner should be able to create a System Restore Point if the service is enabled on the system.

Yes to #1! We may even do this in CC5 ahead of CC6. #2 makes sense but would probably come further down the line.

 

Quote

Bug Fix:
* Fix the random cosmetic doubling bug that lists cleaners twice.

This doesn't have to wait for CC6. Can you help me with a link to where this is reported?

 

Quote

Duplicate Finder:
* State that the hash (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256) or whatever it is that CCleaner uses matches on dups.
Example 1: SHA-256 matches, these files are identical.
Example 2: SHA-256 does not match, these files are not identical.
* Do not scan for dups in C:\Windows, AppData, ProgramData, i.e.; areas that shouldn't be messed with.

There are many improvements we can make to Duplicate finder. This would probably come later down the line in CC6.

 

Quote

Drive Wiper / Secure Deletion / Wipe Free Space:
* Grey out the box so that selecting NAND flash based media isn't possible (eMMC, SD Memory Card, SSD, USB Flash Drive, etc).
* Fulfill the once promised option to override what a drive type actually is since they are sometimes incorrectly identified, i.e., when an HDD is identified as an SSD or vice-versa.

We'll look into #1 for CC5, and evaluate #2 for CC5/6.

 

Quote

Unrealistic:
* Update/auto-update similar to how antivirus does to download new files without needing a new setup file, i.e.; CCleaner.exe, CCleaner64.exe, language files, etc.
* Or use Push Updates, example: https://network-box.com/faq-push-update-e

Decoupling cleaning definition updates from full exe replacements is something we plan for CC6.

 

Quote

Critical:
Rework or switch the installer since NSIS has way too many failures both installing and now also uninstalling, others are Inno Setup, InstallShield, or whatever, or make your own.
Here's a short list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_installation_software

We have been researching installer tech for some months now. Although lightweight, NSIS is fairly cumbersome to work with. We want to strike the right balance. Either way, installer tech is likely to change for CC6.

 

Quote

GUI Themes:
Ability to change colors or apply themes, both official and user/community created.

Yes to the first, the second one is an interesting suggestion but further down the to do list.
 

Quote

Community Winapp2.ini Improvements:
Remove the necessity to use often forgotten weird characters, such as: \|
Example, this: %ProgramFiles%\SomeApp\|*.log
Would become this (as Windows see's it): %ProgramFiles%\SomeApp\*.log

We can look into this for CC5.
 

Quote

Auto maximize the CCleaner GUI window on displays that are now too small to fit the standard window size:
Inspired by this topic:
https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/60001-ccleaner-too-big-for-my-little-laptop-screen/

Thanks, we'll evaluate this for CC5. In CC6 the UI will  be built to resize and reshape as needed.

[Frank M]

Duplicate Finder: It would be helpful (to me at least) if the displayed list of duplicate files would include the Modified Date, especially considering Modified Date is a search criteria (criterion?). As I deal with many photo files, I often want to base my decision to retain/delete on when files are modified.

[siliconman01]

I would like to have a user selectable setting in CCleaner that permits the user to run only one copy of CCleaner is RAM at any one time.  This would prevent an accidental double click on app start icon from starting two copies of CCleaner at the same time

[dvdbane]

Please add this

• Show deleted registry entry at Advanced Report

[trium]

tools -> software updater...

 

please add all your own (piriform/avast) apps into the scan-process if this are installed and show if this "up-to-date-programs" or "programs to update"

in my case it shows only speccy

but there are also

1. recuva
2. defraggler
3. ccleaner (ofcourse)
4. ccleaner cloud
5. and so on (avg or avast-av)
6. (perhaps ccleaner browser + kamo)

i mean these programs should definitely be included in the search list.

[Andavari]

Include the ability to create Custom Locations for non-standard web browsers via the CCleaner GUI. It could be something as simple as a Browse button to find the browser Profile folder, that way there wouldn't be any need to edit ccleaner.ini or the Windows registry.

[Nergal]

17 hours ago, Andavari said:

Include the ability to create Custom Locations for non-standard web browsers via the CCleaner GUI. It could be something as simple as a Browse button to find the browser Profile folder, that way there wouldn't be any need to edit ccleaner.ini or the Windows registry.

+1

[Guest Stephen CCleaner]

Lots of great ideas here everyone, please keep them coming!

[nukecad]

Inspired by this thread: https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/60322-windows-10-hklm-registry-keys-not-honoured-for-non-admin-users/?tab=comments#comment-328394

How about the ability to disable GUI buttons for features/tools that you don't want to be used? Or that you don't want your kids or other members of your family using easily.
eg. Preventing your kids from cleaning the registry or wiping a drive, just to see what it does.

It could be made something as simple as a right-click option to 'Disable/Enable this button/tool'.

[Andavari]

17 hours ago, nukecad said:

Inspired by this thread: https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/60322-windows-10-hklm-registry-keys-not-honoured-for-non-admin-users/?tab=comments#comment-328394

How about the ability to disable GUI buttons for features/tools that you don't want to be used? Or that you don't want your kids or other members of your family using easily.
eg. Preventing your kids from cleaning the registry or wiping a drive, just to see what it does.

It could be made something as simple as a right-click option to 'Disable/Enable this button/tool'.

 

That almost sounds like making them a non-admin Windows user account. But of course CCleaner would need to Hide (preferably) or at the very least Disable and grey out the feature.

[Augeas]

Well, this is heresy, but here goes:

Remove the multiple pass overwrite option on secure file deletion and Drive Wiper, leaving one zero-byte pass only, saving decades of lost time and tons of CO2 in wasted energy. Surprisingly for a tech and science dominated field, the multipass myth has achieved unquestionable god-like status. It was thoroughly debunked over twenty years ago.

Chances of being adopted - close to zero.

[Hmm]

Delete all your history (activity) in Windows 10. Currently, you have to go to Settings>Privacy>Activity history>Clear activity history

[Andavari]

Custom Clean: Collapse/Expand ability for cleaners

Expand is how it has always looked and worked.
Collapse could have cleaners for example Microsoft Edge collapsed, and only show the Microsoft Edge cleaner name text. This could clean up the look of the GUI for those cleaners where someone is unlikely to change the settings that often.

Collapse Screenshot Example:
https://community.ccleaner.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=14741

[Andavari]

New variables to use with CustomLocation for non-standard web browser paths, i.e.; portable browsers instead of mapping with a specific drive letter.
 

Current:
CustomLocation1=FIREFOX|C:\PortableApps\FirefoxPortableESR\Data\profile
 

New Variable %LocalDisk% CCleaner automatically finds the path on internally installed disk drives:
CustomLocation1=FIREFOX|%LocalDisk%\PortableApps\FirefoxPortableESR\Data\profile

New Variable %ExternalDisk% CCleaner automatically finds the path on externally attached Thunderbolt drives, SD Cards, USB drives, etc:
CustomLocation1=FIREFOX|%ExternalDisk%\PortableApps\FirefoxPortableESR\Data\profile

[nukecad]

Prompted by this thread:
https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/60419-how-do-i-exclude-a-software-from-updates/?tab=comments#comment-328834

Allow exclusions to be set in Software Updater for softwares that the user doesn't want updating.

Possibly a more radical policy change - Allow limited customisation of Health Check so that 'Security' can be disabled if a user doesn't want software update checks everytime they run it.
ie. Let it revert back to QuickClean/Easy Clean if that's what the user wants.
I can see a couple of way that that could be easilly achieved. (One is very simple and already known by some of the more advanced users, but as it involves a registry change I won't post it here, it's already mentioned in a link that I gave above).

[Guest Stephen CCleaner]

On 18/04/2021 at 14:00, Augeas said:

Well, this is heresy, but here goes:

Remove the multiple pass overwrite option on secure file deletion and Drive Wiper, leaving one zero-byte pass only, saving decades of lost time and tons of CO2 in wasted energy. Surprisingly for a tech and science dominated field, the multipass myth has achieved unquestionable god-like status. It was thoroughly debunked over twenty years ago.

Chances of being adopted - close to zero.

Give us more credit than that! If you can provide some sources of info it'll definitely be considered! Eco-friendliness is an area of research at CCleaner. 

[trium]

I repost one more time the ability of custom size of "ccleaner window" itself for a smaller window as actually is because the big icons/pics in health check.

I mean the size of this pics can not be the standard for the size of ccleaner-main-window. Also the health check stuff (pics/graphics) can be autoSized on the choosed ccleaner mainwindow size or not?

Actually the window fills a screen with 1024 x 708 more as it should for a small cleaning tool (sorry but its not a av or another important thing) for a monitor solution if 1024 x 768.

 

 

[Andavari]

CCleaner should be able to remove Drive Wiper/Wipe Free Space ("WFS") leftover ZZZ files/folders without having to do a potentially very time consuming re-run of WFS to full completion. CCleaner should be able to detect that the user cancelled WFS, and then just do a normal fast delete of the ZZZ files/folders it created so the user doesn't have reduced free disk space.

A recent topic shows it's still an issue, and at this point for too many years:
https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/60499-zzz-folders-zzz-files-and-thousands-of-zip-files/

[Augeas]

I wonder how CC knows - if it does - that these ZZZ files are CC's files and not user files? I could create a file called ZZZ.ZZ and put whatever in there. Is there a file signature?

 

[Andavari]

Possibly could be an issue, however some other tools that wipe free space will wipe by placing them into a temporary folder which I assume "might be safer" than just writing to the root of a disk drive. So maybe they could implement something like "C:\CCWFS_05292021_646PM" with the date an time to insure it doesn't end up in a folder that is pre-existing, then also delete that temporary folder upon completion even if the user cancels WFS.

[trium]

...

[Gabrielizalo]

Please add support to WSL in Windows.

For example, WSL never deletes /tmp folder. So, it will be cool that CCleaner cleans it.

Info: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/1278

Thanks

 

[nukecad]

10 hours ago, Gabrielizalo said:

Please add support to WSL in Windows.

For example, WSL never deletes /tmp folder. So, it will be cool that CCleaner cleans it.

Doing so could corrupt your Linux distro, meaning that you'd have to reinstall it.

Which is why WSL doesn't clear it as standard.

Different Linux distros work in different ways, so it's best left to your distro to clear it's own files on exit (if it does that).

If you want to try it, at your own risk, then you could make the "../AppData/Local/lxss/rootfs/tmp" 'All files' an include in Custom Clean by using Options>Include.