Welcome back to CCleaner Professional ???

[Wisewiz]

1 hour ago, lmacri said:

Hi Wisewiz:

According to your 14-Jul-2023 post <here> on page 3 of this thread you added 0.0.0.0 shepherd.ff.avast.com to your hosts file.  Could that be the missing step in your 19-Jul-2023 instructions <here> that will prevent the registry entries from being re-created?

Might be. I added that line to my hosts file (in Win\Sys32\drivers\etc).

P.S.: I still have only the four and two I showed above (waaay above. Can you believe we're on page 6 now? I hope Piriform knows this is a serious issue.)

[lmacri]

On 22/07/2023 at 08:54, lmacri said:

...I sent a support request to support@ccleaner.com and asked if creation of all these registry entries at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Piriform\CCleaner is now the expected behaviour for CCleaner Portable v6.x or a bug,. I'll post back once I have an answer from customer support.

On 24/07/2023 at 15:01, Wisewiz said:

... I hope Piriform knows this is a serious issue.

Hi Wisewiz:

It's been over a week since I emailed support@ccleaner.com about the portable build creating dozens of unnecessary registry entries in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Piriform\CCleaner and haven't had a response, and I didn't even get an auto-reply with a ticket number that I can reference.  Perhaps someone with a Professional license will have better luck getting customer support to respond to a request for support.

I don't recall seeing a post in this forum by an Avast / Piriform employee in over two months (see nukecad's 05-Jul-2023 post in mogli's "Windows Defender Backup" Rule Not Working about recent staff layoffs) so I have no way of knowing if an employee is even monitoring this thread, but it doesn't look like customer engagement is a priority at the moment.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3208 * Firefox v115.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23050.9-1.1.23060.1005 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.33.272-1.0.2069 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * CCleaner Free Portable v6.14.10584

[Wisewiz]

24 minutes ago, lmacri said:

Hi Wisewiz:

It's been over a week since I emailed support@ccleaner.com about the portable build creating dozens of unnecessary registry entries in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Piriform\CCleaner and haven't had a response, and I didn't even get an auto-reply with a ticket number that I can reference.  Perhaps someone with a Professional license will have better luck getting customer support to respond to a request for support.

Would you be willing to post a copy of your note to them for me to copy? Or, maybe note your main points for me? I have three Professional licenses, and I usually get very quick replies from them, even though I'm clearly blacklisted in their community. I call 'em as I see 'em.

[lmacri]

1 hour ago, Wisewiz said:

Would you be willing to post a copy of your note to them for me to copy?...

Hi Wisewiz:

It's a fairly long email (I included the steps I used to perform a clean reinstall of CCleaner Free Portable as well as a few images I've already posted in this thread) so I sent it to you via a private message.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3208 * Firefox v115.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23050.9-1.1.23060.1005 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.33.272-1.0.2069 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * CCleaner Free Portable v6.14.10584

[nukecad]

1 hour ago, lmacri said:

I have no way of knowing if an employee is even monitoring this thread,

I spotted that there was one of the developers logged on and reading this thread about 2 days before v6.14 came out.

He didn't  post anything, but is it a coincidence that a few days after that the welcome screen dissappeared again?

[lmacri]

On 30/07/2023 at 07:53, lmacri said:

It's been over a week since I emailed support@ccleaner.com about the portable build creating dozens of unnecessary registry entries in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Piriform\CCleaner and haven't had a response, and I didn't even get an auto-reply with a ticket number that I can reference.  Perhaps someone with a Professional license will have better luck getting customer support to respond to a request for support....

Hi Wisewiz:

I don't know if you ever got a response from Customer Support, but for future reference the link at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/contact-form?language=en_US&form=general is correctly displaying an online support request form for me today. That link was posted in nukecad's 21-Aug-2023 reply in TonyN's Can't turn off auto extension!, so I assume it replaces the old URL at https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/requests/new that now throws a "secure connection failed" error in all my browsers.

I'm not entirely clear if both Pro and Free users can use this "general" form (it doesn't require users to enter a product key), but Avast / Piriform have completely ignored the last two emails I've sent to support@ccleaner.com so I might try that online form the next time I need to contact support and see what happens.  I have no idea why Avast / Piriform can't just include a link at https://www.ccleaner.com/contact to their online support request form and stop making it so difficult for users to contact them.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3324 * Firefox v116.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23070.1004-1.1.23070.1005 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.0.277-1.0.2114 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * CCleaner Free Portable v6.14.10584

[nukecad]

Not sure what is happening that support are apparently not replying to emails at the moment?

The support form doesn't ask for a key because they can find it from your email. (That's why it asks to use the email you used when purchasing if you can).

As far the support.piriform.com documentation is concerned -:

They have been moving the documentation over to support.ccleaner.com for a while, and one of the few things that we have been told recently is that is 'completed' and support.piriform.com has now been closed/removed, which is why it's giving that connection error.

So old links on the forum to support.pirifilorm.com will no longer work. (And it's not always possible to give a direct equivalent/redirect - who'd want the job of editing all the old links anyway?)

[Wisewiz]

@lmacri and @nukecad

Hi, both! I still haven't received a peep of any kind from them. And when I try the support page at support.ccleaner.com, I get this over and over again on successive attempts on successive days:

I feel "a little bit funny" (Elton) about pursuing this [Portable puts entries in the registry] issue, since my CC Portables on both my office machines still have only 4 original lines in HKLM and 2 lines (now just one) in HKCU. I've done a couple of things to those entries, with no visible effects on CC's behaviour. In LM, under the CCleaner key is a properties subkey with a DWord "UseRegistry" which had a value of 1 originally, and I've changed that to 0. In CU, in CCleaner, there were two DWord lines, an AP line (? no idea) and a DU line that was (I guess) recording old DU use from when I registered my key briefly and used the DU function to check what it would find (but I never use the update function; I get my driver updates when needed from the issuers). I've left the AP line and I deleted the DUxxxx line some time ago, and it hasn't been replaced.

I've tried here to describe what I might have done to achieve this minimal registry invasion, but I'm still mystified, and I see no evidence online (other than on this site) that anyone else is having a problem with the registry pollution. Maybe that's because your average user doesn't have any idea what the registry is.

[lmacri]

34 minutes ago, Wisewiz said:

... I still haven't received a peep of any kind from them. And when I try the support page at support.ccleaner.com, I get this over and over again on successive attempts on successive days ...

Hi Wizewiz:

Do you mean that's what's you see after you click the "Send Me My License Details" button at https://support.ccleaner.com/ and enter your email address?

I don't have a Pro license but the reCAPTCHA challenge worked and when I clicked "Submit" the lookup correctly reported that Avast / Piriform can't find my license.  Perhaps clearing your browsing history (including your cookies) might get this working again.  If that doesn't help try temporarily disabling your browser extensions.

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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3324 * Firefox v116.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23070.1004-1.1.23070.1005 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.0.277-1.0.2114 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * CCleaner Free Portable v6.14.10584

[Wisewiz]

@lmacriI wipe my cookies, except for the ones I have CCleaner set to keep for me, every night before shutdown. Part of my nightly ritual.

The reCaptcha worked for me, too, but the Submit button just brings me the message I posted above. So yes, that's precisely what I mean.

("Do you mean that's what's you see after you click the "Send Me My License Details" button at https://support.ccleaner.com/ and enter your email address?")

[Wisewiz]

The whole organization seems to be on holidays lately. The CC builds page, which always has the very latest versions the same day they're released, doesn't any more. 10584 is still there after at least a week.

[lmacri]

2 hours ago, Wisewiz said:

The whole organization seems to be on holidays lately. The CC builds page, which always has the very latest versions the same day they're released, doesn't any more. 10584 is still there after at least a week.

HI Wiisewiz:

See my 17-Aug-2023 thread Version Confusion - 6.14.10584 vs 6.15.10623.  The Download buttons for the Free and Slim installers on https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds will actually offer an installer for CCleaner v6.15 (i.e., ccsetup615.exe; ccsetup615_slim.exe) but that download page is still offering the old ccsetup614.zip file CCleaner Portable v6.14.

I sent an email to support@ccleaner.com last week about discrepancies between their documentation and what software versions are actually be offered at https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds (and several other pages on their website) but haven't heard back from them.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3324 * Firefox v116.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23070.1004-1.1.23070.1005 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.0.277-1.0.2114 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * CCleaner Free Portable v6.14.10584

[Wisewiz]

@lmacri  "but haven't heard back from them." Same song; second verse .... could be better, but it's getting worse. Where the h**l are these people, anyway?

[Trojan132]

50 minutes ago, Wisewiz said:

@lmacri  "but haven't heard back from them." Same song; second verse .... could be better, but it's getting worse. Where the h**l are these people, anyway?

Manila, Philippines

[Wisewiz]

Well, yeah, I knew that, but how can they all be taking a siesta for weeks on end? (Seriously, I hope nothing bad has happened to the support people.)

[nukecad]

As I said above we mods have no idea what is going on with support and emails not being answered.
(Or with staff/employees not responding on the forum).

You could try the contact form here: https://support.ccleaner.com/s/contact-form?language=en_US&form=general

I have just used it myself (to ask what is going on) and got the following automatic response, so at least a ticket number has been raised.
I also got an automated confirmation email reply, somewhat oddly that email does not include the ticket number.
if/when they will reply is another question. (The email I used is not asociated with a CCleaner licence, so the request is probably in the non-priority queue).

 

[Wisewiz]

@nukecad Thanks for that. At least now we know that their computers are working, even if the people are not,

[lmacri]

On 23/07/2023 at 08:13, Crni said:

I echo your concern as true portable app should NOT be creating anything inside registry or any files outside its portable folder.
Just because something doesn't mandate use of an installer doesn't automatically make it portable....

Just an FYI that I stumbled on a new glitch with CCleaner Portable that appears to be caused by a registry entry.

I copied and pasted all my portable apps from my old removable USB v2.0 stick (assigned as drive E: when plugged in) to a faster USB 3.0 stick (assigned as drive D: when plugged in).  All my other portable apps (SUMo, TreeSize Free, HWiNFO, etc.) ran correctly from the new USB 3.0  stick, but the CCleaner Portable interface would not open when I tried to run CCleaner64.exe even though I could see that the CCleaner64.exe process was listed in Task Manager and consuming CPU and RAM, and I had to kill that process manually in Task Manager to stop it from running.

I suspect that CCleaner Portable will only run correctly from my old USB 2.0 stick because the path to CCleaner is stored as E:\Portable\CCleaner instead of D:\Portable\CCleaner in the registry at Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Piriform\CCleaner.  I can likely fix this by deleting my HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Piriform and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Piriform registry keys and starting with a fresh download and unzip of ccsetup615.zip on the USB 3.0 stick but it just illustrates why you don't want portable apps saving settings in the registry.

 

On 21/08/2023 at 11:04, Wisewiz said:

... I still haven't received a peep of any kind from them. And when I try the support page at support.ccleaner.com, I get this over and over again on successive attempts on successive days ...

I still haven't had a response to my 21-Jul-2023 support request that I sent to support@ccleaner.com about the registry entries, but according to staffer Peter CCleaner's 06-Sep-2023 post in levikyer's Need Help Cancelling Auto Extension "there was a bit of a backlog with Support requests recently, but they're working through them".  Hope springs eternal.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3324 * Firefox v117.0.0 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23080.2006-1.1.23080.2005 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.1.280-1.0.2117 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * Cleaner Free Portable v6.15.10623

[Wisewiz]

@lmacri:

Thanks for that report. I don't think you have to do the fresh download and key deletion things, if you just edit the Data Folder and Program Folder values to the correct (new) drive. It's worth a try, anyway.

Quote:  I can likely fix this by deleting my HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Piriform and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Piriform registry keys and starting with a fresh download and unzip of ccsetup615.zip on the USB 3.0 stick but it just illustrates why you don't want portable apps saving settings in the registry.

[Crni]

Unfortunately, I found that if I let portable app automatically update itself it downloads the full version with all the other non-desired additional features and thus converting so called "portable" into definitively non-portable version, and it will certainly add all the noise into the Registry.

Instead, I started letting portable app just notify my about the new version, and then manually download the new portable version and manually update the files.
Someone else mentioned here doing the same for portable version, probably for the same reasons.
Due to issues explained here I started preemptively checking registry and deleting any entries if they were added in the meantime which is how I found recently added "DataFolder" and "ProgramFolder" which are created even by the "portable" version.

[Wisewiz]

@Crni  and others here,

Yes , I've found, too, that the only way to control it is to download the Portable from the builds page when CC tells me there's a new version. Even the Free version updates are vilely polluted if you install them.

I stil have only these in my registry, after several moinths of managing this thing, and after several downloaded, installed Portable updates (and I don't think they'll ever remove this garbage from the program's operation): (Top is CU; lower, LM)

 

[Nergal]

I copy only ccleaner.exe ccleaner64.exe and bug report.exe (not sure that's the exsct name)  to my portable folder and it works without extra tools. I think it's genius that this application is modular. I do have an installed version on the same pc, so report back if it's not the case that it works modularllly.

 

If you run something portable don't update within the app use the xip file or temp install move those files and uninstsll

Edited October 10, 2023 by Nergal

[lmacri]

7 hours ago, Nergal said:

I copy only ccleaner.exe ccleaner64.exe and bug report.exe (not sure that's the exsct name)  to my portable folder and it works without extra tools...

Hi Crni:

I have a 64-bit OS (English) and only use the Custom Clean feature in CCleaner Free Portable, although I do occasionally use the Registry Cleaner  if I  need to look for stray registry entries that aren't removed when I uninstall a program. NOTE: I never allow Health Check to run on my system.

These are the only CCleaner Free Portable features I use, and Cleaner64.exe runs correctly if I also delete the \x64 subfloder containing CCleanerBugReport.exe and CCleanerDU.dll (a component for the Driver Updater).  The only four files I keep on my removable USB stick after unzipping ccsetup6xx.zip are CCleaner64.exe, portable.dat and License.txt (optional) plus the ccleaner.ini file I copy from my previous CCleaner Portable version since this .ini file contains all my custom configuration settings***.  The \DATA, \LOG and \Setup folders shown below are automatically created the first time CCleaner64.exe is run.

*** NOTE: If you have a 32-bit OS you would keep the CCleaner.exe executable and delete CCleaner64.exe.  Users who want to use a non-English interface must also keep the \lang subfolder.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3448 * Firefox v118.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.4.286-1.0.2163 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * CCleaner Free Portable v6.16.10662

[lmacri]

On 22/07/2023 at 08:54, lmacri said:

...I sent a support request to support@ccleaner.com and asked if creation of all these registry entries at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Piriform\CCleaner is now the expected behaviour for CCleaner Portable v6.x or a bug, ...

Hi Wisewiz:

Just an FYI that I still haven't received a response to my 21-Jul-email to support@ccleaner.com about the dozens of unwanted registry entries being created at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Piriform\CCleaner by CCleaner Free Portable.

They did, however, finally respond to my 18-Aug-2023 email about the (now resolved) issue where the builds page at https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds was still offering an outdated ccsetup614.zip file a week after CCleaner v6.15 had been released. Someone at Avast / Piriform fixed that problem long ago (see my 24-Aug-2023 post in Version Confusion - 6.14.10584 vs 6.15.1062 ) so it took CCleaner customer support almost two months to reply and point out that the builds page is currently offering the latest ccsetup616.zip.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3448 * Firefox v118.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.4.286-1.0.2163 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * CCleaner Free Portable v6.16.10662

[Crni]

On 10/10/2023 at 07:33, lmacri said:

Hi Crni:

I have a 64-bit OS (English) and only use the Custom Clean feature in CCleaner Free Portable, although I do occasionally use the Registry Cleaner  if I  need to look for stray registry entries that aren't removed when I uninstall a program. NOTE: I never allow Health Check to run on my system.

These are the only CCleaner Free Portable features I use, and Cleaner64.exe runs correctly if I also delete the \x64 subfloder containing CCleanerBugReport.exe and CCleanerDU.dll (a component for the Driver Updater).  The only four files I keep on my removable USB stick after unzipping ccsetup6xx.zip are CCleaner64.exe, portable.dat and License.txt (optional) plus the ccleaner.ini file I copy from my previous CCleaner Portable version since this .ini file contains all my custom configuration settings***.  The \DATA, \LOG and \Setup folders shown below are automatically created the first time CCleaner64.exe is run.

*** NOTE: If you have a 32-bit OS you would keep the CCleaner.exe executable and delete CCleaner64.exe.  Users who want to use a non-English interface must also keep the \lang subfolder.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3448 * Firefox v118.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.4.286-1.0.2163 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * CCleaner Free Portable v6.16.10662

I've been keeping only those 4 files since ever + WinApp2.ini
I mostly use Custom Clean, sometime Registry Cleaner and extremely rarely these 3 tools: Uninstall (to delete an entry), System Restore (to delete a snapshot or two I don't care about), and Drive Wiper (to clean empty space and trigger MFT cleanup though not so much on SSDs anymore).

I used CCEnhancer for a long time, but then I started adding my own tweaks and appending them to optimized WinApp2.ini.
Then I got tired of doing it manually every time and made a batch file to automate some steps at least.
Then I discovered WinApp2ool which had a lot of extra features.