Navigating CCleaner v6.24 with "Alt+Underlined Access Keys" is borked

[SumGuy]

Navigating CCleaner v6.24 with "Alt+Underlined Access Keys" is borked.

For example, using "Alt+C" to navigate to Custom Clean, and then "Alt+A" to Analyze works properly, but "Alt+R" to Run Cleaner doesn't. Likewise, using "Alt+T" to navigate to the Tools tab, then tapping "Alt+G" to navigate to the Registry section doesn't work either.

In fact, if while on any other tab, repeatedly tapping "Alt+R" eventually takes you to the Registry section, WITHOUT SHOWING YOU'RE ON THE REGISTRY SECTION TAB!!!

Why in the world was the Registry section moved to the Tools tab? I assume this rework is the likely cause of the scrambled navigation.

This is potentially very dangerous...

Side note:
The text for the new Registry section is too small to read on 4K resolution with Windows Scaling at 150%

[Nergal]

11 minutes ago, SumGuy said:

Why in the world was the Registry section moved to the Tools tab?

So it wouldn't be as tempting to run all the time.  Registry should be used rarely and carefully and long-time users/moderators have been asking for it to be moved for at least half a dozen years.

[SumGuy]

16 minutes ago, Nergal said:

So it wouldn't be as tempting to run all the time.  Registry should be used rarely and carefully and long-time users/moderators have been asking for it to be moved for at least half a dozen years.

Of course it should be used carefully. I really don't think moving it will help much. Putting it out front with big & bold warnings seems like the much more logical way to tackle it's abuse IMO, but whatever.

Regardless, now it's MUCH more prone to accidental usage, so I really hope they restore proper navigation pronto.

[Nergal]

I can't recreate your major error, alt keys work for me.

I can recreate the registry not shows the tools selections when pressing alt+t then alt+r

[SumGuy]

2 hours ago, Nergal said:

I can't recreate your major error, alt keys work for me.

Hmmm 

I tried uninstalling/reinstalling v6.24, but the behaviour hasn't changed. The underlined access keys are still out of whack. Some trigger properly, and some don't.

After fiddling around for a while, I finally see what's happening. (On my system, at least. Windows 11 Pro)

For the "Alt+Underlined" keypresses that DON'T immediately trigger the proper action, sometimes it's just moving the thin dotted selection box instead (NOT the blue highlighted selection indicator). Sometimes it lands on the right button/selection, and sometimes it moves the focus to somewhere unexpected. If it lands on the right option, you can then tap "ENTER" or "SPACE" to trigger it. That dotted selection box can be hard to see with higher resolutions.

Examples:
1. While on the "Custom Clean" tab, pressing "Alt+A" will immediately trigger the "Analyze" button. Then, pressing "Alt+R" will select the focus of the "Run Cleaner" button, but not immediately trigger it. You have to hit "ENTER" or "SPACE" to do so.

BUT... If you click another tab, and then go back to the "Custom Clean" tab, and press "Alt+R" without running "Analysis" FIRST,  it will move the dotted selection box to the "Get Pro" tab. And of course tapping "ENTER" or "SPACE" will trigger the "Get Pro" tab, instead of the "Run Cleaner" button.

2. Moving to the "Tools" tab with "Alt+T" immediately takes you to the "Tools" tab as it should. Then tapping "Alt+G" moves the dotted selection box (not the blue highlighted indicator) to the "Registry" section. And again, you need to tap "ENTER" or "SPACE" to trigger it. It then highlights and selects the "Registry" section.

BUT... From there, if you look at where the dotted selection box if focused, it's (sometimes) on the "Select All" checkbox for the registry options, so you have to tap "Alt+S" to move focus to the "Scan for Issues" button. And Again, it doesn't immediately trigger it as it should. You have to press "ENTER" or "SPACE". If the selection ends up focused on the wrong option... Not good.

There's just no consistency with the "Alt+Underline Access keys" in this new v6.24 at all. I don't believe this is normal behavior, and it was working properly/differently in previous CCleaner versions for the past decade or so. A lot of people rely on key commands to navigate. It's asking for trouble IMO.

_____________________
 -I also noticed that when I first updated over the previous v6.23, the "Get Pro" icon was green, but after reinstalling, it's red, lol. I've never used the "Pro" version BTW. Not even in trial mode.

[Nergal]

I can confirm that pressing Alt+R does indeed only highlight the run button in custom clean without activating it and prior to Analyzing.  Interestingly a second press of Alt+R, while the run button is highlighted, opened the afore confirmed registry cleaner tool without the tools selector.  Alt+R should not be used for both, this i think we agree on.

 

Side note Alt+U gives a weird error.  I think maybe it's because i kill the emergency updater upon CCleaner updates, I'll play around with that nope i hadn't run ccleaner to remove the updater since the update, so ALT+U seems broke

Edited May 24 by Nergal

[Nergal]

flagged for developer staff  also used borked in my report not realizing you had also said borked 

[Nergal]

OK, unpro'd my ccleaner and upgrade is ALT+U which of course pro doesn't have so it throws an "you aren't connected" error. 

I don't see a "GET Pro button" but they may be A/B testing it alternatly with '"upgrade", as they're known to do*,  and I get the same result with ALT+R as I reported above

 

*relooked at your initial screenshot and that is what they are doing A/B testing get pro and upgrade

[Nergal]

so with your B test of Get Pro. ALT+R seems to be doing three things

1: Run custom cleaner (Highlight only)

2: Get Pro

3: Open registry integrity

in that hierarchy

Edited May 24 by Nergal

[SumGuy]

@Nergal
Thanks for digging deeper. I was beginning to think it was my OS that was borked  

[Nergal]

Not fixed in 6.25 :(

[Nergal]

Hi, @SumGuy I think this is fixed, when i alt+r in custom clean it ran cleaning.  Can you check your other hotkeys on today's ccleaner version.

[SumGuy]

5 hours ago, Nergal said:

Hi, @SumGuy I think this is fixed, when i alt+r in custom clean it ran cleaning.  Can you check your other hotkeys on today's ccleaner version.

For the most part, I think it's fixed.
The "Alt+Underlined Access Key" interactions are corrected far as I can tell, but they removed the ability to directly navigate to the "Registry" section via "Alt+G" altogether. Before they moved it to the "Tools" tab, we were able to get to the "Registry" tab with only one shortcut. Now we need to tap significantly more keys to get there.

I suppose it's good that it's more difficult to accidentally  navigate to the "Registry" section, but it's also rather annoying.

E.g.-

Before they moved the "Registry" section to the "Tools" tab-

-To navigate to the "Registry" section and immediately run a scan:

"Alt+G",  "Alt+S"
 

-Now, we have to do the following:

"Alt+T", "Shift+Tab", Up Arrow (6x), "Enter", "Alt+S"

 

My suggestion would be to also add "Alt+Underlined Access Keys" to the second column in the "Tools" & "Options" sections, and make sure navigation actions ALWAYS focus the proper sections in a linear/hierarchical order. That way, you'd only need to tap the "Tab" key if you want to navigate away from the current focused column, or use the "Arrow" keys to move within selection boxes, etc.. (See the pic below as reference)

-For example, opening CCleaner would naturally focus the first column (Health Check, Custom Clean, etc.). All "Alt+Underlined Keys" would trigger actions relevant to that first column.

-From the first column, navigating to a different section within that column or tapping the "Tab" key would then move focus to the second column, where the "Alt+Underlined Keys" would navigate to the relevant sections in that second column. Tapping "Tab" again would move focus to the main central body of the CCleaner function selected, but tapping "Shift+Tab" would move focus back to the first column.

I hope that all makes sense 
Ultimately, once they solidify the keyboard navigation logic, I think consistency is important to keep in mind for future releases because as most of us here know, one wrong move in CCleaner can be a disaster