CCleaner 6.24.11060 will not do a Custom Clean

[nukecad]

I just clear all cookies out using the browser settings backed up by my own cleaner. There are none left for CCleaner.

Yes I have to log back into websites after clearing them - I regard that as a security measure and it takes seconds to login.

[Ryche]

Totally New Member here... Came here (thanks to Google) with the same issue about Custom Clean suddenly not working.

After reading through the comments, it made my decision (at least for short term) easy. I won't begrudge Piriform - they are a company, and can do what they think is best. Similarly, as customers, we can do the same when the company takes an action we don't like. 

1) Uninstall 6.24, and fill in the survey with the reason why.

2) Locate a version of 6.23 online (a little tricky, but found a site that had it, and didn't default/change the download to 6.24)

3) Install 6.23, and then set it so the app does not automatically check for (or perform) updates of software. 

Eventually, I may look for a better cleaner (I like being able to do things in one place, instead of having to go to multiple browsers). But for the short term, it gives me Custom Clean back. 

Edited June 6 by Ryche

[JamesRM]

9 hours ago, Andavari said:

I've been using a by now several years older version which I can easily make my own Winapp2.ini entries for without their involvement whatsoever, and it has been completely blocked from Internet access via Windows Firewall for years at this point.

Oh! I thought that thing could be customized, as long as proper syntax is used and all I thought all that was needed was get a file named that way next to CCleaner binary.

8 hours ago, nukecad said:

They are aiming squarely at the market of non-savvy computer users now

Jesus... why is there a driver updater at all bundled with the app then?! People who's not tech savvy shouldn't get near anything remotely similar, it doesn't matter if restore points are taken or not . Even the Registry cleaner can be a tall order if its rules are overzealous...

8 hours ago, nukecad said:

What is really annoying me is the continuing silence from the company.

That's the icing on the cake . Seriously though, it's never a good look.

7 hours ago, Sectorgz said:

Personally I really think it boils down to "Greed"

I can't be sure, without really knowing the number of customers (paid users) and all it's hard to tell, bills need to be paid. It's debatable the kind of development CCleaner sees, I know there were plans of moving the Registry section to Tools some 3 years ago already at least, and how hard can that be? But there seems to be many other products under the CCleaner brand and operational costs add up.

I think I remember things being tough when Avast bought Piriform, or perhaps earlier? When things were pivoting to a paid offer instead of a free one, it's hard to get users to move, especially for an app like CCleaner. In my case, for example, the things Pro adds aren't useful and I don't use CCleaner all that often to consider paying for the custom cleaning component (it's "just" deleting things), a subscription for it sounds too much, it's not CCleaner Cloud and I don't need to manage several machines or users either.

7 hours ago, Sectorgz said:

"Bad communication is BETTER than no communication"

Yeah, definitely. That made me remember an article I read some time ago, it was about a VPN company, because early users were given some 100 GB free traffic each month and that was clearly not sustainable, so they wrote to their users to say after day X/Y/Z they'd be getting them all way less free traffic (but that was several years down the line already!).

I don't remember the specifics and can't seem to find it now, but it was something like "please understand that things have changed, and that offer was to get the thing started" etc. etc. (Some?) people weren't happy about it, but I remember thinking I wished other companies did the same, manning up and being upfront about things.

3 hours ago, bjm2 said:

I'm used to CCleaner and have not found replacement cookie manager.  

There are others, I can't really recommend any because I don't have firsthand experience and it'd be in poor taste being where we are, but it's not like CCleaner stopped working! It still works, older versions work, and the current one can be made to work, so don't stress over it!  This makes me think of the despair over Windows 10 going out of support.

52 minutes ago, Ryche said:

Uninstall 6.24, and fill in the survey with the reason why [...] Install 6.23, and then set it so the app does not automatically check for (or perform) updates of software.

Yep, that's what I did, there's no rush.

[Nergal]

1 hour ago, JamesRM said:

Oh! I thought that thing could be customized, as long as <snip>.

Yep, that's what I did, there's no rush.

I love this whole post, just wanted to say that

[Andavari]

58 minutes ago, JamesRM said:

This makes me think of the despair over Windows 10 going out of support.

Windows 10 still has more market share over Windows 11. They changed too much in my opinion so it hasn't been universally adopted. I'll dread next year when I'll have to upgrade to Win11, and then have to tweak allot of basic in it to be useful like the context menu not hiding items, etc.

As for CCleaner paywalling Custom Clean, I think it could back-fire since free version users can just switch to another product. And there's a few rival cleaners that can also use the Winapp2.ini file! Only problem is I've actually searched off and on for many years (over a full decade now) for a complete CCleaner replacement and I haven't found one just yet. Then again I could always just go back to what I was doing long before there was a CCleaner which is to use a custom made .bat/.cmd batch file script cleaner alongside a .reg registry cleaner, but those can be a pain to get to work as expected in Win10/Win11.

[Nergal]

2 hours ago, Andavari said:

and then have to tweak allot of basic in it to be useful like the context menu not hiding items, etc.

Easy registry import reverses this and gives classic context menu. Honestly with that and left aligned startmenu, 11 is really no different from other windows.

[nukecad]

Just a note to those rolling back to v6.23 (or earlier).

The way that this change is being implemented there is no guarantee that those older versions won't be changed too.

Yes, up to now it's only v6.24 that we have seen reported as affected, simply because most users have 6.24.
But many/most users who have been affected were not affected during the update to v6.24 itself - the change happened days later.

The CCleaner Free v6.24 on my other laptop simply changed itself from one day to the next, before that it was running Custom Clean as normal.
As far as I can make out, (and I may be wrong), CCleaner Free is apparently being changed at random when CCleaner 'phones home' on launch.
And if it's doing that then it doesn't matter which version you are using, they have all 'phoned home' for years now.
(PS. It wasn't the emergency updater that did it - I know because I had deleted that altogether).

It's entirely the company's choice if they want to make this change.
When they do eventually come out of hiding they will no doubt point out that Health Check still does cleaning for Free.

You pay your money - or not - and make your choice.

That doesn't stop us being disappointed at the change - and annoyed/angry/furious at the WAY that it has been and is being done.
(Personally I'm also concerned at the security aspect of what is basically  a 'backdoor' to remote into your machine and change software).

[hazelnut]

I feel sorry for the people who thought they had been hacked.  One minute they were using the free software as normal then the program was asking for credit card details. I had a few pm's from worried users about this.

 

[nukecad]

In my opinion they have been hacked, a detrimental to them change has been made remotely and without their permission - hacked by Piriform.

No doubt Piriform will claim that you gave them permission by installing CCleaner, but it's still hacking in my view whatever you have burried in the T&Cs.

Quote

A commonly used hacking definition is the act of compromising digital devices and networks through unauthorized access to an account or computer system. Hacking is not always a malicious act,

https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/what-is-hacking

[Sectorgz]

6 hours ago, nukecad said:

In my opinion they have been hacked, a detrimental to them change has been made remotely and without their permission - hacked by Piriform.

No doubt Piriform will claim that you gave them permission by installing CCleaner, but it's still hacking in my view whatever you have burried in the T&Cs.

I totally agree, this where an announcement from Piriform, Noton, or someone representing CCleaner would have went a long way. As the saying goes, "Mistrust carries one such further than trust."

[lmacri]

32 minutes ago, Sectorgz said:

I totally agree, this where an announcement from Piriform, Noton, or someone representing CCleaner would have went a long way.

Hi Sectorgz:

I captured the following image of a notification that was briefly posted at the top of the CCleaner forum on 29-May-2024 about upcoming changes to CCleaner Free, but I’m guessing the early feedback was so negative that Avast / Piriform decided to remove the official announcement after just a few hours.

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Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.4412 * Firefox v126.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.24050.7-1.1.24050.5v4.18.24040.4-1.1.24050.5 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.1.5.116-1.0.1252 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 *  CCleaner Free Portable v6.23.11010

[ccjm]

Wow, this program was like a part of me, a body part.  I have been using it since before Christ.  I don't think touchscreen smartphones were even out I think when I started using it..  Computers still ruled! Today I found out the custom clean is not free anymore.  I guess those geeky kids behind this company grew up, had children, and wives are ruling their lives now???    Custom Clean, the only reason I use this program for, is an ok feature but not worth paying for.  I have no use for this program now and much less after the company destroyed its reputation with this sudden, unannounced move.   I will be uninstalling this program after the registry tricks fails.  I've already set Ccleaner to not update and blocked it with my firewall.  Anyway, thanks for all these good years and R.I.P. Ccleaner.  Gone.

[Sectorgz]

Thanks lmacri for the info. But posting such a change on a forum is awesome (good or bad news) I have to ask how many users actually belong to a forum unless an issue arises, like this issue. I know I do not.

We all run too many programs to belong to every forum. Posting such a change should have been handle by a pop-up when either someone downloads the installer or before installing if someone does an automatic update.

The changes such as "Driver Updates", "System Optimization", etc. should be a paid for feature. Although these features can lead to unwanted problems on a system. But CCleaner did not start out this way and I assume that is why so many "Home" users used the "Free" version. Again I know I did. I certainly am not going to pay for features I would not trust or use. To me that is bloatware.

Sorry for the rant.

[nukecad]

If you want to see the correct way of changing a previously free software to being paid-for then you only have to look at Macrium Reflect 8 which did it fairly recently.

Yes of course Reflect users didn't like the news and were vocal about it. However the conversations were about whether to buy or try something else - not annoyance at the company.

It was announced in advance that Reflect 8 was going to be changed to paid only.

It was a change to new installs of Reflect 8 only.

Existing installs of Reflect 8 were not changed (and not crippled remotely).

You can no longer install Reflect 8 as a free version (at least not from the official Macrium website, you can get the last free version elsewhere) - but if you had installed it before the announced change date then it still works as it always did before the change.

[Ryu99]

I had the same issue until I realized that Custom Clean became a paid feature of Ccleaner. So disappointing.

The only fix that I could find was to downgrade to V.6.23 and disable auto-update. Custom Clean then works fine.

This is only a temporary solution as the previous version will become obsolete one day.

But hopefully someone makes a reliable open-source cleaning app for Windows at some point.

Edited June 7 by Ryu99

[Ryu99]

Quote

It's entirely the company's choice if they want to make this change.
When they do eventually come out of hiding they will no doubt point out that Health Check still does cleaning for Free.

Honestly I wouldn't have minded if they had featured annoying ads in the free version to generate some revenues.

I'm willing to make some compromises to keep the free version's core features.

Edited June 7 by Ryu99

[Andavari]

5 hours ago, nukecad said:

If you want to see the correct way of changing a previously free software to being paid-for then you only have to look at Macrium Reflect 8 which did it fairly recently.

Yes of course Reflect users didn't like the news and were vocal about it. However the conversations were about whether to buy or try something else - not annoyance at the company.

It was announced in advance that Reflect 8 was going to be changed to paid only.

The thing is Macrium Reflect has a stellar reputation backed up by over a decade of restoring a PC from some disaster (disk failure, OS rot, etc.,), or even for migration to a new disk drive. So they earned every bit of respect and loyalty from users without ever once doing anything deemed sneaky or damaging to PCs. That's one software that when the last free v8 starts having issues working correctly due to constant changes in Win10/Win11 I'll gladly pay for Macrium Reflect.

[JamesRM]

23 hours ago, Andavari said:

They changed too much in my opinion so it hasn't been universally adopted. I'll dread next year when I'll have to upgrade to Win11, and then have to tweak allot of basic in it to be useful like the context menu not hiding items, etc.

They did indeed, many things can be changed for it to resemble who Windows has been traditionally, but with some tweaks being undocumented it's hard to know how long one can avoid some annoyances (some group policies are deprecated or ignored in 11). What I think I may dislike the most is having "AI" shoved into everything they can, it is bad enough the widespread use of managed UI (XAML) making things less responsive. But there's little we can do, not enough bargaining power

It's a shame LTSC requires volume licensing and IoT editions can't even be licensed for general purpose computers, I wish they accommodated the many users that want simpler things. Anyway, perhaps you needn't upgrade to 11, I remember reading extended support for 10 was going to be made available for regular folks too, I will be one of them if the pricing is right. I can work with 11 too, I do daily, and my laptop is also compatible, but for now 10 suits me better.

11 hours ago, nukecad said:

[About Custom Clean getting disabled]   The way that this change is being implemented there is no guarantee that those older versions won't be changed too.

Perhaps, but not necessarily, a tentative look at it shows 6.23 doesn't take into consideration if the CCNU registry value is 1, there are plenty of other cryptic parameters, so I suppose it could still happen in a different way, but there are limits to what they can change that way, the main UI is local despite it being HTML based. If they can deliver a payload and execute it in the background all bets are off though, CCleaner runs elevated.

If there is an active Internet connection when one installs an older version, the current one seems to also be downloaded and its installer placed in the installation folder. Maybe that's why I was seeing the pop-up reminding me that my installation was outdated despite the checkbox being unticked.

13 hours ago, nukecad said:

CCleaner Free is apparently being changed at random when CCleaner 'phones home' on launch.

Not always, I don't know what triggers the configuration update (amount of time since last remote config check?). The endpoint that delivers it to the clients seems to be "shepherd.ff.avast.com" currently, the installer contacts it to acquire the configuration initially, but I'm sure other modules do too at some point (hence Custom Clean being disabled later on).

13 hours ago, hazelnut said:

I feel sorry for the people who thought they had been hacked.

That must have been scary, surreptitious change and requirement of payment details for the trial, certainly not well thought through

6 hours ago, lmacri said:

I captured the following image of a notification that was briefly posted

Oh! That was before I joined! I only noticed the change to Custom Clean a couple of days ago.

I understand the motivation, but come on, what a way of putting it into words. "Potential changes"? The installer was signed the 20th, the message written the 28th, "potential" because the change is still governed by a value in the Registry and not baked into the program or what? Even the title of the message didn't make it sound as a hypothetical or something they were still deciding, why beat around the bush.

If there are more changes, let's hope they are for the better

[Nergal]

3 hours ago, JamesRM said:

the motivation, but come on, what a way of putting it into words.

And they didn't post the announcement until after we'd begun troubleshooting "patient zero"'s discovery and maybe after a few "me toos"s too.

Edited June 8 by Nergal

[testingtom]

why are people rolling back when all you have to do is literally change 1 value in the registry?

[JamesRM]

6 hours ago, testingtom said:

why are people rolling back when all you have to do is literally change 1 value in the registry?

I'd say inertia opposing the decision , not wanting for changes to pushed at some point. If that's it, going back to 6.23 is just a stop gap as "Shepherd" was also used in that version; blocking 6.24 from accessing the net would be better, at least one'd benefit from the rest of the fixes shipped in the newer version, although at the expense of the features that do require Internet access of course.

8 hours ago, Nergal said:

And they didn't post the announcement until after we'd begun troubleshooting

I wonder what the expectations were, didn't they foresee users would be confused by it all? Not telling you guys seems counterproductive too, there were bound to be reports, wouldn't it be better to let those who help people know about it at least? I am sure decisions like this aren't taken lightly, there had to be someone in the team pushing for things to be communicated properly (I hope).

In any case, the marketing materials on the website still don't match what is displayed in 6.24 within the app, perhaps things aren't set in stone yet.

[lmacri]

To @CCleaner Cleaning Team and any Avast / Piriform employees lurking in the shadows:

Perhaps this whole fiasco should be looked on as an opportunity to finally get things right with CCleaner Free Portable.

Your company could do what many customers have been requesting for years and release a slimmed-down build of CCleaner Free Portable that is a true portable app (i.e., no creation of registry entries and all configuration settings stored in the local config.ini file, no tasks created in Windows Task Scheduler, no collection of telemetry data, and preferably without constant nagging to upgrade to an installed build of CCleaner Professional, although I know that last one is big ask ).  CCleaner Free Portable could include basic, configurable cleaning features (e.g., Custom Clean, registry cleaner, and the "extra" tools on the Tools panel like System Restore, Drive Wiper, etc.) but it would not have all the other "boutique" features added in recent years like Health Check, Performance Optimizer, Software Updater, etc.
 
That would give users two options - a basic CCleaner Free Portable with Custom Clean as the main cleaning tool, and the paid CCleaner Professional with all available features, including the "boutique" features for those who prefer automated cleaning and system optimization.

As it stands, if Custom Clean is removed from all CCleaner Free builds I suspect that the majority of users who were already unhappy with many of the changes made to CCleaner Free since Avast acquired Piriform in July 2017 will stop using your product and finally move on to another disk cleaning utility that allows customized cleaning.
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Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.4412 * Firefox v126.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.24050.7-1.1.24050.5 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.1.5.116-1.0.1252 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 *  CCleaner Free Portable v6.23.11010

[Jeff M]

10 minutes ago, lmacri said:

To @CCleaner Cleaning Team and any Avast / Piriform employees lurking in the shadows:

Perhaps this whole fiasco should be looked on as an opportunity to finally get things right with CCleaner Free Portable.

Your company could do what many customers have been requesting for years and release a slimmed-down build of CCleaner Free Portable that is a true portable app (i.e., no creation of registry entries and all configuration settings stored in the local config.ini file, no tasks created in Windows Task Scheduler, no collection of telemetry data, and preferably without constant nagging to upgrade to an installed build of CCleaner Professional, although I know that last one is big ask ).  CCleaner Free Portable could include basic, configurable cleaning features (e.g., Custom Clean, registry cleaner, and the "extra" tools on the Tools panel like System Restore, Drive Wiper, etc.) but it would not have all the other "boutique" features added in recent years like Health Check, Performance Optimizer, Software Updater, etc.
 
That would give users two options - a basic CCleaner Free Portable with Custom Clean as the main cleaning tool, and the paid CCleaner Professional with all available features, including the "boutique" features for those who prefer automated cleaning and system optimization.

As it stands, if Custom Clean is removed from all CCleaner Free builds I suspect that the majority of users who were already unhappy with many of the changes made to CCleaner Free since Avast acquired Piriform in July 2017 will stop using your product and finally move on to another disk cleaning utility that allows customized cleaning.
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Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.4412 * Firefox v126.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.24050.7-1.1.24050.5 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.1.5.116-1.0.1252 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 *  CCleaner Free Portable v6.23.11010

Well said!

[Andavari]

37 minutes ago, lmacri said:

a basic CCleaner Free Portable with Custom Clean as the main cleaning tool

We've wanted a de-bloated free version for years without all the fluff we don't use and/or would never use not even out of curiosity.

For those of us that write Winapp2.ini entries a free "basic" version as they now deem it (lets be frank a dumbed down version) without Custom Clean makes it a rather useless cleaning utility in my opinion, I'd have zero use for it myself without being able to use my own custom made Winapp2.ini entries. I think they've benefited allot even without saying or giving any credit over the past decade or so from those of us who post our own user-made cleaners for Winapp2.ini.

Edit:
And that's another thing. If they keep it as is, I think the Winapp2.ini postings should stop on this forum and go elsewhere completely separate from CCleaner. It's not like it's the only cleaning tool that uses them either, and since they don't officially endorse/support it, but I bet they'd like to copyright it being on their forum.

[ccjm]

21 hours ago, testingtom said:

why are people rolling back when all you have to do is literally change 1 value in the registry?

The CCNU trick only lasted until I restarted my laptop.  I'm using Windows 8.1 still.