CCleaner 6.24.11060 will not do a Custom Clean

[Anony2000]

There is a workaround:

Install 6.24 portable

turn off internet temporarily, put ccleaner64.exe file & portable.dat wherever you want it (or ccleaner.exe if you 32bit (I delete everything else).

Create a outbound firewall rule for the exe file mentioned above.

Run ccleaner for the first time and change you settings

Turn internet back on and everything should be fine.

Also, use winapp2.ini & winapptool, which will keep winapp trimmed and updated. Then, it won't matter about updating, cause programs will remain updated through winapp2.ini file.

 

Here's a screenshot of exactly what is in my CCleaner folder.

[lmacri]

9 hours ago, Anony2000 said:

There is a workaround.  Install 6.24 portable ... Turn internet back on and everything should be fine.

Hi Anony2000:

Did you unzip and test your CCleaner Free Portable v6.24 (ccsetup64.zip) file to see if the copy you downloaded could run Custom Clean without making the configuration changes you described <above>? AFAIK most, if not all, users who have reported that they are unable to run Custom Clean in CCleaner Free v6.24 use a "regular" version of  CCleaner that was installed on their hard drive with an .exe installer.

Am I correct that you deleted the two subfolders called \Log and \Setup in your CCleaner Portable folder that are created the first time you launch a new version of the CCleaner64.exe? I haven't updated to v6.24 yet but I always configure my CCleaner Free Portable in much the same way that you described, but without the winapp2 file and folder. My Portable build has always created those two subfolders the first time I launch a new version of CCleaner64.exe since the Bug Reporter tool was added to CCleaner v6.04 in Sept 2022.

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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

[JamesRM]

14 hours ago, Anony2000 said:

Create a outbound firewall rule for the exe file mentioned above. [blocking Internet access for CCleaner64.exe or CCleaner.exe]

Run ccleaner for the first time and change you settings

Turn internet back on and everything should be fine.

I don't think it'd work, after enough time has passed since last check (or time of opening CCleaner in the case you described), CCleaner / CCleaner64 would contact Shepherd to request remote configuration and all (Cfg) values in that system would be overwritten with those it gets back; if you are in a bracket where Custom Clean is to only be allowed for Pro subscribers, it will be honored.

In other words, as long as you are using 6.24 and you allow CCleaner Internet access, you may be restricted from using Custom Clean if you are a free user.

[lmacri]

3 hours ago, JamesRM said:

I don't think it'd work, after enough time has passed since last check (or time of opening CCleaner in the case you described), CCleaner / CCleaner64 would contact Shepherd to request remote configuration ...

Hi JamesRM:

Are you referring to the shepherd.ff.avast.com server listed in Sampei Nihira's 05-Jun-2024 post in the Wilders Security Forums topic CCleaner v6? 

NOTE: I can't guarantee that Sampei's suggested edit to the hosts file (located in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc) shown below actually works since they didn't say if they were one of the CCleaner Free v6.24 users who was randomly selected to receive an "experimental" build of v6.24 that prevents Custom Clean from running.

# Network Connectivity Check
0.0.0.0 ncc.avast.com
0.0.0.0 ncc.avast.com.edgesuite.net

# Telemetry & Tracker
0.0.0.0 ipm-provider.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 shepherd.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 ip-info.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 analytics.ff.avast.com

# CCleaner Update Check
0.0.0.0 www.piriform.com

If this is the "Shepherd" you are referring to, what is the name of the executable that connects to shepherd.ff.avast.com? I assume it can't be CCleaner64.exe if you have created inbound and outbound blocks that prevent this executable from making a connection through the firewall.  My image <above> shows that once you delete all the unnecessary .exe and .dll files from CCleaner Free Portable the only executable file you're left with is CCleaner64.exe (unless you have a 32-bit OS and keep the bundled CCleaner.exe instead of the 64-bit CCleaner64.exe).
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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

Edited June 10 by lmacri
Added location of Windows hosts file

[JamesRM]

Yes and no, "shepherd.ff.avast.com" is endpoint for it at the moment, "shepherd.avcdn.net" could be another, but they may not be hardcoded. The build is the same for us all regardless of whether we use the regular version or the "portable" one, that doesn't change, it's just that those "(Cfg)" values you see in the Registry can influence what is shown in the UI, how (e.g., Registry Cleaner location), and now whether Custom Clean is part of Free or not.

Simplifying things a lot, let's say somewhere in CCleaner's 6.24 code there is a test checking the CCNU value in the registry, and if it is 1, Custom Clean won't run for free. That test didn't exist prior (6.23 custom cleans regardless of that value), but Shepherd was used before 6.24, even before 6.02 you mentioned earlier if I'm not mistaken, just for different things. For example, you might have seen reports these days in the forum about the "Upgrade" button changing to "Get Pro", or having its background be red or green, that is also conditional depending on the value of one of those parameters, not everything is nefarious

As for which module can connect to it... no idea . That I know for sure, the installer itself does after it's done installing, to acquire the initial configuration, and later on the main executable (CCleaner.exe or CCleaner64.exe) does too. It doesn't every time it is run, I'd say there's a timeout since last time remote configuration for that machine was acquired or similar, but I'm sure it does.

That's why I mentioned @Anony2000workaround may not be a workaround, perhaps at first that particular machine isn't enrolled in the Custom Clean paywall trial, and it only does after a while at some point, it would be congruent with some users not having encountered the block at first.

For all we know, it may all be a test for now, as we're all in the dark and not everyone has had Custom Clean paywalled. The variations for the "Upgrade" button are likely to be to gauge which one leads to better conversion to Pro subscriptions: which text alone, text + specific color, paywall + text + color, etc.

1 hour ago, lmacri said:

I can't guarantee that Sampei's suggested edit to the hosts file (located in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc) shown below actually works

I can , I mean, those rules are mapping those domains to an unreachable address, you are bypassing the DNS resolver of your machine by doing that (even if DoH is used, HOSTS takes precedence to my knowledge). If you try to go to any domain listed in there like that, you won't be able to regardless of the app you use.

I generally dislike those kinds of blank blocks though, usually things are encrypted so it's hard to really know what is being sent (for CCleaner there's the privacy policy written in legalese and the data factsheet), but I like to send back usage statistics and analytics for the software I use, as long as they are used to improve the product and not upsell me whatever else (whether the software is free or not).

I feel like many tech-oriented people disable all telemetry every opportunity we have, but how else would we let devs know "dude, I use this a lot, I don't ever use that other feature, and I haven't even seen that before"? Sometimes I wonder if Microsoft (for example) is only getting stats on regular users because of how pushy they are with telemetry prompting us all to disable it, and we end up getting things like 11 as a result , but I digress haha. Like I said, it's about trust, if one doesn't trust the company is hard to take them at face value when they say only X or Y is sent and not more, these sorts of things should be opt-in, not opt-out, if you ask me, yet most companies go the opt-out route because they want to have the data and they can (look at the recent Adobe CC ToS change).

In CCleaner, for example, I don't think there's a toggle anywhere in the UI that changes "thirdPartyAnalyticsEnabled" to 0 (I understand, disabling them) listed in a file named usercfg.ini inside of Data, so what gives? Add shenanigans like the Custom Clean surreptitious change for free users and you get distrust that's pretty hard to overcome. In the end, they are making their bed if you know what I mean.

There, enough with the Bible, sorry about that

[JamesRM]

1 hour ago, lmacri said:

once you delete all the unnecessary .exe and .dll files from CCleaner Free Portable the only executable file you're left with is CCleaner64.exe

I forgot to address this, just know that if you do you will most likely be losing access to the driver and software update checkers as well, in case you use that stuff.

(Now that I think of it, it's kind of funny that the software updater shipped is an out-of-date version of the OESIS SDK )

[lmacri]

1 hour ago, JamesRM said:

I forgot to address this, just know that if you do you will most likely be losing access to the driver and software update checkers as well, in case you use that stuff...

Hi JamesRM:

That's why I've always deliberately deleted the \x86 and \x64 subfolders - I don't want to use bloat like Health Check, Software Updater and Driver Updater.  About the only features I use in CCleaner Free Portable are Custom Clean, registry cleaner (only if a stray registry entry is causing a problem after a software program is uninstalled ) and system restore (to view the dates my system restore points were created).

For others who aren't familiar with CCleaner Free Portable, here's what I see immediately after I unzip any Portable ccsteup6xx.zip file (i.e., before the new version of CCleaner64.exe is launched for the first time on my 64-bit machine):

NOTE: Keep the \Lang subfolder if you use a non-English edition of CCleaner Free Portable.

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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

[hazelnut]

@JamesRM

At times you talk as though you have a direct line to Devs and Piriform 

Quote

I forgot to address this...

Quote

most of us here are just users.....

Wouldn't be the first time !!

Anyway it is obvious to me that it has been decided at top level that Custom Clean will be paywalled soon.

Takeovers such as the GenDigital one of Avast/Piriform always result in casualties and assimilations.

[JamesRM]

49 minutes ago, hazelnut said:

At times you talk as though you have a direct line to Devs and Piriform 

*sigh* if only!

At least I'd be able to better understand the decisions they make and try to figure out other alternatives for whatever problem there is.

59 minutes ago, hazelnut said:

it is obvious to me that it has been decided at top level that Custom Clean will be paywalled soon

I think so too sadly, but who knows, we could be surprised.

1 hour ago, hazelnut said:

Takeovers such as the GenDigital one of Avast/Piriform always result is casualties and assimilations.

Yeah... perhaps those behind CCleaner are competing against others internally, there is some overlap with what was TuneUp Utilities back in the day, now AVG TuneUp.

[nukecad]

4 hours ago, JamesRM said:

... perhaps those behind CCleaner are competing against others internally, there is some overlap with what was TuneUp Utilities back in the day, now AVG TuneUp.

I look at things like this:

Windows Defender has made most of the 3rd party AV's become no longer needed and they are losing sales.

Look at the 'lead' companies in Gen Digital - Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG, - all AV companies that are losing their core home sales because of Windows Defender.
It's taken a while but people are realising that they don't need to buy a 3rd party AV anymore.

One consequence of that is that many have now started to include cleaning and tune-up bundled in with the AV.
You'll also notice them now adding cloud storage, VPNs, and other such stuff.
They are trying to reinvent themselves as a sort of all-in-one app to try and recapture sales.

But why should anyone bother paying them nowadays? - You get Windows Defender for free, that's their old core buisness of home AV software made irrelevant.
You can also get cleaning apps, cloud storage, VPN's, etc for free.

So one strategy is to acquire the companies that own the free cleaners, etc and charge for them or just put them out of the competition altogether.
CCleaner is now one of the GenDigital 'lead' companies - but there are other much smaller ones that they have acquired that you may never have heard of, and now probably never will.*

Let's face it that is what most takeovers/mergers are all about, removing competition.

Of course they are not going to be able to do that to Microsoft so many average 3rd party AVs are doomed anyway, at least as AVs.
They will have to, and are trying to, reinvent themselves.

The better ones will survive on their own merits, not by bundling other stuff.

*I was a bit surprised to recently notice that one of my browser add-ons that I have used for years from an independent developer was now owned by Gen Digital.
As far as I can see the original developer is still updating it for them, but for how long?

[hazelnut]

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/i-still-dont-care-about-c/edibdbjcniadpccecjdfdjjppcpchdlm?hl=en

[nukecad]

 I'm going to keep using the one that I already have, owned by Gen or not.

I was just pointing it out as one example of the small acquisitions that they are making that don't make the news.

Why would Gen need to acquire something like that add-on? It's only relevent to the GDPR cookie warnings in Europe.
It isn't in competion with any of their current products, so it must be with an eye to bundling it's code into something else, and/or to eventually make it a paid for extension.

[FrankNStein]

Ooh, look at this!

Bye, C(rap)Cleaner, after 20 years!

It's funny to see that they removed the "Crap" part from the name years ago, but now it's the "Cleaner" part that is gone from the original name instead.

([competition products redacted]have been much better for years, anyway. :)

Edited June 12 by Nergal
No competition products. Thanks, moderation

[nukecad]

I hadn't tried the 'Run Cleaner' button in the 'new' CCleaner Free when offline, - when I do I also get that message.
(Presumably it's trying to fetch the upgrade page from a server and gives that message when it can't).

I guess that we can call that the "Oficial Announcement" then.

It certainly says it more clearly than anything else that we have seen from the company up to now.

 

[FrankNStein]

(Will have to message a repository admin of a mirror here it to move it to "Crippleware" or "Demo" now that it's useless).

[nukecad]

Not 'useless' - you can still do Free cleaning with Health Check, which will be sufficent for users with only a basic computer knowledge.

However if you do want more control to customise what does and doesn't get c;eaned then you'll now have to pay to use Custom Clean.

Your choice - 'standard' cleaning for Free, or pay for more control of what does or doesn't get cleaned.

Generally the users posting  here so far don't have a problem with that.
We are all are of course disappointed at the change, but realise it's the company's decision what they give for free or not.

it's the way that it has been done with no warning, no announcement, and no information from the company that is the problem here.

[JamesRM]

5 hours ago, nukecad said:

It certainly says it more clearly than anything else that we have seen from the company up to now.

Agreed, that language is definite, although for now because the whole thing hinges on a value in the Registry there are several ways to prevent the removal of the feature.

By the way, the current Shepherd endpoint is indeed hardcoded in CCleaner, but it's just in charge of configuration, the upsell webpage is served from IPM (ipm-provider.ff.avast.com).

5 hours ago, FrankNStein said:

now it's the "Cleaner" part that is gone from the original name instead

Not really..., like @nukecad just mentioned  "Basic Cleaning", presumably through Health Check, is still available for free per the upgrade page served through the program, but there's no proper documentation explaining what the free offering actually includes or does

11 hours ago, nukecad said:

Windows Defender has made most of the 3rd party AV's become no longer needed and they are losing sales.

For home users, sure, it has come a long way since its inception, even in development machines with lots of small files, Windows 11 has something called Dev Drives that among other things integrate with Defender in a way that the performance impact is less (so I'm told, don't know firsthand). The enterprise is a whole other beast though.

12 hours ago, nukecad said:

But why should anyone bother paying them nowadays?

Different strokes for different folks , I bet some people do out of habit (kind of like us using CCleaner haha), others just prefer certain interfaces or options other than Defender's, and like you mentioned, if antimalware solutions are bundled with all sorts of things these days, perhaps they just want a comprehensive solution.

What I always wondered about is why Avast or Norton before, Gen Digital now, are keeping AVG, Avast, Avira and Norton going as separate products, surely they share most things. Symantec's Endpoint Protection may be under Broadcom now, I'm not sure, but it was never meant for home users.

No idea about that extension now under corporate control, who knows what goes on through the head of the ones making those kinds of decisions, that is something I didn't expect to see . You mentioned the original guy still working on it, so acqui-hire maybe? Hopefully not just to mine user data.

[lmacri]

1 hour ago, nukecad said:

Your choice - 'standard' cleaning for Free, or pay for more control of what does or doesn't get cleaned. Generally the users posting  here so far don't have a problem with that.

Hi nukecad:

On what basis have your drawn that conclusion?  I think it's a bit early to assume that the majority of CCleaner Free users who use Custom Clean will choose one of those two options and stay with CCleaner, no matter what.
------------
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.4412 * Firefox v127.0.0 * 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

[nukecad]

I never said that existing users of Custom Clean in Free will not abandon CCleaner now.
No doubt that many will, but some will continue to use Health Check for free, and some will now purchase a licence so they can keep using Custom Clean.
New users coming along will just see what it is now and make their own choice.

I just said that most posting in this thread recognise that the change is the company's decision which the company are entitled to make.

Just as users are entitled to make their own decision of whether to keep using it or not, and whether to pay or not.
Nobody is forcing anyone to use CCleaner at all.

PS. Would I personally choose to pay for a CCleaner Pro licence? - NO.
Would I use CCleaner without Custom Clean? -NO.
(I have no real reason to use it anyway apart from helping answer questions here).

[Andavari]

On 11/06/2024 at 17:19, nukecad said:

Not 'useless' - you can still do Free cleaning with Health Check, which will be sufficent for users with only a basic computer knowledge.

The problem with things like their automated Health Check that has very limited user control over what's being deleted on the system is I don't trust such things at all, I can't trust the people making it to not make mistakes that would have me reinstalling software or the OS.

There have been cleaning tools well before CCleaner existed and during its existence that automate cleaning and have the potential of cleaning too much, cleaning the wrong things that break/brick something, and/or don't even list what they've cleaned.

I personally used such tools at least two of them before CCleaner existed and they caused issues, and it became one of those never again moments. Hell even Microsoft's free cleaning tool Microsoft PC Manager (not really a CCleaner competitor/rival, it's too dumbed down and simple) can create issues when it cleans Microsoft Defender Antivirus that can take hours to self-correct (if it self-corrects that is), and the kicker is it's pre-selected to be cleaned.

[nikki605]

I must just be lucky. I can still do a custom clean on both my PCs just like always.  I use the slim installer.

[Deana J]

I have the same issue.  If this keeps up, they are going to LOSE customers.

[Andavari]

Technically speaking users of the free edition are not customers, therefore they can't lose a customer if people stop using the free edition and switch to some competitor/rival cleaning tool they could only lose some of their user-base and download counts to brag about in marketing.

[nukecad]

That is a very good point to make, if you haven't bought anything than you can't really call yourself a 'customer', you are a 'user'.

So while they will no doubt lose some current 'users' of the free version I doubt that bothers the company much at all, and some 'users' will decide to become customers so that they can keep using Custom Clean.

And of course some will try hacks and tweaks to try and keep using it for free.
Personally I don't see the point, if you don't like what's there then go and get something else, or even write your own cleaner - if you are technically competent enough to start hacking software reg keys then it isn't difficult to write a cookie and file cleaner for yourself. (I have).
You could even write one for others to use and share it on the web for free - but then I guess at some point you might want them to pay for your work keeping it up to date.

However:
None of that alters the fact that this change has been/is being done in a very inept way, some might say an incompetent way.
It's that blundering roll-out and lack of any information from the company that is annoying us all.

[JamesRM]

8 minutes ago, nukecad said:

if you are technically competent enough to start hacking software reg keys then it isn't difficult to write a cookie and file cleaner for yourself

Deleting files and registry keys is trivial, there is little nuance to it aside from taking care of security descriptors, having the right privileges or accounting for those in use (locked). Cookies are generally in SQLite databases, cleaning them all is easy, selective removal may require a bit of thought, but all in all the cleaning part of CCleaner isn't hard to implement (or rather, doesn't feel like it). Now, whether it is worth the time or not is a different thing altogether, given there are alternatives.

16 minutes ago, nukecad said:

It's that blundering roll-out and lack of any information from the company that is annoying us all.

Lack of information is a problem; but marketing claims have different wording depending on where they are too, for example, when it should be all be consistent: in-app wording, manual (if there is any), FAQs, etc. However, more than the lack of information, the lack of communication is one of the main issues for me, it doesn't take much to do it and at the very least shows there is someone there . CCleaner team, if you do communicate with users in the future, please forgo the PR speech and keep it real, I'm sure users would appreciate it.

The other (main issue) is the way a change as impactful as paywalling one of the main features of the program is being done, I feel it would have been better if it was straightforward, as in: a decision has been made, so Custom Clean joins the roster of Pro features from 6.24 on, no conditionals, no A/B trials; it's no immaterial change like the color or text of a button to be done that way (with the confusion some people experienced when asked for credit card details for the trial to be able to use the feature). 

I know I found out about the change when I was going to use it, and I do read release notes of updates, there was just no indication of it, at one point it works and at the next it doesn't.

At the same time, other dynamic content like the date the privacy policy was last updated (that is also pushed through Shepherd as part of the remote configuration), is still reported as 14th Jul 2022, despite there being at least one change in Dec 2023 between then and the current version of Feb 2024. We all forget things, perhaps they forgot about it, but there was at least one report of it being the case on the 24th of May, since it doesn't require a new CCleaner build for it to be updated, I wonder what is actually going on...

 

I still hold out hope for things to change for the better in the future, not with Custom Clean returning to the free offering, but with the company adjusting the way they operate and do things.