Been running the free 2.9 here for a few years now. Works fine.

 

The spyware and virus paranoia makes people think it's lurking down the dark hallways of every computer's code. I do some shady, unsafe stuff on the internet, since it came out basically, and I've never had anything like that. I would reckon the actual numbers are much lower than people would believe. I think the Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon influences believing a few stories here and there is "all over the internet." Hide your kids, hide your wife, and run that antivirus.

 

CCleaner (last "clean" version without spyware component) Version 5.44 Slim
https://www.chip.de/downloads/CClea...rsion-ohne-Spionage-Komponente_145672272.html

 

Old news) CCleaner stopped being reliable over five years ago. I don’t remember the whole story, but it was sold to some ad company.

 

In July 2017, Piriform was acquired by Avast for €100-200 million. Avast is a greedy, fraudulent gang that also sold user data.

 

Try Wise Disk Cleaner

 

I use the free version from official site to answer those comments about it.

I installed spybot and found 25 things which it cleaned I think from registry. Then I did CCleaner again for internet junk and more registry cleaning. Why I use it everyday? because I am an cleanfreak ocd gangsta mf thats why! So step off da beef! But really I just download and delete a lot of stuff everyday, movie, tv show, plugin etc.. so its fast and easy to clean up stuff and I been using it for a very long time with no problem until now thats all.

here are screenshots of that weird popup window I now see anywhere I put my pointer in a typable field on websites

https://ibb.co/39L064nF


https://ibb.co/F44KVsMb


Anybody know what the hell is going on with those? Now I think it is Opera browser update that did this ffs

 

It can, sure; but that is about something new to someone. My comment about the number of alarmist threads about infected copies, spyware conspiracy theories related to these two cleaner programs is over the course of since the days they were first introduced.

I often comment that I am amazed by how many first-time and new users of a program find bugs in the software. It's not because they are lucky; it is because they don't know what they are doing yet.

Spoiler

How to troubleshoot
Have them try in order:

1. Disable Opera extensions
   • Go to: opera://extensions
     
     
   • Toggle all off temporarily.
     
     
   • Reload a page and click in a text box again.
     
     
   • If it’s gone, re-enable one by one.
2. Check Windows Text Suggestions
   • Open Settings → Time & Language → Typing
     
     
   • Turn off:
     • “Show text suggestions when typing on the physical keyboard”
       
       
     • “Multilingual text suggestions”
3. Check for IME or language bar
   • On the taskbar, click the language indicator (like ENG, CH, JP, etc.)
     
     
   • If another input method is active, switch to ENG US.
     
     
   • You can also remove extra input methods in Settings → Time & Language → Language & region.
4. Check background apps
   • Right-click Taskbar → Task Manager → Startup tab.
     
     
   • Disable any keyboard assistant, translation tool, or “productivity helper” app.
5. Try in another browser
   • If it only happens in Opera, it’s an extension or Opera AI prompt feature.
     
     
   • If it happens system-wide, it’s a Windows or IME feature.

 

Last edited: Oct 8, 2025 at 12:07 PM

is it English or German version?

 

The crap CC versions started showing up a bit after that. I ended up choosing the last piriform branded non-crap version what would run on Win10 which is the version I spec'd out a few posts ago... Just never give it internet access or let it update - which is sage advice for any tools of this kind.

OP - Be careful of "registry cleaners" or other blanket tools that romp thru system file areas. Unless you're installing/uninstalling a shitload of software on a regular basis there really is no good reason to allow some tool to rangle thru the registry unsupervised. Just sayin'..

 

Yes I always check the list of results in registry clean. Usually there is only 1 result everyday (Obsolete software key ChangeTracker HKCU\Software\ChangeTracker) but after install/uninstall plugins I test those always show up a few results as leftovers and get wiped. Custom cleanup after browsing on internet always deletes a few hundred mb of crap. I dont see any point in not doing it everyday and allowing things to pile up on my system so its for that and habit I guess. I never use any of the other features in CCleaner only custom cleanup and registry and uninstall.

I did once try Revo and it deleted so much and caused all sorts of problems in my pc so I rolled back and deleted that program as fast as I could.

 

Yes it is fine, I got it installed too. I just prefer 1.6.2 because I find it more straightforward.
The free version of the commercial software offers the same functionalities as the old freeware because the dev had stated that it would always be free. I guess that's also why it s still updated.

 

My advice: use Sanboxie if you're doing this, it'll save you a ton of time and headaches.

 

Yep, happened to me. I could watch my cursor move around and go to Amazon, try to buy an iPad, then hide the order in archives so no one can see it. Hmm, wonder why Amazon did away with archiving orders?!!

 

yep both programs messed my system up where i had to delete everything and start fresh

 

I patched my CCleaner to not beeing able to call the winhttp/wininet library.
Basically like what R2R's network block runtime does when it gets called but without that runtime required to be installed.
That way it stays completely offline and can't connect to the net in any way. Also disabled the health check that required an
active internet connection to work.

When you set CC to start at the health check screen, it's just empty



and when it starts normal, you can't click on that health check button.

Updates don't work even when connected to the net and firewall disabled:


Since I use an older version that still works on Win11, I might take a look at more recent versions and then share it.

But CCleaner is also very tricky because the software itself (backend) can be shut down from the net easily that way
but it's frontend/GUI is mostly html/css which runs through the ms edge webview runtime. To make it completely offline,
all the html code has to be checked & edited as well.

 

YES, EXACTLY, after Avast buy Piriform, this cleaner is DEAD for me, cuz Avast sh1t company. I use Revo Uninstaller.

 

Thanks I've just uninstalled it after updating just to see what they've been upto and have been using it since the early days and can confirm icarus.exe attempts to connect to net which is defo part of Avast and AVG (too I believe now). They've once again moved Registry and does not look great or look like it will be usuable anymore so time to check out those mentioned Glary Utilities 6, BleachBit and Wise Registry Cleaner.
Edit: After trying Wise Registry Cleaner after CCleaner Reg Cleaner I decided not to risk that one after it found 1726 issues so used one called TweakNow RegCleaner which found 100 issues and seems like it will do the job. Will probably use BleachBit for the Browser(s) & Temp Files Cleanup after testing. Also uninstalled Glary Utilities 6

Spoiler: TweakNow RegCleaner (Link)

https://www.tweaknow.com/RegCleaner.php

 

Last edited: Oct 8, 2025 at 6:04 PM

windows os pros suggest not to use such utils/tools anyway. win10 doesnt need them anymore.
the only tool i was using on win10 was the privacy tool. to get rid of m$ phonecalling and other stuff.

but that's about it.

i haven't used ccleaner since .. ehm. 2019 ?