I'm just curious what makes people use malicious software like Opera or CCleaner despite the wide variety identical or more advanced alternatives. You can even use the Lynx command-line browser if you like it, I won't judge you . If you like being a cash cow for data mining or cryptocurrency, no one can stop you.

 

Sorry to bring you this news because at a bad time. But all lemonade is made from lemons.

Let's make some lemonade from this situation...

It's time to up your recovery game. System Image backups. By 'System Image', I mean a full 1:1 copy of everything on your system on the day of the backup. I don't know of the equivalent in iOS (I'm a Windows guy). When faced with an untraceable glitch, errors, and/or rising frustration(s), guessing, uninstalling things, even installing possible solutions may be a time-sucking, slippery slope to nowhere.

As your own IT guy, the first (Or last) line of defense is backups. Putting yourself almost 85-100% of where you were before system failure occurred is far preferrable to this below...

*I personally don't think it's a PUP, it looks like more of an incomplete log/error report. From where?...dunno.

However, in the event of an issue, you should be able seamlessly transfer all files created since your last backup on your currently flawed system (By saving them offline), and add them to your freshly installed, most recent backup, effectively putting you 100% back in the game with maybe one hour downtime. Make that happen in your life.

Again, I know this is all 20-20 hindsight stuff, but when you have (Or one day will have) meetings, clients, project deadlines, other technical/personnel issues, etc, one has zero time to hunt down cryptic browser codes.

*(Tip) Create a full System Image once a week (Or whenever you update/upgrade products or OS). I store my backups on both removable storage and online storage in case the internet goes down while my biggest client is in-studio already having a baby-fit.

Stick to this script and you can defeat many catastrophic computing failures within the hour, and move on.

I hope I did not offend you, I just wanted to get you stoked on recovery being a valid technical solution when formal repair options fall short.

Edit: OP figured it out already. I'll leave this for future reference.

 

Yeah ive asked myself that question too, Do most people use these 3rd party Cleaner Software because of convenience reasons like set it up for multiple tasks to routinely do? as far as cleaning/clearing i would not imagine it being superior to what came with your operating system. I'm generally curious too Ive used both i didn't see it do anything to warrant keeping it. Seems more like a liability after hearing all these shady things people have seen by using them.

 

CCleaner is poison. Too much of it can kill your computer!

 

It's pretty simple, because most of it is just prejudice, rumors from forums that have nothing to do with reality. You see, Opera is now even labeled as malware. You can activate or deactivate the "Crypto Wallet". I think most people don't even know what they're talking about and just repeat everything. Lots of rumors, little foundation.

Debunking misinformation about Opera’s browsers
https://blogs.opera.com/security/2023/07/debunking-spyware-misinformation

Alternative to CCleaner: Ashampoo® WinOptimizer 28 [25 €] www.ashampoo.com/en-us/winoptimizer

 

Last edited: Oct 9, 2025

I find ccleaner hasn't been reliable or trustworthy for quite some time, it deletes files you need and want to keep. I use an older version 3 of it. if anyone needs these you can get it from http://www.oldversion.com/windows/ccleaner-3-0 for a list of all versions from the latest down to version 1.06 from 2004. also https://archive.org has a lot of old software that still works perfectly on Win 10+11. When you have an old program that is at least on-tenth of the the size of a latest crap and spyware infested version and does everything the latest version does, Why switch!!!!.

 

Last edited: Oct 10, 2025

I know what I’m talking about. I used Opera before, and it started changing my default search engine to Google -again and again, over and over. You don’t have to be a genius to realize something’s wrong with that browser. You can justify it all you want in your corporate blog, but that kind of information isn’t worth a damn. Still, you’re free to keep believing the corporate propaganda.
The fact that it was sold to a company that sees the browser only as a tool for hidden profits pretty much speaks for itself.

 

There is another great program Auslogics BoostSpeed 14 and I used it before, but now that I have reinstalled Windows, I no longer want to install it, as well as CC Cleaner.Uploading to Virustotal.com and everything becomes clear.Malware is left and right.Here's what you want.You want data theft.You want mining.Anything.

 

I understand you, @Synclavier. You had a bad experience and drew the conclusions. But in my Opera, I can deactivate or activate everything, and nothing changes on its own. Opera doesn't send any data either. I hope you understand my point of view. I configured Opera myself and am very satisfied. If that changes, I'll use my backup browsers like Firefox, Brave, or LibreWolf. I'm not a fan of belief like you, but of knowledge.

Today, many companies are acquired and changed to suit the interests of their investors. In Europe, however, we have the "GDPR - What does the European General Data Protection Regulation say?" If a company like Facebook, Google, or Opera commits data protection violations, they are subject to fines. https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr I would point out that these are not legal vacuums or that everyone can do whatever they want.

 

Gratitude to OP Rolfy for posting this warning! Had just downloaded the CCleaner update yesterday and was going to install when I saw this, grateful I caught their post first. Having read a few different threads floating around on the web concerning this new version, definitely looks like its bad news.

Installed Bleachbit and will give it a go, though I hate getting used to new software when I've been using something else for a long time. Also saw someone here mention Wise Registry Cleaner as an alternative for the reg cleanup functions of CCleaner. Checked that out as well and on a first scan it tells me I need to delete 5000+ reg entries!! That gave me some pause and will hold off on trying that just yet. If anyone else is interested in checking out Wise Registry, you can currently find a lifetime free pro license for it at this giveaway site: https://tinyurl.com/4uac4f9m. I checked out the download from that link on virustotal, 100% clean. Despite the huge reg deletion its telling me I need, their software seems to have good reviews so hopefully this will help some folks here.

 

Last edited: Oct 10, 2025

You gotta evolve, or become stagnant. Not a good look when possible software privacy/security flaws are suspected in a prog you trust, and you ignore it. I'm glad you chose evolution over comfort.

Wise Reg Cleaner is good, does what it says, and no more. Small cpu/storage footprint, no wild overreach on entries selected for deletion, and you can review all entries cued for deletion before deleting them. I never had my OS screwed for trusting this prog. This is one of two free-version, closed-source progs I trust with my registry. Been using it for 5+ years (Manual deletion became tedious when it used to be fun).

Actually, that's not a lot of entries created. Constantly downloading, customizing, installing programs, uninstalling, updating both system and progs, or installing 'Augmented' programs and their keygens/uninstallers, etc, all leave reg entries. Errors, leftovers and broken entries will be left behind. Clean them.

*Always back up your .reg before cleaning. It only takes 7 seconds.

Anyway, Windows will still operate normally even if you choose not to clean the registry. I do mine every 9-10 months.

Wise free products are the exception to the rest. They are a trusted brand...for now. You'll be fine.

Good Luck!

 

Correct. That is all I use CC for.. That all I have ever used CC for... The drive cleaner junk that comes with ms systems is just that. JUNK. You're depending on that it knows what it is doing as it totally operates on it's own. Bad move - worse than any third party app..

I tried the ms win "drive cleanup" tool a long time ago (winXP) and when it totally hosed up a perfectly running system I have shit canned every single instance of those "tools" on every subsequent build of windows I have done since. The os tools are NOT configurable (much) and NOT to be trusted. CC (the version I use) is perfectly benign and free of junk - plus no net access is given to it anyway. It has many useless tools - registry cleaner, drive wiper, dup finder, updater, etc which are all DISABLED. The cleaner part and the start up editor (the only two things I use) are very configurable and do exactly what I need as far as keeping the system free of junk that other aps leave in their wake. CC works on win10 as it has for years on win7 and below, and does what I have it doing quickly and cleanly. The CC versions after Piriform are all shit and do qualify as crapware/spyware/malware or whatever name you wish to give to bad software.

 

I strongly recommend getting rid of stuff inside temp folders manually and not letting any automatic cleanup tool near your registry.
There is no benefit in using a tool like ccleaner. The best it does is not break anything.

 

There is no need to clean the registry, even though others may have told you that.

The registry is a database. Entries in it that are no longer needed aren't read and take up minimal disk space.
So, there's virtually no point in deleting them.

Cleaning up the registry carries the risk of deleting entries that might actually be needed.
Cleaning your Windows registry will not speed up your computer.

So, you get essentially no benefit, but you do have a certain risk.
Why take a risk for something that's practically useless? Exactly! So, you don't bother.

 

Last edited: Oct 12, 2025

It's not entirely true. The larger the registry database is, the slower the boot process is. Because at startup it reads all registry entries.

The registry is one of the weakest and bad thought parts of the Windows operating system. If it gets corrupted, the whole system is dead.

 

Last edited: Dec 19, 2025 at 9:16 AM

Code:

> ru64 -nobanner HKLM\SYSTEM
Values:       162250
Keys:          63383

> ru64 -nobanner HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
Values:       362151
Keys:         218184

> ru64 -nobanner HKU
Values:       485972
Keys:         149685

^ https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/ru

My registry has a couple million entries, deleting 1000 wouldn't make a difference. Databases don't look up entries like humans, best not to apply "yeah, makes sense to me" when tweaking

 

You shouldn't use ccleaner every day, always turn off updates, the check for newer version and the send performance reports or issues.. get an old version like 3.25 from http://www.oldversion.com as with all newer programs the always put new crap and bloatware. Software developers always load up programs with useless crap that I don't need and will never use, they are imbeciles who think they know best what we need. I like my programs small and basic any extras or plugins needed I will get and install myself. usually from different companies. Getting back to CCleaner you should only use it occasionally, clean out your temp files yourself. CCleaner deleted all TXT files on my friends PC. I think the newest version of CCleaner Professional Plus Ultimate Platinum even flushes the toilet for you as well.

 

Last edited: Dec 19, 2025 at 3:12 PM

Yes, maybe nowadays with SSD drives you won't notice a lot of difference by removing 1000 entries. But 20 years ago with hard disks it would have been huge.

 

Haven't used CCleaner since the backdoor incident in 2017, which happened the same year it was bought by Avast,
they blamed it on Chinese hackers, but the incident being so close to the acquisition made the whole thing very fishy,
there is always a cloud of doubt surrounding CCleaner ever since and I never bothered using it again.

Also, Avast's way of handling their "free" software is basically scare tactics and nagging to get you to buy a license,
so, CCleaner was going to become a shit-show regardless of spyware.

 

It’s not really about speed It’s about dead ends and leftover entries that remain in the registry, causing conflicts and clutter because some developers can’t create proper installers. There is no correct advice to clean the registry or not; everything should be done with common sense and by those who know what they are doing.