2y ago

Is CCleaner still people's preferred computer cleaning app?

Has something new come along? It's been so long since I've needed to do this that I assume CCleaner has enshittified by now.

74 comments

Absolutely not. It was sold to a third party with nebulous privacy policy among other annoyances. Get you some Bleachbit.
- Awesome I'll look into that one. Thanks!
- Oh joy. Must also be why they don't have portable versions anymore.
- Awesome thanks! You're the third vote I've seen for bleachbit so I'll definitely look into that one.
- Can you elaborate on how it's a virus? I hear this a lot but haven't heard any substantial truth aside from referring to a privacy policy that is identical to 90% of every other website anyone else uses.
  
  Piriform was a very trustworthy tool developer until it was surreptitiously bought by a chinese company and immediately turned into a virus for the next release. It instantly lost its trust and has been garbage since that day.
Ccleaner has been a malware for at least 5 years.
Are these cleaning apps still a thing?
Honestly I just run WinDirStat and do it manually.
- Wiztree is like a hundred times faster, fyi.
  
  He's not exaggerating. I didn't believe it was possible but holy shit so much better.
  
  Thanks for the heads up, I'll give it a shot next time!
- This but wiztree instead.
  
  This but SpaceSniffer instead.
  
  Spacesniffer for me. Also portable. But I'll check out wiztree for funzies.
- Spacesniffer is my preferred alternative.
  
  Kind of an unsettling name
- I think that's also in my future, but I liked ccleaner for cleaning up old bits of uninstalled things that didn't remove themselves cleanly.
  
  Revo for that, but in the moment instead of an afterthought 🤓
- It's treesize for me
You shouldn't really need this kind of program. Stay away from registry cleaners especially.
Stay away from this garbage. Use BleachBit.
- I remember CCleaner being good. But that was a long time ago. Looking at the site now, I feel like I wandered into a Tel Sell advertisement.
  I was gonna ask you what made CCleaner bad before I took a look at the sites. But CCleaner literally sells you privacy as a pro feature, whereas BleachBit puts privacy in the second sentence as a core aspect of the tool.
  
  CCleaner literally sells you privacy as a pro feature, whereas BleachBit puts privacy in the second sentence as a core aspect of the tool.
  Exactly
I don't think I've used any cleaner product since the Windows XP days. I don't view it as necessary anymore.
One of the other programs to see file size on disk recommended on this thread should be enough.
I would highly recommend O&O ShutUp10++ to reduce built in spying in Windows. It's good at explaining what each option you're doing is. The only thing I would caution on is changing the Edge browser policies with O&O. That will lock it down into enterprise mode and you won't be able to change certain settings through the UI anymore.
- I don’t think I’ve used any cleaner product since the Windows XP days. I don’t view it as necessary anymore.
  I'm the same. Haven't used one since those days and I work in IT.
Oh, now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time.
do not use it. it's bad.
Honestly these days the built in Windows tools are more than enough. Storage settings gets the job done.
Also I love Linux too guys but those comments with nothing else aren't very helpful.
This is a fucking public service announcement
The last time I used it, it deleted my progress in Cookie Clicker. Never again
Let me dig up that Ubuntu ISO link right quick...
- Oh do shut up
No, it starts up and pesters you even if you disable it as a startup service. Malware.
Bleachbit vs BCUninstaller vs WinDirStat vs Wiztree, which should I prefer? I am currently using BCU.
- Wiztree is so much faster than WinDirStat it's silly. Never looked back. Maybe things have changed?
  
  Is wiztree much better than BCU and Bleachbit? Like, removing al the vestiges of an uninstalled program. I feel like BCU is half-assing it. Earlier I used to use Revo Uninstaller which is I think much better than BCU.
- TreeSizeFree
BleacBit+winapp2ool
- What do each of those do?
In a similar vein: Is spybot s&d still effective anti malware/virus?
- Windows Defender does its job for "free".
- Let me get you a copy of Ultimate Boot CD. Or, are you more of a Hiren’s BootCD user?
  
  Is that a no?
Patch cleaner is also handy, to clean out that windows installer folder.
https://www.homedev.com.au/Free/PatchCleaner
- Oh this sounds nice. Thanks!
You just dunk the hard drives in some bleach. All the bytes will be wiped away.
No
Haven't tried BleachBit on Windows. Does it clean driver installation logs, compress browser databases, MRU explorer cache, opd prefetch files, Windows updates, etc.?
I still use easyCleaner xD
Nowadays, I use GNU/Linux.
Imagine running an operating system that needs third party "cleaning" utilities
- People like you are why the Linux community is viewed as being toxic.
- Imagine interacting with other human beings without being a cringelord. No really, try.
- Let me guess. Linux user?
  
  Gentoo, probably. Don't want your operating system being bloated down by having to be compatible with other people's devices /s
  
  Naa cast-iron pan user. Throw that shit in a fire, melt away the bad and star it over.
  Also kidding, but maybe.
- They were never needed.

74 comments