What is ccleaner

CCleaner's parent company, Avast Piriform, found the malware on September 12, , and immediately took steps to remediate the problem. Initially, the company believed it was confined to the above versions running on a bit Windows systems and that downloading upgraded versions of the program would solve the problem. It's believed more than 2 million users were infected.

Unfortunately, the company soon discovered the malware infection was more severe than originally believed. A second stage payload was discovered by Cisco Talos. This payload targeted approximately 20 of the largest tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, Cisco, and Intel, and infected 40 computers.

According to Wired , "Cisco says it obtained a digital copy of the hackers' command-and-control server from an unnamed source involved in the CCleaner investigation. The server contained a database of every backdoored computer that had 'phoned home' to the hackers' machine between September 12 and 16". Although there is no definitive evidence identifying the party responsible for the CCleaner malware, investigators discovered a link to a Chinese hacking group known as Axiom.

The CCleaner malware shares code with tools used by Axiom, and a time stamp on a compromised server matched a Chinese time zone; however, time stamps can be changed or modified, making it difficult to pinpoint origin. Combined with the choice of tech targets, this raised concerns that CCleaner malware could be part of a state-sponsored attack. As of late , the investigation into responsibility for the hack is ongoing. When the CCleaner malware was first discovered, users were advised to upgrade to the newest version of the program based on the belief it was an isolated incident and later versions were safe.

Another feature touted by CCleaner is its ability to speed up how quickly your computer starts but reducing the number of startup applications that it loads on bootup. The application shows you all programs configured to run when your computer starts and provides a tool you can use to disable or delete those startup tasks.

The reality is that CCleaner is simply providing you with a redundant app that Windows 10 already has. Ironically, as you can see above, when CCleaner is installed, it configures itself to load as one more application that launches when your computer starts up, slowing it down even further. There are two fallacies to this. The first is that deleting files will speed up your computer. The second fallacy is that you even need CCleaner to do this. Microsoft introduced a new feature into Windows 10 with Creators Update version This introduced a new option in a Windows 10 feature called Storage Sense.

You can fine tune how this feature behaves by clicking on the Change how we free up space automatically link. There, you can fine tune how often Windows cleans up these areas, and how long Windows allows unmodified files to remain in these areas.

Considering that CCleaner is configured to run as a startup application by default, this means CCleaner could be communicating with CCleaner servers without you even realizing it.

For an application that claims to try and reduce the time it takes for your computer to boot, and to try and speed up your PC, the fact that this is enabled by default seems counter-intuitive. These days, it seems like every Windows user has heard about CCleaner. The real question we should be asking is: do you really need CCleaner in the first place?

CCleaner has two main uses. One, it scans for and deletes useless files, freeing up space. Two, it erases private data like your browsing history and list of most recently opened files in various programs.

You can run this tool at any time to free up disk space. CCleaner does do these things and more. Just select the types of data you want to delete, click the Analyze button, and look over the data CCleaner will delete. CCleaner will remember your choices for next time, so you can just open it and click the Run Cleaner button in the future.

CCleaner has another purpose: it will also delete private usage data. For example, CCleaner will erase your browser history, cookies, and cache files for any browsers you have installed — Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, even Opera. It will go beyond that, erasing the cookie data stored by the Flash Player. It will even wipe out other potentially privacy-risking data, such as the list of recently opened file names in Microsoft Word, Adobe Reader, Windows Media Player, VLC media player, and other common Windows applications.

All of this is customizable, but CCleaner is set up to wipe out this data by default. There are a few reasons for this. You could use CCleaner constantly, running it every day with the default settings. However, this would actually slow your computer down in real use. Cache files are bits of web pages—images, scripts, stylesheets, HTML files, and more—that your browser holds onto. For example, when you visit How-To Geek, your browser downloads the How-To Geek logo that we display at the top of the page.

It then saves this logo in its cache. Of course, the cache can also be a privacy concern. But in general, if someone has access to your computer, you have far worse problems than them looking at your cache files. Apart from its disk cleaner, CCleaner contains some other tools as well. Some, like its ability to create a list of installed programs, are useful, but can also be done with a simple command, without CCleaner. Others, like its built-in registry cleaner, are snake oil at best—and, in theory, could actually cause problems in certain situations.

It does have a few useful tools, but all of them are better served by other third-party tools anyway—like finding duplicate files , analyzing your hard drive space , and securely erasing your drive. Instead of just running the cleaner on its default settings, take some time to go through and select the types of data you actually want to remove. The Windows section contains options for cleaning data included with Windows, while the Applications section contains cleaning options for third-party applications you have installed.

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