Advice Request CCleaner may be installing Avast anti-virus without your permission?

[BoraMurdar]

Source article
CCleaner may be installing Avast anti-virus without your permission

Avast is acting more like the malware it's supposed to defend against

Starting with version 5.37 of CCleaner, released this past August, Avast was bundled as an optional add-on. Normally, this is supposed to be opt-out with a checkbox at the bottom verifying that the user wants to include Avast in the CCleaner installation. However, many users are saying that it's anything but opt-out.
Frustrated users have complained on Avast's forums about the hidden installation:

"This happened to me today when updating CCleaner Free to v5.40. Did not notice any bundled offers, and I am always on the lookout for them. Always use advanced install options too."
"It happened to me too. ccleaner 5.43 installed avast without consent. There was no option to opt out of avast installation."
"It auto installed Avast without consent and no opt out. There was no check box on the setup page to opt out of installation!!!!! You guys should be ashamed to do this kind of business. When will you realize that people you FORCE your product into like this are less likely going to buy your product, or do some good publicity about it

All the contrary!"​

A product manager for CCleaner responded to the complaints by reiterating that the Avast installations are supposed to be completely optional and users should "always see the consent screen" whenever they install CCleaner Free edition or Pro Trial. However, the product manager did acknowledge that there were people who were experiencing problems:

We are monitoring a small number of edge cases where it seems the consent checkbox is not displaying correctly. After gathering what information we could from our users on the CCleaner forums, we were able to identify a case where high system load could delay the offer from displaying immediately. This allowed us to reproduce the issue internally and resolve it. We made change to guard against this root cause and released it in v5.39 (January 16th). There is potential for another bug/edge case to be causing the consent checkbox to not be visible, and this is what I would like to continue to investigate with your assistance.​

However, when we tested the latest version of CCleaner today, we were never prompted about the Avast installation and surprise, surprise, our system suddenly had a new antivirus installed that we did not consent to.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

I still think CCleaner is the best tool in its class, but unbelievable how fast Avast is destroying all confidence I had in CCleaner

 

[shukla44]

I cannot install the latest ccleaner update, the setup crashes after a while. I assume it is installing avast & fails. I don't know why maybe kaspersky or something else so i am using the older version it is good enough for now. Really looking for replacement for ccleaner, if anyone has some please suggest.

 

[KonradPL]

I can recomend to you Reg Organizer or Wise Care 365

 

[JM Safe]

This will be not a problem for Avast users however I don't use CCleaner anymore.

 

[RejZoR]

I used to be a huge avast fan and supporter, but all the investors and chasing of profits through any means possible is destroying everything they've been working for decades. Trust and respect is slow to earn, especially in security field and you can piss it all away in matter of days if you become pushy or do shady or questionable things. Is it really worth destroying decades of hard work because of that 0.3% increase of whatever profit? Sure, avast! is still a great antivirus, but the way how they are doing business lately is really weird with all this over the top aggressive pushing of stuff to people. Sure, short term it might show great results, but long term it's only doing damage. The more people are fed up with it, the more they'll write about it online and when that writing becomes a normal knowledge about some product, you've effectively ruined your reputation.

 

[Moonhorse]

Well both avast and ccleaner are great products in overall

I myself just moved to geek uninstaller and bleachbit/privazer

 

[BigWrench]

I can recomend to you Reg Organizer or Wise Care 365

Ditto!

 

[Stas]

Why not use CCleaner portable?

 

[ForgottenSeer 72227]

I used to be a huge avast fan and supporter, but all the investors and chasing of profits through any means possible is destroying everything they've been working for decades. Trust and respect is slow to earn, especially in security field and you can piss it all away in matter of days if you become pushy or do shady or questionable things. Is it really worth destroying decades of hard work because of that 0.3% increase of whatever profit? Sure, avast! is still a great antivirus, but the way how they are doing business lately is really weird with all this over the top aggressive pushing of stuff to people. Sure, short term it might show great results, but long term it's only doing damage. The more people are fed up with it, the more they'll write about it online and when that writing becomes a normal knowledge about some product, you've effectively ruined your reputation.

I've pretty much written off Avast, not because of its capabilities, but rather the company's practices. Its a shame, because their product is pretty good!

I've always felt like they gave away too much with their free version, I never thought it would be sustainable long term. There was and still is, very little difference between their free and paid offerings. Why would anyone pay for it when they get the vast mority of features in the free version?

IMHO, if all of this is because they weren't making money (due to the free version), they should have just gotten rid of the free version all together and started charging a fee just like everyone else. If they still wanted a free version, they should strip it down and have little to no settings like Bitdefender free.

Personally I think they could have taken a far different path, compared to the one they are on currently if they wanted to increase revenue.

 

[redsworn]

Why not use CCleaner portable?

Portable is the one I've been using since long time ago. To me there's no point of using the installer version since there's no major difference between them. On top of that, I block it using firewall for a peace of mind.

 

[stefanos]

I use both ccleaner and Avast. Just i block with firewall cleaner and avastui on Avast. I like them both

 

[SumTingWong]

CCleaner users: NANI?!

But man when is Antivirus becomes a PUP itself? I think it is going to be hilarious for antivirus detects another antivirus as a threat. For instance, ESET Nod32 detects Avast in CCleaner installer as a threat.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

People seem to forget, Avast, first and foremost, is a datamining firm.

I never used Avast. I never would use Avast. I always thought it was pretty average and given it's popularity the one most likely targeted for bypasses. Also I always felt it was pretty buggy. That was back before their lust for data reached the crescendo we see now. But right now, it's so far over the top that they function like a fakeAV company putting malware on your systems. Especially with that 'Overwatch' crap that hides on your system after you install it.

I mentioned in this forum that when Ccleaner was acquired by Avast it was curtains for it.

Thankfully, it's far from the best product out there. Take your pick.. Wise, Privacy Eraser (which by the way uses much of the Ccleaner code base allegedly), Kerish, System Ninja, Glary, Privazer, I mean we have options and honestly, no reason to ever use Ccleaner again.

Little info nugget: I tried to buy Ccleaner a couple times years ago when I was angel investing after selling a high tech corporation(that which shall not be named) I started. Mr. Ccleaner initially was going to sell it for very cheap to me. But then he wanted me to sign off that I would never sell it or any derivative of it and that it always remained freeware.. I guess he had a change of heart, offering a pro version then selling it off to one of the sleaziest corporations around.

 

[ChemicalB]

"It happened to me too. ccleaner 5.43 installed avast without consent. There was no option to opt out of avast installation."
"It auto installed Avast without consent and no opt out. There was no check box on the setup page to opt out of installation!!!!!

Are they serious?? What happens if, obviously, I have MY antivirus already installed? Avast+FSecure?....well "good" combo....

At least I hope this is the case only if the installer detects that you've just WD.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

 

[artek]

Avast is borderline malware.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Thankfully, it's far from the best product out there. Take your pick.. Wise, Privacy Eraser (which by the way uses much of the Ccleaner code base allegedly), Kerish, System Ninja, Glary, Privazer, I mean we have options and honestly, no reason to ever use Ccleaner again.

Ccleaner is the only one that cleans local storage in Google Chrome.
Even Privacy Eraser (seems the best alternative to me) leaves that behind.
So for me Ccleaner is unfortunately still the best cleaner out there.

 

[MikeV]

Really looking for replacement for ccleaner, if anyone has some please suggest.

The best I've tried so far is Privacy Eraser.
Next is Bleachbit.

 

[ChemicalB]

CCleaner is on the wrong binary for sure, if you take a look at Android version, it is full of ads, slow, and it uses dozens of MB.
I use V 1.25.104, the last serious version that does what it says and without frills.