Microsoft flags CCleaner as Potentially Unwanted Application, deletes its files

Ink

Administrator
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Well-known
Jan 8, 2011
22,361
microsoft is on the pathway to being sued for abuse of monopoly. this happened before with IE. likewise, you can't have a built-in antivirus that flags non-malicious software that microsoft deems "unwanted". think about it, it is a built-in AV, meaning that it is essentially the windows operating system that is picking and choosing what will be allowed to run. they are unwittingly gaming their operating system to ban targeted software companies. and in the case of ccleaner, it is a software competitor that has a rival antivirus. it will be interesting to see how this develops in the future and whether someone will take on that juggernaut as netscape navigator did.
You want monopoly, look at Google, Facebook, and not only Microsoft. Their practices are far more nefarious.

Nothing will happen..
 

jackuars

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Jul 2, 2014
1,688
microsoft is on the pathway to being sued for abuse of monopoly. this happened before with IE. likewise, you can't have a built-in antivirus that flags non-malicious software that microsoft deems "unwanted". think about it, it is a built-in AV, meaning that it is essentially the windows operating system that is picking and choosing what will be allowed to run. they are unwittingly gaming their operating system to ban targeted software companies. and in the case of ccleaner, it is a software competitor that has a rival antivirus. it will be interesting to see how this develops in the future and whether someone will take on that juggernaut as netscape navigator did.

To be honest it's the softwares and games available for Windows that makes it's ecosystem thrive. Without it, everyone would switch to Linux in a heartbeat which is much better in terms of security, performance and customization

In the past, ease of usage was Linux's biggest downfall, now the popular distros are as easy to use as Windows. Their software catalog is mostly ad-free & freeware and many games already work great on Linux through Steam.
 

MacDefender

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Oct 13, 2019
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Neither tamper with the Registry nor intentionally make the OS less stable.

Both are first party services by Microsoft, not a sponsored deal between 2 parties.

Also, Cortana has moved away from the Desktop environment and towards Microsoft 365. On Google Android and iOS, their Assistants are dominant.

I’m really just asking, does CCleaner intentionally make the OS less stable? Sure bundling software as part of deals is annoying. As is a stock Windows 10 install repeatedly giving Skype advertising notifications until you uninstall it.

I really don’t know much about CCleaner but it sounds like we all generally don’t like it. And if so, sure, good riddance.

But still, if turning on PUA detection results in this software basically being treated as a virus and auto-quarantined, that is still heavy handed for things that aren’t squarely in the category of ad-ware or scams. Kaspersky, ESET, and others have PUA detection but PUAs trigger a prompt, they don’t default to being deleted/quarantined on sight.

At the end of the day I don’t have much of a stance on CCleaner itself, I just feel like this definition of PUA and using a default-bundled AV in this way is the start of a dangerous precedence, the only saving grace is that it’s not on by default.
 

TairikuOkami

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May 13, 2017
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Ever since CCleaner has introduced realtime monitoring, it was obvious, it will be its downfall. CCleaner is mainly a browser cleanup tool and it also provides some basic Windows cleanup. It has not really improved in several years, there is only so much you can clean (without winappi2) and that is the end of it. It pretends to be an optimization software like Iobit or Auslogics, but it is not, it is scareware. So it definitively fits the bill of PUA thanks to the fake advertising.

 

SeriousHoax

Level 47
Well-known
Mar 16, 2019
3,630
Guys, some of you are still having confusion. Check the articles mentioned in the main post and check one of my comment above.
One more time, WD didn't detect Ccleaner as a PUP, it only detected the installer as a PUP because of bundled software.
Also since Windows 2004, if PUP protection is enabled, WD don't automatically delete PUPs anymore. The user need to take action by themselves.
1.png2.PNG3.PNG4.png
 

blackice

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Apr 1, 2019
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Guys, some of you are still having confusion. Check the articles mentioned in the main post and check one of my comment above.
One more time, WD didn't detect Ccleaner as a PUP, it only detected the installer as a PUP because of bundled software.
Also since Windows 2004, if PUP protection is enabled, WD don't automatically delete PUPs anymore. The user need to take action by themselves.
View attachment 244857View attachment 244858View attachment 244859View attachment 244860
Awe, shutting down our M$ bashing session!?
 

MacDefender

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Oct 13, 2019
779
Guys, some of you are still having confusion. Check the articles mentioned in the main post and check one of my comment above.
One more time, WD didn't detect Ccleaner as a PUP, it only detected the installer as a PUP because of bundled software.
Also since Windows 2004, if PUP protection is enabled, WD don't automatically delete PUPs anymore. The user need to take action by themselves.
View attachment 244857View attachment 244858View attachment 244859View attachment 244860

Thank you, I totally missed that the Windows 2004 PUP detection behavior was different. Some of the screenshots must've been from earlier Windows builds where the default behavior appeared to be to quarantine the installer.
 

show-Zi

Level 36
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Jan 28, 2018
2,463
Guys, some of you are still having confusion. Check the articles mentioned in the main post and check one of my comment above.
One more time, WD didn't detect Ccleaner as a PUP, it only detected the installer as a PUP because of bundled software.
Also since Windows 2004, if PUP protection is enabled, WD don't automatically delete PUPs anymore. The user need to take action by themselves.
View attachment 244857View attachment 244858View attachment 244859View attachment 244860
Good trajectory correction:D(y). This thread contains misleading elements. Remember, it's not about cCleaner, but about'cCleaner installers'.
It means that various germs were attached to the outer shell of the egg. Regarding the contents, it is another story.
If the removal of the registry is a problem, a lot of other powerful cleaners besides cCleane should be included.
 

WhiteMouse

Level 5
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Apr 19, 2017
234
Good trajectory correction:D(y). This thread contains misleading elements. Remember, it's not about cCleaner, but about'cCleaner installers'.
It means that various germs were attached to the outer shell of the egg. Regarding the contents, it is another story.
If the removal of the registry is a problem, a lot of other powerful cleaners besides cCleane should be included.
I think Windows Defender should detect Windows Installer as PUP because it includes some third-party apps like Candy Crush Saga, Disney Magic Kingdom, Facebook, Messenger, etc. ; even worse, we have to pay for Windows license and don't have any options to NOT install those apps.
 

show-Zi

Level 36
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Jan 28, 2018
2,463
I think Windows Defender should detect Windows Installer as PUP because it includes some third-party apps like Candy Crush Saga, Disney Magic Kingdom, Facebook, Messenger, etc. ; even worse, we have to pay for Windows license and don't have any options to NOT install those apps.
I would like to be able to select the introduction in the checklist when installing the OS.
In that respect, cCleaner, which has the option of rejecting, may be kind.🥴

WD may have felt jealousy and warned against it:eek:
 

MacDefender

Level 16
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Oct 13, 2019
779
I think Windows Defender should detect Windows Installer as PUP because it includes some third-party apps like Candy Crush Saga, Disney Magic Kingdom, Facebook, Messenger, etc. ; even worse, we have to pay for Windows license and don't have any options to NOT install those apps.

Did you try submitting the Windows 10 ISO as a sample?

(joking)
 

jetman

Level 10
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Jun 6, 2017
470
I find ccleaner a handy utility to clean my browser histories at system startup. After a quick clean it can be set to automatically close down afterwards. Used in this way, you don’t notice it is there and it hardly uses any system resources. With the unnecessary features disabled, it is capable of doing a simple job very well.

HOWEVER since the product was sold to Avast I am beginning to lose trust in ccleaner. The installer (which needs to be run each time ccleaner updates) deliberately attempts to trick the user into installing unwanted software. I am very careful, but even I have been caught out once or twice and ended up with crapware on my PC. The product is gaining a bad reputation and certainly makes me wary of Avast as a company. If this is an example of their work, how can we trust them to make trustworthy security products ?

I don’t blame Microsoft for blocking this program. Hopefully it will be a wake up call for Avast. They are damaging the reputation of their company.
 
L

Local Host

Thank you, I totally missed that the Windows 2004 PUP detection behavior was different. Some of the screenshots must've been from earlier Windows builds where the default behavior appeared to be to quarantine the installer.
That would be hard, considering PUP Detection always been turned OFF by default, and was only added to the UI on 2004 (but still turned OFF).

PUP always raises the false positives rates, in this case is not even a false positive, CCleaner instantly changed their installer to avoid further issues, it had in fact PUP.
 

Bryan320

Level 8
Oct 11, 2019
293
The strange disappearance of my download folder in the 2004 update has been solved thanks to this tip off from Microsoft!!!!!!! Apparently ccleaner has been breaking/editing my downloads folder. Today i did a fresh install of windows 10 with out using ccleaner and everything is normal no disappearing of windows downloads folder. Microsoft probably knew it was damaging windows i will for now on only use windows utility's for cleaning unwanted files.
 

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