Microsoft Says CCleaner for Windows Is Meh

[Batu69]

CCleaner is one of the top apps of its kind

There are million apps out there that can help keep your computer in tip-top shape and remove unnecessary temporary data or leftovers, and there is no doubt that CCleaner is one of the best.

But as far as Microsoft is concerned, CCleaner is not such an impressive app, and the company says that you'd better avoid it. Why exactly? Hard to tell, but it turns out that CCleaner isn't exactly Microsoft's cup of tea.

As reported by TheWindowsClub, Gov Maharaj, Principal Software Development Engineer at Microsoft, was performing live troubleshooting in a live video session on Channel9 when he came across CCleaner installed on one user's computer. His reaction was a little bit unexpected:

“CCleaner is … how do I put it mildly … Don’t… let’s just move on!”

These apps could affect system performance

Such a statement could take many by surprise, especially because CCleaner has always been one of the best apps of its kind and millions of users rely on it to keep their computers in tip-top shape.

But Microsoft no longer recommends turning to registry cleaners or similar apps to clean Windows 10 because it could affect system performance.

“Some products such as registry cleaning utilities suggest that the registry needs regular maintenance or cleaning. However, serious issues can occur when you modify the registry incorrectly using these types of utilities. These issues might require users to reinstall the operating system due to instability. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved without a reinstallation of the Operating System as the extent of the changes made by registry cleaning utilities varies from application to application,” the company says in a FAQ.

And yet, there's no doubt that this isn't going to stop the millions of users running CCleaner from still relying on its for secure cleaning purposes, but it's clearly interesting to see a Microsoft engineer opposing such a popular app.

Source

[Bausch]

Shouldn't Microsoft work on an alternative technology in their OS that eliminates the need for such utilities in the first place?

Or is it just "Don't try to fix it, and enjoy the mess we keep on making all the time"?

[knowledge-Spammer]

ccleaner is very good so good government not like it

as they have a hard time geting deleted files back its what i think

i use ccleaner all the time its fine if used right

[knowledge-Spammer]

Gov Maharaj, Principal Software Development Engineer at Microsoft, was performing live troubleshooting in a live video session on Channel9 when he came across CCleaner installed on one user's computer. His reaction was a little bit unexpected

were can i see this live video?

[Kalju]

To put it mildly - the Microsoft's status is a shit for a long time.
Now it is like a cornered dog, that tries to bite all. All are guilty, that Microsoft isn't able to do something clever to improve its reputation.

[debebee]

Well most of the recent products Micro$haft has release is MEH...

[oliverjia]

Microsoft thinks it's the GOD that can judge everyone else's performance.

Heck, can I say meh to Windows 10?

[SonNguyen]

I used Ccleaner and it messed up my indexing in windows 10 x64, i could not search for 'check for updates' when i type 'update' in start menu. even rebuild indexing won't help.

[Akaneharuka]

I used Ccleaner and it messed up my indexing in windows 10 x64, i could not search for 'check for updates' when i type 'update' in start menu. even rebuild indexing won't help.

For me I don't have any problem with that, After I use CCleaner I still can use search function to search for [check for updates] :/

[dcs18]

post # 15

[bonbonboi]

I'm a tech, about CCleaner, I'd like to say that somehow such a tool needs a tech savvy one to use especially if you going to not use the default checked boxes, and of course don't use the registry cleaning tab, I myself keep high caution when cleaning registry, and most times I go through line by line to check if that OK to erase/fix or not.

Now, about the cleaning itself, CCleaner has a lot of locations to clean up, thus there are locations effects performance if the contents got deleted, but that wouldn't ruin/malfunctioning your system that bad if misused or if you have now idea what you are doing.

Some people go far with CCleaner and use another tool along with such as "CCEnhancer", once you are using "CCEnhancer" you are on your own and you need to be too much careful in dealing with that a lot of entires and areas to clean up.

Generally speaking if you really don't know what you are doing, most of time the best thing is just to clean up lightly and focus on most popular locations, such as Internet temporary locations/Windows temporary locations, most of the time that would save you a lot of space more than looking for locations contains just some bytes/megabytes.

[Akaneharuka]

I'm a tech, about CCleaner, I'd like to say that somehow such a tool needs a tech savvy one to use especially if you going to not use the default checked boxes, and of course don't use the registry cleaning tab, I myself keep high caution when cleaning registry, and most times I go through line by line to check if that OK to erase/fix or not.

Now, about the cleaning itself, CCleaner has a lot of locations to clean up, thus there are locations effects performance if the contents got deleted, but that wouldn't ruin/malfunctioning your system that bad if misused or if you have now idea what you are doing.

Some people go far with CCleaner and use another tool along with such as "CCEnhancer", once you are using "CCEnhancer" you are on your own and you need to be too much careful in dealing with that a lot of entires and areas to clean up.

Generally speaking if you really don't know what you are doing, most of time the best thing is just to clean up lightly and focus on most popular locations, such as Internet temporary locations/Windows temporary locations, most of the time that would save you a lot of space more than looking for locations contains just some bytes/megabytes.

I have a question, Is CCleaner default setting of Registry cleaner safe to use ? :( Because I always use that setting.

[bonbonboi]

I'm a tech, about CCleaner, I'd like to say that somehow such a tool needs a tech savvy one to use especially if you going to not use the default checked boxes, and of course don't use the registry cleaning tab, I myself keep high caution when cleaning registry, and most times I go through line by line to check if that OK to erase/fix or not.

Now, about the cleaning itself, CCleaner has a lot of locations to clean up, thus there are locations effects performance if the contents got deleted, but that wouldn't ruin/malfunctioning your system that bad if misused or if you have now idea what you are doing.

Some people go far with CCleaner and use another tool along with such as "CCEnhancer", once you are using "CCEnhancer" you are on your own and you need to be too much careful in dealing with that a lot of entires and areas to clean up.

Generally speaking if you really don't know what you are doing, most of time the best thing is just to clean up lightly and focus on most popular locations, such as Internet temporary locations/Windows temporary locations, most of the time that would save you a lot of space more than looking for locations contains just some bytes/megabytes.

I have a question, Is CCleaner default setting of Registry cleaner safe to use ? :( Because I always use that setting.

let ccleaner make a backup before the fixing and see what happened after the cleaning, generally you wouldn't know instantly, you may know after some days or weeks, any way if something goes bad, restore back the fixed registries.

[stylemessiah]

In IT for about 30 years, i could retire on the proceeds if i charged $1 for every time ive had to fix a PC after CCleaner has hosed it. End users should never be allowed near it.

[Holmes]

Use default settings in ccleaner and always make a backup of the registry when cleaning the registry. I use ccleaner when I clean my computer and use the registry cleaner and I have never had any issues. If you dont know what some of the check boxes are in ccleaner for example (environment variable) keep it unchecked find someone that knows what they are doing and ask them. You can find ccleaner guides online and see if you can get hellp in the ccleaner forums. Ccleaner can only break your system if you use it in the wrong way end of story. As far as what microsoft said microsoft support can be idiots not all are idiots like mark russinovich hes a windows expert and his sysinternals website is very nice to learn advanced malware cleaning.

[straycat19]

In IT for about 30 years, i could retire on the proceeds if i charged $1 for every time ive had to fix a PC after CCleaner has hosed it. End users should never be allowed near it.

I have seen windows installed on a lot of computers and they were hosed, so using your concept no end user should be allowed near windows. You youngsters, all you think about is if you run something and windows breaks its the software when in reality it could be the user, his screwed up windows installation, or malware. I have run ccleaner for years, seen it on thousands of systems, and never saw a problem that I would blame on it.

[jamesDDI]

Never had problems with ccleaner on 7, never.

[knowledge-Spammer]

people want to see the live video its on http://news.softpedia.com/news/microsoft-says-ccleaner-for-windows-is-meh-494238.shtml

[Amigaspace]

I used Ccleaner and it messed up my indexing in windows 10 x64, i could not search for 'check for updates' when i type 'update' in start menu. even rebuild indexing won't help.

Don't blame CCleaner for that, it's a known Windows 10 bug.

[dcs18]

The only thing I personally dislike about CCleaner is that recent releases have adopted the Metro (ModernUI.)

While it is understandable that those who are using Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 might prefer this flat look — for me, it does not go well with my meticulously pimped Windows. :wub:

[eddman]

People should actually read before posting hate comments.

He isn't criticizing ccleaner as a whole, but its registry cleaning part and registry cleaners in general.

They actually COULD cause problems and I've experienced that in the past.

I do use ccleaner from time to time, but only for cleaning unnecessary files and free space. Haven't touched its registry cleaning part for a very long time, which isn't even one of ccleaner's original functions to begin with. They became famous for file cleaning, not registry.

Take bonbonboi and CoolZoid's advice.

[hawk007]

I agree with M$ statement. Not using any kind of Optimizers, cleaners since 2003. Never experience my system becoming slow in course of time. Especially since Windows 7, its so stable, need no such kind of tools. It is better to clean some remnant installer files manually. And don't think, few orphan registry entries make a system slowing or anything.

[mkc21]

Windows doesn't clean registry properly after uninstallations. So..

[Pequi]

Been using registry cleaners since ..... And I still have DOS 6.2 somewhere on drive E: where I moved it almost 20 years ago. Ah, and Windows 98.

I do agree with the advice about backups though. I have had programs "unregistered" by over-zealous cleaners.

[Knightmare]

Coming from a company that can't count or make up their minds as to what is stable, I'm going to disregard this ignorant statement.