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Is there another program like Ccleaner?

D

Deadjasper

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 28, 2001
Messages
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Ccleaner has turned into a steaming pile of doggie doo doo. Looking for a replacement.

TIA
 
I get this question a lot and sympathize with the sentiment, but you should never run Ccleaner or any cleaner on modern versions of Windows it causes problems, sometimes severe, and no longer frees up meaningful space or enhances privacy.

We used to install Ccleaner on every customer machine, but that was many years ago.

It is a iron clad "do not use" these types of programs now. Their day and usefulness is long gone.

You can run the disk cleanup tool in Windows to remove cached windows update files, but that's about it. All web browsers have their own tools to clear history and cache.
 
Advil said:
I get this question a lot and sympathize with the sentiment, but you should never run Ccleaner or any cleaner on modern versions of Windows it causes problems, sometimes severe, and no longer frees up meaningful space or enhances privacy.

We used to install Ccleaner on every customer machine, but that was many years ago.

It is a iron clad "do not use" these types of programs now. Their day and usefulness is long gone.

You can run the disk cleanup tool in Windows to remove cached windows update files, but that's about it. All web browsers have their own tools to clear history and cache.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
 
I recommend WinDirStat for quickly finding things that are hogging your space.
It shows your files in the form of a pattern of neat little squares you can hover over and find out where they are.
Of course, not everything is safe to delete, but it's a good starting point to google what is and isn't.
Space hogs, man.
 
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michalrz said:
I recommend WinDirStat for quickly finding things that are hogging your space.
It shows your files in the form of a pattern of neat little squares you can hover over and find out where they are.
Of course, not everything is safe to delete, but it's a good starting point to google what is and isn't.
Space hogs, man.
Click to expand...
I used that app a lot but switched to TreeSize. If I recall, WinDirStat doesn't work well with deduplicated data but TreeView does.

Doesn't matter much on home users but a business user may find this info helpful.
 
I've used ccleaner lite or portable. Whatever doesn't require an install. Works fine. But I'll look at wiztree. Ty
 
You don't have to use anything. After a Windows update, and/or Microsoft Store update, run Disk Cleanup, and include System Files. Check all that is pertinent (I typically check all). Then run CMD in Administrator Mode and run:
chkdsk /f /r
Click to expand...
Type Y, then reboot.

After that, run Defragment and Optimize Drives, and click "Optimize". If you have an SSD, make sure you Unallocated 10% of the drive. Optimizing the drive runs TRIM.

Doing this will prevent your Windows from going corrupt, and keep your SSD's performance and longevity.
 
I'm only using ccleaner to clear up temp files, and easily clear browser cache if needed. The other built in win utilities are good. I realized wiztree was not what I was looking for anyway.
 
I mostly shifted from CCleaner to Wise Disk Cleaner after CCleaner had their malware incident years ago, plus WDC seemed to do a better job of freeing up disk space.

They used to offer a portable version as a direct download on their site, but I don't see it now so you may have to grab it from PortableApps.com

I was often dealing with small 80-120GB disks that would frequently get tight on space at that job though, and TBH I haven't used either in a long time on my own systems. My C: never gets low on space these days due to buying larger drives and games get installed on dedicated NVMe drives, so I just run the native Disk Cleanup utility in Windows and clear browser caches every few months, and that's more out of habit/OCD than any real need to get disk space back.
 
I tried using CCleaner a while ago, it wanted to install some crap along with it and ran some background software in the... well, background. Buried in the options. Screw that.
Disk cleanup in "administrator" mode does a great job since Win7.

To summarize: WinDirStat and similar programs let you pin down big files you might have forgotten about, like ISO images and such. I'll see how WizTree compares when I need it. Good thread!
 
I'm using BleachBit with the "download cleaners for community updates", checked in the settings. It does the job pretty well.
 
I know CCleaner has become bloated and filled with ads, however what's "wrong" with it now? Compared to when it was a standard go-to cleaner? I've used it relatively recently- however i only ever use the "registry cleaner" feature and the "file cleaner" feature.

Windirstat when trying to free up some space.
 
If you're having issues with space, remember to disable Shadow Copy, or delete old shadow copies of you need it for recovery.
 
I know this is a very old thread, but I had to comment. I used CCleaner on and off since 2016, and never had an issue up until 2 years ago. My computer would freeze, I'd have to constantly click on it in order to open, or shut down on its own upon opening it a few minutes later. Once I removed it recently, my computer began to run smoothly once more. I found Hard Forum because I was looking an CCleaner alternative. I installed Wise and it works better on my HP Pavillon laptop than CCleaner did. I had no idea of the controversy from past years, so I will not use it anymore and suggest others do the same.
 
TheRadixxWave said:
I know this is a very old thread, but I had to comment. I used CCleaner on and off since 2016, and never had an issue up until 2 years ago. My computer would freeze, I'd have to constantly click on it in order to open, or shut down on its own upon opening it a few minutes later. Once I removed it recently, my computer began to run smoothly once more. I found Hard Forum because I was looking an CCleaner alternative. I installed Wise and it works better on my HP Pavillon laptop than CCleaner did. I had no idea of the controversy from past years, so I will not use it anymore and suggest others do the same.
Click to expand...
Open a Power shell or CMD as administrator and use this commands to repair if there is broken system files.

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow
 
I never liked ccleaner, in my experience it either didn't do any meaningful improvements, or wound up causing problems even back in the olden days when it was lauded as a magical fix all solution.

The only reliable "ccleaner" is still a clean reinstall of windows. That's the only way to properly excise the bloat left behind by applications and years of incremental updates. It might sound harsh, but you can do it in less than an hour, even if you count the prepwork in the time.
 
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