I dunno why, but I've always called this thing CC Cleaner.

CCleaner is now owned by Norton (Avast bought Piriform. Norton bought Avast). That’s all you need to know when deciding whether or not to install it.

I've been using Glary instead of CCleaner all this time and it seems I dodged a bullet in 2018. They used to matter more back when you had HDDs since many of these types of software could defrag the disk. Having things like file shredders, accidental deletion restorers, registry&system file backup/restore systems, and simple temp file cleaning is also still quite useful, even if some use cases are niche.

I think the key is how new is your system and how much you can possibly retrieve from deleting small files here and there. For Windows 11 with an SSD, not too much.

Id like to see a "general cleanup and maintenance" video where Anthony goes over various hardware and software cleaning tips.

It was essential on XP which lacked most of modern OS's convenient tools for cleanups. And it helped remove pesky leftovers from miscoded uninstallers--something still plaguing software in 2022. But, the few times I needed to use System Restore to fix what CCleaner did finally convinced me to stop using it and never look back. Sometimes a fresh OS install is way more effective than a "cleaning", especially on a system running on only upgraded hardware and software for many, many years.

Used CCleaner for many years on many Win10 and Win11 installations without even one issue. Still use it.

The registry cleaning is mostly useful and noticeable on weak/old systems. I used to run it on a few old pcs at my old job. Very old systems that were used for the POS systems. But after a week the registry would get bogged down and the old systems would become damn near unusable. Restarts, etc would not help the issue. Crap cleaner did its job, back then. This was in the mid 2000s. I personally use an old version, pre Avira on my PC, which is an older phenom based PC. (I don't playmodern games) that last version works fine and I run it once a month.

The Mac version of CCleaner acts like malware. If you force quit it, it opens itself again and you can't uninstall it from applications in Finder, having to find the option within the application. The kicker is that if the app bugs out and you get an error during uninstall, you have to reinstall it before the uninstall will work. Used to use it a lot on Windows until recently.

This was actually quite a useful tool back in the XP days when performance started chugging. Wouldn't touch it with a barge pole now but it did make a notable difference to performance back in the day

Liked your video, but from my experience and in real use, CCleaner does really help and improve performance by cleaning cache or registry, especially on older PCs with old HDDs. Every PC I serviced CCleaner did what it should. Sometimes on PCs from regular users it would clean 5 or 10 Gigs or garbage, and that definitely improved boot time and overall perfomance. Never had even One issue with it, and Im talking about 10+ years of usage, and tons of serviced PCs and laptops.

I always use ccleaner portable. Especially being in the IT field. So many people still using HDDs and it makes a massive improvement for them

It's wild to me how many people have forgotten (or weren't using computers / alive) back when these sorts of tools were actually needed because both windows and programs you installed on it treated the registry like a latrine (To be clear, you no longer need it)

Most of the time that I've used CCleaner was mainly to clear the registry of logs from free trial software. Normally when you uninstall them they leave stuff behind so that if you try to reinstall to get another free trial it will know you've already used your free time but CCleaner removes that stuff for unlimited free trials.

blast from the past. I haven't used CCleaner in many years. I remember using it from 05-06 to about 2012 i think. Back in the old days I remember it being part of a virus/malware removal clean up that you would use at the end. After removing malware using whatever method, i'd run CCleaner at the end as the final step. Not sure if that last step was necessary, but that is what everyone was doing after malware removal and was recommended on forums like Tom's Hardware. I do miss the first decade of 2000 (2000-2009) internet.

Great video. concise and to the point. Thanks LTT and thanks Anthony.

Back in the windows xp and vista days it had a noticeable positive impact, as well as putting a lot of tools in one place. I definitely contributed to the amount of times it has been downloaded

I personally find 90% of these “optimization apps” to be dog water. The only ones worth while cost money and all they do is put all of the optimization you can do yourself into one place. I find it much easier to just use CMD for sfc/dism, defrag, and file explorer to clean up drives. There’s probably more higher level stuff to optimize the computer but I don’t know of it.

Whenever I'm looking for tech advices, I see Anthony and I immediately know there's an answer to my doubts :)

Family IT guy/Super small IT Business owner - I've used CCleaner since the dawn of it's existence. Took a break from using it when they had that security issue. But I generally use it for family/clients, The main reason is so I know what programs are out of date and need to be updated on their PC's and whatnot like that. It's an overall okay tool for the small stuff like that. I keep the portable version on a flash drive.

CCleaner was like the most useful tool when I did tech work at Office Depot. We were supposed to run hella scammy diagnostics and I just ran CCleaner and it improved grandma's performance and got rid of some pop ups she was experiencing. This and Adwcleaner were the kings.

I used to use CCleaner religiously from the late 2000s up to about 2020. Then once the ownership changes started happening, so came the UI overhauls and the pay walling of features, and then when I heard about the grumblings of more harm then good, I was out. I will say though, that despite what you say about the registry cleanup being unneccesary, I swear anytime I had a significant amount to clear out, it INSTANTLY became noticeably more responsive atleast within the Windows desktop environment. And I never once encountered an issue with something becoming broken after doing so.

Well done thanks! Merry Christmas!

Now that was a clean and informative video. Thanks. Keep it up.

Some issues I had with cleaner softwares were how they decide to delete files that they recognize as "unknown junk". These files are usually in weird formate, but could be vital to programs and especially video games. It was a disaster back then when all my custom rhythm game maps are deleted, only left with their mp3 files lol.

I was a student worker for a college IT department from 2000-2004. We supported Windows NT machines running WordPefect and Netscape Navigator on a token ring network.... it sucked even by the standards of those days. We ran junk like ccleaner and regclean all the time just to try and keep the computers from crashing every 5 minutes without a format and reinstall.

I've used this software for many years as an IT professional for cleaning out broken installs\uninstalls from the registry. It works well in some use cases. Overall though, I agree it's not necessary anymore and given the potential compromises I don't keep it on the systems. I install it, run the tools I need, then uninstall it.

I've created a few windows installers and it's notoriously difficult. Most installers don't uninstall cleanly for this reason and leave a lot of junk in the registry. Cleaning the registry once a week definitely seems to improve the performance for me even in Windows 11 with a Dell Inspiron 15 5518 but always backup the registry before you do it. Also if you're drive is nearly full like mine you can reclaim 3-4GB of space.

My main problem with ccleaner is that while yes, it can clean up what you want it to, it can also "clean" up some stuff you really shouldn't mess with unless you really know what your doing. I see too many regular users who are far from computer experts download and use it and the havoc it's capable of. It's just really easy to set it up to be over eager in it's cleaning, and potentially ruin your install.

This lines up with what I’ve been telling my clients for years, and very diplomatic in your coverage of it

Very helpful and professional video. As always. Props from Paris.

I been using CCLeaner Five year. I,ve had no touble with this softwere and it does a Excellent Job

CCleaner was really good back in the day on Windows 7 and 8

CCleaner is part of my shotgun approach when I get handed a System that does "irregular, weird thingies". Together with a select few other tools, it helps me get rid of anything that MIGHT be causing an issue. I use it ONCE when I notice something odd happening, and wouldn't advice anyone to use it regularely. Back in the day people also always said never update your BIOS unless you have to, and nowadays I keep my bios on the most up-to-date version available at all times, things change, and CCleaner was definitely more useful in the days of HDDs.

Thanks man an info that i really need.. almost installing it

I used to use Wise disk and registry cleaners instead, but some time after I discovered Windows inbuilt tools for cleaning temp data I stopped using Wise. Even though it seemed to be more thorough about cleaning junk data, I heard remarks about third party cleaners removing stuff that they shouldn't touch.

Haven't used it in a few years now, but back in the day it was one of my most valued tools. Stopped using it when it was bought up and found other ways to do what I needed to get done. Informative and useful video. :)

You are absolutely right for your viewers, however if you have a noob asking/expecting you to do the maintenance CCleaner is something even they can run. Which saves me multiple hours of doing the maintenance and the drive there and back. Now I only have to go over it when I am there anyway

CC reminds me of the CC Mirc channel during the 90s. Its was awesome.

Having Andy talk about CCleaner was an instant click. I used it for a very long time but haven't really found it necessary for some of the reasons pointed out in the video. PC Manager was a new one to me though, so I'm thankful for that find as well!

I really enjoy the length and structure of these videos. Short, sweet and to the point makes it easily digestible. Good work guys 🤘

I really like the style of his narration. Lets have more of him like that!

wow thanks man right to the point no music or foriegn languages that are ununderstood or lies. love your explaination of this tool.

I use this tool only for the registry cleanup because yes, invalid registry pointers can sometimes prevent programs from reinstalling, as well as helping with removing driver leftovers.

I remember I used CCleaner back when I had HDDs and trash registry entries would actually slow down your PC noticeably, especially for startup. I think that's the primary reason CCleaner became popular. With modern Windows registry optimizations and blasing fast SSDs, I don't think there's really any point to installing any kind of registry cleaner as the risk of it getting something wrong greatly outweighs any reward.

I haven't used this in ages but back in XP days it was a must have.

Thanks, Anthony, good suggestion and I understand why it makes good sense!

Whenever I used Ccleaner, it would be great for a while. But then after a few months, I would notice something is broken in Windows's core system. Couldn't run windows update, couldn't update from windows 7 to 10 without re-formatting, even some weird issues with AMD chipset drivers saying I don't have an AMD CPU, even though I do (but that could just be an AMD thing). Plus, now that it went full malware/steal your data route, it ain't worth it anymore.

I always saw the C in CCleaner as a local disk (C:) Cleaner!!

I used C Cleaner in the past when I was using old mechanical drives back in the day when it came out, but haven't used it in a long time or for the matter many other programs that helped the old physical spinning platter drives.

Been using CCleaner for years. Provided you just use the default settings its wonderful.

CCleaner is great for removing Microsoft specific bloat that Windows itself wont allow you to remove. Registry cleaning is unnecessary. You should never update drivers from any "driver updater" application. Windows updated have verified drivers and newer versions usually are for models/version/OEM computers that might get specific problems

I've heard other people say that the registry clean-up does nothing helpful but it's usually the step that gives performance back to old machines I've helped people tidy up. Having a lot of unused registers entries can in fact slow your system down since it points to nowhere yet has to be gone through every time the computer tries to do much of anything. It's probably a bit situational, but it's not black or white.

I like people who talk with clarity. This guy is one of them.

I've been following the CCleaner thing for years having used it since it was first released until the 'controversy'. Now I have a .bat script file that does it all 'automanually' and I'm much happier. Very glad to hear this perspective.

There's one really important use for CCleaner in Windows 10 (and I suspect 11 too). Removing programs that Windows doesn't want you to delete. The Bloatware. Like the Cortana, or xBox whatever.

I stopped using it many years ago, but I returned to using it just for custom cleaning of browser cache, compacting databases, temp folders, etc (stuff that's safe to delete) a couple years ago, as it still saves me time when ai do it about once a month.

We used to use CCleaner at the computer repair store I used to work at. We'd run cache, registry, and then clear startup too which would boost the speed of older laptops brought in. Then again, that was years ago. Now, it's not really all that necessary. If a modern computer is slow, it's usually due to having installed too much bloatware or a couple viruses. Those free antivirus programs are famous for doing nothing and bogging down your PC performance.

bro, very good video. not too much not little input. thanks for your effort.

Combination of c cleaner and file assassin has saved a few installs for me in the past. When malware can't or won't uninstall and nothing seems to stop it re installing you can sometimes kill the start up routine with c cleaner then use file assassin to nuke the actual folder or files. Particularly useful for browser hijacks.

I’ve loved ccleaner back in the day of windows XP it was really useful software and did make a computer of the time so much faster after its use (due to limiting hardware) I stopped using it a few years ago for unknown reason. I just stopped, but it has a core memory of seeing how much space I saved and getting excited at how much better my system ran

I used it when I had Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. But I dumped it for good after I switched to Windows 10, because Windows itself is already smart enough to handle everything automatically and doesn't need cleaning nor deleting any registry keys. I also once used AVG PC TuneUp, on Windows 7, because it did help to maintain things. Now I just update my system if there are any updates available, and just do a quick sfc/scannow and drive optimization process here and there.

I still use it yo clean the register and temp files, etc. So I always had a good experience with this.

Thanks, Techquickie team. I really enjoy these videos about more of the easy, popular software things, that help regular people too, not just those who are experts about computers.

Still pretty neat for some function like deleting empty folders, amongst a few other simple features. You can achieve all that without using ccleaner but it's handy as a all-in-one tool.

I use CCleaner but I learned along time ago you have to know what to select and deselect for it to clean. Erasing a file you need can causue a great deal of headache.

I had a weird bug for a game that actually required me to delete the old registry. Which made my download CCleaner. But you brought up some good points

I use this all the time. It is still a great program, cleans my system and helps me check registry values. One of my go to installs since i first heard of it back in around 2010.

If you do alot of sound mixing nd rerecording conversions to .m4a CCleaner is the only tool that finds the broken wav files instantly if you have multiple temp directories over a server. It takes other tools awhile to recognize the partial .wav files.

Stopped using it in 2006, I make my own decisions based on my own experience... Didn't know it was still popular. Glad you made this video. Bravo...

When I first installed Linux several years ago, I found out that CCleaner wasn't available for it. I then looked around on the internet for Linux cleaners and came across bleachbit. Ever since then, I've been using Bleachbit and it works MUCH better than even the paid version of CCleaner.

There are many useful reasons to use the registry cleaner if you are targeting a specific removal of entries for a program you're specifically looking for, or a clean uninstall or reinstall. It's been helpful with broken programs leaving traces when their install didn't go correctly or the uninstall was not able to be used by, say, Revo.

Back when I worked for a PC repairs shop years ago I probably ran CCleaner's registry cleaner on hundreds of PCs and never once did it cause an issue. While its utility over the years has dwindled due to improved hardware and software, at the same time I don't buy the argument that it could cause more harm than good. If anything deleting broken registry entries has often fixed certain quirks and issues rather than caused any, but nowadays, sure, it's mostly unnecessary. I still keep a copy of CCleaner handy though in case I ever feel like doing some spring cleaning, but it's more of a "if I feel like it" sort of thing now rather than a necessity.

At my work we used to deploy it with our stock windows image, but stopped I think because of potentially some chinese ownership of the company or some other security concern like that, but I've used it for years to fix all kinds of issues. The big ones are before we took away their install rights, users always used to junk up their computers with bunches of freeware crap, and a lot of it didn't cleanly uninstall, so i would run the uninstalls for all of it, then delete the stubborn ones and run registry cleaner afterwards, which if there's no installed program attached to those registry entries, cleans them out, effectively gutting the program that won't uninstall itself, and then you just delete the files associated and it's a pretty quick and clean way to do a manual cleanup. Also sometimes we would need to upgrade something like adobe flash, shockwave, java, but the existing install had fouled up somehow, and it would neither uninstall itself nor let you run the installer, and to save myself the trouble of backing up the user's files and re-imaging, I could usually use the above manual removal methods to assure the installer for the new version that it's clear to go ahead and run(instead of popping up and telling me that there's already a version installed and to uninstall it first, especially if i'd already run an un-installer and the program was no longer showing as installed but still the installer thinks it's there.) I used it literally hundreds of times in the last decade, and at times multiple times daily, and I cannot think of one time where it broke anything or did not have the desired effect, which includes noticeable restoration of system performance when clearing out freeware bloat and cleaning out system files that build up massively over time.

CCleaner, or as I call it CC Leaner, in my opinion and experience has a time and place. While yes… you can do almost everything with out of box or first party software, it is often a quick and simple solution rather than using multiple different tools (aka end user friendly). I have also found it’s uninstall utility to be especially useful when I need to uninstall something but the official .msi file simply refuses to do so. While it does try to use the msi file, if it fails it’s delete does almost always manage to delete all the files relevant (something you’ll very likely miss if you attempt manually, places like %appdata%) And as a backend web engineer, CCleaner is really nice at clearing browser history and data because I use multiple browsers… yes I could go one by one and clear them all manually but CCleaner is significantly faster, especially when IE is still needed to be tested on for legacy functionality. I also would like to point out that while you definitely shouldn’t clear your registry without any care… registry-based malware does exist and is a common route to replication. While an antimalware should remove these… “should” is the problem. You also should make a backup before deleting them off system just in case. All in all, CCleaner doesn’t make much sense for an average enthusiast or power user but for web engineers it’s simply a time save… or your grandparents, it’s better than the alternative (aka nothing). P. S. If you think the average end user is going to use 10 different tools, and not mess something up in the process or get too confused and do nothing… when was the last time you tried explaining something as simple as a meme to a boomer. It’s like that.

There are situations where cleaning the registry is very useful. I had a hard drive where a good chunk of software was installed die, for some titles the broken registry links weren't fixed when re-installing to a new drive and that caused it to crash to desktop even though the re-installation seemed successful.

I use it primarily for the convenience of having everything in one place. The bit I don't like is the driver update functionality. It works most of the time but it gets confused with some drivers and won't update them, gets the version wrong and it crashes the application sometimes.

I’m an IT in the field for five years now and at my new current job they have use using WinDirStat but I’m also working in an enterprise environment for the first time

I used ccleaner for many years. The only reason I stopped using it, was me switching to Linux. But I don't think it is an inherently bad tool. I think every point against the current version of ccleaner in this video is true, but in the end it comes down to convenience. It is way easier to tell my parents to use this program, than to tell them a bunch of different crap they need to do, so I stick to my recommendation.

I've forever heard of the "it could delete registry entries that matter" and in my decade+ of using it I've never once experienced this. It's a good first port of call for older PC's to try and get them running like new. But like defrag, it's a relic of the past in terms of improving modern PC performance.

I like CCleaners tools very convenient: startup editor, explorer context editor, duplicate file finder. The main reason i still install it.

I don't mean this in a bad way, this is the first video of this channel that I've seen and it was one of those cases where the voice didn't match the person at all ahah That being said, you're such a good narrator, smooth ass voice, great stuff and great informative video

1:20 registry shrink did help a lot on HDD's. if you had broken software like MS office 13, it made a lot of entries each upgrade, which made registry weight like 400MB (usually its like 60MB) one time removal and shrink was also getting it defragmented, which could make a lot of difference in general sluginess of windows. I used similar soft called glary utilities, which also had random other tools that could give you ~20 sec off your boot on hdd's and was IMHO more powerful. those things like to run on boot and periodically, which is pointless, IMHO all you need is portable version and just run it once per 2-3 years if your windows survives that long.

You could mention a very useful feature of CCleaner such as Duplicate finder. They implement this in a very good way. It's not the fastest on the market but gives you a lot of control over what duplicates and where exactly you want to delete. These days I use CCleaner mostly because of that feature.

I've been using CCleaner for about 10 years now and I've never had any issues with it. It's fast, efficient, and simple to use. And all the stories of "using the registry cleaner could cause more harm than good" has never been a reality with me. I can only speak of my own personal experience, but CCleaner has never once caused any harm to any of my computers over the years. Also, the performance gains it can offer older computers is definitely real. I've taken old desktops and laptops from friends and relatives who weren't computer savvy at all. For years, they never cleaned, defragged, or optimized their computers. And as a result, these PCs were extremely slow to do anything. Even starting up and booting into Windows took forever. I downloaded and installed CCleaner onto these computers and let it do it's thing. Then I defragged the computers. And boom. These barely-functioning computers were working perfectly fine. No slow start-up. No slow, laggy performance. Afterward, these people praised me as some kind of computer genius that fixed their computer. And I explained to them: "All I did was some basic, routine computer maintenance that you're actually supposed to do every few months. It wasn't anything special at all. Like vehicles, you're supposed to do regular, routine maintenance and upkeep on computers. If you don't, it's going to stop functioning properly, just like any other machine."

Used the free version of CCleaner not the professional or hacked version and this improves the performance of my computer but I'm always careful to tick the items I want cleaned and untick the items I don't want cleaned.

It does have a great feature where you can delete Single Restore Points at a time where with Windows you have to delete all restore points

Well I've used it for decades and whilst not using it many times a year anymore it's nice to do once in a while - especially with an old computer with only hd drives. I've never had any problems caused by Ccleaner but have had positive experiences in the past.

Literally was just thinking this, talking about perfect timing. Great vid as usual tho 🥳🥳

Great video, thanks for the info

I relied on cc cleaner on fixing so many clients PC's back in the early 00s. Made a world of difference with those old win98 machines. Probably worth while checking it out again actually

I’ve used it for a long time. The new avast upselling and bloatware is annoying but if you are careful while installing and doing the first setup, disabling all the crap and setting your desired stuff to be deleted, it’s a handy tool to just open, click clean, search registry, delete all and you are done. Then check startup items just in case something is fishy. Every other “feature” of it isn’t worth the time

Short and to the point. Thanks!

Thank you for this excellent review :)

I have used CCleaner for about 3 or 4 years now and never had any issues with it. I don't use it that much but I do find it more convenient cleaning multiple locations at once and it is quicker to clean Chrome using multiple profiles.

I personally use ccleaner for clearing regedit purposes only, most of my old-time friends with old computers having issues with booting OS after like a blackout tends to have the system file kinda messed up. So i just go safe mode, get ccleaner, clear regedit, and somehow the system files are fixed, since they don't know about recovery points. Also if u install and uninstall alot of games, all those past directories is just so satisfying to see being cleared in the regedit cleaner. So most thing that ccleaner can do, u can do it manually or automatically but not for those who are not tech savvy. Its convenient to have, u can even install it only when u need it if it disturbs your privacy so much.

Still use CCleaner (Free) and recommend it to all clients. Only caveat is, "I" install it and set it up to match my settings. I tell clients that if CCleaner doesn't fix it, it's likely a hardware problem and that bit of advice has proven correct for many years. On the other hand, Avast in charge of CCleaner makes me nervous. They've already "infected" it. Wish it had the ability to run a registry backup.

I have the Pro version when you wait for the "sale" it is pretty cheap and covers a few systems, but would not surprise me if I really could go without it.

While I agree with the sentiment about not using ccleaner based on that Norton owns it(Norton, the place where software goes to die). It still has always been handy for people who don't know much about computers to fix some issues they don't know how to do themselves. The driver update can be quite worthwhile for some, the cleaning it provides is simply and easy to understand with most things autoselected. The registry cleaner has some added bonus to that you reduced some of the registry hive of unused entries or invalid ones. It has provided an easy way for me to help people reduce start up, free up space online with not a whole lot of windows know how. So I wouldn't just completely dismiss it. Avast did try to explain that the telemetry turning on was a bug and did issue an update to fix it, I was on the fence about believing it, but dismissed it as fairly harmless. I was reluctant to like that ccleaner was acquired by avast with the changes they made. However I did not mind avast and kind of liked their antivirus software, so I eventually got used to it. I can't help but feel the point about people running into 'pirated' software and getting infected instead is a completely moot point. Because it has been happening long before ccleaner and it will continue long after, it is completely not unique to ccleaner at all. It's just a stupid detail to even add if anything. As for Norton owning ccleaner, I can completely understand wanting to dump the software and can't really blame anyone for doing so. Especially if you are good at doing all the same tasks as the software provides for you. I really despise Norton for many reasons and hate the company fully and would recommend no one ever buying ccleaner. It might be good at driver updating for really out of date systems, but there are other programs that provide this feature and probably are better at it. First off with Norton, I have seen them purchase and kill off plenty of good software that I used. Sygate was one that is fast, efficient and great. I suppose it let others innovate and improve, since it was sent to limbo and people had to find alternatives that wasn't norton and norton did not improve after buying this much more popular piece of software. Outpost was amazing and by far better than sygate, but it eventually was destroyed by it's own government. Now people feel microsoft firewall is pretty good and don't need anything else because they sit behind firewall/gateways and don't suffer from the same attack vectors of just being online. While I have tried software to improve windows firewall to let me control outgoing programs, it just never was as good or at least give me control of easy to choose incoming and outgoing control and version checks and other security protocols. I had others like eeye blink and beyondtrust endpoint security, but eventually all good things had to come to an end as they only sell to businesses. Another software that went to die was pgp, while I liked and used it for awhile, it had some fundamental flaws in ease of use. However gnupg was a much better alternative to using anything that symantec owns and now has destroyed. There is plenty more software that norton just keeps buying up and they really do make a giant amount of acquisitions and it's insidious. They do not improve or handle them well and norton/symantec is tainted so much, that even being associated often leads to the software's decline.

I’d love to see a video like this about modern antivirus