Feedback on CCleaner

In addition to Bitdefender, I have had CCleaner on my laptop to remove obsolete or otherwise unnecessary if not harmful files. I have some concern that the cleaning is somewhat blunt and may result in loss of certain files I actually want to keep. My question is whether I can completely rely on Bitdefender to find and remove files I no longer should have on my laptop, or whether CCleaner or a similar program is a good supplemental tool.

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Flexx

Also if you want to make sure your PC runs at optimal speed always consider the below steps and execute it once every week. You will not require any

1) Restart PC in safe mode (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234)

2) Open run command and run below command one by one:

temp ,delete all the files in the folder

%temp% ,delete all the files in folder

prefetch ,delete all the files in folder

3) Restart your PC in general mode by unticking the option that you selected to run the system in safe mode and then click apply.

4) Use Disk cleanup in windows (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/disk-cleanup-in-windows-8a96ff42-5751-39ad-23d6-434b4d5b9a68)

5) Use Windows Defragmenter to defrag your HDD or trim if you have an SSD (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/defragment-your-windows-10-pc-048aefac-7f1f-4632-d48a-9700c4ec702a)

Regards

All comments

Scott

Hi @Jan H

Welcome to the forum.

You are wondering about what One Click Optimizer finds and deletes, correct? In my opinion, the optimizer tends to be light-handed at what it finds and cleans, including the registry. I don't recall a member here ever saying it deleted an important file, as it's only doing the general Windows and Browser cleanup. The View details helps to show what it will clean up, and after the optimization, you can browse the detailed report option that will be displayed. (image examples below)

You can use CCleaner for a second opinion and misc clean up as desired. Some members here use Glary Utilities as well. I tend to leave the advanced option alone in CCleaner, and just let it run with its default settings. I also routinely use Windows Disk Cleanup. I leave the registry alone in both BD and CCleaner, in which BD again tends to be more conservative, while CCleaner finds multiple keys.

I hope this helped to answer your question.

Scott

Flexx

Also if you want to make sure your PC runs at optimal speed always consider the below steps and execute it once every week. You will not require any

1) Restart PC in safe mode (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234)

2) Open run command and run below command one by one:

temp ,delete all the files in the folder

%temp% ,delete all the files in folder

prefetch ,delete all the files in folder

3) Restart your PC in general mode by unticking the option that you selected to run the system in safe mode and then click apply.

4) Use Disk cleanup in windows (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/disk-cleanup-in-windows-8a96ff42-5751-39ad-23d6-434b4d5b9a68)

5) Use Windows Defragmenter to defrag your HDD or trim if you have an SSD (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/defragment-your-windows-10-pc-048aefac-7f1f-4632-d48a-9700c4ec702a)

Regards

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/311746#Comment_311746

CCleaner was once a best cleaner available on the web but in recent times it has lost its image when the company Piriform was bought by Avast. If you are really looking for a good cleaner with majority of cleaning benefits to keep your system free from junk then you can go in for BleachBit (https://www.bleachbit.org/) which is totally free.

BleachBit with its own cleaning paths also features the option to enable winapp2.ini which includes additional cleaning paths.

CCleaner by default does not has winapp2.ini integrated in its product. Rather, one has to download CCEnhancer (https://singularlabs.com/software/ccenhancer/) in order to add additional cleaning path of winapp2.ini to CCleaner. That being said if you download winapp2.ini for CCleaner, the software will take time to open.

I always prefer BleachBit with the option of winapp2.ini enabled over any other cleaners on the web.

Regards

Gjoksi

Hello.

I used to use CCleaner with ALL options selected in registry, disk and privacy cleaner. Never had any problems with my Windows.

Now i'm using Glary Utulities PRO with ALL options selected in registry, disk and privacy cleaner. Also, never had any problems with my Windows.

TBH, i very rarely use Bitdefender's OneClick optimizer, since it doesn't allow me to select what i want to be scanned. For example, Glary Utulities PRO has an option for Deep Scan in the registry.

Like @Scott already said, Bitdefender's OneClick optimizer does only general (not deep) scan and clean of Windows and browsers.

Keep in mind that doing a deep scan and clean of files/registry keys could lead to non-functional Windows or other non-functional programs.

It's all up to you.

Regards.

Scott

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/311741#Comment_311741

Is there any concern of restarting in Safe Mode with the Pro versions of Windows 10 and 11, having Bitlocker enabled? I found that one out the hard way, of Windows 11 Pro going into a Bitlocker boot loop (recovery loop) and needed to log into another PC, go online and find my Bitlocker recovery key to be able to enter it in on the looping PC. For Pro, if I ever want to boot into safe mode, I now disable Bitlocker before I start.

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/311786#Comment_311786

The reason for restarting in safe mode is because it usually loads minimal amount of drivers as compared to general mode. So, if you will try to delete files in temporary and prefetch folder in safe mode, all files will get deleted whereas compared to general mode where some files may still remain in the respective folder since they are used by the system in real time.

As such there is no difference. You can execute the operations in both safe mode and general mode.

I was never a fan of bitlocker and I hardly used it in Windows 7, if I remember.

Regards

Jan H

Thank you all for responding and for the info.