5 ms·

"CCleaner is an application that allows users to perform routine maintenance on their systems." It's 2017, how is this still a thing?

by Jdam 9y ago

pmlnr 9y ago
I don't understand the question. Maintenance will always be a thing, carried out by humans, cron, or the os itself doesn't really matter.
- avenius 9y ago
  I think he's referring to the fact that you need a third-party application to perform maintenance, rather than have the functionality supplied in the OS.
- pbhjpbhj 9y ago
  Why doesn't MS Windows do the maintenance - CCleaner does things like clean up ancient cache files, remove Windows update files, remove registry entries for software that's no longer installed. That sort of maintenance seems like it's the result of poor design in an OS that has the hood welded shut. I actually used ccleaner on Win 10 recently, an MS update had associated loads of files with TWINUI which wasn't installed making things like viewing images impossible. Ccleaner found of the order of thousands of stale entries, removed them and made a backup. It also let me simply check and disable startup programs - I don't think Win 10 has a way to do that in the user UI?
  - marian0_ 9y ago
    The OS does it by itself. It even includes an application so you can do it yourself if you want which is called "Disk Cleanup".
    - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
      I'm admittedly out of the loop, last time I used disk cleanup would have been Win7, I guess MS expanded it to do much more useful work?
    - CamperBob2 9y ago
      Just as one data point, the last time I ran Disk Cleanup, it hosed my entire Windows installation. The bug in question was documented as occurring in Vista, but wasn't fixed in Windows 7, and for all I know, still isn't: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/serious-disk-cleanup-problem-caused-by-broken-registration/ http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/serious-disk-cleanup-probl...
    - floatboth 9y ago
      On my W10 install, CCleaner usually finds ~1GB more than Disk Cleanup, not even counting browser caches.
  - CamperBob2 9y ago
    Microsoft also has a poor attitude when it comes to being good stewards of their customers' hard disk space: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/joscon/2012/01/18/can-you-safely-delete-files-in-the-windirinstaller-directory/ https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/joscon/2012/01/18/can-yo... No, sorry, you don't get to take up 30 GB of valuable SSD space for some unspecified stuff that I might need later because removing it is "not supported."
    - emodendroket 9y ago
      I mean, nobody is stopping you from deleting stuff. They're just saying that if you want to do it you're on your own.
  - josefresco 9y ago
    As other have said already, Windows does this - CCleaner does it ... better. And also did it before Windows did it. Plenty of examples of native apps doing something that third-party apps do much better.
  - nemacol 9y ago
    You can disable startup programs from task manager in W10. Or msconfig in older versions.
    - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
      I actually use Autoruns by preference, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/auto... . If you type startup or autoruns or similar does Win10 suggest task manager, would never have thought to look there ... will try next time!
  - NiveaGeForce 9y ago
    > Why doesn't MS Windows do the maintenance - CCleaner does things like clean up ancient cache files, remove Windows update files, Windows 10 can already do this by default. > remove registry entries for software that's no longer installed. Uninstalling old style Windows software is a hard problem that generally can't be done in a foolproof way, without potentially breaking stuff, due to bad legacy design decisions like giving programs free reign to install stuff wherever they want, without a proper application model nor dependency tracking. Therefore, registry cleaners are also prone to break things. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2563254/microsoft-support-policy-for-the-use-of-registry-cleaning-utilities https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2563254/microsoft-s... > That sort of maintenance seems like it's the result of poor design in an OS that has the hood welded shut. That's what UWP solves. https://np.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/6ifyxq/spotify_for_windows_10_available_now_in_the/dj5zq9e/ https://np.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/6ifyxq/spotify_for_... > It also let me simply check and disable startup programs This is already in the Windows 10 UI.
jasonmaydie 9y ago
> Given the presence of this compilation artifact as well as the fact that the binary was digitally signed using a valid certificate issued to the software developer, it is likely that an external attacker compromised a portion of their development or build environment and leveraged that access to insert malware into the CCleaner build that was released and hosted by the organization. Did you read the article? It can happen to any company. It just so happens they targeted a very popular downloaded application. Who knows what other software installers have been compromised.

"CCleaner is an application that allows users to perform routine maintenance on their systems." It's 2017, how is this still a thing?

by Jdam 9y ago

"CCleaner is an application that allows users to perform routine maintenance on their systems." It's 2017, how is this still a thing?

pmlnr 9y ago

I don't understand the question. Maintenance will always be a thing, carried out by humans, cron, or the os itself doesn't really matter.

avenius 9y ago
I think he's referring to the fact that you need a third-party application to perform maintenance, rather than have the functionality supplied in the OS.
pbhjpbhj 9y ago
Why doesn't MS Windows do the maintenance - CCleaner does things like clean up ancient cache files, remove Windows update files, remove registry entries for software that's no longer installed. That sort of maintenance seems like it's the result of poor design in an OS that has the hood welded shut. I actually used ccleaner on Win 10 recently, an MS update had associated loads of files with TWINUI which wasn't installed making things like viewing images impossible. Ccleaner found of the order of thousands of stale entries, removed them and made a backup. It also let me simply check and disable startup programs - I don't think Win 10 has a way to do that in the user UI?
- marian0_ 9y ago
  The OS does it by itself. It even includes an application so you can do it yourself if you want which is called "Disk Cleanup".
  - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
    I'm admittedly out of the loop, last time I used disk cleanup would have been Win7, I guess MS expanded it to do much more useful work?
  - CamperBob2 9y ago
    Just as one data point, the last time I ran Disk Cleanup, it hosed my entire Windows installation. The bug in question was documented as occurring in Vista, but wasn't fixed in Windows 7, and for all I know, still isn't: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/serious-disk-cleanup-problem-caused-by-broken-registration/ http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/serious-disk-cleanup-probl...
  - floatboth 9y ago
    On my W10 install, CCleaner usually finds ~1GB more than Disk Cleanup, not even counting browser caches.
- CamperBob2 9y ago
  Microsoft also has a poor attitude when it comes to being good stewards of their customers' hard disk space: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/joscon/2012/01/18/can-you-safely-delete-files-in-the-windirinstaller-directory/ https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/joscon/2012/01/18/can-yo... No, sorry, you don't get to take up 30 GB of valuable SSD space for some unspecified stuff that I might need later because removing it is "not supported."
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    I mean, nobody is stopping you from deleting stuff. They're just saying that if you want to do it you're on your own.
- josefresco 9y ago
  As other have said already, Windows does this - CCleaner does it ... better. And also did it before Windows did it. Plenty of examples of native apps doing something that third-party apps do much better.
- nemacol 9y ago
  You can disable startup programs from task manager in W10. Or msconfig in older versions.
  - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
    I actually use Autoruns by preference, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/auto... . If you type startup or autoruns or similar does Win10 suggest task manager, would never have thought to look there ... will try next time!
- NiveaGeForce 9y ago
  > Why doesn't MS Windows do the maintenance - CCleaner does things like clean up ancient cache files, remove Windows update files, Windows 10 can already do this by default. > remove registry entries for software that's no longer installed. Uninstalling old style Windows software is a hard problem that generally can't be done in a foolproof way, without potentially breaking stuff, due to bad legacy design decisions like giving programs free reign to install stuff wherever they want, without a proper application model nor dependency tracking. Therefore, registry cleaners are also prone to break things. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2563254/microsoft-support-policy-for-the-use-of-registry-cleaning-utilities https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2563254/microsoft-s... > That sort of maintenance seems like it's the result of poor design in an OS that has the hood welded shut. That's what UWP solves. https://np.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/6ifyxq/spotify_for_windows_10_available_now_in_the/dj5zq9e/ https://np.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/6ifyxq/spotify_for_... > It also let me simply check and disable startup programs This is already in the Windows 10 UI.

jasonmaydie 9y ago

> Given the presence of this compilation artifact as well as the fact that the binary was digitally signed using a valid certificate issued to the software developer, it is likely that an external attacker compromised a portion of their development or build environment and leveraged that access to insert malware into the CCleaner build that was released and hosted by the organization. Did you read the article? It can happen to any company. It just so happens they targeted a very popular downloaded application. Who knows what other software installers have been compromised.