CCleaner c5.49.6856 producing flyout ads for 'Black Friday'

Farvatten · 21 Nov 2018

@mrgeek

"Don't know if this fixed but haven't seen ad since

(couple days now)."

Curious. Have you actually run the 'Cleaner' option since? The behavior I've seen is they'll disappear after twice showing up when I run CCleaner64.exe as long as I don't run a 'Cleaner' session. Once I run the 'Cleaner' they're back.

I know this has led to me sadly publishing some false conclusions.

Crizal · 21 Nov 2018

Stitch194 said:

As Bree mentioned "Apparently it goes back further than 5.49. I got the flyout with 5.44."
I'm running 544 and get the fly out.

The last "clean" version of CCleaner is 5.40. The offending cookie responsible for the ads was introduced in version 5.41.

mta3006 · 21 Nov 2018

Bree said:

Apparently it goes back further than 5.49. I got the flyout with 5.44. The ad is for CCleaner itself, so presumably the first 'sneaky' connection was a request sent to 'CC head office' to find out what (if any) offers are available.

Crizal said:

The CCleaner ads use the cookie "ipm-provider.ff.avast.com".

Stitch194 said:

As Bree mentioned "Apparently it goes back further than 5.49. I got the flyout with 5.44."
I'm running 544 and get the fly out.

I am using just the CCleaner64.exe file from the 'portable' zip of v5.49 (no installation, run file with internet connection on).

If I run the cleaner, removing the "ipm-provider.ff.avast.com" cookie, then restart CCleaner, I get the flyout, and the "ipm-provider.ff.avast.com" cookie reappears immediately without opening a browser or any other action.

Am I just paranoid, or is this unusual behavior for a utility?

Crizal · 21 Nov 2018

@mta3006 -- you're not paranoid. This is what Avast has done to CCleaner since day one of the acquisition -- they've ruined it. Activity on CCleaner's forum is way down and if you look through it, even the moderators aren't happy. A lot of people have decided to move on.

mrgeek · 21 Nov 2018

Farvatten said:

@mrgeek
Curious. Have you actually run the 'Cleaner' option since? The behavior I've seen is they'll disappear after twice showing up when I run CCleaner64.exe as long as I don't run a 'Cleaner' session. Once I run the 'Cleaner' they're back.

I run it 2-3 times a day. Worth testing to see if this is a fix. It takes less than 2 minutes to uninstall and reinstall with 'Slim version', it retains your current cleaner settings from AppData folder.

Josey Wales · 21 Nov 2018

Crizal said:

The last "clean" version of CCleaner is 5.40. The offending cookie responsible for the ads was introduced in version 5.41.

Yes it was, I use it and WDC. .

Bree · 21 Nov 2018

mrgeek said:

Worth testing to see if this is a fix. It takes less than 2 minutes to uninstall and reinstall with 'Slim version'...

It isn't a fix. My screenshot of the flyout was made with the Slim version.

Callender · 21 Nov 2018

No Flyout for me using 5.49 Slim Build.

Check settings:

CCleaner c5.49.6856 producing flyout ads for 'Black Friday'-ccleaner-options.jpg

CCleaner c5.49.6856 producing flyout ads for 'Black Friday'-firewall-settings.jpg

CCleaner c5.49.6856 producing flyout ads for 'Black Friday'-firewall-log.jpg

Farvatten · 21 Nov 2018

mta3006 said:

If I run the cleaner, removing the "ipm-provider.ff.avast.com" cookie, then restart CCleaner, I get the flyout, and the "ipm-provider.ff.avast.com" cookie reappears immediately without opening a browser or any other action.

Using the preferred portable version ( currently 5.49.6856 but not for long ) I just noticed by adding imp-provider.ff.avast.com to 'Cookies to Keep' my flyout is now gone

Too many ifs...

...so I'm going back to the portable v5.40.4611 strictly for cookie cleaning, knowing CCleaner's Uninstall tool for worthless apps and one that I've come to depend on after clean installs, and why I felt the necessity to keep it up to date, will become obsolete next year anyway once Windows permits most unnecessary built-in apps to be uninstalled.

Next Major Windows 10 Update Will Let You Uninstall Most Built-in Apps - ExtremeTech

Crizal · 21 Nov 2018

Found the solution for me -- Wise Disk Cleaner. One doesn't need to jump through hoops to make it work.