CCleaner Can Remove Other Programs: Update Announced

The CCleaner application, also known as optimization software, has a bug that can lead to accidental software removal. Developer Avast is now announcing that changes will be made soon to prevent this. Avast’s popular and widely used system cleaner, CCleaner, exaggerated cleaning, removing most of a user’s programs without their permission. That reports that Online magazine Betanews references an experience report from a user who shared his suffering on Reddit and has since deleted his problem report.

According to the person concerned, the following happened: “CCleaner 5.91 uninstalled most of my software when I uninstalled CCleaner from Programs and Features in Control Panel. While uninstalling, I saw in the progress bar that it deleted some MSI, Steam, and Origin files and after they were completed, I saw that Adobe Reader, Afterburner, Aida64, Steam, Origin, Discord, HDsentinel, etc. were corrupted (not completely removed) I had to spend another 2 hours to reinstall and fully scan my PC for malware.”

An update should prevent this problem

Avast has confirmed that such an issue can occur under certain circumstances. An update is also being worked on to ensure that this situation does not occur in the future. A company spokesperson told Betanews, “CCleaner creates a new CCleaner folder by default upon installation, so uninstalling it will safely delete everything in that folder. In the case described in this article, a user must intentionally bypass this behavior and put CCleaner in a folder that is currently using it for other purposes, or later use the CCleaner folder for something other than what it was intended for We expect this issue to affect only a minority of customers, but can confirm that we are working on an update that will prevent this issue in the future.”