After pop up ads shown by CCleaner previous version, we’ve now a new version of CCleaner 5.45 available with changes that may irritate and annoy you even more. Piriform has taken away the data collection opt-out setting from Privacy Settings of CCleaner. And they’ve a new reporting system in place for CCleaner which sends heartbeat for every 12 hours, that informs up-to-date usage statistics to Avast, Avast claims this allows them to quickly push bug fixes and product improvements.
Forced Active monitoring
CCleaner has two monitoring features enabled by default, one is System Monitoring and other one is Active Monitoring. System Monitoring shows a notification if cleaning with CCleaner saves more than 0.5 GB of disk space. On the other hand, Active Monitoring checks for CCleaner product updates and alerts you when a new version of CCleaner is available. Both features can be disabled by visiting CCleaner > Options> Monitoring.
Unfortunately, CCleaner 5.45 isn’t honoring active monitoring setting. If you disable the setting, it has no effect as you can notice CCleaner icon in the system tray saying ‘CCleaner monitoring is active’. Is this a bug ? Or intentional change by Avast, we’ll know that soon. But here is how you can turn off CCleaner active monitoring in version 5.45.
Disable Active Monitoring in CCleaner 5.45
- Launch Task Manager
- Click on Startup tab, select ‘CCleaner’ and click Disable
3. Restart your computer.
4. Done.
If you’re using Windows 7 or other Windows version, type msconfig in Run dialog to open system configuration and disable the CCleaner startup item.
Clarification: The CCleaner has activate monitoring feature permanently enabled by default, which you can’t disable. When you disable it, it gets re-enabled again. But by disabling CCleaner startup item, we’re able to prevent CCleaner from running on startup of computer.
But when you open or run CCleaner at least once in the session, CCleaner monitoring will be active in that session, which you can’t end even if close CCleaner. But you can kill its process in Task Manager. So to avoid this, open and run CCleaner only, if you do some cleaning, unless don’t use the app to prevent activation of CCleaner monitoring.
READ: How to disable CCleaner’s Scheduled tasks and Startup Item
August 01, 2018 Update: Finally, Avast responded on the issue.
READ:Avast to Separate CCleaner Active Monitoring and heartbeat, promises control to user over these
August 07. 2018: Piriform has removed CCleaner 5.45 and restored CCleaner 5.44 on their site, you can download 5.44 version from CCleaner website now.
Hi folks,
I think the forced monitoring mechanism is not a bug, it’s a nasty feature to spy
and collect (telemetry) data without asking the user. In the EU such a feature is
forbidden by law (General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR] ) if you have no persmission from the user.
Kind regards Ronald
IT senior consultant
I did both.
Every time I run CCleaner the active monitoring box is checked again…and it starts remonitoring
Ensure CCleaner startup item is disabled, if you’ve set to disabled CCleaner moniotoring won’t run, its working for me. In startup tab, does CCleaner is showing as disabled or enabled on your computer?
Tried all that three times over. WILL not disable even doing msconfig and unchecking during startup. This is a nasty bug, as I have never had any problems with CCleaner before. Went back to version 5.44 and will stay with that, until a non buggy version comes out.
it is working itself to enable again and again and shows an error startup message to send stats back again and again. it will not shut. strange behaviour that’s why I was digging.
Let me tell you what I’ve noticed, if you don’t open or run CCleaner, after disabling its startup item, you won’t see its icon in system tray, but once you open and close it, you can see its visible in notification area. Its not always running unless you launch CCeaner it in that session.Just stop opening and looking at monitoring options, the active monitoring will be enabled permanently, but it won’t run on startup of Windows unless you run CCleaner.
Well I fixed it by installing previous version 5.43. If Avast’s future versions of CCleaner have the same issue I’ll stop using it.
Unfortunately the others are correct. Even disabling the startup option does not keep it from running. Every time I restart the computer (on multiple machines) the icon is back in the system tray and the startup item has been re-enabled. Very shady. CCleaner is coming off all PCs I’ve got it on.
I uninstalled 5.45 and re-installed 5.43 but in Control Panel Items/Notification Area Icons, Ccleaner is reported as “Actively Monitoring” even though I’ve unticked the monitoring options and Startup entry. Nothing shows up in Task Manager, can anyone tell me how to view telemetry etc. to make sure this is just a misreporting glitch? I’m using W7 64-bit.
Just clean uninstall CCleaner 5.43 using Revo with advanced options, remove leftovers and reinstall 5.43 version and uncheck CCleaner update checking option. Last thing you may not want to happen is Piriform hunting users using old versions also.
I have uninstalled it and moved onto win optimizer V16, this is better not just at cleaning up my pc and there is no spyware, well this is what I’m calling ccleaner is
I wrote a simple BAT file (see below) to run CCleaner without ever having any monitoring after running it. Using Notepad, copy and save the listing below as “CCleaner.bat”. Then create a shortcut to this BAT file and run it from that shortcut whenever you want to run CCleaner. Be sure to choose “Minimized” in the Shortcut tab of the shortcut properties. Also, should you want to use the CCleaner icon in the shortcut, in the properties of the shortcut choose “Change Icon…” and paste this string:
“%ProgramFiles%\CCleaner\CCleaner64.exe” (without the quotes around it)
Then click in the icon area and choose whatever CCleaner icon you want to use.
Stu
:
: This bat file:
: 1. Runs CCleaner64.exe.
: 2. Runs a wait loop waiting for CCleaner64.exe to end.
: 3. Kills CCleaner64.exe.
: 4. Exits.
:
@ECHO OFF
CD “C:\Program Files\CCleaner\”
ccleaner64.exe
:
:WAITLOOP
tasklist /FI “IMAGENAME eq ccleaner64.exe” 2>NUL | find /I /N “ccleaner64.exe”>NUL
if “%ERRORLEVEL%”==”0” goto RUNNING
goto NOTRUNNING
:RUNNING
ping -n 2 9.9.9.9
goto WAITLOOP
:NOTRUNNING
taskkill /F /T /IM ccleaner64.exe
exit
I was finally able to duplicate the problem that some of you may be having. What I saw was that the BAT file went into an infinite loop. I believe this problem has to do with the speed of your processor which is likely faster than mine. The solution is this:
Replace the line in the BAT file above that says
“ping -n 2 9.9.9.9”
with this line
“ping -n 3 9.9.9.9”.
Then all should be well.
It doesn’t work unfortunately, I’ve tried it a couple of times on my three machines. The app startup is magically restored.
Are you running a 64-bit Windows system? If not, the executable will be ccleaner.exe (instead of ccleaner64.exe) and it will be at C:\Program Files (x86)\CCleaner\ (instead of C:\Program Files\CCleaner\). So those changes would have to be made to the BAT file. It works perfectly on my Windows 10 64-bit system.
Also, if you run CCleaner even once WITHOUT using the BAT file, it will appear again. Of course, if CCleaner is in your Startup, it will appear after each reboot. So it also has to be removed from Startup.
https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010631671-I-m-using-CCleaner-v5-45-Why-is-Active-Monitoring-still-on-when-I-have-switched-it-off-
The official piriform reply. The “We will take the opportunity to rename the advanced monitoring features in CCleaner to make their function clearer” seems to be that the function will be here to stay, in my interpretation. If so, I will remove CCleaner and advise everyone I’ve ever mentioned CCleaner to use, which has been many or the many years, to advised that CCleaner are invading your privacy, and to remove it.
Thanks for sharing the information.
The very bottom of the Piriform web page at your link says “In the meantime, to disable all monitoring, please close all CCleaner processes via the Task Manager.” That is EXACTLY what the BAT file above does after each execution of CCleaner.
I found the problem some were having with the BAT file I previously listed above. Below is the updated BAT file that runs CCleaner without ever having any monitoring after running it. I’m very confident this will work for everyone if you follow these instructions:
1. Using Notepad, copy and save the listing below as “CCleaner.bat”.
2. Create a shortcut to this BAT file and run it from that shortcut whenever you want to run CCleaner.
3. Be sure to choose “Minimized” in the Shortcut tab of the shortcut properties.
4. In the shortcut properties you MUST click on “Advanced…” and click on the “Run as administrator” then click “OK” twice.
5. Also, should you want to use the CCleaner icon in the shortcut, in the properties of the shortcut choose “Change Icon…” and paste this string:
“%ProgramFiles%\CCleaner\CCleaner64.exe” (without the quotes around it)
Then click in the icon area and choose whatever CCleaner icon you want to use.
Stu
:
: Note: Use Program Files (x86) and CCleaner.exe below if you are running the 32-bit CCleaner.
: This bat file:
: 1. Runs CCleaner64.exe.
: 2. Kills CCleaner64.exe.
: 3. Exits.
:
@ECHO OFF
CD “C:\Program Files\CCleaner\”
Start /wait ccleaner64.exe
taskkill /F /T /IM ccleaner64.exe
exit
I followed your instruction and ran the BAT file, but receiving this error “Windows cannot find ‘CCleaner64.exe’. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.” Could you please tell me how to fix it. Thanks
Hi Anle,
Clearly you are running the 32-bit version of CCleaner. Therefore, you should have followed the note in the BAT file: “Use Program Files (x86) and CCleaner.exe below if you are running the 32-bit CCleaner.” To make it easier for you, below is the 32-bit version of the instructions and BAT file.
1. Using Notepad, copy and save the listing below as “CCleaner.bat”.
2. Create a shortcut to this BAT file and run it from that shortcut whenever you want to run CCleaner.
3. Be sure to choose “Minimized” in the Shortcut tab of the shortcut properties.
4. In the shortcut properties you MUST click on “Advanced…” and click on the “Run as administrator” then click “OK” twice.
5. Also, should you want to use the CCleaner icon in the shortcut, in the properties of the shortcut choose “Change Icon…” and paste this string:
“%ProgramFiles%\CCleaner\CCleaner.exe” (without the quotes around it)
Then click in the icon area and choose whatever CCleaner icon you want to use.
Stu
:
: Note: This is the 32-bit version of the BAT file.
: This bat file:
: 1. Runs CCleaner.exe.
: 2. Kills CCleaner.exe.
: 3. Exits.
:
@ECHO OFF
CD “C:\Program Files (x86)\CCleaner\”
Start /wait ccleaner.exe
taskkill /F /T /IM ccleaner.exe
exit
Hi Stuart Berg,
Unfortunately, I tried on Windows 10 64-bit and got that error. Anyway, thank you so much for your kind support. It seems Piriform already roll back the updates and it now can save user’s settings.