Thankfully, strong cleanup software can throttle it back into gear. Just like a car, your PC gets slower over time. So if you follow a good guide to speeding up and cleaning up your PC, your machine should get better service than a free cleaner can offer.īut for quality care, use dedicated cleaning software designed and built by professionals. Free PC cleaners often stuff their product with random programs, advertisements, and other bloatware. So, it may now be the case that if you go to install CCleaner while running Microsoft Defender, you’re no longer warned against proceeding, assuming the security app is indeed updated as CCleaner asserts.Though most quality PC cleaners offer a free trial, you’ll need to pay for the full service to clean your whole machine. We surmise the issue appears to be around bundling, and we believe we have addressed this so that our product is now no longer flagged.”

Often, these matters are down to the way the options to opt out are presented.Īt any rate, according to a statement just released by CCleaner, the firm believes that the issue has been resolved.Ī CCleaner spokesperson told us: “We are in the process of engaging with Microsoft to understand why CCleaner was recently detected as PUA.

The company observes that while the CCleaner installation process does provide a way to opt out of putting these extras on your PC, as you would expect, the judgment is that “some users can easily inadvertently install these bundled applications”. Microsoft further stresses that those bundled apps are perfectly fine and not in any way malicious, of course, but it’s the way that they are offered for installation which is problematic. Those bundled apps include Google Chrome browser, Google Toolbar, and Avast Free Antivirus plus AVG Antivirus Free (note that Piriform is now owned by Avast, which also owns AVG too).

Is ccleaner free safe