Ccleaner uninstalls software without permission, admits Avast

Avast has admitted that in certain cases Ccleaner can remove your software without your permission.

It confirmed the flaw in response to a complaint from a Windows 10 user, rounakr94, who wrote on a Reddit forum (www.snipca.com/41603) that Ccleaner removed essential MSI files when they tried to uninstall the tool through the ‘Programs and Features’ section in the Control Panel (see screenshot).

Ccleaner failed to uninstall some programs, including Adobe Reader and Hdsentinel, leaving them corrupted, rounakr94 claimed. Reinstalling these and scanning for malware took two hours, they said.

Avast, which owns Ccleaner’s developer Piriform, said that the problem may have been caused by the user installing Ccleaner in their

D:\applications folder. When Ccleaner was uninstalled, it removed all other programs in that location.

In a statement to the website Betanews, Avast said: “Ccleaner’s default behaviour when installed is to create a new ‘Ccleaner’ folder, so at the point of uninstall, everything in that folder can be deleted without issue”.

It added: “In the case described in this article, a user would need to deliberately bypass this behaviour and either choose to install Ccleaner to a folder they currently use for other purposes or later use the ‘Ccleaner’ folder for something other than its intended use”.

Avast believes this problem would probably affect only “a minority of customers”, but is nonetheless working on an update to prevent it from happening in future.

It’s the latest in a series of controversies to have hit Ccleaner’s reputation since Avast bought Piriform in 2017. These include adding PUPS, and persistent messages asking you to upgrade to the paid-for version. In Issue 627’s ‘Stop Using Rubbish Software’ Cover Feature, we recommended replacing Ccleaner with Bleachbit (www.bleachbit.org). •Should

you use Piriform’s Recuva? See page 54