Is CCleaner recommended on Windows 11?

One of the most popular tools for keeping your computer up to date is CCleaner. This tool is software that allows you to clean the operating system of unnecessary files. Although Microsoft recommends not to use it in Windows 10. The main reason is that in the step the software was compromised through a remote administration backdoor. Through this, you could install malware, keyloggers, ransomware and even take control of the system.

Introduction

CCleaner has been part of Avast since 2017 , the company behind the well-known antivirus software . Following the acquisition, the first security problems with this software appeared. Malware was introduced into the legitimate version of the software from the official website through a security vulnerability.

Microsoft has never been a fan of a registry cleaning tool or an operating system customization. Avast managed to correct the problems in CCleaner, but the credibility was seriously damaged. Recent scandals at Avast, which collected browsing data through a browser extension, have not helped.

In September 2019 it was announced that, in the official Microsoft Support forums, the software is banned. The official forum moderators were informed that this tool should no longer be recommended.

The main function of this software is to remove unnecessary files and settings. It also allows you to delete browsing cookies, disable software running in the background, and eliminate registry errors. But is it really necessary to do all this? Today, it's known as a free PC cleaner in Spanish for Windows 10.

Registry cleaning in Windows 11

One of the main functions of Avast is to clean the Windows registry. The registry contains a database where configurations, settings and options for the operating system itself are stored. When we install and uninstall different software, a 'trace' of them remains in the registry.

Microsoft does not offer a registry cleaning option because, according to the company, rather than optimizing, what it ends up doing is generating errors. Windows until 1998 had its own registry cleaning tool, but it was removed by the company for these reasons.

Uninstall a program

One of the functions that CCleaner offers us is to uninstall a program. What we can do with the software can also be done with Windows from the Control Panel. So at this point this software doesn't make much sense either. If you want to uninstall a program, you just have to:

1. Right click on the Windows logo in the lower left corner
2. Click on 'Settings'
3. We click on 'Applications and features'
4. We select the software or utility that we want to eliminate
5. We click on the uninstall button and the process will start
6. Note: there are native applications that Microsoft will not let you uninstall

Clear the browser

CCleaner also offers us the possibility of cleaning certain parameters of the installed browsers. Normally it allows you to clean the browsing and download history, as well as cookies and other fields.

All browsers within the settings offer us these possibilities and choose the time period, which usually goes from 'an hour ago' to the entire history. For this we do not need a third-party tool, since Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, etc., already integrate it.

Empty the Windows 11 Trash

Believe it or not, one of the functions that CCleaner does is empty the Windows 10 Recycle Bin. Something as simple as right-clicking on the Trash icon on the desktop and choosing to empty can be done with Avast software. Come on, if you use third-party software to do this, it's almost to kill you.

Disable background software

Optimizing Windows startup is a good idea to speed up the startup of the operating system. The fewer programs Windows has to initialize, the better. Sometimes it could be the case of starting programs that we don't really need or are not going to use. Windows already has its own tool that allows you to choose which programs we want to run and which ones not.

To access we just have to press the right button on the task bar and then choose the 'Task Manager'. Now we go to the 'Start' tab, where we are shown the software that will run when we start Windows. Now we can decide which software we want to run when Windows 10 starts up and which one we don't.

In addition, together with each software we are told what its impact is on the startup of the operating system. This tells us how much it can slow down the start of it. Except for the sound driver, graphics and other such essential software, the rest, we can tell you not to start it and run it ourselves only when we need it.

Delete unused files and settings without CCleaner

Normally this step gains very little, freeing up just 1GB of space. Windows allows you to do this cleaning step without the need for third-party software. We just have to go to the internal search engine and enter 'Cleaner of space' and we execute it.

Here Windows will tell us which files are recommended to delete and makes it easy for us. We can also search the system files manually and save more space. Doing it manually can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

What we find are a kind of temporary files, usually from browsers, to make them work faster. Eliminating us will not mean gaining much capacity and will generate a slowdown in the loading of websites.

Its best use is after a Windows update. Updates leave a lot of trace, due to the backup they generate in case of problems. We can delete those files, 25-50GB, after making sure that the update works correctly.

To save space, it is best to check the downloads folder. There, all the downloads we make accumulate and they accumulate and only take up space. The normal thing is to send them to the trash, but if it is something that we know for sure we will not need, with 'Shift + Del' we will delete the file permanently.

Is CCleaner recommended on Windows 11?

All the functions offered by CCleaner in Windows 11 can be performed manually. The registry is the only thing that cannot be done manually, and it's something that shouldn't be touched. From an objective point of view, CCleaner is completely useless . We can do everything ourselves without third-party software and, therefore, increase system security.