by Martin Brinkmann on November 30, 2018 in Software – 11 comments
A new version of the file cleaning software CCleaner for Windows, version 5.50, features new options to control program updates.
The year 2018 has not been a very pleasant one for Piriform, maker of CCleaner, and Avast, Piriform’s parent company. The integration of Telemetry collection, first without clear options to disable it and turned on by default, and forced automatic updates to a new version of CCleaner, were two of the major blunders in that year.
CCleaner 5.50 includes a new Updates menu under options in the program interface. It gives users control over the updating behavior of the program according to the release notes.
CCleaner get control over important updates and project updates under the new Updates section. Piriform defines important updates as “major updates” that ensure “that CCleaner runs safely and smoothly” on the systems it is run on.
Product updates on the other hand are defined as updates that “deliver the latest product improvements and cleaning updates”.
The forced automatic update in September 2018 would be classified as an important update while minor version updates that improve cleaning algorithms as a product update.
Important updates are configured to download and install automatically. Users get notifications after the fact.
Options are provided to disable the notification or the automatic installation of these updates.
Product updates are applied manually only for free users. Pro users get an option to apply product updates automatically similarly to how important updates are processed by the software.
The option to show notifications for new product updates is disabled by default; users who want information about new product versions may check the option to receive those on their devices.
Closing Words
One cannot say that Piriform is not trying. The company introduced privacy options in the program after users complained about the new data collecting and the lack of options to turn Telemetry off. Now, after users complained that CCleaner would auto-update itself in September, options are introduced to control these updates in the program.
The ride would have been a lot smoother for Piriform if the company would have introduced these options before it made the changes or pushed the automatic update to CCleaner installations.
Now You: Do you still use CCleaner?