Avast acquires Piriform, maker of CCleaner

https://press.avast.com/en-gb/avast-acquires-piriform-maker-of-ccleaner

Adding 130 million users to Avast’s performance optimization installed base

Redwood City, California, July 19, 2017 – Avast, the global leader in digital security products, today announced that it has acquired Piriform, the leading provider of device performance optimization software. Founded and based in London, UK, Piriform’s flagship product, CCleaner, speeds up PCs and smartphones by intelligently removing junk and improving the performance of computers and phones.

Interesting but I'm not really thrilled about it. I don't really like what Avast has been doing recently. It's gotten so bloated recently. A default installation brings along a VPN, registry cleaner/system "optimizer", and an actual adware browser extension*. CCleaner has always been a very good temporary file cleaner but the registry cleaner has always made me wary. I'm worried Avast is going to roll the good functionality even deeper into the unnecessary and dangerous "performance" junk that's bundled with their antivirus.

Note about registry cleaners: they are dangerous and you shouldn't use them. Not even the one that is built into CCleaner. See: Registry Cleaners: Digital Snake Oil on the Malwarebytes Unpacked blog.

*They claim that it's not, but as Avast describes it:

"The purpose of this feature is to help you find the best offers among participating trusted shops and to notify you about cheaper offers by displaying a small bar on the top of your browser."

That's basically the definition of adware. Just because it's showing ads for "trusted" sites doesn't make it not adware. Plus it will show you ads for their partner sites even if the cost is the same as the site you're on.

Oh well, that's the end of CCleaner then.

Good job it's not a tool that you really have to update to keep it useful, so current versions will probably do all that you need them to do for quite some time.

"Gary R" wrote:Oh well, that's the end of CCleaner then.

Good job it's not a tool that you really have to update to keep it useful, so current versions will probably do all that you need them to do for quite some time.

Temporary file cleaners definitely have a long shelf life. I actually still use OldTimer's TFC on some Windows 7 systems. Built-in in Disk Cleanup is so awful and there's times when I don't want to install a program just to clean my temp files.

Well this sucks! Another useful product gone. New owners who take over a product always say the product will remain the same and will only be improved upon. Balderdash! Like the Borg, new owners always assimilate the products they buy, and then the product is either changed beyond recognition or disappears entirely.

I downloaded a copy of the latest installer, as I would guess it hasn't been "corrupted" yet.

That way if I need to put a copy on anyone's machine (well anyone I'm helping hands on) I won't need to use a later (and probably inferior) version.

"Gary R" wrote:I downloaded a copy of the latest installer, as I would guess it hasn't been "corrupted" yet.

That way if I need to put a copy on anyone's machine (well anyone I'm helping hands on) I won't need to use a later (and probably inferior) version.

I did the same thing, Gary.

Great minds think alike.

Yes, it is very pity if CCleaner will be "compromised" as AdwCleaner!

The first bell was related to version 5.31 but next one (current) 5.32 is stable. I am going to keep it for a while...
The good news here - CCleaner does not ask ultimately for update when we run it, but who knows what will be changed in the nearest future?

Anyway, we will survive!

This situation with Avast and CCleaner brings feelings of deja vu. Some of you may remember a wonderful anti-malware tool named ewido. It was a great tool that was highly favored by malware removal helpers as well the public. At the height of its popularity, it was purchased by AVG AntiVirus who made the usual promises about continuing to support the product they had purchased, keeping its developers on, etc. That lasted for a short time and then AVG, which had renamed ewido to AVG Anti-Malware, bundled it into AVG AntiVirus, which meant the only way you could get the anti-malware program was to drop your current antivirus and purchase the AVG bundle. So, ewido, a highly valued product that was compatible with all antivirus products, was essentially gone. The same scenario will likely be repeated with CCleaner and Avast.

On a side note, ewido was not the first but it certainly was the last product for which I purchased a so-called "lifetime license."

This discussion has focused on CCleaner, but what Avast has purchased is not just CCleaner, it's Piriform. Piriform has products other than CCleaner; Piriform is also the developer/owner of Defraggler, Recuva, Speccy, etc. Bid them all goodbye, folks.

"NonSuch" wrote:This discussion has focused on CCleaner, but what Avast has purchased is not just CCleaner, it's Piriform. Piriform has products other than CCleaner; Piriform is also the developer/owner of Defraggler, Recuva, Speccy, etc. Bid them all goodbye, folks.

Exactly! The best what we can do is to download the latest versions of all named products and keep them for a while...

Yes, a whole bundle of useful tools get compromised by this takeover.

Unfortunately, this is a recurring theme, and as NonSuch says, this is not the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last time, that this kind of thing happens.

All you can do, is deplore it, and soak it up.