Avast & Ccleaner - Avoid?

[nibblybits]

Hi all

I am a cloudcare reseller since inception and have rode out the Avast take over.
There was some migration issues initially moving from avg to avast as the av tool but it has been solid for a while now.

I have been told that government agency's have been advised away from avast and ccleaner.
I can only speculate that this may have to do with repeated supply chain attacks.

I have been moving customers to bitdefender gz and mbam endpont as a precaution.
I have also run a script in syncro to remove all ccleaner from clients for the moment.
Will look at bleachbit as an alternative.

Anyone else out there in a similar situation?
What u doing?

 

[Diggs]

I was an Avast supporter in the past but they had too many issues with machine failures during upgrades to Win10 and Win10 updates itself. Hard to endorse them now when Windows Defender itself is better rated. I don't really have any issues with Ccleaner. Their download was tainted in the past I remember. I just have no need for it.

 

[HCHTech]

I like CCleaner for it's startup and browser extension tools. I haven't found anything that so easily produces those lists all in one place with the ability to delete items right in the same interface. I always uninstall it when I'm done, though. I'll use the registry cleaner as a last resort if there is some leftover piece of something that is blocking an install or causing problems and I can't find it otherwise. I uninstall it afterwards for this as well.

I have no quarrel with companies that produce free software trying to get users to upgrade and start paying. That's how they survive. since the Avast acquisition, though, CCleaner tries too hard at this...and side-installing their AV or "secure browser" is over that line. Maybe Avast will dump it after they find it isn't the cash machine they were hoping for, then we get to roll the dice again.

 

[Porthos]

As @Diggs mentioned Avast has been an on and off disaster in Win 10. Personally I never cared for it since it is bloated and slowed any computer I have seen it on.
Also, there is news like this that makes Avast even more disturbing. And since Avast bought CCleaner and AVG and using aggressive "buy me now" even in the portable and slim installers when you open it I have been removing free versions from my client's computers as well.

I use Defender and use the built-in storage spaces on 10 now to empty temp files now.

 

[Porthos]

I like CCleaner for it's startup and browser extension tools.

I do that with UVK.

 

[Diggs]

...and I agree with using the registry cleaner in Ccleaner to resolve an issue but for those that say - Look! It found 350 lines or issues that need to be resolved during its scan. They need to be reminded that the registry is ~6 million lines long with maybe 2-3 million lines of settings. Do they really think a couple of hundred useless lines make a difference?

 

[britechguy]

Microsoft is also abundantly clear about not recommending the use of registry cleaners, and I have refused to do so for years now. I actually never personally had any disasters when I was using them, but they never fixed a darned thing, either.

Microsoft support policy for the use of registry cleaning utilities

 

[nibblybits]

Here is a recent article
https://www.securityweek.com/avast-discloses-new-supply-chain-attack-attempt

And cloudcare status page.
https://status.cloudcare.avg.com
VPS updates have been stopped instead relying on streaming micro updates.

I have found the cloudcare portal an excellent tool for managing and monitoring avast business.
It's a shame and I am finding it hard to let it go.