Originally Posted by
treadigraph
Re anti-virus, a few years ago I discovered my laptop was running both Avast AND Windows Defender and resources had become somewhat precious - I disabled Defender and things sped up quite a lot. More recently I've ditched Avast and use Defender which seems perfectly capable.
However, I do have CCleaner which I run every now and then - a new version uploaded itself earlier this evening, then I noticed that Avast had installed itself - I presume that was an accidental click by me when closing the CCleaner window... Now de-installed...
Sadly, modern anti-virus software has become resource hogging to the point of being near-useless. All the big, well known anti-virus developers are guilty of this.
I have used CCleaner for decades on Windows devices, and whilst it is a good utility, it will always try to load extra cr4p onto your device during a new install, or update, if you let it. Do
not allow it to load/update with any self-suggested 'popular' or 'commonly used' modules. Always look for a 'manual' install or update option, and carefully select only what you want from it, otherwise you
will end up with unwanted cr4p like Avast, as you have found out. There is other software out there also guilty of this, essentially, dishonest behaviour.
Once you have actioned an update for CCleaner, carefully check it hasn't changed your settings for the utility either, because that sometimes happens. Naturally, any setting changes are always to the advantage of the developer, Piriform.
If you have never done so, also check within CCleaner's Startup section, and I think you will be surprised at the unnecessary stuff which Windows and other software loads into RAM
every time your device starts up. Some knowledge, and great care, is needed before disabling startup processes, which CCleaner will allow you to identify and carry out, but
if you know what you are doing you can easily prevent many unnecessary things loading in the background (which would otherwise be invisible to you!) and taking up you're PC's perhaps meagre resources, such as RAM.
Finally, if you download CCleaner direct from Piriform's own website (
https://www.ccleaner.com/download), and you are
only interested in the free version, you will be directed to 3 or 4 different, consecutive pages where the site brazenly tries to persuade you to to download the paid-for version. Persevere and look
carefully for the 'no thanks, I just want the free version' links, and you will eventually reach the point where you can simply download the executable file
The free version of CCleaner has more than enough useful modules within it for the Average Joe user, and as I have already stated, it
is a useful piece of software, but you just have to patiently negotiate your way around the methods employed by Piriform in trying to put unwanted nonsense on your PC. Like many developers, they
are counting on you clicking on the wrong/unwanted thing!