Sierra Mac Cleaner
I’ve been using CCleaner for years on both my PC (HP laptop with Windows 10) and Mac (MacBook Pro with macOS 10.13 High Sierra). Above is the main screen of CCleaner on my Mac.
When I heard the news that the program had been hacked and more than 2 million users were at risk, I was absolutely shocked, just like you.
Am I affected? Should I continue using CCleaner? What’s the best alternative to consider? Questions like these all went through my mind.
Furthermore, the rogue optimizer additionally leaves a footprint in the victim’s web browser by redirecting the Internet traffic to fraudulent sites that say the Mac is infected and push a “cleaner” which is a virus in disguise. In summary, Mac Clean Up Pro is not legitimate. It is a fake system utility that does not belong inside your Mac. This innovative cleaning software has been developed to take care of your Mac and keep it in a nice shape. MacFly Pro does the following: it removes inactive or old apps, as well as related files, cleans inactive memory, clears the cache and duplicates, gets rid of language and log files, and scans the overall condition to warn system of violations or threats.
In this post, I’ll quickly run through the issue and list a few similar cleaning tools for you to consider. Some of the alternatives are free, while others are paid. I’ll point out what each one has to offer and let you decide which is best.
Please note that you don’t have to switch because you may not be affected — but it’s always good to do the research just in case.
So, What Happened Exactly?
On September 18, 2017, researchers at Cisco Talos published a post stating that
“For a period of time, the legitimate signed version of CCleaner 5.33 being distributed by Avast also contained a multi-stage malware payload that rode on top of the installation of CCleaner.”
Two days later, those researchers posted another article with their continued research on C2 and payloads (i.e. a second payload was found that affected 64-bit Windows users).
The technical description was too complicated to understand. Simply put, the news is this: A hacker “breached CCleaner’s security to inject malware into the app and distribute it to millions of users”, as reported by The Verge.
The malware was built to steal users’ data. It did not actively harm your computer system. However, it did collect and encrypt info that might be used to do harm to your system in the future. The second payload Cisco Talos researchers discovered was a malware attack targeted against big technology organizations like Cisco, VMware, Samsung, and others.
Was I Affected by the Malware?
If you are using CCleaner for Mac, the answer is NO, you are NOT affected! Piriform also confirmed on this. See this reply on Twitter.
No, Mac is not affected 🙂
— CCleaner by Piriform (@piriform) September 22, 2017
If you’re using CCleaner on a Windows PC, then you may have been affected. More specifically, you might have the malware that affected version 5.33.6162 released on August 15th, 2017.
Only the 32-bit version of CCleaner v5.33.6162 was affected and the issue is no longer a threat. Please see here: https://t.co/HAHL12UnsK
— CCleaner by Piriform (@piriform) September 18, 2017
To check what version you have, simply open CCleaner on your computer. Under the program name, you’ll see the version number.
Should I Switch to Another Cleaning Program?
If you’re on Windows, you might want to.
Cisco Talos recommends affected users to restore Windows to a state before Aug 15. Alternatively, you might also reinstall the whole Windows operating system.
If you’re not affected by the malware, I highly recommend you run an antivirus scan with Bitdefender or MalwareBytes to make sure no malicious software.
For those who are skeptical about any future CCleaner issues, another option is to uninstall CCleaner and perhaps install another PC or Mac cleaning app which we cover below.
7 Free and Paid CCleaner Alternatives Worth Considering
For Windows PC users, you may consider:
Glary Utilities — Free. It’s an all-in-one utility for cleaning a PC, similar to what CCleaner offers. You can use it to scan and fix Windows registries, as well as clean junk files from web browsers and third-party applications.
The program also has a professional version Glary Utilities Pro (paid) which offers several advanced features for power users including enhanced system optimizing and free 24*7 technical support. The latest version is 5.8.5 (Sep. 29, 2017) and is fully compatible with Windows 10.
CleanMyPC — Free to try (500 MB limitation on removing files, and 50 registry fixes), $39.95 to buy for a single license. The program works very well for cleaning unwanted files from your PC. We compared CCleaner with CleanMyPC in this review and concluded that CleanMyPC is more user-friendly and probably a better option for less advanced users. The latest version is 1.8.8 (2 August 2017) and is compatible with Windows 7, 8 & 10.
Advanced SystemCare — Both Free and PRO versions are available. As the name indicates, it’s a PC system optimization program for cleaning the Windows registry as well as many kinds of junk files. The Free version is free to download and use with limitations, while the PRO version costs $14.77 with an annual subscription.
For Apple Mac users, you may consider:
Onyx — Free. The “Maintenance” module allows you to run miscellaneous tasks like cleaning and system maintenance, e.g. delete apps, run periodic scripts, rebuild databases, and more. The latest version is 3.3.7 and is fully compatible with High Sierra. I also covered Onyx in this best Mac cleaner list.
CleanMyMac — Free to try (500 MB limitation on removing files), $39.95 to buy for a single license. It’s one of the best Mac cleaning apps in the market, offering a number of utilities for deep cleaning those unnecessary files. You can read our detailed review here. The latest version is 3.9 and is High Sierra compatible.
Dr. Cleaner — Free version is already powerful enough to meet your Mac cleaning needs. Pro version costs $19.95 to buy. The app offers several free features totally for free, unlike many of its rivals. As I I discovered that most paid apps allow you to scan your disk but limit file removal functions unless you pay to unlock them. That’s not the case with Dr. Cleaner. You can see the differences between Dr. Cleaner and Dr. Cleaner Pro from my full review here.
MacClean — Free to try (scan allowed, but removal restricted), $29.95 to buy for a personal license. This is another great cleaning tool for macOS. What’s unique about MacClean is that it has a duplicate finder feature (similar to what Gemini offers), which can help you free up more disk space. Read our review here.
What Else Should I Do?
If you are on a Windows PC, regularly run antivirus and malware scans. For Mac users, it’s always good practice to examine the apps you have installed, as well as make sure the apps you use are up to date. Consider removing unused apps. You can easily do so with CleanMyMac in just a few clicks.
One more tip: Always backup your computer data (or backup of the backups). You never know when another “CCleaner strategy” will hit and what consequences it will cause. If you have a backup at hand, your data is secure, and you can choose to restore your computer if needed.
In my opinion, only about 20 percent of an app’s features should be considered premium features that users should have to pay for. However, In most cases, users really only need the other 80 percent of features which should be free. But, to get those useful 80 percent of features, users have to dig into their pockets and pay for the 20 percent of features they don’t really need.
For CleanMyMac, a disk cleaner, which part is the 80 percent you should have gotten for free? Is there an app that provides that 80 percent?
Of course, there is. I’d like to recommend Trend Micro’s Dr. Cleaner, a free app that’s comparable with CleanMyMac.
Let’s see what functions CleanMyMac provides to its subscribers that Dr. Cleaner also provides, while pointing out features in CleanMyMac that might create problems or aren’t that necessary for the average user.
1. System Junk
“System” as defined by CleanMyMac includes user cache files, system log files, as well as the application language packs. The latest version of Dr. Cleaner supports the cleanup of user cache and system files, but stops at removing application language packs due to safety considerations: for certain software, there might be program errors once the language pack is removed. Moreover, a single language pack is very small and does not significantly affect the entire disk space
Sierra Mac Cleaner Software
2. Photo Junk
When iPhoto users synchronize their phone camera with the computer terminal, it creates residual cache files that speed up photo browsing for the user, but also increases the burden on disk by using up space.
We can say that this kind of space consumption is a double-edged sword, since browsing is speeded up. But for infrequent iPhoto users, this feature is somewhat superfluous. You get this feature as one of CleanMyMac’s value-added services, while Dr. Cleaner merges this function into the iTunes cache-cleaning function, because this function is too simple to separate out for display.
3. Mail Attachments
When using the Mail app on the Mac, you can accumulate a lot of attachments over time. As you can see, these attachments are located in CleanMyMac, but did you know there is a risk when cleaning mail attachments? Once you have removed a mail attachment and are unable to sync to your mail server, you cannot get them back. In Dr. Cleaner, we designed mail caches into the Junk Files feature which does not affect your mail attachments.
4. Large Files
Large file scanning is a very useful feature. Users tend to ignore what they have downloaded, such as large software installation packages or movies. These large files can account for half of the disposable space of the disk. This function can indeed become a paid-for function, as it is with CleanMyMac, but in exchange for the support of its users, Dr. Cleaner provides this valuable function for free. With Dr. Cleaner, you can also lock some files that you don’t want to remove in case you want to make sure you do not delete important files.
5. Disk Map
Mac High Sierra
We think it is user-friendly to help you manage all the files on your hard disk using a visual map, so we added the Disk Map feature into Dr. Cleaner for free. However, no functions like this can be found in CleanMyMac.
Disk Map quickly scans your drive and builds an amazing visualization of all the files and folders on your computer, allowing you to easily navigate the system and find the content that takes up the most space.
In addition, all folders and files under the home folder are listed out by size. As for some system-required critical files, deleting them would provide a prompt that those are important and are not allowed to be removed. With the Disk Map feature you can also find out when a file or folder was created, modified or last opened. Furthermore, hovering your mouse on one folder then clicking the magnifier icon will direct you to the file location.
Conclusion
Is Dr. Cleaner worth trying? Absolutely, yes! Don’t hesitate. It not only cleans up your disk space but also solves other Mac issues you might have. In addition, we are also the least expensive cleaning app on macOS. If you still cannot afford it, you can call your friends or family to share the cost. Thanks Apple for letting us share wonderful applications together via family sharing. Regardless if you are new to the Mac or an advanced user, Dr. Cleaner will be a good choice for you. While Dr. Cleaner can help you free up a lot of space, please don’t forget to back up your important files, in case an unfortunate event happens like your hard disk malfunctions. We regard customers’ data security as the most important thing. I hope you will have fun with Dr. Cleaner in the future!
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With amazing Gameplay and graphics is attractive. It’s streamlined Build Mode. Very smart, smooth and realistic.
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