Microsoft bans CCleaner

Microsoft has never been a fan of registry cleaners, and today we have learned that the company has taken steps to ensure that such software is not recommended to users who are having issues with their PCs.

HTNovo reports that Microsoft has added CCleaner.com to their blacklist of domains on the official Microsoft Support forums.

The Blacklist Filter notes that:

“Microsoft has various filters in place to keep community members safe. When a website that is blacklisted is posted, the system will remove it if it has been posted by an unaffiliated user. The filter will remove part of the site so it is unreadable with 4 stars (****). Affiliated users will be able to post websites which are blacklisted.”

This means the domain will automatically be censored when posted on the site. The domain is included in a quite short list of sites, which is only 11 domain names long, suggesting the activity is rather targetted.

The blacklist was introduced recently and only official moderators on the forum have been informed.  In exceptional cases, some moderators will be able to post links to the software, but it seems likely this will generally be frowned upon.

CCleaner has in the past been compromised to deliver malware to Windows PCs, but this is some years ago, and a bit long to hold a grudge. There have also been some issues with CCleaner not being compatible with Windows 10, though those issues have now been fixed.

In general, however, CCleaner provides features which are already built into Windows 10 and is somewhat redundant in this day and age.  Nevertheless, the company will probably not be happy with Microsoft taking such direct action against it.

Update:  The original report of a ban has now been retracted, with HTNovo now saying:

CCleaner is not in any Microsoft Blacklist and there are no Blacklists regarding other domains in the official Microsoft forums

Via HTnovo