STEAM (CS GO) - VAC Authentication Error caused by CCleaner

[Alphrad]

Hey guys,

 

Been using CCleaner for years, but it seems that either an update from Valve's end or CCleaner has caused problems.

Everytime I run CCleaner now - the next time I play a match of CS GO - I'll get 'VAC Authentication Error' and be unable to reconnect resulting in a ban.

 

This is with 'Steam' de-selected in the application options before running CCleaner.

 

It took a while to find the cause of the issue but it seems to be a common problem:

 

http://steamcommunity.com/app/730/discussions/0/620712999982091539/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/730/discussions/0/620712999982924733/

https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/35bin7/vac_authentication_error/

 

Is there anyway we can strictly stop CCleaner from touching CS GO / Steam files?

 

Thanks!

[Andavari]

If you use a downloaded winapp2.ini community file, or one from CCEnhancer look in that winapp2.ini file and remove everything that would clean Steam - or remove the winapp2.ini altogether.

 

How to make CCleaner exclude Steam:

1. Start CCleaner.

2. Go into: Options > Exclude

3. Input all of the paths to Steam (physical folders or files, and registry paths).

CCleaner will now skip Steam.

[Alphrad]

If you use a downloaded winapp2.ini community file, or one from CCEnhancer look in that winapp2.ini file and remove everything that would clean Steam - or remove the winapp2.ini altogether.

 

How to make CCleaner exclude Steam:

1. Start CCleaner.

2. Go into: Options > Exclude

3. Input all of the paths to Steam (physical folders or files, and registry paths).

CCleaner will now skip Steam.

Thanks - will give it a go.

 

Somehow completely missed the exclude tab.

[Alphrad]

Unfortunately, excluding the STEAM folder does not work.

 

Ran CCleaner earlier, started a ranked match and was kicked out / banned after 7 rounds.

[dvdbane]

the only way to check is for you to clean 1 by 1 until you find the cause

would be better to remove winapp2.ini incase you're still have it inside ccleaner folder

 

"Windows" tab first

disable/un-tick all option on "Application" tab > Analyze > Right click on the result > Save to text file > Clean > check if you the problem occur or not

if the problem did not occur, repeat the same step for "Application" tab

attach the log file here when you found which tab cause the problem

if you have problem attaching incase the file too big , paste it to any site like pastebin and put the link here

[berch]

I can't test type like you suggest because I get ban for 30 minutes then for day then for week!!!

 

I used 5 years CCleaner 3 months ago I started playing CS GO and have same problem in ccleaner i have excluded steam but nothing helped. i see this problem has not resolved from 2015 year... Ok will unninstall CCleaner, sorry!

[Andavari]

The issue has been reported to the admin so that it gets forwarded to the proper people who can fix it.

[Hubro]

The issue has been reported to the admin so that it gets forwarded to the proper people who can fix it.

 

I've been an avid user of CCleaner for years and I've had huge issues with being kicked by CS GO games because "something is stopping VAC from working"... Turns out this is CCleaners fault, which is very disappointing. I'm uninstalling until I have confirmation that CCleaner no longer interferes with VAC. I'd be willing to bet that tons of users has already uninstalled CCleaner for that reason.

[Winapp2.ini]

I have never had CCleaner interfere with Steam or VAC, and I have written/use several Steam entries that go beyond the standard cleaning.

 

Some more info for the developers would be helpful for triaging your bug, for example

 

your OS and build number (you can get this by running winver).

 

Do you run any firewall or antivirus programs? Is csgo.exe allowed in them? Be sure to check that CCleaner isn't deleting a firewall rule you need.

 

Are you opted into the Steam beta client?

 

Is steam/CSGO running when you run CCleaner? You should be sure to exit both Steam and CSGO prior to running CCleaner to make sure it has properly released any locks on files it may have or want.

[berch]

Today I was disconnected again by this reason: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2117-ILZV-2837 and can't connect back anymore (tips in this article doesn't helped). Thas was after playing ~18 of 30 rounds.

 

I have installed new version of windows 10 x64 version 1607 os build 14393.576.

 

Yes I run 360 total security, tryed disable it - same result.

 

No, i don't use beta steam.

 

Steam was closed before I run ccleaner.

[qeamer]

Dragging up this thread

Haven't used CCleaner for years now but i want it, iv'e had this problem alot when CCleaner has cleaned my pc with unticked Steam option. 

I always get a ban in middle of matches after a clean. I must say that some old ssd's did follow a newer pc build once and the problem did also occur with the new pc, even when formatted.
Been using Bcdedits for registers or VACerror fixer, then restarting the pc and all works again until next clean.

Please do look more into this, haven't had this problem since i uninstalled CCleaner for 2 years now.

Edited May 21, 2022 by qeamer

[Andavari]

Since no official fix has come from CCleaner might I suggest a very different workaround, and that is create a unique Games user profile in Windows that no 3rd party cleaning tools will ever touch such as CCleaner, etc. And then see if any issues continue or if it completely solves the issue.

[Dave CCleaner]

14 hours ago, Andavari said:

Since no official fix has come from CCleaner

I believe that there have been previous attempts to advise Steam, etc that clearing space on one's Hard Drive to install games is not the same as cheating, but will little joy.

On 21/05/2022 at 20:27, qeamer said:

Been using Bcdedits for registers or VACerror fixer, then restarting the pc and all works again until next clean.

@qeamer: BCDEdit for modifying boot configuration data?  What entries were you changing to solve the problem?

[qeamer]

On 24/05/2022 at 14:16, Dave CCleaner said:

I believe that there have been previous attempts to advise Steam, etc that clearing space on one's Hard Drive to install games is not the same as cheating, but will little joy.

@qeamer: BCDEdit for modifying boot configuration data?  What entries were you changing to solve the problem?

After i found VAC Authentication Error Fixer 2.2 it has helped me alot when having CCleaner installed, but i did get the ban anyways after rinsing the pc.

I used mostly this one: bcdedit /deletevalue nx

and
bcdedit /deletevalue nointegritychecks
bcdedit /deletevalue loadoptions
bcdedit /debug off

Edited May 28, 2022 by qeamer

[Dave CCleaner]

@qeamer: Thanks for the details.  That certainly helps.  At a glance though, nothing in the BCDedit options you ran seem to relate to files that would have been affected by temp file cleaning or cookie cleaning - but may well adjust registry settings.  When you mention that you had issues after cleaning, was that after running the "Clean" function itself?  Or after doing a Registry Clean?

[qeamer]

30 minutes ago, Dave CCleaner said:

@qeamer: Thanks for the details.  That certainly helps.  At a glance though, nothing in the BCDedit options you ran seem to relate to files that would have been affected by temp file cleaning or cookie cleaning - but may well adjust registry settings.  When you mention that you had issues after cleaning, was that after running the "Clean" function itself?  Or after doing a Registry Clean?

Always did both, but i do believe its the Clean function which does it. Even with steam option unticket.

[nukecad]

25 minutes ago, qeamer said:

 i do believe its the Clean function which does it. Even with steam option unticket.

Just jumping in to check something.

You're not unticking the Steam option and then running Health Check are you?

The ticks/unticks only apply to Custom Clean.
Health Check ignores any ticks/unticks.

As Dave also hints, stop using the registry cleaner and see if your problem stops then.

[qeamer]

5 minutes ago, nukecad said:

Just jumping in to check something.

You're not unticking the Steam option and then running Health Check are you?

The ticks/unticks only apply to Custom Clean.
Health Check ignores any ticks/unticks.

As Dave also hints, stop using the registry cleaner and see if your problem stops then.

Please read my posts, i'm not using it anymore for 2 years. Pretty sure i have tried the most out of it since iv'e used CCleaner as long as i can remember.

[nukecad]

Ha, sorry I thought this was a current problem.

It's just a bit unusual for someone to be posting about an issue that they were having 2 years ago but not now.

[Dave CCleaner]

The topic of "CCleaner causing problems with Steam" used to pop up every now and then.  It has always struck me as odd, given the number of gamers on the CCleaner staff who have never had such an issue.  Nevertheless, whenever it comes up, we get a few folks from the office who selflessly volunteer to put in some overtime (or, as I suspect, use it as an excuse to have a gaming marathon) and fail to reproduce the issue.

Just this evening, had one of the management team playing CS:GO before and after running CCleaner 6 to do multiple cleans and registry cleans including winapp2.ini with everything checked - with no issues.  Given the large overlap between gamers and CCleaner users, I would expect reports of issues to be a bit more widespread.  

I suspect that either the issue was either entirely at the Steam end and that they silently fixed a false positive at some point, or (from the use of those particular BCDedit commands fixing the problem) it actually has/had something to do with unsigned/custom drivers - as apparently it is a general feature of anti-cheat engines that they don't like driver signing turned off.

Would be interested to hear from anyone who has experienced such an issue recently, or @qeamer if you aren't using any custom/unsigned drivers, care to give CCleaner another crack now and let us know how it goes?

[SandroV]

Hi Qeamer, 

thanks for flagging this. I think I might be the CCleaner team member Dave is talking about ;) I tested it on two PCs and using two different Steam accounts both last night and again just now. My results:

• Pre CCleaner / Default state: Played 3-4 matches. CS: GO works fine.
• Ran CCleaner 6.0 with every item checked (even all Steam related items): Same as above. No issues. 
• Ran CCleaner 6.0 registry cleaner: CS:GO continues to work fine. 
   

While I never played for more than 30 minutes, I did not encounter any issues. I even tested a few other games today, including GTA Online, Far Cry 6 and AoE 3 DE. They're all working fine even after a complete custom clean using CC. As Dave suggested: Give the new version another go and let us know if it causes any issues. It should work fine. 

Other suggestions in case you're getting banned regularly: Try to temporarily disable any form of overclocking and FPS monitoring tools (MSI Afterburner/RIVA) or even keyboard utilities. Just today I faced an issue with GTA Online freezing whileLogitech G Hub is running in the background (a known bug). Try to eliminate as many of these background items as possible - if you've got CC 6.0 installed, there's a Performance Optimizer feature which lets us completely stop any background activity from all installed apps - this could be another troubleshooting path. Hope this helped! 

[qeamer]

Actually i may try to run default bios settings after a clean, been overclocking for years and i have used MSI Gaming App alot with several MSI GPUs. That might be it.
I will also eliminate alot of background processes, but one thing: This is competitive gaming and not public servers, it comes after longer than 40-60 minutes i believe. Even if it's regular matchmaking, Faceit or Esportal for example.

Getting back to you guys later.

[Jameswalter]

If you receive the following error when entering any of the commands below, that means they are already set to default:
The value is protected by Secure Boot policy and cannot be modified or deleted.
To change boot settings to default please follow the steps below:
Exit Steam.
Search for the Command Prompt application in Windows and right-click it and select Run as administrator.
In the command prompt, type the following commands and press Enter after each command:
bcdedit /deletevalue nointegritychecks
bcdedit /deletevalue loadoptions
bcdedit /debug off
bcdedit /deletevalue nx
Restart your computer.
Launch Steam and test the issue again.

 

Regards,
James