Free version - Smart Cleaning

[fuzziboy]

Hi,

just wanted to ask what smart cleaning even does if you have disabled the notification. Does some auto-cleaning happen at certain triggerpoints or is that limited to the pro-version?

See this screenshot for settings:

Thanks!

[trium]

hello fuzzyboy,

 

the only official answer/documentation of your question i can found:

https://www.ccleaner.com/docs/ccleaner/ccleaner-settings/changing-monitoring-settings-ccleaner-free

 

Quote

 

Changing monitoring settings (CCleaner Free)

CCleaner Free enables you to set up Active system monitoring. It can monitor your PC and detect whether it will benefit from a clean.

When enabled, CCleaner will continue to run in the background and you’ll see an icon in the system tray. Do not close this icon or you will disable automatic monitoring and cleaning.

System Monitoring

To enable automatic system monitoring:

By default, CCleaner will check your PC every 8 hours and take action if cleaning will save more than 0.5GB of hard drive space.

CCleaner will display a balloon notification in the system tray asking if you want to clean your PC.

1. Open CCleaner, then click Options > Monitoring
2. Select Enable system monitoring.

Note: When automatic monitoring and cleaning is selected, CCleaner will use the settings in the Cleaner section to clean your PC.

 

Active Monitoring

Active Monitoring allows CCleaner Free to monitor your installation in the background, for any updates or new releases, so you don't have to worry about keeping up-to-date.

We recommend you keep this enabled, but if you'd prefer CCleaner didn't monitor your system, you can turn off Active Monitoring by following these steps:

1. Open CCleaner, then click Options > Monitoring
2. Disable System Monitoring by unchecking Enable System Monitoring
3. Disable Active Monitoring by unchecking Enable Active Monitoring.
4. Click Yes when the confirmation box appears

CCleaner will no longer appear in your system tray after closing.

 

[fuzziboy]

Thank you for your answer.

This is very confusing as it is old info with different wording (System Monitoring / Active Monitoring / Smart Cleaning).

These news also contribute to that:

https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015058012-What-is-the-Smart-Cleaning-feature-

Says Smart Cleaning is only available in Pro, no distinction between the different previous monitoring options.

??

[trium]

18 hours ago, fuzziboy said:

just wanted to ask what smart cleaning even does if you have disabled the notification. Does some auto-cleaning happen at certain triggerpoints or is that limited to the pro-version?

 

interesting question... with unchecked "tell me when there are junk files to clean"

and

only checked "smart cleaning" -> it seems to do nothing

 

i dont use this function usually. i mean the only thing you can use with activated "smart cleaning" is the access via taskbar icon -> like "options"; "open Ccleaner"; "start ccleaner"; "show recent messages"; "close"... nothing more.

the ballon notification dont show up. i have smart cleaning disabled again.

 

i have tryed the scheduling for ccleaner free and this works fine without the pro-version

[nukecad]

A lot of the documentation is out of date, they are supposed to be working on updating it.

I believe that Smart Cleaning (previously Monitoring) in the Free version now works like this:

1. There are two parts to the smart cleaning settings in CCleaner Free:
2. When you tick 'Enable Smart Cleaning' it automatically ticks 'Tell me when there are junk files to clean' as well.
3. This then checks every so many (8?) hours to see if there is more than 0.5 GB (although that may now be 1 GB) of junk to clean, and if/when there is it gives you a pop-up warning and asks if you want to clean it.
4. If you don't reach that much junk then you won't get a notification.
5. If you say NO to the pop-up then it will wait for another so many hours before poping-up again.
    
6. If you untick 'Tell me when there are junk files to clean' then when it reaches the GB limit it will clean automatically without giving you a pop-up.

The Pro version allows you to change that GB limit with 'If cleaning saves more than', as well as letting you set verious options for automatically cleaning your browser on closing.

[fuzziboy]

Thank you for your answer.

If you

untick 'Tell me when there are junk files to clean' then when it reaches the GB limit it will clean automatically without giving you a pop-up.

Well, that would be good for me. I want it to auto-clean my parent's old PC. They don't use it very often and I am home only like two times a year. Buying a license is not reasonable in that case.

My other solution would be using the windows task scheduler and a batch file which starts ccleaner.exe /AUTO
Is that what @trium meant by

i have tryed the scheduling for ccleaner free and this works fine without the pro-version

The outdated documentation leaves us speculating here. I don't even know how to test it, like "generating" much junk at once.

Edited January 17, 2020 by fuzziboy

[trium]

take the smart cleaning the settings from the custom clean?

[fuzziboy]

afaik, yes. Takes the last saved settings.

[trium]

4 minutes ago, fuzziboy said:

My other solution would be using the windows task scheduler and a batch file which starts `ccleaner.exe /AUTO`
Is that what @trium meant by

>> i have tryed the scheduling for ccleaner free and this works fine without the pro-version

 

i dont know it the smart cleaning works in the free version but the scheduling worksfine as the custom clean at every single startup :-)

[nukecad]

34 minutes ago, fuzziboy said:

My other solution would be using the windows task scheduler and a batch file which starts ccleaner.exe /AUTO
 

The outdated documentation leaves us speculating here. I don't even know how to test it, like "generating" much junk at once.

Another one outdated in the documentation:

/AUTO is now /AUTOS (A combination of Auto+Silent?).

We had a thread about that last week where a user couldn't understand why his /AUTO kept changing to /AUTOS in Windows startup.

It's a technicallity, but /AUTOS is what CCleaner now sets in the registry (and thus Windows startup) if you have 'Run CCleaner when the computer starts' selected.
If you use /AUTO in a batch file it should still work, but it's usually better to use the latest version of a command switch.

In your parents case then 'Run CCleaner when the computer starts'  may be the simplest solution, it will then do a clean in the background everytime they do occasionally turn on the computer. They won't even know it's doing it.
You can find that switch in Options>Settings.

[Andavari]

Problem with auto cleaning on startup is if/when a program or possibly even a Windows update needs to continue doing things on the next system restart/start up. CCleaner could inadvertently delete temporary setup files if an installer/updater doesn't lock them for exclusive use.

[fuzziboy]

Thank you, I'll just use /AUTOS.

Cleaning at every startup is too often, I think. It's an old PC without SSD, so it profits quite a lot from cached data.

I'm setting up a windows task scheduler task for cleaning once a month at startup.
Calculation base is: mother + father using the PC once a week each --> Cleaning at about every 8th startup.

[nukecad]

TBH if it's Windows 10 then the built in Storage Sense is probably all they need.

[fuzziboy]

@nukecad I've had a look at Storage Sense and it seems like it can't clear Firefox cache. And I couldn't find the option to clear self-defined folders (well, could do that with another scheduled task... in the end, I could probably do everything with a batchfile ).

[nukecad]

I'm in the pub at the moment but when I get home I'll PM you my batch file for Cleaning Firefox caches, cookies, and supercookies.

[Andavari]

Firefox and any browser for that matter can be configured to cleanse themselves when existing.

[nukecad]

Indeed they can, but can also save bits that they want to. Which is why programes like CCleaner still exist.

With a bit of knowledge you can clear more than they do themselves, as long as you are careful of course.