# mycleanpc, or how I learned to not get scammed.



## Steevo (Jan 5, 2011)

After seeing this advertised so much I decided to give it a try. I hate to infect machines, or put on unneeed software, or spyware disguised as legitimate software. However I know people will ask or will wonder about things like this. So to save them the hassle, the money, and the issues a "pc cleaner" can cause I decided to install it on a clean machine.

A clean machine? How clean....

A live CD was booted (Symantic recovery disk) with a few custom options, the following tests were performed, and utilities ran.

Low level format and surface test by HDD mfg utilities. Passed
RAM check ran for 24 hours, multiple patterns. Passed
Norton/Symantec disk check and surface test. Passed
Used freeware hed editor and verified sector, cyl, and byte count, boot sector, jump pointer, and BIOS size checksum.

Next a MS Original XP SP2 setup disk is inserted. So no drivers were slipstreamed, no updates. The machine was not connected to the network. Windows was installed, quick NTFS format was choosen as I deleted the partition again and allowed windows to set up the disk. 

Once that was done drivers were downloaded, MD5 checksum verified, burned to CD and installed once they passed MD5 again. http://download.cnet.com/MD5-Checksum-Calculator/3000-2092_4-10964258.html

Once drivers were installed I setup my internet connection, I have my network secured by a firewall, NAT, and no sharing was allowed. 

All  windows updates were downloaded as well as Microsoft Security Essentials. Basic software was installed and updated. The system had a full check ran by MSE, it was defragmented, bootis was ran, the system was ran continuously for six days during this period to see if any errors occured. Everything was working, no errors were found, no infections were present. Ccleaner was ran to clean the cache, startup items not essential were removed, services not essential were disabled.

Tonight after switching to this system, as it was still running, I used to to download mycleanpc. I ran the executable, and here were its findings.







When looking at the "errors" many are simply installer references, the fact that no crypto was active and some parts of the "user hive" where users software settings are store were not there, or unused. Some keys were reference to windows update installers, deleting these keys would prevent a user from being able to easily remove a update that causes issues.

Once I looked at the errors I tried to close the program, however the programmers have a different idea, the program is "resident" and starts at boot time. Being designed to speed up performace usually entails freeing more memory, removing startup programs, and other forms of layout optimization. However this program does none of those, it takes up memory, loads at boot making boot slower, and installs in multiple places in the registry.

If you right click the icon and attempt to close it it pops up a large warning that will confuse many users into clicking the purchase icon. You can however close it, and it does terminate fully.

Uninstalling it you must answer questions before it will uninstall, and there is a popup to encourage you to purchase the software and warnings about not using the software. After clicking through all these you get to the last screen and it tells you that it has "fully uninstalled". Fully uninstalling is a intersting thing, I take the word fully very serious. Like, he is fully dead, the battery if fully charged, I fully understand, I'm fully in agreement......

You can imagine my suprise then when I found their description of fully does not align with the common understading.






They go by the name "CyberDefender", which as you can see above has NOT fully uninstalled. 

Some companies do leave little items behind as a way to tell if their software has been previously installed, or is currently installed. They choose to leave behind the kind of "stuff" they are claiming to "fix". Perhaps they don't understand the meaning of the word fix either?

I cleaned out the registry and deleted the empty folder.

A quick look into the user hive of the registry yeilded......








In short, mycleanpc is slightly above the spyware and junk it claims to clean, but with more annoyace and cost.


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## mlee49 (Jan 5, 2011)

Sticky, please.

I love you Steevo


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## DannibusX (Jan 5, 2011)

Wow, thanks for looking into that.  I tell my family and friends not to fall for that stuff.


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## sttubs (Jan 5, 2011)

I've wondered the same thing about their claims, good information.


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## Munki (Jan 5, 2011)

haha good stuff man!

x2 on the sticky


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## trickson (Jan 5, 2011)

Man CClean and registry mechanic will do the job as well . 
But not a bad review thank you . Though I would not ever use mycleanpc . They also claim it is free to try was it ?

STICKY !!!


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## cdawall (Jan 5, 2011)

i enjoy these one of my favorite news casts was a channel in houston compared all of these "speed up my pc" programs and i think one of them worked as claimed.


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## KainXS (Jan 5, 2011)

I see those annoyin commercials everyday and now I can say I KNEW IT

finnaly


are you talking about that popup with the video and newscasters?

Edit

oh i get it.


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## Soylent Joe (Jan 5, 2011)

Their commercial makes me crack up, as do most ones like it.


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## trickson (Jan 5, 2011)

Why any one falls for these things is beyond me . Oh look it is on T.V. so it must be great ! Are you kidding me ? I never fall for them infomercials !
Steevo your computer was cleaner before you put that thing in LOL !


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## blkhogan (Jan 5, 2011)

I have people asking all the time about that program. Will it speed up my hunk of crap 6 year old system? Will it make my system run all the newest games (because it will be so much faster)? I tell them... Hell if I know. Im not loading that on my rigs. You buy it and tell me. Of coarse they do and it makes their systems soooooooo much faster, they say. Hah... Now I know. Thanks Steevo for that much needed insight to a load of bs.


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## A Cheese Danish (Jan 5, 2011)

Similar to this: http://www.finallyfast.com/run/clic...t2_new_process&loadlink=&c1=fast2_new_process 

Nice post btw


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## sttubs (Jan 5, 2011)

Just saw this: http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/201...llyfastcommakertorefundthousandsinspywarecase

The company whose late-night commercials promised to "make your computer run fast the way it's supposed to," will pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines and refunds to settle charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising.

In a settlement with the Washington State attorney general's office, Ascentive, best known for its FinallyFast.com Web site, will pay $78,000 in penalties and offer $17.90 refunds to thousands of its Washington State customers who purchased the company's PC cleanup products but did not use them.

At FinallyFast.com, PC users download software that tests their system for any performance bottlenecks and then offers to clean things up -- for a fee. Consumers complained that the software didn't work as advertised and that Ascentive racked up charges without properly notifying customers.

According to Assistant Attorney General Jake Bernstein, the company was peddling scareware -- software that always found severe problems no matter what the condition of the computer being scanned. "They basically crossed the line in terms of advertising to consumers," he said. 

Bernstein's office has a list of complaints against Ascentive, which echo consumer grievances that can be found online.

In court documents, the Washington attorney general's office said that until March 2009, Ascentive's free scan software came with adware and endless, annoying pop-up warnings that exaggerated problems on the computer. "The free scan categorizes everything that it identifies as an 'error,'" the filings state.

Customers who wanted to cancel their subscriptions were forced though a cumbersome process and finally had to respond to an e-mail message before their accounts would actually be closed. The company has now agreed to fix the way it advertises and bills for its products, Bernstein said.

Ascentive sued Google in June 2009 after the search engine company began refusing to run advertisements for its products. It dropped the suit a month later, and Google is again running ads for Finallyfast.com.

Ascentive could not be reached for comment.

However, it looks like the company has made a lot of money. Ascentive claims there have been more than 20 million downloads of its free scans. In a YouTube video interview with Ascentive CEO Adam Schran, filmed on Richard Branson's Necker Island Caribbean resort, Schran describes how he's enjoying the money he's made with the company, "It's important to spoil yourself along the way," he says. "Treat yourself to trips to Necker Island or a local spa or massage. Whatever is fun."


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## Arctucas (Jan 5, 2011)

I see these commercials all the time, they must be network televisions biggest spammers.

Another one that always makes me laugh is MaxMySpeed (another CyberDefender crapware), with 'Actual Customers' praising the application and marveling at how much faster their PCs are after using it.

I wish they had a forum where I could ask exactly what overclocking techniques they were using to obtain these extraordinary speed increases.


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## trickson (Jan 5, 2011)

Arctucas said:


> I see these commercials all the time, they must be network televisions biggest spammers.
> 
> Another one that always makes me laugh is MaxMySpeed (another CyberDefender crapware), with 'Actual Customers' praising the application and marveling at how much faster their PCs are after using it.
> 
> I wish they had a forum where I could ask exactly what overclocking techniques they were using to obtain these extraordinary speed increases.



LOL yeah me too . There are only 3 programs I will use . Registry Mechanic , Windows 7 manager and cclean . These are the only ones I will use . They have proven to me to REALLY work !


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## streetfighter 2 (Jan 5, 2011)

I wouldn't necessarily agree with stickying this because the results are so profoundly obvious that it only provides reference for laymen-- laymen who, most unfortunately, would not understand a goddamn thing that was said.   Consequently I wonder who this is targeted at.  My guess is those TPUers who have seen the commercials and were looking for a good laugh.


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## hat (Jan 5, 2011)

So it left behind a folder in program files, and registry entries. Just about every other program under the sun does that (not that I agree with this practice...). It found "errors" that weren't really errors, but non-essential files that didn't really need to be there... such as those hotfix uninstallers. I've seen plenty of other cleaner software do stuff like that. The only thing I see that's scammy about this is the fact that it's so aggressive about trying to get you to buy the software, and the fact that they charge for a service that's offered for free elsewhere (such as Ccleaner).

Firstly, it will speed up Average Joe's system because Joe doesn't use cleaner software. The advertising gets to him as he looks at his 5 year old computer that never had the temp internet files cleaned out of it once, and he decides to give it a try and clean all the shit out, just like a free tool with far less advertising such as Ccleaner would have done. It finds >9000 errors accumulated over time, which will make his system feel faster.

Secondly, they are a business. They desperately want you to buy their software, so it's not surprising that it would pick up on a bunch of bogus "errors" that aren't really errors to make Average Joe think: "Hey wow I have a ton of errors on this thing, maybe I should buy this software so I can get it cleaned out!".

In short, my position is that you've told me nothing I didn't already know, and this seems like a legitimate piece of software, albeit annoyingly aggressive to those of us in the know.


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## cdawall (Jan 5, 2011)

hat said:


> So it left behind a folder in program files, and registry entries. Just about every other program under the sun does that (not that I agree with this practice...). It found "errors" that weren't really errors, but non-essential files that didn't really need to be there... such as those hotfix uninstallers. I've seen plenty of other cleaner software do stuff like that. The only thing I see that's scammy about this is the fact that it's so aggressive about trying to get you to buy the software, and the fact that they charge for a service that's offered for free elsewhere (such as Ccleaner).
> 
> Firstly, it will speed up Average Joe's system because Joe doesn't use cleaner software. The advertising gets to him as he looks at his 5 year old computer that never had the temp internet files cleaned out of it once, and he decides to give it a try and clean all the shit out, just like a free tool with far less advertising such as Ccleaner would have done. It finds >9000 errors accumulated over time, which will make his system feel faster.
> 
> ...



its just as useful (well less) as spending money to drop your PC off with geek squad


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## hat (Jan 5, 2011)

For us, yes, because we know how to maintain our shit and we know about those free alternatives that don't get advertised every day... it's just another service someone created to capitalize on "average" people who would pay for what we can do for ourselves in a matter of minutes, or for someone else without even thinking of charging for such a simple procedure...


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## Steevo (Jan 5, 2011)

hat said:


> So it left behind a folder in program files, and registry entries. Just about every other program under the sun does that (not that I agree with this practice...). It found "errors" that weren't really errors, but non-essential files that didn't really need to be there... such as those hotfix uninstallers. I've seen plenty of other cleaner software do stuff like that. The only thing I see that's scammy about this is the fact that it's so aggressive about trying to get you to buy the software, and the fact that they charge for a service that's offered for free elsewhere (such as Ccleaner).
> 
> Firstly, it will speed up Average Joe's system because Joe doesn't use cleaner software. The advertising gets to him as he looks at his 5 year old computer that never had the temp internet files cleaned out of it once, and he decides to give it a try and clean all the shit out, just like a free tool with far less advertising such as Ccleaner would have done. It finds >9000 errors accumulated over time, which will make his system feel faster.
> 
> ...




1) It didn't offer to clean any temp files.
2) It installs itself to run at startup, thus slowing the computer.
3) Fully, complete, to entirety, to the best of ability. Leaving behind junk is not fully, or if it is their description the software is already questionable.
4) I didn't ask for a sticky.
5) I didn't ask for your "position".
6) There are others who aren't "in the know" who visit the forum.

Bogus errors are just part of it, deleting the path to a update uninstaller is just a horrible idea, I have had to uninstall a few windows updates over the years on machines as they interfered with work software, where time is money. Had someone ran this or the like they would have made my job, or someone else job much harder to fix. I have people all the time who run registry fixers, they don't fix a PC, it is like putting a band aid on a axe wound. They give the illusion of fixing things, and people get a "seat of the pants" feel for how much faster it is.


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## Widjaja (Jan 5, 2011)

Yes there are many of these so called registry cleaner, PC speed booster applications out there for the average consumer to get sucked in by.

Even some security applications which are well known and used commonly.
But since the security apps come with the bought machine, the average consumer believes the application is good.

Norton 360 or McAfee security suite to name a couple.

End up bogging down a system big time.
asking for allowing this and that.
Doing full system scans too frequently and at the most inappropriate times.
The average consumer does not know how to turn any of these annoyances off and believe this is just how the PC works.

So they fork out for another years subscription because they want to feel secure yet they are finding infections are still coming through the system.

Personally I have even found free security applications less system heavy and non intrusive.
But is a salesman going to say that?
No.


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## trickson (Jan 5, 2011)

Steevo said:


> 1) It didn't offer to clean any temp files.
> 2) It installs itself to run at startup, thus slowing the computer.
> 3) Fully, complete, to entirety, to the best of ability. Leaving behind junk is not fully, or if it is their description the software is already questionable.
> 4) I didn't ask for a sticky.
> ...



I agree with this up to a point , Registry errors are a big part of why computers run slow ( there are more things that do this as well I know )  . 
I asked for a sticky reason being some people that come here are not in the know about these things . This is informative to the basic user . I never remove update uninstallers as well ( Never know when you may need to uninstall an update that is fucking with your shit .  ) A registry cleaner alone will not make your computer " Run faster " this is why I also use things like windows7 manager and CClean . one must tweak windows to get the most out of it ( JMHO ) .


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## chevy350 (Jan 5, 2011)

I always wondered about those apps but knew if you wanted something faster.......buy something faster  lol


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## trickson (Jan 5, 2011)

chevy350 said:


> I always wondered about those apps but knew if you wanted something faster.......buy something faster  lol



Yes but even a " fast system " can become slow . It is all about keeping you system " clean " free of clutter that slows it down . maintenance is key .


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## Widjaja (Jan 5, 2011)

Someone should do a review on RegCure LMAO!
I have seen so many systems with RegCure with malwarebytes finding them as a malicious threat.


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## trickson (Jan 5, 2011)

Widjaja said:


> Someone should do a review on RegCure LMAO!
> I have seen so many systems with RegCure with malwarebytes finding them as a malicious threat.



I used that once it sucked registry mechanic is way better ! And it really works too .


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## hat (Jan 5, 2011)

Steevo said:


> 1) It didn't offer to clean any temp files.
> 2) It installs itself to run at startup, thus slowing the computer.
> 3) Fully, complete, to entirety, to the best of ability. Leaving behind junk is not fully, or if it is their description the software is already questionable.
> 4) I didn't ask for a sticky.
> ...



1. True, the temp files comment was just an example. It would be a nice addition to their program, but it's apparant they really don't care about the quality of their product and are just taking advantage of people.

2. Yeah, pretty counter-productive.

3. I agree with this as well, just saying that just about every other program does that.

4. I didn't say anything about a sticky.

5. Well, you posted your opinion on a public forum where others are free to post their opinions alongside yours...

6. Quite true. I assume your point here is that you intended your thread to be a PSA for someone who would have otherwise been none the wiser if they hadn't come across it, but I never intended to suggest that the thread wasn't helpful.

As for your other comments, see my response to point #1... they don't care about that, they just pooped out some lame program to try to make money off people.


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## Widjaja (Jan 5, 2011)

trickson said:


> I used that once it sucked registry mechanic is way better ! And it really works too .



Funny thing is that app has been around for years!
I remember when I knew nothing about PCs (the average consumer) I downloaded it thinking it would sort out some issues.
All it did was cause more.

When it comes to registry cleaning, the most I even use is CCleaner.

About a month ago I had a customer getting conned into buying some app from PCTools which claimed to resolve some OS issue, so she bought it.

Only to find a process of the PCTools app caused constant CPU usage.
And this application has won awards according to it's site.


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## trickson (Jan 5, 2011)

Widjaja said:


> Funny thing is that app has been around for years!
> I remember when I knew nothing about PCs (the average consumer) I downloaded it thinking it would sort out some issues.
> All it did was cause more.
> 
> ...



Strange I have been using it for years and never had any thing but great results from it .


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## Widjaja (Jan 5, 2011)

trickson said:


> Strange I have been using it for years and never had any thing but great results from it .



Yeah I can't remember the process it was running but it definitely had a conflict with another application she was running.

I know there is documentation out there on the net about it as well.

The PCTools app was on a Dell 1525 laptop from what I can remember so maybe something from DELLs pre installed bloatware may have conflicted with it as there was not much else which could have.
Removing the application solved the slowness of her PC.


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## trickson (Jan 5, 2011)

Widjaja said:


> Yeah I can't remember the process it was running but it definitely had a conflict with another application she was running.
> 
> I know there is documentation out there on the net about it as well.
> 
> ...



WOW that is strange I have not run into this issue at all . In fact I have only good things to say about it . Like I said I have been using it for like what 4 years or so now and it has been in like 5 computers of mine and never seen any thing at all like you describe . But most of this stuff is suggestive at best any way . Use what works is what I say . and if it doesn't then take it out and stop using it .


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