- Joined
- Nov 4, 2005
- Messages
- 11,870 (1.73/day)
System Name | Compy 386 |
---|---|
Processor | 7800X3D |
Motherboard | Asus |
Cooling | Air for now..... |
Memory | 64 GB DDR5 6400Mhz |
Video Card(s) | 7900XTX 310 Merc |
Storage | Samsung 990 2TB, 2 SP 2TB SSDs, 24TB Enterprise drives |
Display(s) | 55" Samsung 4K HDR |
Audio Device(s) | ATI HDMI |
Mouse | Logitech MX518 |
Keyboard | Razer |
Software | A lot. |
Benchmark Scores | Its fast. Enough. |
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.
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.
![](/forums/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.techpowerup.org%2F110104%2Fmycleanpc.jpg&hash=c63c471289fb5c4a1631f846bf5d1da9)
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.
![](/forums/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.techpowerup.org%2F110104%2Fmycleanpc1.jpg&hash=0437fad0051a47a1464ed212f9a1b4dc)
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......
![](/forums/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.techpowerup.org%2F110104%2Fmycleanpc2.jpg&hash=2e432571bdf78f0018bfca568b914d34)
In short, mycleanpc is slightly above the spyware and junk it claims to clean, but with more annoyace and cost.