Windows - all my homies hate that snitch Program Compatibility Assistant corpo trash bs

Caveat: Hey, techbro linuxguy, I understand the limited "need" for cleaner programs. I also know about BleachBit. I'm just old, and crusty, and set in my ways sometimes... and I just want the option to use CCleaner if I feel like it. Thanks for being chill.

So, ever run into the Windows Program Compatibility Assistant being not very assistive?

CCleaner version Five-Point-Something (edit, I believe I was running 5.24.x, the first version under the new owners...of which I was ignorant) has been running just fine in Windows 10 for a long time. Then I made the dummy move of upgrading it, not knowing about the buyout, not realizing what I was doing... big mistake.

After a few weeks of this AWFUL UPDATE to CCleaner Seven-Point-Whatever, an aggressive and obnoxious piece of bloated adware, I attempted to reinstall CCleaner.

First of all... and I can't prove this is what happened... but... I tend to keep EVERYTHING. I have a 12 TB (slow) RAID drive that I just kinda keep everything on... for years, and years, and years. That includes installers. I also keep a bunch of "this is the stuff I install on every PC" on an external (which was plugged in, and was affected). Now, I don't keep everything perfectly organized, but I do have a folder where there used to be several older CCleaner installers... and they're gone. Completely gone, and the only answer I could think of was, "these mofos actually had the gall to delete ALL the old versions off my PC."

No problem. Last version before the buyout was 5.32.6129. I'll just go find that download somewhere. I found it 3x without even having to visit the wayback machine.

• ccsetup532.exe | 9520 KB
• CCleaner_v5.32.6129.exe | 9520 KB
• ccleaner-5.32.0.6129.0-installer_1-ID5z1.exe | 5353 KB
• and bonus 5.14.5493.exe | 6669 KB (hella nice) from OldVersion site.

Two of them have identical file sizes, and actually look legit for a few reasons (e.g., they look like the one from OldVersion, which I consider a pretty trustworthy site).

But, I couldn't run *any* of them.

The PCA was treating me like a child and not allowing me to run the software I'd been running (just fine, thank you) before. I'm guessing that I somehow had a benefit of legacy, the software wasn't going to throw a rod thru the oil pan until I upgraded?

The smaller one was... different. Different icon, too small. I was suspicious of it. After scans and peeking at it, I tried it... and, surprisingly, it worked! It had a couple gross "no, thanks, please do not download McAfee onto my PC" things to get thru (which was true to form for later-Piriform)... but, after that, it actually downloaded the correct version from a remote server. Now, in my Downloads directory, was ccleaner-5.32.0.6129.0-installer.exe | 9520 KB

Fantastic! But, wait... 

FAILURE: PCA SAID NO.

So, I ran services.msc and disabled the damn PCA. In reply, the computer seemed to say, "HA! You thought it'd be THAT EASY? What is this, Windows 3.98seXP? HA! YOU FOOL! No dice! THIS IS A MAC NOW!"

I had no choice. I did the thing. You know. Looking up the problem, seeing a bunch of posts from the helpless and hopeless... (or, sometimes, it's just like 3 people that painstakingly documented the exact problem you're having but nobody replied and they disappeared off the internet and you never found out if they solved it)... and, hey.... a clue. This Anon was nice enough to come back and tell us how he solved it: the tips he found on winhelp.co -- a dead site, but we got the archive.

So. I renamed the file. Yep. I named it titycaca.exe and it fuckin' ran.

It installed!

Went to run program. PCA window on the installed file now, too! 😡

Oh, glory be, I'm going to chunk this mofo out the literal windows!

So, I renamed the program bbleaner64.exe -- didn't work... but, we're in the same directory... so... I renamed the directory to /BBleaner/ too... 

It works!

Like, are you kidding me? That was so simple, yet obnoxious, I feel absolutely like Penn Jillette's character in 1996's HACKERS (not a good feeling).

Oh, boy, am I really tired of Windows' bullshit, and I'm becoming very comfortable with being a multiple OS household. I don't see me becoming a Windows 11 main. I just can't do it. I will eventually have to have it on something for some programs... but, after Windows 10 dies, I'm going to be a Linux/BSD/Whatever main... it's all just become so unbearably enshittified.