I’m not sure what’s not right in that rule but if I for example remove the rules with the registry cleaner of CCleaner they will return after boot (guess Glasswire puts them back). If I whitelist them they stay but every time I install something new there will be new ‘invalid’ rules to remove.
So as a suggestion I would say to make it CCleaner proof.
Sorry for the issue. We use the Windows Firewall API for blocking because it uses almost zero resources, it’s reliable, and it doesn’t usually conflict with any other applications.
However, if you use a third party tool to clear all firewall rules then it will most likely delete the rules.
Also, many cleaning apps will delete data in the programdata/glasswire folder, causing GlassWire to lose other important files like activation, etc… Please white list the firewall and the programdata folder if possible when using a cleaning tool.
Here is an interesting article from Howtogeek about cleaning tools.
I know that cleaning tools are no magical thing but since lot of software developers make lame uninstallers it’s nice to keep things at least a bit clean, especially the registry.
CCleaner doesn’t clean normal Windows Firewall items (better not) so I think there is something wrong the way Glasswire uses the API that makes the entry invalid. Since CCleaner is the most used cleaner (and doesn’t have the reputation of cleaning too much) I think it would be worth it to take a look at it.
For example these are 3 firewall rules in my registry. Only the top one is an ‘invalid Firewall rule’ created by Glasswire.
So I wondered why the bottom two are ok but the top one is not. Maybe it has something to do with the name given by GlassWire and the {} it uses.
No other rule in Windows Firewall has those {} (what was the English word?) around their name. So I can imagine it already works if the name would be GlassWire-Out-Profile-1 for example.
It’s just a suggestion and maybe easy to fix. I don’t know if the rules are actually invalid or CCleaner just doesn’t like those { } in their names. But must say I can imagine they can cause conflicts, also with other programs since you may not use them as a name normally.
Uninstall CCleaner and never use the “registry cleaner” - this causes more problems than it actually helps. In fact, registry “optimizations” do nothing beneficial.
Expanding on registry “optimizations” - at most you would save a few kilobytes, which on today’s drives is no benefit at all. There’s also no speed improvements as most PCs are on SSDs now. Since Vista, Windows has done much better at maintaining the registry.
The article I link below illustrates numerous problems with CCleaner. It’s been obsolete since Windows 10 was released, and this article is from 2016 but still very relevant.
Additionally, CCleaner has been acquired by Avast which has a very concerning history in regards to privacy.
There’s valid reasons why Microsoft has flagged CCleaner as a PUA/Potentially Unwanted Application.
If you’re concerned about leftovers from program uninstallations I’d recommend looking at BulkCrapUninstaller. It handles uninstallations gracefully and will check for any leftover files and registry entries. I find it’s safe enough to include in my Anti-Malware Toolkit.
Gonna take a look at your Anti-Malware Toolkit, sounds nice. For me I mainly use CCleaner to empty temp folders etc. although I also use the default disk cleaner for it. BulkCrapUninstaller also looks nice!
For me CCleaner never caused me troubles over the years but must say that I don’t have the default options enabled, that deletes too much. Must say I read the article you linked and I did have some Windows Search issues but I’m not sure if they are caused by CCleaner. Since they are really common (unfortunately).
I noticed Windows Search created an enourmous amount of entries in the registry under SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\PluginResourceData deleted that entire key (couldn’t even find it with Google) and the thousands of keys/values under it and my indexing is up to speed again. I did a clean Windows 11 install early October and it’s still indexing.
But I’ll uninstall CCleaner and I’ll see how that will effect my life (if any). I’m not a fan of AVast and didn’t know they owned it now. I’m an ESET guy if it’s about malware/virusses/
I ask long time ago, for a solution to delete “old” Glasswire rules, but nothing happens.
Many, “Installer” want to “call home” or download additional software from internet, also I let them connet to the Internet. After install the Software, I delete the Installer or Setup, but Glasswire still have the Rule for this Path…
Also a Problem, when I deinstall Software, the Firewall Rules from Glasswire still exist.
PS: “Inactive Apps” are not the same as “No longer existing Apps”
I personally use and recommend Microsoft Defender. Very lightweight, extremely effective, and has been top rated for years now.
Since you’re Windows 11, look into Storage Sense. You can tell it to automatically clean out temp files at certain intervals - daily, weekly, monthly, or low disk space.
Nice, will look into Storage Sense as well. It’s mainly C I want to keep clean, make a weekly image and it only contains my OS + most important software. Other things like documents etc I have on other drives. Easy for backup and easy for recovery if needed.
I used Defender also for a very long time but I got a bit annoyed by the false positives and the way defender handles them. You could consider that ‘effective’ but I rather call it ‘intrusive’. It’s mainly some 3D programs which use some plugin-scripts that already get deleted while they are legit plugins. And I can exclude some of those directories but the idea of a virus-tool ain’t so much excluding a lot of directories.
Used ESET before after I also went for Defender for like 5 years and it also has a really small footprint and very little CPU usage. Earlier I had Kaspersky which I did like but it started to slow down a lot of Adobe programs which uses plugs/fonts etc.
