Possibly too aggressive cleaning

[Dave031387]

I downloaded Fluent Cleaner release 26.05.02 after reading about it in Windows Central magazine. I ran the Analyze function and it found over 100,000 files and 26GB of space to clean up. This was on the Fluent Cleaner default settings. I was a little apprehensive to click the "Run Cleaner" button, but I finally did anyway. Afterwards, I ran into the following issues:

1. The registration information for the Fences app I have from Stardock apparently got wiped clean. Fortunately, I had saved the email containing the registration key and was able to reenter it.
2. All of the thumbnails for my installed games in the GOG Galaxy Client got removed. I was presented with a blank black screen when I launched the client. The GOG Galaxy Client eventually replaced everything that got removed.
3. I ran into some issues with Visual Studio 2026 Community Edition. I ended up having to clean and rebuild the project I had been working on in order to fix things.
4. My biggest issue and concern was that my Windows 11 image had been damaged in some way. I discovered this several days later when Windows Update kept failing when trying to install an update. I ran SCF /SCANNOW as well as DISM and both found corruption but were unable to automatically fix things. Fortunately, I take regular backups and had just performed a full backup the day before I ran Fluent Cleaner. I was able to mount the backup image and point DISM to that image to perform its tasks. It was then able to successfully restore my Windows 11 image to a healthy state.

I haven't noticed any other issues but am not overly confident that I have found everything. I have a lot of software installed on my Alienware laptop, some of which gets used only infrequently.

Bottom line is, I wonder how ready for prime time this software is? It seems to be a bit overly aggressive in searching out files to be cleaned. I never had these types of issues with CCleaner. (I stopped using CCleaner some time back because of bloat it was accumulating over time.)

[Belim]

thanks for the detailed report. a few things to clarify though

FluentCleaner doesn't decide what to clean and it's based on the community-maintained winapp2.ini database, the same one ccleaner relied on for years. every cleaning rule is written and reviewed by the community, not by Fluentcleaner itself

that said, FluentCleaner ships with a customized version of that database, and not all entries have been properly marked as default=false yet. some entries that should require manual opt-in are still enabled by default, that's likely what caused the fences and gog galaxy issues. this is something i'm actively working on, and contributions are very welcome if you want to help flag aggressive entries

regarding the windows image corruption: FluentCleaner only deletes user-level cache and temp files. it does not touch system-protected files, windows update components, or the component store (winsxs). sfc/dism failures are almost always caused by interrupted windows updates, not by cleaning cache files. this was most likely a pre-existing issue that you discovered after running the cleaner, not caused by it.

[Dave031387]

I don't doubt what you're saying about Fluent Cleaner using winapp2.ini (the same one used by CCleaner). However, I used CCleaner for years and never had these types of issues. Also, if I remember correctly, CCleaner by default has a number of cleaning options disabled by default, and I never enabled those. In all the years I used CCleaner it never once found over 100,000 files (26GB) to clean up in any one session. It was usually in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 thousand files and less than 10GB.

I'm still reserving judgement on the Windows image corruption. It seems just a bit too coincidental that my problem didn't show up until the first Windows update after running Fluent Cleaner. I have not had any interrupted Windows updates that I'm aware of. Also, I have run scf/dism in the past and haven't run into these issues. Fluent Cleaner may not have "touched" any system-protected files, but is it possible that it may have touched some unprotected files that still had an impact? The fact that scf/dism was able to restore my Windows image health when I pointed it to a full image copy that was created the day before I ran Fluent Cleaner tends to make me believe that Fluent Cleaner did something that ultimately corrupted my Windows image.

Anyway, thanks for getting back to me. I think for now I'll refrain from using Fluent Cleaner. Maybe I'll try it again some time down the road after it has settled for a while.

[NightFright2k19]

I'm using AdGuard in Edge and apparently every time I do a wipe with FCleaner, AdGuard doesn't block any ads any more. Only reinstalling the extension helps after that.

These winapp2.ini entries appear too be too aggressive:

[Microsoft Edge Caches *]
FileKey14=%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge*\User Data\*\Service Worker|*|REMOVESELF

[Microsoft Edge Web Browsing Session *]
FileKey1=%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge*\User Data\*\Extension State|*|REMOVESELF

[Microsoft Edge Web Storage *]
FileKey1=%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge*\User Data\*\IndexedDB|*|REMOVESELF
FileKey6=%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge*\User Data\*\Local Storage\leveldb|*|REMOVESELF
FileKey8=%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge*\User Data\*\WebStorage|*|REMOVESELF

If I interpret this correctly:

Service Worker → Background process of the extension
IndexedDB → Filter lists, rules, states
Local Storage / leveldb → Settings, activation, UI state
Extension State → Running state of extension

If this gets wiped, the filter lists are missing/empty, the service worker is reinitialized/hangs and the blocking engine may not start correctly.

ChatGPT recommends to fix this by whitelisting the Edge profile folder %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge*\User Data\Default\ and exclude Service Worker, IndexedDB and Local Storage inside of it.

What seems to do the trick as well is to turn off the "Microsoft Edge Web Storage" option.

UPDATE:
I see the latest FCleaner release takes care of this by adding the whitelist features. If you activate the default entries, the problem is already resolved. Great job!

[Flexible78]

Hello. I'm planning to use FluentCleaner on several Windows 11 machines (Build 22H2/23H2).

To prevent post-cleanup BSODs (e.g., CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED) or broken system dependencies, I have a few technical questions:

1. What is the recommended "Safe Baseline" of settings in the tool that guarantees system stability?
2. Are there any specific modules or aggressive tweaks known to cause kernel panics or boot loops on the latest Win11 builds?
3. Does the app natively trigger a VSS System Restore point and a registry backup before execution, or should I wrap it in my own PowerShell script to enforce this?

Thanks for the clarification