I have used the free version of CC Cleaner for years in parallel with Malwarebytes as supplements to my Windows Defender setup.

I recently upgraded to the paid version of Malwarebytes and have added it across my devices.

Is the paid version of CC Cleaner worth it, are there better tools, or does Windows now have sufficient utilities and security that the supplemental programs are no longer needed?

I am no longer with a large company, so I don't have an IT department that I can ask about this stuff, or that has requirements for personally owned equipment to sign into the network, so I am not up to date on what is the current preferred architecture for home/business computing.

Thanks for any assistance.

A

Not to nitpick but it's CCleaner.
For years I've read it just as you posted.

I still just use the free CCleaner and Malwarebytes and am happy w/ Windows Defender.
I only occasionally run Malwarebytes.

Well picked! I would never have noticed. Hell, I might have added another "C" just to be safe!

with 30+ years in IT, I don't bother with these tools anymore. Windows does the same thing now, and a better job of it.

Windows defender beats malwarebytes in every metric, and disk cleanup beats ccleaner by a mile.

I've been a paid CCleaner since 2020. It comes with a couple of other utilities which I don't bother with.

I don't remember what the difference is between the paid and free. But I use it weekly to scan and "clean" my computer. It removes cookies, clears your cache, recommends start up programs that you can put to sleep to speed up the start up (you can exempt certain programs from being recommended again. It updates software and drivers, finds duplicate files, and uninstalls program for you. I switched from Revo Uninstaller to CCleaner.