
Chrome Cleanup Tool - pvinis
https://www.google.com/chrome/cleanup-tool
======
nchelluri
For Firefox users, I recently did the following: follow the instructions here
[http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=8494865&sid=37...](http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=8494865&sid=37716948be49cf50feaf56acf0cd7946#p8494865)
and run SpeedyFox, which on Mac is I think just a SQLite cleanup tool.

But, it made a huge difference. Deleting all of my history older than six
months pegged one of my CPUs and made FF unusable for about 20 minutes, but
that, deleting all my cookies, clearing the recent download list, removing a
couple of rarely/never used addons, and running SpeedyFox seems to have helped
a lot. So speedy now.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Firefox has it's own built in cleanup tool. I used it recently when I was
seeing odd behaviour and delays loading pages.

[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-
reset-a...](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-
ons-and-settings)

~~~
ferongr
This just resets the profile. I've seen the Chrome clean up tool in action on
an infected computer and it did a lot more, it actually worked like an
antimalware scanner and removed many malware infections from the machine that
were doing DNS hijacking and script injection.

------
danielki
I want a tool that cleans up my bookmarks. I'll often bookmark a page to look
at it later, but then never get back to it or forget I bookmarked it. After a
few years of using Chrome, I've got a crapload of bookmark bloat. Here's what
I'm looking for in such a tool (I might try to build this unless there's
something out there already that does this):

* Surface bookmarks I haven't visited in the past N days/months, give me the option to delete them

* Identify groups of bookmarks that are similar (share most of the URL path or one page links to the other) or duplicates.

* Suggest folders to place the bookmarks in based upon what Google knows about the websites (Sports-related, WebDev-related, etc), and/or time (I bookmarked five pages about similar topics on the same day, it's probably part of research I was doing for something)

* Remove dead links or offer to convert them to the Google-cached version

~~~
tedmiston
I used to do this before I found OneTab. Now "do later" bookmarks go there.

I exported my old Chrome bookmarks for reference (but very rarely actually
open them), and switched to Pinboard for reference bookmarks. I still use the
bookmarks bar for bookmarklets and very frequently visited sites though.

------
rplnt
It would be nice if it could clean up the crap Chrome produces. Just few weeks
ago I was wondering why my drive is so full, and yep, Chrome was almost 12GB
of that. It was cache, so somewhat legitimate (unlike what they used to do -
leave 20 chrome copies on your drive), but chrome couldn't clean it (clear
cache did nothing). I had to delete it manually (and of course it caused some
problems). Few days later I was at 10+GB mark again, Chrome not being able to
clean it.

~~~
yoodenvranx
> Just few weeks ago I was wondering why my drive is so full

To easily answer this question I always use a tool like

[https://windirstat.info/](https://windirstat.info/) (Windows) or Baobab
(Linux)

~~~
cpach
For OS X, [http://www.derlien.com/](http://www.derlien.com/) is a solid
alternative.

~~~
ljoshua
Or DaisyDisk, I love DaisyDisk.

~~~
ndrake
or OmniDiskSweeper.

[https://www.omnigroup.com/more/](https://www.omnigroup.com/more/)

------
bt3
Judging on the verbiage of that splash page, it sounds like this is a utility
that does nothing more than reset one's settings back to normal, while
deleting, or at least disabling a majority of add-ons that may be primary
contributors to the crashing, erroneous start pages, and "ads you can't get
rid of".

~~~
redwards510
Heh, when I read it, I took it to mean they are looking for malware exe's that
are lodged on your system that affect Chrome. I guess you could go either way
on it, but how is this different than just doing the "Reset All Settings"
function available in the Chrome settings?

Text: "This application will scan and remove software that may cause problems
with Chrome, such as crashes, unusual startup pages or toolbars, unexpected
ads you can't get rid of, or otherwise changing your browsing experience."

~~~
derefr
Maybe helpful for things that prevent you from even getting to Chrome's
settings.

------
cavisne
Been around for a while. Works great for getting rid of malware that hijacks
chrome.

------
Splendor
Further evidence that the browser is becoming the new OS.

~~~
vlunkr
I don't really see how. This type of malware has been going on in browsers for
a long time.

------
dingdingdang
Why is this not a part of Chrome? This is starting to resemble the Norton
Way(tm). For a number of years Norton have been distributing special tools to
help clean up and remove their own products, making them a 100% un-user-
friendly.

~~~
surreal
I might be wrong, will try to dig deeper, but to me it seems like this is for
removing third party crapware that might affect your Chrome experience
(toolbars, ad-injectors etc), not for removing Google's own stuff. So kind of
makes sense to be an optional standalone tool.

------
tbrock
"For Windows" no surprises there.

~~~
ChrisClark
Because this tool is to get rid of malware that installed toolbars or injects
ads. That's pretty much a Windows exclusive 'feature' at the moment.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
Nonsense. The Chrome Web Store is full of shady new tab pages and ad
injectors. Google is just now finally trying to police it.

~~~
oneeyedpigeon
Utterly anecdotal, but I have never personally experienced this kind of thing
on OSX since switching ~ 4 years ago. At that time, I found Windows PC
essentially unusable because of the likelihood of infection which only seemed
to increase when using the very tools that advertised themselves as tackling
the problem. Of course, I mean the 'reputable' ones like symantec, mcafee, and
avg.

------
nitinreddy88
Windows defender says - Malware Detected and Download failed. Ouch!!

~~~
ChrisClark
Probably because the tool contains definitions of the malware it's trying to
get rid of.

------
aidanlister
Does anyone else get a "webpage screenshot - this extension has been
automatically disabled" pop up every time they start chrome on OSX?

I get that it's now spyware, but just remove the extension already, not just
disabling it each time. It doesn't show in chrome://extensions either.

~~~
paulirish
I found a number of threads about this, many in the Google Support forums. The
best solution I could find is:

    
    
        * Disconnect your Google profile from Chrome.
        * Close Chrome
        * Re-open Chrome
        * View chrome:extensions. You should see it there. You can delete it.
        * Reconnect your Google profile
    

Let me know if that works, and I'll try to update our docs on it.

------
ilamparithi
Finally! We get lots of complaints from out customers about these ads. Some
are not tech savvy enough to remove malware and add-ons. We had to help them
in removing these. Ideal solution would be Google alerting the users and
removing these malware after getting users' permission.

------
awqrre
Does it remove the Google app that always runs even when your are not using
Chrome?

~~~
chrisper
You know that you can just turn that off in the settings, right?

~~~
awqrre
I don't think that this option was available when I tried Chrome and Picasa
years ago but it should default to off...

------
dwightgunning
I was expecting a OS X app to remove all the old versions of Chrome that get
left inside the application package folder after each evergreen update.

NFI why the updater doesn't clean out versions that are > than, say, 3mths
old.

~~~
ggreer
On OS X, Chrome keeps the last two versions around. If you have more old
versions, it's likely a bug or a problem with permissions. My mother's mac had
the same issue as you. After I deleted Chrome.app and downloaded a fresh copy
from Google, it never returned.

------
smegel
Got rid of something called Conduit Toolbar for me. Although I politely
declined it's offer of disabling all my extensions and resetting everything
back to default.

------
wdmeldon
I will be sending this to everyone I've had to help "remove viruses" from
their computer in the last two years. This tool is a godsend.

------
TazeTSchnitzel
Chrome installs in Application Data, which doesn't require admin privileges to
modify. That probably makes it an easy target for malware.

------
arbabu
It would be nice if the title contains "for Windows" as I couldn't find an
option for Mac/Linux anywhere.

~~~
xd1936
99% of the kinds of malware that would cause these issues won't target
Mac/Linux

------
whatever_dude
Beware as it tries to reset your preferences to default.

------
roelvanhintum
All this trouble to get rid of the Ask.com toolbar. ;)

------
treenyc
Why Can't Google just build that into Chrome?

------
chinmaydesai
I shall try this!

------
zhiqiangf
windows only? exe file

------
estomagordo
Ran it, said it found nothing. But now all of a sudden I'm getting some sort
of ad e-mails in my gmail inbox?

~~~
estomagordo
Oh, and I can no longer send tweets in Tweetdeck. Good times.

------
Houshalter
Why is this necessary? Google already disabled third party extensions.

------
max_
My PC was infected with the Snapdo adware...... this thing did not help. I
recommend Malwarebytes.

~~~
DanBC
I'm surprised when people recommend clean-up tools, rather than wiping and
reinstalling.

~~~
chippy
It's easy to understand if you consider time and effort. Time and effort
installing and running something recommended (e.g. Google's tool) versus time
and effort wiping and reinstalling.

Now, the first install and run task may or may not work. If it does, horray
for efficient choices. If it doesn't then the user can wipe and reinstall.

------
jaflo
Has anyone actually tried it (I haven't)? Sounds like another step against
malware that targets Chrome. It's nice to know that Google cares about safety
and all, but what do they gain financially?

~~~
freshyill
They gain confidence from their users that Chrome is a safe and secure
browser. I don't understand why this should be confusing.

