Piriform has released the first beta for CCleaner 5.0, its popular system cleanup tool.

The only change so far is the move to a flat interface, and even that is largely cosmetic. Functions and features are organised just as they were before, but the toolbar icons are replaced by plain stencils, and the title bar is now also a stark-looking white, whatever your Windows settings happen to be.

There is no new functionality at the moment, although that will apparently change very quickly. The official blog post announcing the release says new features are due to appear over the next week, while the final version is expected to arrive at the end of November.

Radically different? Uh, no – but new functionality is due very soon

We successfully installed CCleaner 5.0 over a previous edition, and it appeared to work just as well as before, successfully locating and cleaning up various leftover files and Registry keys.

Piriform recommends that you don’t install it on a production system, though, and that makes sense to us: it’s still a beta, and even if the changes are minimal, there’s a chance the build might cause problems.

But if you’re happy to take the risk – or just want to see whether you can live with the flat new look – then CCleaner 5.0 beta #1 is available now.