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General discussion

Aro 2011

Mar 10, 2011 9:16PM PST

I download it to check my Gateway PC and it tells me I have 1029 registry and tweaks remaining on my laptop. I don't know if this company is reputable and do I truly have all these errors. I don't mind paying $29.95, but will this really help my laptop? someone elsr said I would have it for free for a year, but don't see that as an option. Thank you in advance for your help.

Discussion is locked

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NO! Don't do it !!!
Mar 10, 2011 9:20PM PST

You don't give a link to this Aro 2011 but the quick answer is this;

ANY so-called registry cleaner that scans the registry and finds large numbers of registry errors, then offers to fix them if you pay, are scams!

Do not do this. Do not pay for any registry cleaner.

In these forums you will find very very few suggestions to use any registry cleaners, free or paid. All too often they can cause more problems than they solve.

Please, don't do it.

Mark

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What Can I Use to check for any problems?
Mar 11, 2011 11:14PM PST

I have AVG 2011 is that enough?

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Re: checking for problems
Mar 11, 2011 11:19PM PST

The nice rule of thumb: if you don't experience problems, there are no problems. Do you experience problems? You didn't tell about them yet, that's why I'm asking.

AVG doesn't check for problems. It checks for viruses and other malware. That's a totally different thing, that no registry cleaner will ever find. So consider it complementary.

Kees

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My Theory
Apr 30, 2011 7:14AM PDT

There is a program called AVG Tuneup 2011. I believe this is the program gpadilla7 is referring to.

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SlimCleaner
Jun 4, 2011 4:43AM PDT
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Sorry Slim Cleaner is for cleaning and works well.
Jun 4, 2011 7:21AM PDT
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Wrong Link this is what might want for free.
Jun 4, 2011 7:24AM PDT
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Can you find support for that assertion?
Jun 5, 2011 5:26AM PDT

So far I have yet to find a NON-BIASED review that found this to help.

For Windows 95 days, maybe it helped but today it's snake oil.
Bob

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Will You Let Us Know!!
Jun 5, 2011 6:18AM PDT

If and when you find an a NON-BIASED product review test site will you let us know. As well, I'm interested in knowing what your recommendation would be for a good Registry Cleaner.

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There may not be one.
Jun 5, 2011 9:28AM PDT

Can you share what this registry cleaner is suppose to do?

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What this registry cleaner is suppose to do?
Jun 5, 2011 3:29PM PDT

There are programs when uninstalled that should clean up after themselves. The uninstall should clean-up or clear the program's residual componant parts but don't. Alot of the component parts are left behind in registries and etc. An account I've heard from one's personal experience, Glary Utilities is one of those type of programs that will leave quite a bit of its program's components on your computer's registry system and else where. Who knows how many more programs are like that once the are uninstalled. Perhaps, through no fault of the user, a program is used for whatever the purpose and eventual uninstalled. The program's uninstall program for whatever reason is not proficient enough to clean up the program's component parts properly. Thus, the computer's registry and other areas must be cleaned up later by the user. Insofar as computer programs are concerned, all are not created equal. Hence, recommendation for the best to do the job for those of us not technologically savvy enough to know how and what to do.

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That's ironic
Jun 5, 2011 9:58PM PDT

If Glary's Utilities, a well known, and not much respected, registry cleaner and optimizer leaves traces of itself behind when it is uninstalled, what does that tell you about the developers of this utility?

Just a note about the Windows registry. It is just a database, nothing else. If there are any unused entries in the registry, they will simply be ignored. There is no need to clean it, or defrag it, or anything of the sort.

For any one who is not technologically savvy, my advice is to leave the registry alone and don't trust so-called optimizer and cleaner utilities. Those who are more technically aware than us do not need such utilities and are always wary of messing around with the registry.

Mark

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Look at this software's claims.
Jun 6, 2011 2:41AM PDT

If did not claim to accomplish that.
Bob

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No such animal.
Jun 11, 2011 1:16PM PDT

"As well, I'm interested in knowing what your recommendation would be for a good Registry Cleaner"

They're all snake-oil, IMO. Angry

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic378243.html/page__p__2125825__hl__using+registry+cleaners__fromsearch__1#entry2125825

Mark Russinovich (Author of the "Bible", Windows Internals,
co-founder of Winternals and Sysinternals, and since both companies
were bought by Microsoft, now a senior Microsoft employee) was asked:

Hi Mark, do you really think that Registry junk left by
uninstalled programs could severely slow down the computer? I would like
to 'hear' your opinion.

His reply fairly captures my own view (quoting Mark Russinovich):<b>No, even if the registry was massively bloated there
would be little impact on the performance of anything other than
exhaustive searches</b>....
I haven't and never will implement a Registry cleaner since it's
of little practical use on anything other than Win2K terminal servers
and developing one that's both safe and effective requires a huge amount
of application-specific knowledge.

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(NT) Well said.
Jun 11, 2011 8:28PM PDT
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Try WinASO Registry Optimizer
Jun 6, 2011 4:07AM PDT

I use this and it works great.
End of Story.
Use on Windows 7 ultltmate 64 bit

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I wouldn't!
Jun 6, 2011 4:09AM PDT

The registry does not need optimizing.

End of story.

Mark

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As you can read in all other posts ...
Jun 6, 2011 4:12AM PDT

in this thread: we don't recommend using a registry optimizer. Even if some users say it works great, which probably means "With me, it didn't crash my system, although I don't know what it optimized and how much faster the system became, because I didn't measure that either."

Kees

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Bad advice.
Jun 6, 2011 5:29AM PDT

Here's how you can spot bad advice. -> They offer a registry cleaner.

It's that simple.
Bob

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(NT) Still Waiting For The Legitimate/Unbiased Test Site....
Jun 6, 2011 8:28AM PDT
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With Such A Recommendation, Can You Provide??
Jun 5, 2011 5:13AM PDT

Can you provide a third party, NON-BIASED, review or test site which show Glary's, or any other registry cleaner, improves performance? I doubt it. We've done some searching around here and we've found no such test sites. Such programs find lots of proposed registry errors, that aren't really problems.. I find it interesting that I've run a few tests on such programs immediately after a clean install of Windows XP and Windows 7, and Glary Utilities, as well as other programs still find hundreds, if not thousands of registry errors.. Interesting don't you think.

And during those tests here, we've found no reason to use a registry cleaner on computers which use Windows XP or later..

In our experience here, we see more bad, than good, caused by using such programs. Frequently, registry cleaners delete entries that are required for various Windows functions to work.. Relying on any third party program to tell YOU which registry entries are "errors" is a mistake unless you have sufficient skill and can make an independent judgement on ALL of the errors brought up by the program..

Have you got any registry cleaner comparison test sites? if not, then maybe the original poster might consider staying away from such programs.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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Will You Let Us Know!!
Jun 5, 2011 7:11AM PDT

If and when you find a NON-BIASED product review test site, will you let us know.

In consideration of your opinion concerning registry cleaners, wherein, they can do more harm than good by deleting entries that are required for various Windows functions to work. For those of us who use registry cleaners and without sufficient skills to make independent judgement calls on registry errors, is there a product that can assess damages that may have been done to Windows XP and Windows 7 through the use of registry cleaners? That can evaluate/assess Windows XP and Windows 7's registry condition for proper functionality.

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That's The Point.. I've Not Found A Good Test Site..
Jun 5, 2011 10:56AM PDT

..and it's because there may not be any. Yes, registry cleaners do something, but whether that's good or bad depends on your experience with them.. Certainly, cleaning a few registry entries from a computer will not greatly improve performance UNLESS such entries are malware related.. IN that case, a good malware removal tool is a much better options for removing damaging registry entries.. They're specific to malware entries only..

As to needing a tool to access damages that may have been caused by registry cleaners, try using the registry cleaner you're using and use its "undo" option.. Such should bring it back to its original state. In my opinion, there's really no reason to use a registry cleaner, unless you know what the cleaner is removing.. For most of us, that means don't use one.

As mentioned previously, we frequently see members of these forums bring up damages caused by registry cleaners.. Generally, if a program doesn't function correctly, or if something stops functioning immediately after using a registry cleaner, it's quite apparent.. There's no need to use any tool to identify it.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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IMHO
Sep 8, 2011 5:38AM PDT

In my experience, the registry can and generally does become wildly messed up over time (just like Windows itself). Most uninstallers do not work correctly, leaving crap all over the place. A vanilla install of Windows XP leaves, depending on your definition of error, about 180 registry "errors". The other problem with the registry is that changes are not made in place: the original value is marked as invalid but remains in place, and the new value/key/whatever is appended to the registry file(s). Over time, this causes the registry file(s) to become bloated with junk, and information which is displayed in a nice hierarchical tree in regedit, for example, is actually stored all over the place.

I've used Registry Repair Pro (3B Software) for probably over a decade, and the only time I've ever seen it mess anything up is when I was being less than careful with its advanced features. The question of performance is answered easily by this example: My wife's desktop took forever to boot, like 10 minutes. There weren't a lot of startup items, and it was malware free (another discussion). I ran RRP on it, found about 1900 errors, fixed them, defragmented the registry files, rebooted, and it literally went from the Windows logo to full desktop GUI in about 20 seconds. I call that proof. I have seen this same performance increase on literally hundred of machines over the years. I currently care for about 75 machines where I work, and I probably run RRP on each machine at least once a month.

Besides these two main functions, RRP's ability to search for one or more strings I have found to be invaluable in uninstalling certain "valid" programs which resist removal; Software Updater is one example of this. Almost impossible to remove. You can remove the Roxio or Sonic suite that installed it, and it remains, and it's dug in deep. Without RRP, it would take way longer to find and remove the registry crap using regedit alone.

All that being said, RRP has a few minor bugs, is rarely updated (I think the current v4 is about 6 years old), and the publisher has been linked to some shady threatvertising tactics on a couple of occasions. If you buy a license for RRP, and use it carefully, it's worth the $19.95 (or whatever I paid for it).

IMHO

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Same Question To You.. Can You Provide???
Sep 12, 2011 3:47AM PDT

...a non-biased, third party comparative review site of a variety of Registry cleaners/optimizers, which includes yours..?? Still waiting here...

There's a reason why there are few, if any such sites available.(I've yet to find ANY.) It's because such tools provide little, if any help for truly increasing performance. Yes, it may find "1900 errors" on a computer but after it cleans things up, you could run the same program again and it will find many of those same things again, or different ones.Even the best only remove about 50 - 60% of the errors they find.

And more importantly, what ARE those "errors" it's finding. Most aren't actual "errors" at all, simply obsolete entries which aren't being used anymore.. Since the registry may contain more than a million entries, eliminating a couple thousand unused entries doesn't provide any major reduction in scanning time. (I've seen many such registry cleaners make boot times LONGER after running them..) I find it interesting that your tool find 180 errors on a brand new Windows installation. I've seen other such tools find thousands on a new install.. Which tool is right?

Good luck at work using a product that has a "few minor bugs" with" shady threatvertising tactics"..

Hope this helps.

Grif

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ARO 2011
Jul 11, 2011 10:01AM PDT

I downloaded ARO 2011 free trial and now I can't remove it. It keeps coming back.

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Tried Using Revo Uninstaller?
Jul 12, 2011 12:40AM PDT
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I don't just want to uninstall it--I want my money back!
Jul 22, 2011 2:09AM PDT

Okay, I admit that it was foolish to actually pay for ARO (about $30)--but they said that I could cancel it within 30 days for a full refund. Actually, I have no complaints about it (except, how do I know it's telling the truth about those thousands of errors it claims to be fixing??!!). But I've since had a personal emergency and really need the money back (plus I've read negative reviews, like these)--but the company won't answer my e-mails! It's been about ten days, and I keep requesting that refund, and they just ignore me.

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Paid by Credit Card? (CC)
Jul 22, 2011 2:11AM PDT

Call the CC company and ask to deny the charges. Happens all the time. The CC company does this all the time.
Bob

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I removed it without a "registry cleaner"
Mar 3, 2014 10:10AM PST

This seems contradictory and a bit risky, but it completely worked for me:

download the latest version of ARO (which I think is ARO2013 at the moment), install it and then turn around and uninstall it right away. Installing the new version is the only effective way to remove ARO2011, since that piece of crap was issued without a decent "uninstall" file included.

The new version uninstalled without a hitch. DONE. No more ARO.