Poll: Do you think a registry cleaner is worth using?

...but only because I've heard and read so much about better performance if the clutter is removed from the registry. Registry Mechanic even claims it can "compact" the registry. I have no idea what this means, but I use it anyway. I'll likely mess my system up with this approach and be coming here to get help.

~Dave

Why not stop the plane crashing rather than deciding which emergency service to use at the crash site?

My programs are designed to run well and not slow up anything - even if the user deletes registry keys and executables for the program in question.

Slow PC's are due to bad driver code and services started at boot time - including user mode programs started at logon - see 'autoruns' from MS to explore that. Application http and UDP/TCP "phone home/contact mom" network code is also waiting for network connections that are unreliable. Even MS's own update service caused 100% cpu load in svchost last year - for 5 mins after PC boot.

Etc.

HeirDrier

Absolutely; because uninstallers are not very good at retrieving the hooks they plant in the registry.

It is always good to clean out junk from your registry and to check for malware/spyware that sometimes cannot be seen, but can be felt in overall system perfomance. There are many products out there that will clean, but one imparticular really helps total system performance an that is the solution Microsoft themselves have provided to the public for free. (http://safety.live.com) this product does not only clean your registry but checks for other problems that can affect system performance. You can run the different tools alla carte or run the total package. It works great and has never failed me. The best part is it is free! It dramatically helps overall performance and gives you the piece of mind that you are checking everything from junk to spyware. Ever notice how when first load an OS or buy a new computer that it is pretty fast and over time is tends to slow down. most of the time is due to a lot programs that have been loaded. If you're like me you try different apps all time and tend to remove them if they dont do what you expect, well most of the time the entries stay in the registry and load up even though you have removed them. Well if you do this often with many programs you can have several hundred invalid registry entries that just slow your machine down especially on Startup time.
So to answwer the Poll YES! it helps but make you choose the right one beacuse it can also damage your machine as well. At least with the Microsft web product you can be assured that a restore point is created and it knows what check for in its own house. you can also purchse the software version and have it maintain your machine, of coarse this requires more memory and is another application that is loaded on your machine.
-Winwiz

No. Registry cleaners are not necessary, at least not for me.
And, do you know what is in the program you are using? Probably not.

Can you manipulate the program to clean exactly as you want? Doubt it.
Are you able to view the source before it was compiled and offered to you as a program? Highly unlikely. Is it 100% safe? Not very likely.


What do I propose? The same I always do: go for open source, limit oprocesses, harden the system, tweak permissions, and go for performance not name.

I use Ms Onecare and find it good as it backs up files [warns when it is needed] and sets a restore point; however, according to the guru on Kiny radios tech report, a good reg cleaner helps repair onecares mistakes; I was using regcure in conjumction with Xoftspye anti virus - worked OK, but now I am using Pitstop - works well.
In my opinion, once a registry cleaner is installed - and works - it will keep the registry at a constant working level. Whether I was using regcure or Pitstop with Onecare seemed to make no difference.
Onecare takes care of excess file, defrag,anti virus etc and the point here, I think, is that Onecare is put out by the same source as XP Pro so they should know how to look after their programs best

I used the registry mechanic recommended by CNET and it crashed my computer to the point that I had to reformat and reinstall everything. And that took 3 weeks because even though I had backed up all my data first, I still had to reinstall all my software. Defrag and disk cleanup is good enough for me. And I don't install anything I really don't need. And I don't let my grandkids play with MY computer.

I consider running a registry cleaner as part of a comprehensive maintenance program. I run a virus scanner, several adware/spyware programs/Ccleaner and Iobit Advanced Windows Care V2 and defrag utility.

How necessary a registry cleaning utility may be to any particular user depends to a great degree on the user and what he uses his computer to do. If you only run one application at a time, if you only have a few applications loaded which you rarely update, or if you run nothing but Microsoft apps, then you can get by without one for quite a while - perhaps longer than the life of your system. If, OTOH, you're like me and have a lot of applications, many running simultaneously, and frequently install new applications or uninstall old ones, then you really need to do regular registry maintenance.

But, how you do that maintenance is up to you. For the truly hard core, all you need is regedit, a solid understanding of the Windows registry, and some patience. Commercial registry cleaners are a better choice for most people. Even if you really know your way around a PC, having a reliable tool that can automate this frequent and tedious job cannot be discounted. There are a handful of good such utilities, both free and commercial, and most work pretty much the same.

I use Uniblue's Registry Booster 2 on all my Windows PCs. It's proven effective and reliable. Others will recommend other utilities, so take your pick if you fit the profile of someone who needs such a thing.

When I had XP Pro for my OS, I used the registry cleaners all the time, with excellent results. I knew what to look for and how to handle XP Pro. I just got a ne computer and it has Vista. My experiences with registry cleaners so far have produced unexpected and unwanted results, like resetting Virus controls without my knowledge, shutting down my network access, ruining my printers setup, etc. Until Vista becomes a more well known product, and I become more familiar with Vista, a registry cleaner is just a headache.

An average system probably won't see much improvement in speed. But if your system's been left uncleaned for a few years, then it might gain some nice boost from these.

If your installing and removing several programs then yes. If you?re not than you most likely wont need it.

Have you noticed that over a period of time your computer just doesn't run as fast as it did when you first purchased it? That's because over time your registry becomes cluttered with useless entries from software and other files that were probably sent to the recycle bin ages ago. I ran across an article that talked about how Windows is notorious for retaining outdated and obsolete registry entries. I am not a computer genius but this is how I understand it. The system reads every one them to find the proper entry to execute whatever it needs to at any given time. The more entries in the registry the longer it takes. My first registry cleaner was RegSeeker by HoverDesk, and I still use it. It's safe and reliable. I remember the first scan came up with over 800 obsolete entries!!! One entry only amounts to one or two kilobytes tops, but multiply that by 800. Thats significant space on your hard drive. Don't intend to plug RegSeeker, there are many other good ones I've used. It's also a good idea to defrag the registry also.

I tend to use Registry Mechanic as well as the built in version of Spybot Search and Destroy. Though they don't make my PC go from zero to 100 mph in one go, they do give a subtle improvement in performance, especially the PC startup.

And yeah, if U R one of those who installs and uninstalls softwares at the drop of a hat, its a must to have a Reg Cleaner.

I just hit the 'Fix' button without thinking twice. Never had any problems with that.

Thanks, 'Dexter'.

I've read several posts in this thread with horror stories of registry cleanings gone bad. Everyone should be aware that if your system has been running for a significant length of time and is more than very lightly loaded, the first time you run a registry cleaner, you will likely have problems. For that reason, always tell your registry cleaner to take a full registry backup before starting. However, once the registry has been cleaned, if you continue to clean it on some sort of regular schedule, you should have no more problems.

I started using Registry Booster on all my Windows machines a couple of years ago. In each case, after cleaning the machine needed to be rebooted and that first reboot almost always failed. By iterating this process, along with registry restore operations as a last resort, I was able to successfully clean the registry and successfully reboot in fairly short order. Once I'd gotten that far, I've never had any subsequent trouble with it.

Bottom line - the failure and the unreliability are mostly artifacts of trying to clean a badly corrupted registry rather than any specific registry cleaner failures.

If you have to come to rely on 3rd party tools to fix or maintain the Windows Registry, you have come too far. Windows requires constant babysitting, often needs restarts, and major maintenance such as weekly 45 minute virus scans, 10 minute spyware scans, and registry cleanups. Ask yourself, How much time have I spent scanning for viruses and spyware trying to speed up, clean up, and fix Windows XP/Vista? You are fighting a losing battle... The Windows operating systems require a large amount of RAM to run effectively and there is an extremely high level of marketing and advertising software and more ready to move into your free RAM... Seriously folks, think about how much time you waste doing all these fix-it, clean-it, scan-it type annoyances.

Operating systems like Ubuntu Linux, Debian Linux, or Fedora are now extremely easy to install and can replace or even coexist with Windows. For example Ubuntu, the most popular Linux platform, is very cutting edge. You can try it out or install it by simply putting the CD in the drive. The issues of viruses and spyware are non-existent. You will spend 0 minutes per week scanning for viruses & spyware and it runs faster requiring significantly less memory. Linux also runs faster because it does not require a virus scanner / spyware scanner running concurrently. Linux is also supported by the largest computing community in the world; the open source community which includes Google, Sun Microsystems, NASA, all Universities, and people around the world.

The most common question when people hear about Linux however, is yes, it sounds like a dream come true, "but what about my programs..?"
Well, actually having used Linux now for over 6 years, I have found that in the last 2 years, the usability and quality of the overall Linux Operating System is now of a much higher standard of usability than Windows. For example, say you want to install a new Video player application. In Windows typically, you would search Google, try to find one that is free, or cracked, or a trial version. You may have to register(more spam) to get a download. Then you would download the file (if you're lucky you can find where Windows saved it), then hopefully you have a program that can handle the file format to open it. Now you have to update your antivirus and scan that file to make sure it's pure. Then you can finally procede to install the program which now bloats your registry with trialware, spyware, adware, and perhaps a virus. Not only all this, but you are left with a mess of folders and files on your desktop like rude guests that came for dinner.

In Linux, the process goes something like this. You want to install a new video player application. So, you open up the Synaptic Package manager, type your administrative password, search generally for "video player", you view a list of video packages in the Synaptic Package Manager window. Read a few straight to the point descriptions. Choose the one that seems most suitable by selecting it with a checkbox. Linux is now either ready to install it, or shows you which required software packages that it needs to install for the selected program(which it handles for you). You click apply. Everything the operating system needs to do and does do is reported to you(the owner of your computer). You have now successfully installed a video player without having to: sign up a license(more spam), surf the net(waste of time), get a virus/spyware, scan files, download files, download secondary programs to uncompress the file, restart the computer, clean up a mess, or simply get a headache from fighting Windows.

Hopefully this puts into perspective, why a registry cleaner is not worth using, and why you should definitely try one of the newest Linux distributions like Ubuntu.

Jacob Chappelle
Free yourself, use Open Source