Registry Cleaner

[Dave-UK]

Is there a reliable free Windows 7 Registry cleaner?

CrapCleaner will be fine.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/features

 

[Dave-UK]

Dave-UK


Not that someone has experience with Registry Cleaners but experience with what they
can do. I frequent 57 different newsgroups and last week alone there was (counted
them) 8 posts where an OP used a Registry Cleaning tool and did back ups and when
they wanted to reboot then it did not go. This occurs on a weekly if not daily basis
in one or another newsgroup. The latter does not take into consideration when after
using one of those tools (CCleaner included) when some of the installed programs
cease to work.
Registry Cleaners are dangerous in the hands of people not knowing what it removes
or what it does. I am against Reg Cleaning tools and when I need something
changed,added,removed then I do it myself instead of one those snake oil ones that
are widely available. CCleaners Reg tool included.

I posted this MS KB below 8 times alone last week to help an OP that could not
boot after using the Reg tool and could not get to the back ups to correct his error
and never mind how many times over the last month alone this happens.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q307545

And occasionally the following
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=822705 --
Peter

You don't have any experience of what they can do, all you
have is stories from other people.
The links you provided are for corrupt registry hives due to any
number of reasons and not once was a registry cleaner mentioned as
a possible culprit.
I repeat what I asked Ken Blake and Allen in this thread:

Name the registry cleaner that trashed a system so much it
became un-bootable.

I will test it and then provide feedback to the programs author
if it does what you and all the other people you 'helped' say it does.
Until somebody comes up with a name of a faulty registry cleaner then the
lack of evidence suggests that you, Allen, Ken Blake and anyone else that
makes claims without repeatable evidence are full of bullshit.

 

[LD55ZRA]

As you seem to have a wide experience of registry cleaners and their
problems

Now, now, now you are assuming things here! Ken Blake hasn't got any
experience of formatting a hard disk never mind registry cleaners. He is on
record to say that he hasn't had the need to reformat a HDD since Windows
3.1. Now anyone asking for his advice on registry cleaners is taking a
terrible risk! Ken Blake is someone who could be described as a troll. He
has been made an MVP by Microsoft to indicate Microsoft Valuable Pig. He is
someone you take out your anger upon NOT Microsoft. He is the punch bag of
Microsoft newsgroups. Perhaps this the reason why he was given the MVP by
Microsoft - to divert attention from Microsoft's own failings.

hth

 

[LD55ZRA]

Most of them do create registry backups. However if the result of
running the registry cleaner is an unbootable system (and that
sometimes happens), the backup isn't of great use.

Unless you know a thing or two about computers!!!! That is what backups are
for.

 

[LD55ZRA]

But the point is, no-body NEEDS it. Waste of time and disk space.

Are you saying Ken Blake - Microsoft Valuable Pig is an idiot because he
uses CCleaner?

 

[Leythos]

Allow me to contribute somewhat ... I've been working with PCs for over
twenty years, since before there even was a registry, back when DOS 2.11
was popular. I was on a help desk when Windows 3.x was popular, and have
spent many hours working with, and (attempting to) reparing every version
of windows that has come out since. I have never see a registry cleaning
tool that actually did any good, and I have seen many that did harm.
"Harm" ranges from programs that won't work anymore, to a Windows
installation that won't boot. Most of them are snake oil that do nothing
noticeble, but some will damage your Windows installation. Avoid them
like the plague. 99.9% of the things that these "tools" fix are things
that aren't doing any harm to start with, and "fixing" them accomplishes
nothing.

I've been working with computers since the 70's and ever Microsoft
Platform on the market, server farms, etc...

As for Registry Cleaners, the only Registry "Cleaner" tool that I've
ever used is the one included in Spy Bot Search and Destroy, and it has
made a difference in several ways:

1) Removal of dead/forgotten keys
2) Removal of keys that no longer point to a proper location
3) Removal of keys that no long have valid parents

I've done this hundreds of times on clean machines as well as infected
machines and haver had a bad result, but, I don't believe ANYONE should
be doing this without first understanding what is being "Cleaned".

As for "Cleaners" from other vendors, I would never run one on any
computer that I use or support - I've seen too many bad things happen
from those as well as the thousands of posts I've read in Usenet from
people that corrupted their machines running cleaner.

 

[Dave]

You can get back *if* "getting hosed" does not include destroying your
ability to boot.

I have to agree with you on this, especially since it's so hard to create a
boot disk for Windows now. May not be possible at all for Windows 7, I
haven't looked into this yet.
Dave

 

[Dave]

Now, now, now you are assuming things here! Ken Blake hasn't got any
experience of formatting a hard disk never mind registry cleaners. He is
on record to say that he hasn't had the need to reformat a HDD since
Windows 3.1. Now anyone asking for his advice on registry cleaners is
taking a terrible risk! Ken Blake is someone who could be described as a
troll. He has been made an MVP by Microsoft to indicate Microsoft
Valuable Pig. He is someone you take out your anger upon NOT Microsoft.
He is the punch bag of Microsoft newsgroups. Perhaps this the reason why
he was given the MVP by Microsoft - to divert attention from Microsoft's
own failings.

hth

Don't actually know Ken Blake, but one thing has seemed to become apparent,
he is trying to help others whereas you seem to be trying to make yourself
look better by making others look smaller.
You're not a alias for Alias are you?
Dave

 

[Tom Lake]

Now, now, now you are assuming things here! Ken Blake hasn't got any
experience of formatting a hard disk never mind registry cleaners. He is
on record to say that he hasn't had the need to reformat a HDD since
Windows 3.1. Now anyone asking for his advice on registry cleaners is
taking a terrible risk! Ken Blake is someone who could be described as a
troll. He has been made an MVP by Microsoft to indicate Microsoft
Valuable Pig.

C'mon, now. Let's keep to the discussion and not let this thread degenerate
into a name-calling fest. Ken has valid reasons to not recommend registry
cleaners. For most folks they're very dangerous. I do believe he goes
overboard,
however, in saying no one should *ever* use them. The combination of
CCleaner
and CleanMyPC (one catches problems the other misses) has saved me from
having to reformat and reinstall Windows many times, on many PCs and has
never caused me to lose a machine. I'd like to hear from Ken about any bad
experiences he's actually had with cleaners that causes him to hate them so.
I will certainly give Ken the benefit of the doubt and not assume that he's
never
actually used one. Of course if he is only speaking from anecdotal evidence
rather than experience then there's a problem but let's see what he has to
say.

Tom Lake

 

[LD55ZRA]

Ken has valid reasons to not recommend registry
cleaners.

But he is recommending CCLEANER. Have you followed his post through?

 

[Tom Lake]

But he is recommending CCLEANER. Have you followed his post through?

Sure have. Ken sez:

"CCleaner *is* an excellent program. I personally use it and recommend
it to others.
However, I strongly recommend that you use its other functions, and
*not* its registry cleaning function."

The second sentence leads me to believe that he doesn't recommend
CCleaner as a registry cleaner.

Tom Lake

 

[TOM]

My answer is yes. The two I use, CCleaner (free) and CleanMyPC
(Commercial)
both allow a registry backup before you let it make any changes and allow
you to review and choose which suggested changes, if any, are to be made
before anything is actually written to the registry. Of course you
shouldn't just
let the cleaner operate totally automatically just as pilots don't allow
airplanes
to takeoff, fly and land themselves even though they are fully capable
of doing
just that these days. I use the registry cleaners as a guide to
cleaning, not a
substitute for my judgment. There have been many times I've tried to
reload
software but was prevented by registry remnants (how's THAT for
alliteration?)
but registry cleaners allowed me to safely clean up the leftovers and
reinstall
the software. Ken, watch out when making absolute statements about
*all* cleaners.
When you make an absolute statement, it only takes one counterexample to
prove the statement false.

Tom Lake

Hey, who you callin' alliterate??? :>))

 

[TOM]

Now, now, now you are assuming things here! Ken Blake hasn't got any
experience of formatting a hard disk never mind registry cleaners. He is on
record to say that he hasn't had the need to reformat a HDD since Windows
3.1. Now anyone asking for his advice on registry cleaners is taking a
terrible risk! Ken Blake is someone who could be described as a troll. He
has been made an MVP by Microsoft to indicate Microsoft Valuable Pig. He is
someone you take out your anger upon NOT Microsoft. He is the punch bag of
Microsoft newsgroups. Perhaps this the reason why he was given the MVP by
Microsoft - to divert attention from Microsoft's own failings.

hth

Probably at this point, someone should say, it works for some, it
doesn't work for others so use at your own risk.

Different strokes, etc...

Just to keep the thread from becoming a pi**ing contest of egos. You
know, try being gentlemen and agree to disagree. After all, I doubt
neither camp will make converts of the other camp...

 

[Dave-UK]

I have to agree with you on this, especially since it's so hard to create a
boot disk for Windows now. May not be possible at all for Windows 7, I
haven't looked into this yet.
Dave

What do you mean it's so hard to create a boot disk?
You create the bootable repair disk from within Win7.
Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore.
On the left pane ' Create system repair disk'.
That will create a bootable CD image of around 140 M/b with enough basic tools
to get you going .
If you mean a BartPE type boot disk then you can make your own Win7 boot disk
with WinBuilder.
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=8774
If you want to see what's possible I can give you a link to one I made earlier.
It's about 250 M/b with a few extra tools and an XP/Vista/Win7 password editor,
registry editor etc.

 

[LD55ZRA]

Or you can get recovery discs from here:

Windows 7
http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/

Windows Vista:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

hth

 

[Dave]

What do you mean it's so hard to create a boot disk?
You create the bootable repair disk from within Win7.
Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore.
On the left pane ' Create system repair disk'.
That will create a bootable CD image of around 140 M/b with enough basic
tools
to get you going .
If you mean a BartPE type boot disk then you can make your own Win7 boot
disk with WinBuilder.
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=8774
If you want to see what's possible I can give you a link to one I made
earlier.
It's about 250 M/b with a few extra tools and an XP/Vista/Win7 password
editor, registry editor etc.

Thanks for the tips, Dave. I would like to see what you built, if you post
the link I'll look at it.
Dave

 

[Dave]

Or you can get recovery discs from here:

Windows 7
http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/

Windows Vista:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

hth

Thanks for the tip, I might do the recovery disk instead of building one.
The Bart style can take a lot of time so this might be a better option.
Dave

 

[Gordon]

Unless you know a thing or two about computers!!!! That is what backups are
for.

Backups, no. Disk image, yes. The two are NOT synonymous....

 

[Gordon]

As for Registry Cleaners, the only Registry "Cleaner" tool that I've
ever used is the one included in Spy Bot Search and Destroy, and it has
made a difference in several ways:

1) Removal of dead/forgotten keys
2) Removal of keys that no longer point to a proper location
3) Removal of keys that no long have valid parents

And all THAT does is to possibly reduce the size of the registry
slightly - it has almost no effect on performance...

 

[Dave-UK]

Thanks for the tips, Dave. I would like to see what you built, if you post
the link I'll look at it.
Dave

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5B4FWYEL