Registry Cleaner

[Gordon]

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

But NOT as a registry cleaner. Have YOU been following the posts?

 

[Vic]

I have to disagree with you on this due to experience with Vista. Fairly new
HP desktop, started having problems, (definitely related to my screwing
around with software of all kinds) don't remember specifics but they were
serious enough I called HP tech support. All they could say was do a restore
of original software. Since I had a new laptop I decided to use it for major
use instead, eventually got into the same situation with it. Did a
destructive restore on the laptop, took several hours doing that and getting
dozens of updates. Now the desktop, I had Wise Registry Cleaner 4, so I
thought since I had to do a destructive reinstall I had nothing to lose, if
it screwed up the registry then so what. Ran it, 10 minutes later it was
done and system performed flawlessly.
I don't know if Wise is compatible with Win7, but since I have both machines
converted now, if or when I have a problem I will definitely be looking at
it.
Just my 2cents,
Dave

I set a restore point when I use it, but I can tell the difference after CC
runs.

Too many uninstalled programs leave behind not only bogus entries, but some that
still load un-needed procs and pre-fetch memory hogs.

 

[Nil]

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

I believe that's not true, either. Like most databases, removal of a
value leaves only an empty value. The physical space is not recaimed
until the database is compacted. There is no built-in Windows tool to
do that, nor does any registry cleaner product that I know of.

 

[Bob henson]

I believe that's not true, either. Like most databases, removal of a
value leaves only an empty value. The physical space is not recaimed
until the database is compacted. There is no built-in Windows tool to
do that, nor does any registry cleaner product that I know of.

Registry Mechanic both cleans and compacts.


Regards,

Bob

 

[johnbee]

I thought that I would like to contribute to this discussion,
because it is quite interesting. By far the best thing to do
about dealing with the Registry is to buy a couple of books
and become an expert about it.

There is not actually much point in that - most users
would be better off spending their time learning other things.
However there still remains that problem about the Registry,
that it is a bit of a mystery and dangerous to play with. Many
users therefore want to get on top of it and master it with
something. Companies include Registry software in their
packages to meet this demand.
It is most definitely true that if you keep a PC for a long time,
it gets slower and slower to boot and close down as more
crap junk gets introduced into the Registry. My guess is that
Windows 7 will suffer from that. A normal 'Registry cleaner'
will not do anything about it, but you can get software to manage
what happens at startup and closedown - use at your own peril,
but not just for fun and psychological comfort, use when you
can no longer bear a wait of some minutes to get going.

Of course many of the so called Registry Cleaners are malware
which deliberately do mischief, and some will also be badly
written and do harm accidentally. It is not a good idea to use
a freebie Registry thing which was not written for your own
operating system. If you want to use ccleaner which is very
popular, or a thing provided along with your virus etc. stuff
which you paid for, it will almost certainly be harmless, but
the more you don't know what you are doing and just like to
dicker about with stuff especially if it is free the more likely
you are to muck it up; I think that is fine of course it will suit
you because you will have to get it going again which will
be fun.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

It is most definitely true that if you keep a PC for a long time,
it gets slower and slower to boot and close down as more
crap junk gets introduced into the Registry.

I completely disagree. Getting slower to boot or shut down has not
been my experience at all.

 

[chrisv]

Registry Mechanic both cleans and compacts.

Maybe that explains some of the the damage it has done.

 

[Dave-UK]

Maybe that explains some of the the damage it has done.

What damage ?
Provide details if you have any.

 

[relic]

What damage ?
Provide details if you have any.

I've seen several complaints in alt.os.windows-xp over several years. Look
in there.

 

[Dave-UK]

I've seen several complaints in alt.os.windows-xp over several years. Look
in there.

Why should I look ? You expect me to trawl through several years of posts because
some troll makes a one-line post about Registry Mechanic.
He should supply evidence to back up his claim if he wants to be taken seriously.

 

[Al Smith]

I completely disagree. Getting slower to boot or shut down has not
been my experience at all.

Suppose you downloaded and installed by accident malware, and the
malware wasn't quite working properly? Wouldn't it be a good idea
to get the remnants of the malware cleared out of your registry?
Or suppose you uninstall a program and it doesn't uninstall
cleanly, or completely -- isn't it better to get the bits cleaned
out of the registry in case you might want to install the program
again, or a newer version of that program?

-Al-

 

[Gordon]

Suppose you downloaded and installed by accident malware, and the
malware wasn't quite working properly? Wouldn't it be a good idea to get
the remnants of the malware cleared out of your registry?

Yes - that's what your Antimalware app does - not the registry cleaner

Or suppose you
uninstall a program and it doesn't uninstall cleanly, or completely --
isn't it better to get the bits cleaned out of the registry in case you
might want to install the program again, or a newer version of that
program?

A common fallacy. Orphaned registry entries have little or no effect on
computer performance.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Suppose you downloaded and installed by accident malware, and the
malware wasn't quite working properly? Wouldn't it be a good idea
to get the remnants of the malware cleared out of your registry?

Anti-malware software does that.

Or suppose you uninstall a program and it doesn't uninstall
cleanly, or completely -- isn't it better to get the bits cleaned
out of the registry in case you might want to install the program
again, or a newer version of that program?

No. It doesn't matter and its being there doesn't hurt you.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I specifically did not use CCleaner--I said "purchased", which certainly
excludes CC. I wish I had stuck with CC, as it never caused any problems.
Allen

Two points:

1. I didn't say that using any registry cleaner *always* causes
problems (and neither does anyone else here, as far as I know). In
fact most uses of any registry cleaner does not cause a problem. The
reason not to use them is that any use of a registry cleaner carries
with it the *risk* of a problem.

If any registry cleaner always caused a problem, the product would
disappear from the market almost instantly.

It's like driving a car without your seatbelt on. Yes, your risk is
much greater without the seatbelt, but most of the time you can get
away with not having buckled it.

2. Yes, the risk of using CCleaner's registry cleaning functionality
is lower than it is with most registry cleaners. But that does not
mean that it's zero. And exposing yourself to any risk at all is
foolhardy for a product that essentially has no real benefits.

 

[Allen]

Your destiny Allen. There is 400 million downloads of CCleaner. Might
be the odd problem but I suspect Office has caused the odd problem too.

I specifically did not use CCleaner--I said "purchased", which certainly
excludes CC. I wish I had stuck with CC, as it never caused any problems.
Allen