regclean and its ilk...

[Ross M. Greenberg]

A long time ago, I used a program that was never officially supported by
Microsoft REGCLEAN. He was a nifty little program that clean the heck out
of my registry. That was for Windows 98/WindowsME/some older Window.

Does such exist for Windows XP and is it either a Microsoft product or
supported by Microsoft?

Thanks.
Ross.

 

[Alias]

A long time ago, I used a program that was never officially supported by
Microsoft REGCLEAN. He was a nifty little program that clean the heck out
of my registry. That was for Windows 98/WindowsME/some older Window.

Does such exist for Windows XP and is it either a Microsoft product or
supported by Microsoft?

Thanks.
Ross.

I like SystemSuite. It's not free but it's very good. Don't use the All
in One feature, use Registry Fixer under the Fix menu. Once you get the
results, they will be color-coded in Green, Yellow and Red. The Green
ones are safe to nuke but be careful with the Yellow and Red ones. Get
it at http://www.v-com.com It also comes with Power Desk, a Sygate
firewall and TrendMicro anti virus/malware.

Alias

 

[Davy]

Get it at http://www.v-com.com It als
comes with Power Desk, a Sygate

firewall and TrendMicro anti virus/malware

Interesting...thanks for that, I use Sygate Firewall and always serve
me well, one thing though, think it applies to all Reg cleaners yo
need to be careful with the files you let them delete as some may b
shared

I use Reg. Mechanic it always enjoys deleting some Paintshop Pr
files and always find myself having to re-load them, note that I sai
Reg. Mechanic, can't comment on any other's, only use it once ever
blue moon

Incidentally, Sygate is now part of Symantec

Dav

 

[Kerry Brown]

A long time ago, I used a program that was never officially supported
by Microsoft REGCLEAN. He was a nifty little program that clean the
heck out of my registry. That was for Windows 98/WindowsME/some
older Window.
Does such exist for Windows XP and is it either a Microsoft product or
supported by Microsoft?

Thanks.
Ross.

Regclean is no longer supported or distributed. Your post will likely
generate a lot of posts arguing for and against registry cleaners. What it
comes down to in the end is what are you trying to accomplish? Are you
experiencing a problem? If not then you are probably best to leave the
registry alone. If you are then you should exhaust other avenues of repair
before using a registry cleaner. Using a registry cleaner can make the
problem much worse or even cause problems where none existed before. In the
hands of a knowledgeable user some registry cleaner programs can be a useful
tool after other methods of repair have failed.

Are you experiencing a problem with your computer?

 

[Eric P.]

A long time ago, I used a program that was never officially supported by
Microsoft REGCLEAN. He was a nifty little program that clean the heck out
of my registry. That was for Windows 98/WindowsME/some older Window.
Does such exist for Windows XP and is it either a Microsoft product or
supported by Microsoft?
Thanks. Ross.

RegClean came with some MicroSoft programming languages, like Visual
Basic, to cleanup what was added to the registry by a trial install.
It didn't do very much at all, however many people seemed to think
otherwise.

This is what MS people wrote at the time:
<QUOTE>
What RegClean Does
------------------

RegClean analyzes Windows Registry keys that are stored in
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT in the Windows Registry.
It finds keys that contain erroneous values, and after recording those
entries in an Undo.reg file, it removes them from the Windows Registry.

What RegClean Does Not Do
-------------------------

RegClean does not fix every known problem with the registry.
It does not fix a "corrupt" registry; it is limited to fixing problems
with normal Windows Registry entries located in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.

It is very possible that RegClean will not correct a problem that you
have encountered.
RegClean will leave any entries in the registry that it does not
understand or that could possibly be correct.
</QUOTE>

 

[Bruce Chambers]

A long time ago, I used a program that was never officially supported by
Microsoft REGCLEAN. He was a nifty little program that clean the heck out
of my registry. That was for Windows 98/WindowsME/some older Window.

RegClean was designed for Win9x operating systems, and didn't work
particularly well on them. It's been discontinued and unsupported for
years, now. I certainly wouldn't advise trying to use it on a modern OS.

Does such exist for Windows XP and is it either a Microsoft product or
supported by Microsoft?

No, no one's demonstrated a real need for such. And, anyway, why would
you think you need to clean your registry?

What specific problem are you experiencing that you *know* beyond
all reasonable doubt will be fixed by using a registry "cleaner?" If
you do have a problem that is rooted in the registry, it would be far
better to simply edit (after backing up, of course) only the specific
key(s) and/or value(s) that are causing the problem. Why use a shotgun
when a scalpel will do the job? Additionally, the manually changing of
one or two registry entries is far less likely to have the dire
consequences of allowing an automated product to make multiple changes
simultaneously.

The registry contains all of the operating system's "knowledge" of
the computer's hardware devices, installed software, the location of the
device drivers, and the computer's configuration. A misstep in the
registry can have severe consequences. One should not even turning
loose a poorly understood automated "cleaner," unless he is fully
confident that he knows *exactly* what is going to happen as a result of
each and every change. Having seen the results of inexperienced people
using automated registry "cleaners," I can only advise all but the most
experienced computer technicians (and/or hobbyists) to avoid them all.
Experience has shown me that such tools simply are not safe in the hands
of the inexperienced user.

The only thing needed to safely maintain your registry is knowledge
and Regedit.exe. If you lack the knowledge and experience to maintain
your registry by yourself, then you also lack the knowledge and
experience to safely configure and use any automated registry "cleaner,"
no matter how safe they claim to be.

Further, no one has ever demonstrated, to my satisfaction, that the
use of an automated registry "cleaner," particularly by an untrained,
inexperienced computer user, does any real good. There's certainly been
no empirical evidence offered to demonstrate that the use of such
products to "clean" WinXP's registry improves a computer's performance
or stability.



--

Bruce Chambers

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