Are there any recommended registry cleaning tools or maintenance s

[Guest]

Are there any recommended registry cleaning tools or maintenance software
that anyone knows about? I have seen C-Net reg clean 3 etc. but I don't want
to use anything that's not recommended. What tools could I use / Do I need

Thanks very much

 

[Jerry]

I've been using "Fix-It" for years. Orderable at www.v-com.com or buyable
at Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

The XP Registry looks after itself. A lot of these so called Registry
'cleaners' cause more harm than good and can render a system unbootable.
Many need a lot of configuring before using and some don't include an 'undo'
option!!

 

[RJK]

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/registry.htm

regards, Richard

 

[RJK]

....and
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=322756

regards, Richard

 

[Harry Ohrn]

This is my personal preference http://www.tune-up.com/ I have used the
utilities for several months on XP Home and Pro as well as Windows 2003. I
have had no problems with them.


--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


| Are there any recommended registry cleaning tools or maintenance software
| that anyone knows about? I have seen C-Net reg clean 3 etc. but I don't
want
| to use anything that's not recommended. What tools could I use / Do I need
|
| Thanks very much

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Are there any recommended registry cleaning tools or maintenance software
that anyone knows about? I have seen C-Net reg clean 3 etc. but I don't want
to use anything that's not recommended. What tools could I use / Do I need

Thanks very much

Having seen the results of inexperienced people using automated
registry "cleaners," I can only advise to you to avoid them all.

The only thing needed to safely clean 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.

I always use Regedit.exe. I trust my own experience and judgment
far more than I would any automated registry cleaner.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[RJK]

....The Norton Systemworks one is brilliant, so long as you "manually" work
your way through the "x00 problems found in x0 categories" after running
its' Windoctor. i.e. don't let it change paths to the most likely file
candidate it finds on a different drive somewhere etc.
....come on Bruce, own up I bet you use Nortons Windoctor in "manual" !
It's quite handy, for in most "categories" one can check the "Delete
registry key" and check a box to "use this type of action for other errors
in this category." ...or something like that. I've used it for years, and
so long as you don't let it charge ahead and f**k things up, ...ooops! I
mean "fix things up" for you, it really is very good.

Having said all that, I should emphasize that I fully concur with all that
you said, ...and casting my eye back over my ramblings, it seems that I have
actually agreed with you

regards, Richard

 

[Bruce Chambers]

...The Norton Systemworks one is brilliant, so long as you "manually" work
your way through the "x00 problems found in x0 categories" after running
its' Windoctor. i.e. don't let it change paths to the most likely file
candidate it finds on a different drive somewhere etc.
...come on Bruce, own up I bet you use Nortons Windoctor in "manual" !
It's quite handy, for in most "categories" one can check the "Delete
registry key" and check a box to "use this type of action for other errors
in this category." ...or something like that. I've used it for years, and
so long as you don't let it charge ahead and f**k things up, ...ooops! I
mean "fix things up" for you, it really is very good.

Having said all that, I should emphasize that I fully concur with all that
you said, ...and casting my eye back over my ramblings, it seems that I have
actually agreed with you

regards, Richard

I'll admit to having used Norton's System Tools ages ago, on MS-DOS and
Win9x machines, but I've honestly never found any of the newer Norton
Utilities and tools, including WinDoctor, to be particularly useful on
WinNT, Win2K, or WinXP machines. If fact, some of the packaged
products, like CleanSweep and CrashGuard proved to be remarkably
dangerous to use, if one were not especially careful. Even WinDoctor
was prone to recommending the deletion of important files and/or
registry keys -- it's certainly nothing an amateur should use, even in
manual mode.

And I can quite honestly say that I do not have a single Symantec
product installed on any of the computers in my house. (I've nothing in
particular against the antivirus and personal firewall apps, but there
are free products that work just as well, in my specific situation, and
use a lot less CPU cycles and memory.)

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[jeffrey]

Hi Bruce,

What would you recommend for an AV then? I have NSW 2004 on my systems,
haven`t had any problems with them, just the notebook is a little sluggish
with it, but the desktop has no problem (probably cause it has 2 gigs of ram
and notebook only has 256 megs). I only use Windoctor, DiskDoctor and AV
from that package, I use Perfect Disk instead of Speed Disk. I would like
to hear your recommendation for an AV.

Jeff

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi Bruce,

What would you recommend for an AV then? I have NSW 2004 on my systems,
haven`t had any problems with them, just the notebook is a little
sluggish with it, but the desktop has no problem (probably cause it has
2 gigs of ram and notebook only has 256 megs). I only use Windoctor,
DiskDoctor and AV from that package, I use Perfect Disk instead of Speed
Disk. I would like to hear your recommendation for an AV.

Jeff

I've been quite happy with Grisoft's AVG Free Editions. I think you'll
see a noticable performance improvement if you replace the NAV wit AVG
free.

I used, and recommended, Norton Antivirus and then Norton Internet
Security, for many years, on Win98, WinNT, Win2K, and WinXP, all
without any significant problems. I had used McAfee prior to that.
(But it's been several years since I've been tempted to try McAfee
products. Their quality seemed to take a steep nose-dive after they
were acquired by Network Associates.)

However, when my subscription to Symantec's updates for Norton
Internet Security 2002 came up for renewal (at a cost substantially
higher than the preceding year's subscription), I decided to try less
expensive solutions. I downloaded and installed the free version of
GriSoft's AVG (http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php ) and the
free version of Sygate's Personal Firewall
(http://smb.sygate.com/free/default.php ). Both have proven to be
easily installed, easy to use, and quite effective. Additionally, I
was pleasantly surprised to see a small but very noticeable
improvement in my PC's performance, once I'd replaced the Symantec
product.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[jeffrey]

Thanks Bruce,

I am using both a hardware firewall (NetGear 4 port/wireless A/G router) and
XP SP2`s firewall, plus NAV. The notebook AV will run out in about a month,
the one Desktop has 11 months now, since I had to rebuild it from a major
HHD failure. The other desktop will run out in about 2 months, so will give
Grisoft a try. I might also try the ZoneAlarm on one computer and Sygate on
another to see how they are. Thanks for your feedback on that.

Jeff

 

[Plato]

...come on Bruce, own up I bet you use Nortons Windoctor in "manual" !
It's quite handy, for in most "categories" one can check the "Delete
registry key" and check a box to "use this type of action for other errors

I'd hire a felon to clean my home before I'd let witchdoctor clean my
registry.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I've been quite happy with Grisoft's AVG Free Editions. I think you'll
see a noticable performance improvement if you replace the NAV wit AVG
free.

As an Alternative (and nothing against AVG) the one I use myself is
eTrust, which is very slick and totally unobtrusive - until a virus gets
caught. At present you can still get a year's free trial as a part of
eZArmor - the firewall component being supplied by Zone Alarm - see
www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Thanks Bruce,

I am using both a hardware firewall (NetGear 4 port/wireless A/G router)
and XP SP2`s firewall, plus NAV. The notebook AV will run out in about
a month, the one Desktop has 11 months now, since I had to rebuild it
from a major HHD failure. The other desktop will run out in about 2
months, so will give Grisoft a try. I might also try the ZoneAlarm on
one computer and Sygate on another to see how they are. Thanks for your
feedback on that.

Jeff

You're welcome.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[RJK]

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been fighting, on and off, with with
Zonealarm Pro. It converts my start-up {XP Home ed. / AMD xp2600+ 512mb
166mhz/333ddram / 2x80gb ATA133mhz hd's} into a major coffee-break -...I
tweaked and fiddled and uninstalled and cleaned up, and tweaked and fiddled
lots more. I spent nearly a whole day, tweaking / fiddling and rebooting
(e.g. totally removing Zonelarm and Symantec software & registry all entries
for both), and can only say that I suspect there is something very nasty in
Zonalarm's "Truevector" service. And I suspect that a Norton installation
doesn't like Zonealarm "monitoring" Nortons' a/v program. Even when that
monitoring is switched off in Zonealarm, there's still a disagreement going
on between them both.

Symantec's Internet security 2004 is nasty. ...the a/v portion seems
cumbersome, compared to previous versions.
McaFee software was always a recipe for disaster, around W95b and W98 time -
and I've never tried it since then.
Trend-Micro's Pc-cillin seemed to me to be designed to make sure that ones
PC never EVER worked, EVER again, ...but, that was ten years ago when I had
a major examination of that.

I've now settled for NIS2003 OEM, that I bought a year or so ago, and (touch
wood) doesn't interfere with boot-up.

regards, Richard

 

[RJK]

Norton's Windoctor saves me some time. I backup my "system state" in case
it makes a booboo but, it never does). Of course one daren't click the
"Repair All" button ...or whatever it's called, because you'd end up with
umpteen redundant registry entries pointing to files that shouldn't be
"pointed to."

regards, Richard

 

[Plato]

Norton's Windoctor saves me some time. I backup my "system state" in case
it makes a booboo but, it never does). Of course one daren't click the
"Repair All" button ...or whatever it's called, because you'd end up with
umpteen redundant registry entries pointing to files that shouldn't be
"pointed to."

We all have our favorites and dislikes. For example, many men would
rather walk then be caught/seen driving a '94 Chevy Cavalier Wagon like
I do

I do get a kick tho when at the petro pump when Joe Macho has to take
out a loan to fill up his 6000 pound suv.

 

[Daniel Werner]

Another way to speed up the registry is to use my program RegCompact.NET
which compacts and optimizes the WinXP registry hives without changing
the registry data. It does this by eliminating "holes" in the files that
contain the registry which are caused by data being constantly added and
removed from the registry. Check it out the free trial at:

http://experimentalscene.com/regcompact/

On a typical system that has been in use for a while it can sometimes
reduce the size of the registry by half. Savings are greatest when a lot
of programs have been installed and uninstalled, or when the registry
has just been cleaned by a program such as Microsoft's RegClean. I hope
you find my program useful.

Cheers,
Daniel Werner
ExperimentalScene

 

[Raymond J. Johnson Jr.]

Note: Original post not quoted because it's spam.

This is a load of crap. Do you have data to support your contention that
your program does anything useful?