Cap said:
Hello All!
I love this place - thanks to anyone that has helped me in the past!
Does anyone know of a reliable program that will clean the registry of any
unwanted information ... possibly of old programs that have been uninstalled.
There's no such thing; nor is there a need for one.
I installed a program called Ashampoo. It functions well, but I get the
impression that u have to install your programs thru Ashampoo, then use it to
uninstall them if u want it to clean thoroughly. And I'm not sophisticated
enough to clean the registry myself. Or maybe it's not as hard as I think it
is.
Anyone have any ideas?
Why would you think you need to clean your registry?
What specific problems are you *actually experiencing* (not some
snake oil program's bogus listing of imaginary problems)?
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. After
all, why use a chainsaw 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 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.
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.
On those rare occasions when I suspect there might be a problem in
the registry, I always use Regedit.exe. I trust my own experience and
judgment far more than I would any automated registry cleaner. I
strongly encourage others to acquire the knowledge, as well.
--
Bruce Chambers
Help us help you:
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
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Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
