How to Clean Up Vista Mess

[CT]

I am unable to download Flash Player 9, which led me to several other
problems I am having with Vista, including painfully slow startup times. I
downloaded a program called RegCure which ran a scan and found over 1200
miscellaneous errors in various parts of the system. This program charges a
fee to clean everything up, and I would be afraid it might do more harm than
good. Any suggestions on the best way to get rid of all the things that
have gone wrong here? Thanks in advance. CarolT

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

RegCure is a bogus program that "seems" to find
registry errors that are not really there. In other words,
it is pre-programmed to convince you errors exist but they, in fact,
do not exist! Do not use any registry cleaner with Windows Vista...
it is not needed!

To fix your problem with Adobe Flash Player:

Download and run the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157

( http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/uninstall_flash_player.exe )

Afterward, right-click on the Internet Explorer icon located on
your Taskbar and select: Run as administrator. Then visit:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash

and click on "Install Now".

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------

:

I am unable to download Flash Player 9, which led me to several other
problems I am having with Vista, including painfully slow startup times. I
downloaded a program called RegCure which ran a scan and found over 1200
miscellaneous errors in various parts of the system. This program charges a
fee to clean everything up, and I would be afraid it might do more harm than
good. Any suggestions on the best way to get rid of all the things that
have gone wrong here? Thanks in advance. CarolT

 

[C.B.]

Hello Carol & Carey

While there are differing opinions about registry cleaners, I assure
you that RegCure is a legitimate program being used by approximately
half a million people who write to us telling us of their success with
the product.

Paretologic, the creators of RegCure are members in good standing with
the Better Business Bureau and have won numerous awards for their
products and services.

I would also like to clarify and caution that RegCure, and in fact no
Paretologic program are compatible with 64 bit operating systems.

We decided to list what operating systems are compatible rather than an
exhaustive list of what are not, as this has proven to be a more
efficient and informative way of displaying our compatibility
information to our customers.

Moreover, all listed operating systems are noted to be 32-bit versions
on their corresponding product page. Since 32-bit and 64-bit programs
are mutually exclusive, we would have explicitly stated in the
compatibility list if such version were available as the vast majority
of the PC market utilizes 32-bit operating systems. Because of the
relatively small percentage of customers that use 64-bit operating
systems, we have made a business decision to target the greater market
percentage.

As 64-bit adoption grows, we may re-evaluate the situation and offer
64-bit versions of our software in the future.

At this time, we do not support any 64-bit operating system, but do
support Windows Vista (32-bit) through our RegCure, Privacy Controls, PG
Surfer and Data Recovery.

If you have ordered RegCure within the last 60 days, should it be your
preference, we are happy to provide a full refund as you are within our
60 day money-back guarantee.

Kindest Regards
Laura
Paretologic Liaison

Pareto Rep,

Your article said a lot but in actuality said nothing about the dangers
of inexperienced people using a registry cleaner. Your article did nothing
to warn these inexperienced users about the consequences of letting a
registry cleaner blindly delete everything it finds.
Yes, RegCure is a legitimate program, and yes, it is used by many
people. Some of these people know what they are doing and some do not. I'm
sure, as you say, they reported successful results, those successful results
being the deletion of everything that was found. This does not mean their
systems are stable. This does not mean that their systems have not had
relevant and necessary entries deleted, keys and subkeys that they need now
or will need at some future date.
Being in good standing with any Better Business Bureau means absolutely
nothing. Is that supposed to impress me in some fashion? Well, it does not.
Does it grant legitimacy to your product? No it does not. It means nothing
to the well informed and educated. It only means the BBB has not received
too many complaints about your business or that your business has not been
sued in a court of law. Being in good standing can also mean that there have
been complaints about your business and the complaints have been mitigated
or your business has been sued but the consumer was granted recompense and
the complaint was mutually settled by both parties. It is common knowledge
that any BBB exists solely for the advantage of the business owner and not
the consumer. This is why the BBB lobby, on national and state levels,
continuously fights against consumer rights. Their position is, in almost
all regards and situations, favorable to business at the expense of the
consumer. You may deny this but the educated consumer knows better. I know
fully well what the BBB is all about, having been associated with my local
BBB many years ago. I know the BBB inside and out.
You may have won numerous awards for RegCure. Who gave you these
awards? A manufacturing association? A magazine? A review group? It doesn't
matter. The awards are based upon your product doing what it is advertised
to do, nothing more and nothing less. The rewards are not based upon the
results an inexperienced user gets when he hoses his system by blindly
deleting everything your product finds. I have purchased many software
products that received numerous awards only to find later that they were not
as good as advertised and/or caused problems not mentioned in the reviews.
Registry cleaners are not necessary and they cause more problems than
they fix when it comes to the average uninformed user. For those who know
how to edit the registry your software simply saves them some time. It does
nothing they cannot do for themselves. However, the difference between
experienced and inexperienced users is as different as night and day, as
different as black and white. The experienced user knows what to delete; the
inexperienced user does not have a clue.
If your product is so precise and so infallible I would like to propose
a test for you; run your program on any computer a number of times without
deleting any entries the program finds each time you run it. Do you get the
same exact entries and the same number of entries each and every time? My
educated guess, based upon personal experience, is that you do not. What
does this say about the viability and usefulness of your product? Not much.
How about another test? Run your program and delete all the entries it finds
and then immediately run the program again. Does your program find
additional entries? Probably. Again, what does this imply?
Your thread is nothing but self-serving hyperbole. The sole motive in
posting your thread is profit. I see nothing in your post warning the
inexperienced users that they may damage or corrupt their systems by letting
your software blindly delete everything it finds. I see nothing in your post
that advises users to learn about the registry, its purpose and the
ramifications and consequences of altering it before deciding to use your
product to speed things along. I see nothing in your post about any of your
customers complaining that your product deleted valuable and relevant
entries. Are you implying that you have not received one single complaint
about your product? If so, I challenge you to publicly publish a statement
that you have received no complaints whatsoever about your product. I
challenge you to also publish such a statement in this newsgroup.
In my opinion, based upon years of using various registry cleaners,
your product and similar products of other companies are totally worthless
and useless, causing more problems than they solve. They basically provide a
cure for a disease that does not exist. The registry can contain thousands
or tens of thousands of old, irrelevant entries and streams with no
significant impact on an operating system's performance provided the
operating system has the proper hardware. What are you going to do when the
new operating systems advance to the point whereby they do not even need a
registry? This will happen sooner than later.
I will continue to advise people to stay away from registry cleaners,
drive cleaners and optimization programs and I will continue to reply to
misleading and self-serving posts such as yours. In my opinion they are akin
to snake oil and cure-alls that do absolutely nothing for the consumer other
than cause problems, albeit they do provide faster deletion of registry
entries.
You should be ashamed of yourself for posting such a self-serving,
one-sided thread. You intentionally omitted important information the
consumer is entitled to so that said consumer can make a qualified, informed
decision as to your software. Your position on this matter, and your
attitude, bring to mind the story about the Pied Piper. Sadly, many people
will follow your advice and be saddled with a corrupted registry.
Your post is nothing more than SPAM.

C.B.

 

[C.B.]

Hello CB

Thank you so much for your input.

My initial post was intended as a rebuttal of the assertation that
RegCure is a "bogus program"

As you are well aware, the use of registry cleaners is a contentious
issue in the computing community. While a number of experts claim that
it is unnecessary and potentially harmful, many other computer users
find real success in using them. We have gone to great measures to
ensure that our product is as safe to use as possible. In fact, we hear
from many of our customers that it is easy to use and that they see a
significant improvement in the performance of their PC's after using it.
We also take care to let people know that the registry is complex and
delicate and for that reason, great caution is required when working
with it. Our customers who have run into concerns or have questions know
that we have a large support team who are happy to help them and those
same customers often express to us that they have been very happy with
our customer support.

You are certainly welcome to your opinion about our product and
registry cleaners in general and we will listen respectfully, however
please know that we are encouraged and informed by our customers and
their needs and successes.

Kindest Regards
Laura
Paretologic Liaison

A very polite and non-confrontational reply. I am impressed. I didn't
expect a reply. Years ago I learned firsthand how dangerous registry
cleaners, drive cleaners and optimization programs can be. I learned this by
blindly deleting the entries discovered by these cleaners. There were times
when a registry restore or System Restore would not return the registry to
functional status as it was corrupted beyond repair. I learned my lesson the
hard way after many reinstalls.
I would have no objection if vendors selling registry cleaners and
cleaners in general promoted their products responsibly but this seems to be
wishful thinking. Registry cleaner ads are everywhere and they are located
on the webpages in such a way that many times users will click on them
inadvertently, thinking they are clicking on the download they searched for.
This is deceptive and patently unfair. Registry cleaners are being included
as part of just about any "suite" available today, including AV
applications, security suites, antispy programs, image applications, defrag
applications, etc, etc, etc. When users of these applications put their
blind faith in these products things can go seriously wrong.
The majority of users don't know what the registry is or how to safely
edit it. The registry was a wonderful thing when it was first introduced. It
solved a lot of problems and made things so much easier. However, due to its
limitations and fallibilities I expect it to be completely eliminated in the
near future.
I would love to see a registry cleaner vendor take the high road, the
road of responsibility, and put some effort into educating the end user of
its product's purpose and the safe and cautious manner in which it should be
used. You could write your program in such a way that it would not function
until a user has read important information pertaining to the registry
itself, the permanency of registry entry deletions and the importance of
backups. You could explain what you are deleting and why the deletion will
cause no harm. You could explain what registry keys do and why someone
should not haphazardly delete them. You could explain why it is safe to
delete a subkey but not the key itself. You could color code the different
deletions or categorize them as to keys, subkeys, streams, etc. You should
not give the user the choice of backing up or not backing up the registry
prior to deletion. A backup should be mandatory. An experienced user will
not mind the one or two clicks it takes to delete the backup. At the very
least you could provide links to relevant articles about the registry. These
links can be in a help file or on the application interface itself. An
educated user will want to use your product and will, in all likelihood,
recommend it to others.
You should make it explicitly clear that cleaning the registry is not
something you should do every day, week or month. You could explain that
registry problems are usually caused by inexperienced users installing,
uninstalling and reinstalling incompatible programs and deleting things they
should not delete. You should make it clear that most registry problems are
caused by the user.
Your trade association should be more vigilant in eliminating the bad
apples in your group. These unscrupulous companies couldn't care less about
what happens to the uneducated user and they give the rest of you a very bad
reputation. They are in a feeding frenzy over the inexperienced users. These
users seek simplicity in everything they do and they do not understand the
ramifications of their actions. If your company actively informs the buying
public of this problem you will gain the respect of experienced users and
this respect will lead to referrals of your product.
The most important thing is explaining why registry cleaners return
different results of the same scan. Why should they get different results?
Five scans of the same computer, done one after the other with the same
application should return the same, exact results. You should explain why
your product's results are different from the results of other products. Why
does your product find seven entries and their products find four, or
sixteen, or eighty-three? An entry in the registry is either valid or
invalid, pertinent or impertinent. An association is either there or it is
not there. You should explain why after scanning and deleting with your
product another company's product will find more entries, or why your
product will find entries their products failed to find. Please explain them
me why these things happen, and don't compare registry cleaners to AV or
antispy applications that do the same thing. Regardless of the scanning
engine or methodology used your program and those of other companies should
return the exact same result each and every time on back to back scans.
When I say you should explain all these things I mean you should
explain them to the point whereby the inexperienced user somewhat
understands what he is doing and why. It doesn't have to be a full length
registry tutorial. A cursory review should be sufficient, as long as it is
informative.
Your industry needs cleaned up and it needs cleaned up badly. The fact
that you replied to my post indicates to me that you may indeed care enough
to contemplate improvements in the manner in which you promote your product
and educate the inexperienced user. Is your company also willing to step
forward and admit that your industry needs to be policed by your own trade
association? Are you willing to put forth the necessary effort required so
that your industry gets any respect? I certainly hope so.
Thank you very much for your time.

C.B.

 

[Ashton Crusher]

RegCure is a bogus program that "seems" to find
registry errors that are not really there. In other words,
it is pre-programmed to convince you errors exist but they, in fact,
do not exist! Do not use any registry cleaner with Windows Vista...
it is not needed!

To fix your problem with Adobe Flash Player:

Download and run the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157

( http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/uninstall_flash_player.exe )

Afterward, right-click on the Internet Explorer icon located on
your Taskbar and select: Run as administrator. Then visit:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash

and click on "Install Now".

All anyone needs to know about RegCure
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/regcure-c4155.html

 

[Ashton Crusher]

Hello Carol & Carey

While there are differing opinions about registry cleaners, I assure
you that RegCure is a legitimate program being used by approximately
half a million people who write to us telling us of their success with
the product.

Paretologic, the creators of RegCure are members in good standing with
the Better Business Bureau and have won numerous awards for their
products and services.

I would also like to clarify and caution that RegCure, and in fact no
Paretologic program are compatible with 64 bit operating systems.

We decided to list what operating systems are compatible rather than an
exhaustive list of what are not, as this has proven to be a more
efficient and informative way of displaying our compatibility
information to our customers.

Moreover, all listed operating systems are noted to be 32-bit versions
on their corresponding product page. Since 32-bit and 64-bit programs
are mutually exclusive, we would have explicitly stated in the
compatibility list if such version were available as the vast majority
of the PC market utilizes 32-bit operating systems. Because of the
relatively small percentage of customers that use 64-bit operating
systems, we have made a business decision to target the greater market
percentage.

As 64-bit adoption grows, we may re-evaluate the situation and offer
64-bit versions of our software in the future.

At this time, we do not support any 64-bit operating system, but do
support Windows Vista (32-bit) through our RegCure, Privacy Controls, PG
Surfer and Data Recovery.

If you have ordered RegCure within the last 60 days, should it be your
preference, we are happy to provide a full refund as you are within our
60 day money-back guarantee.

Kindest Regards
Laura
Paretologic Liaison

All anyone needs to know about RegCure
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/regcure-c4155.html

 

[Ashton Crusher]

Hello CB

Thank you so much for your input.

My initial post was intended as a rebuttal of the assertation that
RegCure is a "bogus program"

As you are well aware, the use of registry cleaners is a contentious
issue in the computing community. While a number of experts claim that
it is unnecessary and potentially harmful, many other computer users
find real success in using them. We have gone to great measures to
ensure that our product is as safe to use as possible. In fact, we hear
from many of our customers that it is easy to use and that they see a
significant improvement in the performance of their PC's after using it.
We also take care to let people know that the registry is complex and
delicate and for that reason, great caution is required when working
with it. Our customers who have run into concerns or have questions know
that we have a large support team who are happy to help them and those
same customers often express to us that they have been very happy with
our customer support.

You are certainly welcome to your opinion about our product and
registry cleaners in general and we will listen respectfully, however
please know that we are encouraged and informed by our customers and
their needs and successes.

Kindest Regards
Laura
Paretologic Liaison

All anyone needs to know about RegCure
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/regcure-c4155.html

 

[Holz]

Pareto Rep,

Your article said a lot but in actuality said nothing about the
dangers of inexperienced people using a registry cleaner. Your
article did nothing to warn these inexperienced users about the
consequences of letting a registry cleaner blindly delete everything
it finds. Yes, RegCure is a legitimate program, and yes, it is used
by many people. Some of these people know what they are doing and
some do not. I'm sure, as you say, they reported successful results,
those successful results being the deletion of everything that was
found. This does not mean their systems are stable. This does not
mean that their systems have not had relevant and necessary entries
deleted, keys and subkeys that they need now or will need at some
future date. Being in good standing with any Better Business Bureau
means absolutely nothing. Is that supposed to impress me in some
fashion? Well, it does not. Does it grant legitimacy to your product?
No it does not. It means nothing to the well informed and educated.
It only means the BBB has not received too many complaints about your
business or that your business has not been sued in a court of law.
Being in good standing can also mean that there have been complaints
about your business and the complaints have been mitigated or your
business has been sued but the consumer was granted recompense and
the complaint was mutually settled by both parties. It is common
knowledge that any BBB exists solely for the advantage of the
business owner and not the consumer. This is why the BBB lobby, on
national and state levels, continuously fights against consumer
rights. Their position is, in almost all regards and situations,
favorable to business at the expense of the consumer. You may deny
this but the educated consumer knows better. I know fully well what
the BBB is all about, having been associated with my local BBB many
years ago. I know the BBB inside and out. You may have won numerous
awards for RegCure. Who gave you these awards? A manufacturing
association? A magazine? A review group? It doesn't matter. The
awards are based upon your product doing what it is advertised to do,
nothing more and nothing less. The rewards are not based upon the
results an inexperienced user gets when he hoses his system by
blindly deleting everything your product finds. I have purchased many
software products that received numerous awards only to find later
that they were not as good as advertised and/or caused problems not
mentioned in the reviews. Registry cleaners are not necessary and
they cause more problems than they fix when it comes to the average
uninformed user. For those who know how to edit the registry your
software simply saves them some time. It does nothing they cannot do
for themselves. However, the difference between experienced and
inexperienced users is as different as night and day, as different as
black and white. The experienced user knows what to delete; the
inexperienced user does not have a clue. If your product is so
precise and so infallible I would like to propose a test for you; run
your program on any computer a number of times without deleting any
entries the program finds each time you run it. Do you get the same
exact entries and the same number of entries each and every time? My
educated guess, based upon personal experience, is that you do not.
What does this say about the viability and usefulness of your
product? Not much. How about another test? Run your program and
delete all the entries it finds and then immediately run the program
again. Does your program find additional entries? Probably. Again,
what does this imply? Your thread is nothing but self-serving
hyperbole. The sole motive in posting your thread is profit. I see
nothing in your post warning the inexperienced users that they may
damage or corrupt their systems by letting your software blindly
delete everything it finds. I see nothing in your post that advises
users to learn about the registry, its purpose and the ramifications
and consequences of altering it before deciding to use your product
to speed things along. I see nothing in your post about any of your
customers complaining that your product deleted valuable and relevant
entries. Are you implying that you have not received one single
complaint about your product? If so, I challenge you to publicly
publish a statement that you have received no complaints whatsoever
about your product. I challenge you to also publish such a statement
in this newsgroup. In my opinion, based upon years of using various
registry cleaners, your product and similar products of other
companies are totally worthless and useless, causing more problems
than they solve. They basically provide a cure for a disease that
does not exist. The registry can contain thousands or tens of
thousands of old, irrelevant entries and streams with no significant
impact on an operating system's performance provided the operating
system has the proper hardware. What are you going to do when the new
operating systems advance to the point whereby they do not even need
a registry? This will happen sooner than later. I will continue to
advise people to stay away from registry cleaners, drive cleaners and
optimization programs and I will continue to reply to misleading and
self-serving posts such as yours. In my opinion they are akin to
snake oil and cure-alls that do absolutely nothing for the consumer
other than cause problems, albeit they do provide faster deletion of
registry entries. You should be ashamed of yourself for posting such
a self-serving, one-sided thread. You intentionally omitted important
information the consumer is entitled to so that said consumer can
make a qualified, informed decision as to your software. Your
position on this matter, and your attitude, bring to mind the story
about the Pied Piper. Sadly, many people will follow your advice and
be saddled with a corrupted registry. Your post is nothing more than
SPAM.

C.B.

One way:
Format your hard drive an install something else.