RegClean

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Of course not. But, have you ever tried to establish whether or not
the presence of a thousand unused empty folders on your drive
measurably affect performance? They wouldn't, but I'd still get rid of
them.

Indeed. However, when I get rid of a thousand unused folders then
a) I do it myself, and
b) I know exactly what I'm doing.

In case of a registry clean it's different:
a) You let someone else's program do it, and
b) You rely on them knowing what they are doing.

If you're happy to risk it for no performance gain
then go right ahead. I wish you good luck.

 

[Rock]

Sloshing thru the BS in all the other posts, yes. One, CClean is decent,
and Registry Mechanic has one too. Google to find them.

Now we just had to slosh through your BS. I guess it just proves the point,
one's own doesn't stink to one's own nose, eh?

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi David - In my experience all of these Reg cleaners, even the best, are
fraught with danger. I advise against using them except in one specific
instance, that is when you have one that is capable of doing specific Reg
searches, and you NEED (not just WANT) to remove the remaining traces of
something that didn't get uninstalled correctly. (and you didn't have
foresight enough to install it using Total Uninstall,
http://www.martau.com/tu.html or direct dwnld here:
http://www.simtel.net/product.download.mirrors.php?id=61416, in the first
place.) (As an aside, there are, however, some third party Registry Editors
which can be of great help with both the incorrect uninstall and with
certain malware problems, especially some of theCoolWebSearch types such as
the AppInit_DLLs variant of the about:blank version of CWS, for example. I
can recommend Registrar Lite, here:
http://www.resplendence.com/reglite .)

There are a couple of specific bugs that can cause abnormal growth in either
the System or Software hives; however, they are rare, and unless these hives
in %SystemRoot%\System32\config are very, very large (in the hundreds of
megabytes), then I would council you to leave your Registry alone except for
the special circumstances I mentioned above.

I and most other MVP's that I know believe that Registry modifications of
any type are probably best done manually, very carefully, with a thorough
knowledge of what's installed on your machine, and what you're doing, and
then only when necessary. There's very little (if any!) noticeable benefit
in either space saving or speed achievable by cleaning out the Registry
except in those few cases where there's a specific problem the client is
experiencing (usually uninstall or malware related in my experience) that
needs to be fixed.

Lastly, if you must screw around with your Registry, then at least get
Erunt/Erdnt, and run it before you do the Reg clean. You'll then have a
true restore available to you. Read below to see why you might not just
using the Reg cleaner's restore:

Get Erunt here for all NT-based computers including XP:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/I've set it up to take a
scheduled backup each night at 12:01AM on a weekly round-robin basis, and a
Monthly on the 1st of each month. See here for how to set that up:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt, and for some
useful information about this subject.

This program is one of the best things around - saved my butt on many
occasions, and will also run very nicely from a DOS prompt (in case you've
done something that won't let you boot any more and need to revert to a
previous Registry) IF you're FAT32 OR have a DOS startup disk with NTFS
write drivers in an NTFS system. (There is also a way using the Recovery
Console to get back to being "bootable" even without separate DOS write NTFS
drivers, after which you can do a "normal" Erdnt restore.) (BTW, it also
includes a Registry defragger program). Free, and very, very highly
recommended.

FYI, quoting from the above document:

"Note: The "Export registry" function in Regedit is USELESS (!) to make a
complete backup of the registry. Neither does it export the whole registry
(for example, no information from the "SECURITY" hive is saved), nor can the
exported file be used later to replace the current registry with the old
one. Instead, if you re-import the file, it is merged with the current
registry, leaving you with an absolute mess of old and new registry keys.

FWIW, the second question I ask clients is whether they've recently used a
Reg Cleaner or tried to restore from one. (The first question I ask is
whether they've any non-commercial Norton/Symantec software installed.
) )

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MVP, DTS, ASVOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine,
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/



In David E. Ross <[email protected]> typed:
|| Is there a freeware tool for WindowsXP equivalent to RegClean (which
|| I used with Windows09)?
||
|| --
||
|| David E. Ross
|| <http://www.rossde.com/>
||
|| Concerned about someone (e.g., Pres. Bush) snooping
|| into your E-mail? Use PGP.
|| See my <http://www.rossde.com/PGP/>

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

The risk would be non-existent if the deletions are limited to items
that are always expendable - whatever they may be. If a cleaner is
written by a person who is thoroughly knowledgeable on Registry
structure and use, etc., then, by definition, that person's candidates
for deletions can be taken as valid. I'm not making a statement on
whether or not such code actually exists.

As for CCleaner, perhaps I've lucky, as you say, or perhaps it limits
itself to deleting safe items. I use it often and regularly, but I do
perform a visual evaluation of the items it intends to delete.

Good. Then you are far more prudent than the average user of such software.
Nevertheless see below.

And
although I occasionally hold off on deleting some items immediately, I
eventually do delete them. If one compares what CCleaner deletes to
the list of problems commercial products claim to have found, one sees
that the latter list is much, much larger, indicating that CCleaner
takes a much safer approach in deciding what's to be deleted.

I have no quarrel with the view that CCleaner is safer than most other
registry cleaners. Nnevertheless, I repeat the two points I made earlier:

1. *No* registry cleaner is completely safe.

2. There is *no* need to run a registry cleaner. Having unused registry
entries doesn't really hurt you.

Taking those points together, to me it's simply foolhardy to use any
registry cleaner. You run a risk (large or small, assess it however you
want, but it's not zero) in return for *no* benefit.

 

[John]

Jim,

What do you mean by "non-commercial Norton/Symantec software"

(The first question I ask is whether they've any non-commercial
Norton/Symantec software installed.)

____ _
| __\_\_o____/_|
<[___\_\_-----<------------------<No Spam Please><
| o'

 

[Bruce Chambers]

As for CCleaner, perhaps I've lucky, as you say, or perhaps it limits
itself to deleting safe items. I use it often and regularly, but I do
perform a visual evaluation of the items it intends to delete. And
although I occasionally hold off on deleting some items immediately, I
eventually do delete them. If one compares what CCleaner deletes to
the list of problems commercial products claim to have found, one sees
that the latter list is much, much larger, indicating that CCleaner
takes a much safer approach in deciding what's to be deleted.

CCleaner does seem relatively benign, as long as you step through
each detected "issue" one at a time, to determine if it really is an
"issue" or not, and then decide whether or not to let the application
"fix" it. In my experience, most of the reported "issues" won't be
issues, at all. I tried the latest version on a brand-new OS
installation with no additional applications installed, and certainly
none installed and then uninstalled, and CCleaner still managed to
"find" over a hundred allegedly orphaned registry entries and dozens of
purportedly "suspicious" files. (CCleaner's main strength lies in its
usefulness for cleaning up unused temporary files from the hard drive;
as a registry "cleaner," it's not better than any other snake oil remedy.)


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[bxf]

Good. Then you are far more prudent than the average user of such software.
Nevertheless see below.


I have no quarrel with the view that CCleaner is safer than most other
registry cleaners. Nnevertheless, I repeat the two points I made earlier:

1. *No* registry cleaner is completely safe.

2. There is *no* need to run a registry cleaner. Having unused registry
entries doesn't really hurt you.

Taking those points together, to me it's simply foolhardy to use any
registry cleaner. You run a risk (large or small, assess it however you
want, but it's not zero) in return for *no* benefit.

Ken,

I'm afraid that the more I say on the subject, the more it's going to
look as if I'm disagreeing with the general tone of this thread, which
I'm not. Having suffered the consequences of "mass deletions" in the
distant past, I am well aware of the dangers, and I agree entirely
with what you say. I was merely pointing out that CCleaner, for me,
has been relatively safe. The reason I use it is simply that I don't
like stuff left over from incomplete installs. I should mention that I
take frequent image backups of m C partition, so if I screw up
something, I can be back in business in 15 minutes. I should also
mention that looking closely at the list of items to be deleted as
generated by some cleaners, makes me shudder. No, I do not recommend
the use of cleaners, and certainly not without an understanding of the
items that will be deleted.

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi John - The commercial/enterprise versions of Symantec security software
are generally excellent in my experience, as are their specific virus and
malware removers which I often use and recommend. If I recommended anything
other than free software in these groups and in my Blog, they would
certainly make the grade. However, their _consumer_ software is in my
experience notable for bloat, poor design IMV, and for interfering with the
installation, removal and sometimes even the operation of other software,
expecially system software. They often cause system problems and
performance issues, some of which can be difficult to isolate to the
Symantec software. Lastly, they are ridiculously hard to completely remove
unless it's approached very carefully, and their residual components
sometimes cause problems. (They are one of the types of removal issues that
I referred to in my initial response.) YMMV, however, most MVP's of my
acquaintance I think hold a similar view.

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MVP, DTS, ASVOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine,
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/



In John <[email protected]> typed:
| Jim,
|
| What do you mean by "non-commercial Norton/Symantec software"
|
|
| On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:14:40 -0800, "Jim Byrd"
|
|| (The first question I ask is whether they've any non-commercial
|| Norton/Symantec software installed.)
| ____ _
| | __\_\_o____/_|
| <[___\_\_-----<------------------<No Spam Please><
| | o'

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken,

I'm afraid that the more I say on the subject, the more it's going to
look as if I'm disagreeing with the general tone of this thread, which
I'm not. Having suffered the consequences of "mass deletions" in the
distant past, I am well aware of the dangers, and I agree entirely
with what you say. I was merely pointing out that CCleaner, for me,
has been relatively safe. The reason I use it is simply that I don't
like stuff left over from incomplete installs. I should mention that I
take frequent image backups of m C partition, so if I screw up
something, I can be back in business in 15 minutes. I should also
mention that looking closely at the list of items to be deleted as
generated by some cleaners, makes me shudder. No, I do not recommend
the use of cleaners, and certainly not without an understanding of the
items that will be deleted.

I'm glad to hear that we basically agree. I think our only real disagreement
is with your statement "simply that I don't like stuff left over from
incomplete installs." I don't think such stuff hurts you at all, and I don't
think it's worth any risk at all to get rid of it.

 

[bxf]

I'm glad to hear that we basically agree. I think our only real disagreement
is with your statement "simply that I don't like stuff left over from
incomplete installs." I don't think such stuff hurts you at all, and I don't
think it's worth any risk at all to get rid of it.

My desks at home and at work are a mess, my kitchen may be a mess, but
my computer (at home and at work) must be clean In direct contrast
to an earlier post that mentions many candidates for deletion
immediately after a clean install of Windows, my machine has NONE (as
shown by CCleaner, NOT by some other products)! Since every time I
install and/or uninstall something, or even just rearrange my Start
Menu, there are some superfluous entries created, I know that I've
deleted hundreds of items already. I really don't feel compelled to
tell anybody to feel the same, but I feel better not having these
leftovers, and since my machine works "perfectly", I'm satisfied.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

On Mar 2, 2:05 am, "Ken Blake, MVP" <[email protected]>

My desks at home and at work are a mess, my kitchen may be a mess, but
my computer (at home and at work) must be clean In direct contrast
to an earlier post that mentions many candidates for deletion
immediately after a clean install of Windows, my machine has NONE (as
shown by CCleaner, NOT by some other products)! Since every time I
install and/or uninstall something, or even just rearrange my Start
Menu, there are some superfluous entries created, I know that I've
deleted hundreds of items already. I really don't feel compelled to
tell anybody to feel the same, but I feel better not having these
leftovers, and since my machine works "perfectly", I'm satisfied.

OK. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but again, you *are* running a risk,
and for *no* benefit, except your idea of cleanliness. You obviously do this
carefully, and you have minimized the risk, but you can never make it
entirely zero.

But if you are satisfied, I won't continue to try to convince you otherwise,
and I'll shut up now.