Hi *James* :
I have used severay registery cleaners and bought two (2) . . . The most
recent of my purchases was V-Com 5.0. I'm not at all knocking their program,
in fact, it is the best I've yet to find. However, it requires one using only
V-Com software to clean-up a disk; system restore; and defragmentation.
It setup a file on each Disk Drive and if you wish to remove the file it
conflicts with all other aspects of the clean-up program, etc.
Does Windows (Microsoft) have a better registery cleaner? If so where may
one find it and/or buy it?
I would like to give you first some preliminary informations about the W xp registry.
1- Unlike the previous version of Windows, the Registry Size Limit
functionality has been removed from Windows XP and W 2003 as
explained in this MSKB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;292726&x=13&y=12
2- The access to the registry by the system or an application is not
sequential. They don't reads the registry keys from the beginning until
they found the correct key, therefore the size of the registry and the
number of the keys have no real impact for the access performances.
3- It's a fact that sometimes it's necessary to delete some keys to
fix a specific problem. An example of this is the problem with AVI files
which are impossible to delete or rename.The solution is to delete
that key :
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32.
4- It's a fact that the vast majority of programs uninstalled do not remove
all their keys in the registry.The uninstallation programs are too much
often an example of bad programmation.
I some case the bad uninstallation prevent the reinstallation of the
program itself. An example of this is Norton Anti-virus.
To uninstall it you must download a specific program to finished the job.
An other worst example is Zone Alarm which can't be uninstalled except with
a complicated manual remove explained on their Web site... The keys
remainings in the registry prevent also the installation of an other
firewall untill you clean all the ZA keys remaining in the registry.
5- It's also a fact that many registry cleaners clean too much
and have a negative impact to the operating systems.
An example of this is the effect of the "Toni Arts EasyCleaner"
which prevent Help and Support to be launched.
The fix is available from Doug Knox[MVP] on is site:
www.dougknox.com
6- The worst things who happen to the registry is the registry corruption
preventing Windows XP to boot. Most of the times this important problem
comes from bad programs or malwares. But the most important factors comes
at the shutdown time.
a) a power failure, surcharge or important current variations.
b) defective hardware related to writing such as disk, disk controler, ram etc.
c) a "wild" shutdown or a program or a driver causing bad entries in the registry
Now , with all those information we can talk about those registry cleaner.
I ) Since there is no more size limit of the registry, the number of
orphans keys is not so important if they have some...
The claim of registry cleaner vendors about this factor is an hoax.
II ) Since the access is not sequential their claim about performances
and optimisation is also an hoax.
III ) When it's time to delete a specific registry key as stated in # 3 is
needed, the Windows XP regedit is the tools you need to do that job.
Why pay for somethings else ? Did any of thoses registry utilities can
find and fix a problem like the one I have talked previously at # 3?
IV ) It's a fact that most registry cleaners can find a reasonable number
of orphan keys leaved by an uninstallation but there is no guaranty of
this.
In the examples previously given (Norton and ZA) they are almost useless.
The best solution is to prevent that kind of problem by using a specific
utility such as Total Uninstall which monitor the installations and provide
a complete and targetted cleanup... Not a "guess" of what are the orphans
keys...
TUN :
http://www.martau.com/tu2.php
V ) The best things we can do for a sane registry is to keep or Windows XP
free of malwares and some bad programs ( alpha,beta, crakz, serialz etc.)
VI ) The others cares for the Windows XP registry are :
a) Keep an eye to the hardware componants, keep the PC free of dust and cool.
Here some tools:
Everest:
http://www.lavalys.com/
SpeedFan
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
b) Used on regular basis the tools provided by Windows XP :
Event Viewer : Start | Run | evntvwr.msc
Hints about errors:
http://www.eventid.net/
Devices manager : Start | Run | devmgmt.msc
Hints about dev errors:
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;310123&x=11&y=12
CHKDSK : to check and fix the errors on the hard disk.
I'm sure you realise the impact if the system attemps to save the registry on a bad sector...
Defragmentation :
( give a better acces to the disk and keep the disk cooler...)
Star | Run | dfrg.msc
c) Used of some reliable third party tools to protect the registry :
Defragmentation of the protected files of W XP including the registry hives:
C:\Windows\System32\config\default
C:\Windows\System32\config\SAM
C:\Windows\System32\config\SECURITY
C:\Windows\System32\config\software
C:\Windows\System32\config\system
etc.
with Page Defrag of Mark Russinovich :
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PageDefrag.html
Registry Backup with ERUNT of Lars Hederer:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
d) Install the MS UPHClean service in your system :
User Profile Hive Cleanup Service
A service to help with slow log off and unreconciled profile problems.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582&displaylang=en
With those informations and tools you'll be able to decide yourself if
using a registry cleaner is a good option and if you to pay to have a
good one.
--
Claude LaFrenière [MVP]
«My Principal Design Was To Inform, Not To Amuse Thee.»
Lemuel Gulliver, The Travels (IV:12)
http://climenole.serendipia.net
Soon on
www.msmvps.com
Bientôt sur
www.msmvps.com