Daze N. Knights said:
William:
I have found no problems at all with using the reg cleaning capabilities
of CrapCleaner (now known as Ccleaner), found in its "Issues" section.
Pretty safe, IMO. And freeware.
CCleaner's registry scanner does seem to be 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 testing, though, 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. In simple terms, CCleaner produced nothing but false
alarms.
CCleaner's main strength, and the only reason I use it, lies in its
usefulness for cleaning up unused temporary files from the hard drive; as a
registry "cleaner," it's not significantly better or worse than any other
snake oil product of the same type.
What I truly don't understand, in this day and age, is why anyone would
think one needs to "clean" the registry?
What specific *problems* is everyone actually experiencing (not some
program's bogus listing of imaginary problems) that they think can be fixed
by using a registry cleaner? If one does 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 one lacks the knowledge and experience to maintain one's
registry by oneself, then one also lacks the knowledge and experience to
safely configure and use any automated registry cleaner, no matter how safe
their manufacturers claim them 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" the registry improves a computer's performance or stability.
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 safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
~) . I tried Vista Manager