Registry Cleaner

[Robert McEvoy]

Trying to find the best registry cleaner , test 5 so far
and all the results , the results from
5xx to 17xx files to be deleted
not one cleaner had the same results
Any Ideas
Bob

 

[Dave B.]

Unless you have the knowledge to determine whether the registry items being
cleaned are in fact not needed, I recommend using no registry cleaner. Just
taking the software's word for it is asking for trouble.

--

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Trying to find the best registry cleaner , test 5 so far
and all the results , the results from
5xx to 17xx files to be deleted
not one cleaner had the same results
Any Ideas

The best registry cleaner is *no* registry cleaner.

I strongly recommend *against* the routine use of registry cleaners. Routine
cleaning of the registry isn't needed and
is dangerous. Leave the registry alone and don't use a registry cleaner.
Despite what many people think, and
what vendors of registry cleaning software try to convince you of, having
unused registry entries doesn't really hurt you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit it may
have.

 

[Robert McEvoy]

Thanks Ken, with all the different results I got back when I tested them ,
I did not trust any of them
Thanks again
Bob

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks Ken, with all the different results I got back when I tested
them , I did not trust any of them
Thanks again

You're welcome. Not trusting them is wise, and the fact that they can't
agree on what to delete reinforces my point.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Trying to find the best registry cleaner , test 5 so far
and all the results , the results from
5xx to 17xx files to be deleted
not one cleaner had the same results
Any Ideas
Bob

That's pretty much to be expected from a class of "products" that are
almost entirely pure snake oil and provide no real benefit, anyway.

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.

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

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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

 

[Robert McEvoy]

Actually , I am not having any problems , thought I would test the software
and find out how many errors
are in the registry..
Bob

 

[Guest]

I agree that the registry should not be touched if one is not an expert.
Personally I practically never do.
But what must I do now? I reformatted my harddisk after continuously receive
HIGH ALERTs of "SOPT! CRITICAL ERRORS...". This "Messenger Service" offers me
17 sites where I MUST go and use or download their registry cleaner. The only
thing that I have installed since yesterday is XP PRO. And still these
messages keep popping up. Is there a real CRITICAL problem with my
machine/registry? Or who is sending me this SPAM?
"WINDOWS has find critical errors". Where and why?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I agree that the registry should not be touched if one is not an
expert. Personally I practically never do.
But what must I do now? I reformatted my harddisk after continuously
receive HIGH ALERTs of "SOPT! CRITICAL ERRORS...". This "Messenger
Service" offers me 17 sites where I MUST go and use or download their
registry cleaner. The only thing that I have installed since
yesterday is XP PRO. And still these messages keep popping up. Is
there a real CRITICAL problem with my machine/registry? Or who is
sending me this SPAM? "WINDOWS has find critical errors". Where and
why?

Answered in another newsgroup. Your problem is occurring because you are
connecting to the internet without a firewall.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I agree that the registry should not be touched if one is not an expert.
Personally I practically never do.
But what must I do now? I reformatted my harddisk after continuously receive
HIGH ALERTs of "SOPT! CRITICAL ERRORS...". This "Messenger Service" offers me
17 sites where I MUST go and use or download their registry cleaner. The only
thing that I have installed since yesterday is XP PRO. And still these
messages keep popping up. Is there a real CRITICAL problem with my
machine/registry? Or who is sending me this SPAM?
"WINDOWS has find critical errors". Where and why?

Its an old and common scam.

It's from a very unscrupulous "business." They're trying to sell
you patches that Microsoft provides free-of-charge, or a useless
"product" that will install adware/spyware, and using a very intrusive
means of advertising. It's also demonstrating that your PC is very unsecure.

This type of spam has become very common over the past few years,
and unintentionally serves as a valid security "alert." It demonstrates
that the computer user hasn't been taking sufficient precautions while
connected to the Internet. The user's data probably hasn't been
compromised by these specific advertisements, but if he/she's open to
this exploit, he/she may well be open to other threats, such as the
Blaster Worm that swept across the Internet years ago and the Sasser
Worm that followed shortly thereafter, both of which can still be
contacted. Install and use a decent, properly configured firewall.
(Merely disabling the messenger service, as some people recommend, only
hides the symptom, and does little or nothing to truly secure the
machine.) And ignoring or just "putting up with" the security gap
represented by these messages is particularly foolish.

Messenger Service of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;168893

Messenger Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement
Appears
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=330904

Stopping Advertisements with Messenger Service Titles
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.asp

Blocking Ads, Parasites, and Hijackers with a Hosts File
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Oh, and be especially wary of people who advise the user to do
nothing more than disable the messenger service. Disabling the
messenger service, by itself, is a "head in the sand" approach to
computer security. The real problem is not the messenger service
pop-ups; they're actually providing a useful, if annoying, service by
acting as a security alert. The true problem is the unsecured computer,
and the user's been advised to merely turn off the warnings. How is
this helpful?


--

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

 

[Robert McEvoy]

What I have noticed is that , when you uninstall programs -
real Player
music match
Microsoft anti Spy ware
It left a lot of errors in the registry
I guess the un installed option does not clean up everything , just leaves
trails
Bob

 

[Guest]

Ken,
Thanks for your reply. You said that the topic was answered in another
newsgroup but you didn't mension in wich one.
Can you help me how to connect the firewall because I am new in that matter.
Thanks

 

[Bruce Chambers]

What I have noticed is that , when you uninstall programs -
real Player
music match
Microsoft anti Spy ware
It left a lot of errors in the registry
I guess the un installed option does not clean up everything , just leaves
trails
Bob

True, many poorly coded uninstallers do leave traces in the registry,
but these have *no* affect upon performances, and only very rarely cause
problems if one subsequently tries to install a newer version of the
same application. They're almost entirely harmless, and the one or two
that do cause difficulties later on can be easily excised using Regedit.

This, however, has absolutely nothing to do with the OP's problem. The
OP has a computer connected to the Internet without firewall protection,
and is receiving spam (and probably other sorts of malware).


--

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

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Ken,
Thanks for your reply. You said that the topic was answered in another
newsgroup but you didn't mension in wich one.
Can you help me how to connect the firewall because I am new in that matter.
Thanks

1) Control Panel > Windows Firewall > On.

2) Upgrade to WinXP's Service Pack 2; its built-in firewall is
automatically enabled.

3) Download and install your choice of the several free personal
firewalls available on the Internet. One such is ZoneAlarm,
www.zonelabs.com.


--

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

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken,
Thanks for your reply.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

You said that the topic was answered in another
newsgroup but you didn't mension in wich one.

Sorry, I don't remember. Rather than my talking the time and trouble to look
for it, I suggest that you do.

Can you help me how to connect the firewall because I am new in that
matter. Thanks

Windows Help and Support is a very easy and good way to get answers to a
basic question like this.

 

[Canopus]

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.

I must admit that after using Reg First Aid, one of the better reg
cleaners, for several years, I have never noticed any improvement in
performance or speed and never seen it actually fix an entry that was
causing a problem.It has, however, on several occasions deleted or changed
something important.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Bruce Chambers scribed in message


I must admit that after using Reg First Aid, one of the better reg
cleaners, for several years, I have never noticed any improvement in
performance or speed and never seen it actually fix an entry that was
causing a problem.It has, however, on several occasions deleted or
changed something important.

So..... I just have to ask: If you knew that the "cleaner" never did
any good and sometimes caused problems, why did you continue using it?
For that matter, given your statments, what makes this product "one of
the better" ones?

(Not being argumentative; I'm honestly curious.)


--

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