Registry Cleaner?

[Charliec]

I shopping for a registry cleaner and am confused by the assortment
out there. Which is the best registry cleaner and why? How good is
Max Registry Cleaner, which was rated tops in some comparisons.

Thanks for any insights.

Charlie
******************************************************
Charliec

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I shopping for a registry cleaner and am confused by the assortment
out there. Which is the best registry cleaner and why? How good is
Max Registry Cleaner, which was rated tops in some comparisons.

Why would you think you need to clean your registry?

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.

On those rare occasions when I suspect there might be a problem in
the registry, 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

 

[Curt Christianson]

Charlie,

Heed Bruce's advice, lest you return here saying "I used this Registry
cleaner, and now I can't..."

They are worthless.

--
HTH,
Curt

Windows Support Center
http://aumha.org/

 

[Ron Seiden]

Despite arguments that it's not needed (admittedly, my friends who never do
any of the nitty gritty maintenance that I do don't seem to have any more
problems than I do), you might want to try System Mechanic. It's got several
utilities wrapped into one package, and its registry cleaner has never
caused me *any* trouble. (I've got it set to compact the registry upon next
bootup after a cleaning.) It's one of those programs I tried in a free
download trial version and liked so much that I ante'd up for a full legit
copy. I like to do a full cleanup of my system preparatory to a disk defrag.

 

[Charliec]

Thanks for the rundown Bruce. Your comments make a lot of sense. When
I uninstall a program, I generally use Regedit to seek out and remove
left over entries (after reviewing each one carefully). From your
comments and those of others, I think I will hold off on the registry
cleaner position.

Thanks
Charlie

Why would you think you need to clean your registry?

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.

On those rare occasions when I suspect there might be a problem in
the registry, 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.

******************************************************
Charliec

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I shopping for a registry cleaner and am confused by the assortment
out there. Which is the best registry cleaner and why? How good is
Max Registry Cleaner, which was rated tops in some comparisons.

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 any 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.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Despite arguments that it's not needed (admittedly, my friends who
never do any of the nitty gritty maintenance that I do don't seem to
have any more problems than I do), you might want to try System
Mechanic. It's got several utilities wrapped into one package, and
its registry cleaner has never caused me *any* trouble.

Nobody here claims that every time you use a registry cleaner, something bad
will happen to you. The issue is that you run the *risk* that it will screw
something up.

If it's never caused you any trouble, consider yourself lucky. Next time it
might.

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

snip

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.

snip

While I do not disagree with your position concerning the 'need' to clean
the Registry I have reservations concerning the warnings of impending doom
if you do use this type of software.

Your suggestion that 'manually' editing the Registry is the preferred to
using a 'Registry Cleaner' exposes the OP to the same if not greater
potential for error than using a Registry Cleaner. Usually 'Registry
Cleaners' do include automatic backup of the Registry before changes are
made whereas a Registry backup may not always made when manually editing the
Registry. System Restore, due to its inherent lack of reliability is not to
be relied upon to provide a Registry 'backup', at least in my opinion.

 

[Rock]

snip
snip

While I do not disagree with your position concerning the 'need' to clean
the Registry I have reservations concerning the warnings of impending doom
if you do use this type of software.

Your suggestion that 'manually' editing the Registry is the preferred to
using a 'Registry Cleaner' exposes the OP to the same if not greater
potential for error than using a Registry Cleaner. Usually 'Registry
Cleaners' do include automatic backup of the Registry before changes are
made whereas a Registry backup may not always made when manually editing
the Registry. System Restore, due to its inherent lack of reliability is
not to be relied upon to provide a Registry 'backup', at least in my
opinion.

I don't understand your logic. One should not make changes in the registry
without knowing what you are doing and taking proper backup precautions.
You know what you are changing and should be researching those changes
before doing it. This is a world of difference from letting a program
automatically make the changes it deems are appropriate.

We regularly get posts in here where the OP states they ran a registry
cleaner and now such and such problems have surfaced. And many times when
told to run the undo they say there is none. It's much less common to get a
post where the OP said I made such and such a change in the registry and now
I have this problem. The point is why run something that gains you nothing,
but has the potential to cause problems?

System restore when properly maintained can be valuable, but one should
never rely on a single means for backup and recovery. SR is just one means.
Regularly backing up the registry with ERUNT is another good thing to do,
along with drive imaging and regular and full backups.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

snip
snip

While I do not disagree with your position concerning the 'need' to
clean the Registry I have reservations concerning the warnings of
impending doom if you do use this type of software.

Your suggestion that 'manually' editing the Registry is the preferred
to using a 'Registry Cleaner' exposes the OP to the same if not
greater potential for error than using a Registry Cleaner.

Three points:

1. "Impending doom" are your words, not mine. I made no such suggestion, and
I think the term is a giant overstatement. I talked about *risk* of a
problem, not "impending doom." In fact, in another message in this thread I
said "Nobody here claims that every time you use a registry cleaner,
something bad will happen to you. The issue is that you run the *risk* that
it will screw something up."

2. I made no suggestion that " 'manually' editing the Registry is the
preferred to using a 'Registry Cleaner.' " In fact what I said was that the
registry does not normally need to be cleaned, whether automatically or
manually.

3.Notwithstanding point 2 above, *if* a correction to the registry needs to
made manually, it should only be done by an experienced competent person.
The last thing I would recommend is that beginners start fooling around with
the registry themselves. Certainly there is an enormous potential for error
unless you clearly know what you are doing and make appropriate backups,
etc.

The above may sound like I am disagreeing with you, but in fact I think we
basically agree. My only real objection to your post is that you are putting
words into my mouth.

Usually
'Registry Cleaners' do include automatic backup of the Registry
before changes are made whereas a Registry backup may not always made
when manually editing the Registry. System Restore, due to its
inherent lack of reliability is not to be relied upon to provide a
Registry 'backup', at least in my opinion.

I have personally never had a problem with System Restore, although I'm well
aware that others have. It isn't clear to me why some people have problems
and others don't. Nevertheless, I don't personally rely on System Restore,
because I want to have two strings to my bow. I also use the excellent
freeware program ERUNT (even when I'm not editing the registry).

Also note, when discussing a registry cleaner's automatic backup, that if
the resulting problem makes the computer unbootable, you will probably not
be able to recover using the backup. Backup is always good, but in this case
it's not always sufficient protection.

 

[Phisherman]

I shopping for a registry cleaner and am confused by the assortment
out there. Which is the best registry cleaner and why? How good is
Max Registry Cleaner, which was rated tops in some comparisons.

Thanks for any insights.

Charlie
******************************************************
Charliec

Warning: I used Registry Mechanic and it removed/changed over 650
entries in the registry. Granted, this did clean out a lot unused
entries but it made me wonder if all these were safely removed. A
week later I was crashing all the time and had to reinstall the O/S
and all the applications. Just doing that gave be a clean registry
and fine-running O/S--At that point I made a O/S backup so I can
restore easily. Whatever you decide, I strongly recommend that you
prepare for a possible reinstall.

 

[TKM]

Warning: I used Registry Mechanic and it removed/changed over 650
entries in the registry. Granted, this did clean out a lot unused
entries but it made me wonder if all these were safely removed. A
week later I was crashing all the time and had to reinstall the O/S
and all the applications. Just doing that gave be a clean registry
and fine-running O/S--At that point I made a O/S backup so I can
restore easily. Whatever you decide, I strongly recommend that you
prepare for a possible reinstall.

Why didn't you just go back to a previous registry set point or make a copy
of the registry before running Registry Mechanic?

TKM

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

Warning: I used Registry Mechanic and it removed/changed over 650
entries in the registry. Granted, this did clean out a lot unused
entries but it made me wonder if all these were safely removed. A
week later I was crashing all the time and had to reinstall the O/S
and all the applications. Just doing that gave be a clean registry
and fine-running O/S--At that point I made a O/S backup so I can
restore easily. Whatever you decide, I strongly recommend that you
prepare for a possible reinstall.

If your problems did not materialize until a week after running Registry
Mechanic I think you can be sure the problems did not relates to that
activity.

 

[Rock]

If your problems did not materialize until a week after running Registry
Mechanic I think you can be sure the problems did not relates to that
activity.

I don't think you can draw that conclusion. That is one of the problems
with automated registry cleaners. The effects don't always surface
immediately because it may remove an entry for something you don't use right
then. Using a registry cleaner to give you advise about what to look at to
delete, then researching what it's about and making an informed decision is
the way to use one. And then again you don't need to "clean" the registry
just to clean it. Unused entries don't necessarily cause problems. Make
changes in the registry when it's needed, not just to assuage some inner
need to keep things "clean".

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

I don't think you can draw that conclusion. That is one of the problems
with automated registry cleaners. The effects don't always surface
immediately because it may remove an entry for something you don't use
right then. Using a registry cleaner to give you advise about what to
look at to delete, then researching what it's about and making an informed
decision is the way to use one. And then again you don't need to "clean"
the registry just to clean it. Unused entries don't necessarily cause
problems. Make changes in the registry when it's needed, not just to
assuage some inner need to keep things "clean".

If by 'crashing' the OP meant a specific program failed then I would agree
with you but 'crashing' and a reinstall of the O/S (in my interpretation),
as was posted, suggests the fault was in the O/S in which case a week delay
in that event would not point to problems with 'cleaning the registry'.

 

[Rock]

If by 'crashing' the OP meant a specific program failed then I would agree
with you but 'crashing' and a reinstall of the O/S (in my interpretation),
as was posted, suggests the fault was in the O/S in which case a week
delay in that event would not point to problems with 'cleaning the
registry'.

True there isn't enough enough to know what was happening in that poster's
case. I was commenting more on the sometimes delayed effects we see posted
in here when a registry cleaner is used.