Registry cleaner

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Guest

Hey everybody, and thanks in advance for your help. Do you happen to know a
good registry cleaner that is free to use and won't add to the mayhem in a
pc? Something that can address errors for admin. rights, etc. TX
 
Hi

NO - please let XP manage the Registry for you. If you try and use one of
these so called Registry 'cleaners' all kinds of problems can and do arise -
including a non-bootable system.

--


Will Denny

MS MVP Shell/User
Please Reply to the News Groups
 
Scorpy tunes said:
Hey everybody, and thanks in advance for your help. Do you happen to know a
good registry cleaner that is free to use and won't add to the mayhem in a
pc? Something that can address errors for admin. rights, etc. TX
Click to expand...

Instead of replying, I will copy an item posted a few minutes
ago in microsoft.public.win2000.general:
===============
My Win2000 system boots normally... at the Win2000 Professional log on
screen I get a blinking cursor in the password box and can't go any further.

The log on screen is unable to recognize ANY input from the keyboard. No
mouse cursor shows on the screen. Holding keys down produces no beeps.

The keyboard tests out fine in DOS mode in the Bios setup screen and is
correctly plugged in.

I used a reg cleaning tool which was responsible for this situation.
===============

I trust this is warning enough for you. Registry cleaners produce no
discernible benefit (at best) or they wreck your machine (at worst).
 
There is no "good" registry cleaner. They all think they know more than
they actually do.
 
The question is, of course: Did these invalid entries affect your
PC's performance in any way or were they just junk lying about?
It's the same with most disks: They have junk lying about that
does not degrade the PC in any away (other than consuming a
certain amount of space).

Or more accurately: Did you measure your PC's performance
before and after? I claim that registry cleaners give the user a
warm and glowing feeling inside but nothing else. So far nobody
has come up with any solid evidence to the contrary.
 
Scorpy said:
Hey everybody, and thanks in advance for your help. Do you happen to know a
good registry cleaner that is free to use and won't add to the mayhem in a
pc? Something that can address errors for admin. rights, etc. TX
Click to expand...


By "good," I assume you mean the one least likely to render your
computer completely unusable?

Why do you think you need to clean your registry?

What specific *problems* are you actually experiencing (not some
program's bogus listing of imaginary problems) that you think can be
fixed by using a registry cleaner? 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

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
 
Will said:
MS offers this cleaner which when I last used it removed 256 invalid entries
from my registry. http://safety.live.com/site/en-ca/center/cleanup.htm
Click to expand...

Ah, but so-called "invalid" or "orphaned" entries are almost always
completely harmless. Was there actually anything wrong with your system
before you ran the scanner? What *specific* problems were you
experiencing that using One Care actually fixed?


--

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
 
Pegasus said:
Instead of replying, I will copy an item posted a few minutes
ago in microsoft.public.win2000.general:
===============
My Win2000 system boots normally... at the Win2000 Professional log
on screen I get a blinking cursor in the password box and can't go
any further.

The log on screen is unable to recognize ANY input from the keyboard.
No mouse cursor shows on the screen. Holding keys down produces no
beeps.

The keyboard tests out fine in DOS mode in the Bios setup screen and
is correctly plugged in.

I used a reg cleaning tool which was responsible for this situation.
===============

I trust this is warning enough for you. Registry cleaners produce no
discernible benefit (at best) or they wreck your machine (at worst).
Click to expand...

Oh, that's bound to be a credible source, huh? Anyone could write that.

You guys all abound wiht advice about learning things, but you never do
anything to help people learn. It gets tiresome. There ARE some very valid
uses for a "cleaner" but you choose to paint the entire world in one color;
uh, uh: Not so.
 
Pegasus said:
The question is, of course: Did these invalid entries affect your
PC's performance in any way or were they just junk lying about?
It's the same with most disks: They have junk lying about that
does not degrade the PC in any away (other than consuming a
certain amount of space).
Click to expand...

Complexity = opportunity. For every added nibble of data there is added
opportunity for corruption and timing issues. I've seen cases where a
registry fix was responsible for halving the boot time for an XP machine
because three successive lookups had to fail before the next one could run.
Or more accurately: Did you measure your PC's performance
before and after?
Click to expand...

Have YOU done that? Under what conditions? Would you like some conditions
to demonstrate the issues? I happen to have a few tucked away in my
archives that I could dig out if I were so inclined.

I claim that registry cleaners give the user a
warm and glowing feeling inside but nothing else. So far nobody
has come up with any solid evidence to the contrary.
Click to expand...

No, what you mean is, YOU choose to NOT read or accept such evidence. To
say there is no evidence is as ignorant a response as such cleaners are a
total waste. Even the Microsoft line on the subject differs from what you
followers have failed to undersand. You guys are like mailwhasher who
refuses to admit that their "bounce" feature can't be told from the real
thing and that it cannot spam. Every "bounce" they create turns into spam
becuase they address a forged name in the spams. It's a head in the sand
approach because they don't like change.

Sorry,

Pop`
 
Bruce said:
Ah, but so-called "invalid" or "orphaned" entries are almost always
completely harmless. Was there actually anything wrong with your
system before you ran the scanner? What *specific* problems were you
experiencing that using One Care actually fixed?
Click to expand...

Possibly not; but every orphaned entry is an opportunity to cause corruption
and a huge block against learning anything legitimate about the hives and
their contents because the orphaned information isn't consistant. And is
even often from a badly implemented removal process.
A good author removes what he knows he put there. If that happened,
there would be a lto fewer problems. Remember, those so-called orphaned
entries exist in many different places in the hives, along with other things
related TO them.

I hate disarray. I have always judiciously used various methods of
maintaining my registries. I have never had a program screw anything up on
me. I have managed to do my own manual damage a time or two, but ... that's
not about cleaners <g>, that's ME!

Instead of being such naysayers, you guys should become part of the solution
and think about giving USEFULL RESPONSES. What NOT to do is only useful
when it's accompanied by what TO do, or a valid reason for why it's not
there.

Sorry; have no patience with closed minds.

Pop`
 
Bruce said:
By "good," I assume you mean the one least likely to render your
computer completely unusable?

Why do you think you need to clean your registry?

What specific *problems* are you actually experiencing (not some
program's bogus listing of imaginary problems) that you think can be
fixed by using a registry cleaner? 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.
Click to expand...

That's a good response with the exception of only needing "one or two"
places in the registry tweaked, and expecting the average joe to learn what
you know in any length of itme that would help them, IFF they could even
learn it.
Other than that, it's a much better approach than the others were.
 
Scorpy said:
Hey everybody, and thanks in advance for your help. Do you happen to
know a good registry cleaner that is free to use and won't add to the
mayhem in a pc? Something that can address errors for admin. rights,
etc. TX
Click to expand...


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.
 
Poprivet said:
Possibly not; but every orphaned entry is an opportunity to cause corruption
and a huge block against learning anything legitimate about the hives and
their contents because the orphaned information isn't consistant.
Click to expand...


I'm sorry, but that sentence just doesn't make any sense to me. What
language was it translated from?


And is
even often from a badly implemented removal process.
Click to expand...

That make even less sense. Please use complete sentences if you're
truly trying to convey meaning.

A good author removes what he knows he put there. If that happened,
there would be a lto fewer problems. Remember, those so-called orphaned
entries exist in many different places in the hives, along with other things
related TO them.
Click to expand...

Orphaned entries exist, certainly. No one has ever denied that. Just
as no one has ever proved that those orphaned entries cause any harm.

I hate disarray. I have always judiciously used various methods of
maintaining my registries. I have never had a program screw anything up on
me. I have managed to do my own manual damage a time or two, but ... that's
not about cleaners <g>, that's ME!
Click to expand...


And so you think an inexperienced user won't also mis-use those same
registry to do their own damage? On what leap of faith do you base that
conclusion?

Instead of being such naysayers, you guys should become part of the solution
and think about giving USEFULL RESPONSES. What NOT to do is only useful
when it's accompanied by what TO do, or a valid reason for why it's not
there.
Click to expand...

You clearly didn't read my entire post. I told the OP to use Regedit
to remove any specific keys that are causing specific problems. And how
is warning an inexperienced user about the proven dangers of snake-oil
"remedies" *not* useful? Do you work for one of those scam artists?

Sorry; have no patience with closed minds.
Click to expand...

.... And apparently no recognition of knowledge gained through years of
experience repairing computers.



--

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
 
Poprivet said:
That's a good response with the exception of only needing "one or two"
places in the registry tweaked, and expecting the average joe to learn what
you know in any length of itme that would help them, IFF they could even
learn it.
Other than that, it's a much better approach than the others were.
Click to expand...


Granted, most registry "cleaners" won't cause problems each and
every time they're used, but the potential for harm is always there.
And, since no registry "cleaner" has ever been demonstrated to do any
good (think of them like treating the flu with chicken soup - there's no
real medicinal value, but it sometimes provides a warming placebo
effect), I always tell people that the risks far out-weigh the
non-existent benefits.

I will concede that a good registry scanning tool, in the hands of
an experienced and knowledgeable technician or hobbyist can be a useful
time-saving diagnostic tool, as long as it's not allowed to make any
changes automatically. But I really don't think that there are any
registry cleaners that are truly safe for the general public to use.
Experience has proven just the opposite: such tools simply are not safe
in the hands of the inexperienced user.


--

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
 
But BE VERY SURE to read the part about "oh-oh"!

What if I accidentally remove something I need in my registry?

Not to worry. Just like Microsoft Word, your PC has an "undo" option. In
this case, it's called System Restore. Once it's finished scanning, the
Windows Live OneCare safety scanner creates a System Restore point on
your PC. This allows you to revert your system to its original state,
before you performed the scan, in case you inadvertently remove any
valid registry items.
 
Hi Scporpy tunes - 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, here:
http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/files/tun235.zip, 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,
My Blog, Defending Your Machine,
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/



In Scorpy tunes <[email protected](donotspam)> typed:
|| Hey everybody, and thanks in advance for your help. Do you happen
|| to know a good registry cleaner that is free to use and won't add to
|| the mayhem in a pc? Something that can address errors for admin.
|| rights, etc. TX --
|| RB
 
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