Registry cleaners

[Sid Snot]

There are heaps of registry cleaners available from websites.

All of them profess to be excellent in terms of cleaning up
redundant, unwanted registry items.

I regularly use some of these cleaners all of which seem to find
different items to delete. A bit like spyware removers such as Spybot
and Adaware both of which find items that the other doesn't.

It seems very strange to me that even though I use registry cleaners,
an inspection of my registry using Regedit reveals a host of
items relating to software I have used and long since uninstalled.
Registry Mechanic and others doesn't seem to be interested in these
items notwithstanding the fact that they are superfluous and
worthy of being deleted.

If Registry cleaners do the job they're supposed to, why do these
items remain ?

Sid.

 

[Kevin]

Because, for the most part, registry cleaners do not work. If they did,
there would only be one or two to choose from. The registry is a
black-and-white kind of place. Either something belongs in there, or it
doesn't. Therefore, software that would clean the registry would have an
image of a "perfect" registry and use that image to compare your real-world
registry and clean out the "imperfect" parts. Such software would be easy
to build and just about any company could do it. This would make
competition irrelevant and the software makers would go out of business,
leaving only one or two companies in business.

 

[Rich Barry]

Sid, probably the best and safest Registry Cleaner is regedit. Just go to
Start>Run type: regedit
Then Navigate to HKey_Local_Machine\Software. Any program folder you
find there that has been removed by you
delete it. Same with Hkey_Current_User\Software. The other place of
interest is HKey_Local_Machine\Software\
Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run, Run Once, RunOnceEx etc.
These Run Folders contain entries for
programs that open on startup of WinXP. If a program is no longer
needed at startup remove the entry from the rt pane
here.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

If Registry cleaners do the job they're supposed to, why do these
items remain ?

I think you've pretty much answered your own question. I mean, after
all, aren't you using snake oil remedies to address non-existent
problems? Why would you expect any real benefits?


--

Bruce Chambers

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