Registry Cleaners

[James]

Are they reasonably safe to use and is there a recommendation in terms
of which is best? I've been in a discussion on another forum in which
several highly tout the new Regseeker. I've read here that most MVP's
(if not all) discourage the use of registry cleaners but I wanted to
make certain that I wasn't misunderstanding something. Thanks.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

XP mangages the Registry very well by itself. Some of these so called
Registry 'cleaners' can, and do cause more harm than they are worth - in
some instances rendering a PC unbootable. May I suggest that you let XP
manage its own Registry and give these 'cleaners' a wide berth?

 

[kurttrail]

Are they reasonably safe to use and is there a recommendation in terms
of which is best? I've been in a discussion on another forum in which
several highly tout the new Regseeker. I've read here that most MVP's
(if not all) discourage the use of registry cleaners but I wanted to
make certain that I wasn't misunderstanding something. Thanks.

It is a matter of common sense.

If you are experiencing a problem, fix it.

No problem, don't try to fix what ain't broken.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[Jim Donovan]

There are a lot of small apps out there which purport to clean your
registry, however they do mess things up if not careful, one I use is System
Mechanic 5 Pro, it will create restore points as well as backing up the
registry before repairing/fixing/cleaning. A free app which I also use to
clean out a lot of stuff you will be surprised is still on your system is
from http://www.ccleaner.com/ This app will also help clean your registry
from "issues" broken links, unused, uninstaller information from programs
which left garbage behind after you removed through Add/Remove, which if MS
were really worth their $ would get it so all orphaned files belonging to
programs would be collected during the Add/Remove function.

Whatever you plan to do, read up on the registry and back up often


Luck

Jim

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Are they reasonably safe to use and is there a recommendation
in terms
of which is best? I've been in a discussion on another forum in
which
several highly tout the new Regseeker. I've read here that most
MVP's
(if not all) discourage the use of registry cleaners but I
wanted to
make certain that I wasn't misunderstanding something. Thanks.

My advice is don't use any of them. In most cases the "cleaning"
they do is completely unnecessary, and there is always
substantial risk of their doing damage.

 

[Malke]

Are they reasonably safe to use and is there a recommendation in terms
of which is best? I've been in a discussion on another forum in which
several highly tout the new Regseeker. I've read here that most MVP's
(if not all) discourage the use of registry cleaners but I wanted to
make certain that I wasn't misunderstanding something. Thanks.

You're not misunderstanding anything.

Malke

 

[Guest]

in the hands of an expert computer user they are
dangerous, in the hands of a novice they are fatal.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Are they reasonably safe to use and is there a recommendation in terms
of which is best? I've been in a discussion on another forum in which
several highly tout the new Regseeker. I've read here that most MVP's
(if not all) discourage the use of registry cleaners but I wanted to
make certain that I wasn't misunderstanding something. Thanks.

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.

What specific problem are you experiencing that you *know* beyond
all reasonable doubt will be fixed by using an automated 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. Why
use a shotgun 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.

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:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

snip

I regularly use Regseeker without problems. I don't know whether it is the
'best' whatever that means but it appears to do the job effectively and
provides automatic backup of the Registry before changes are made.

Regardless what method is used to make changes to the Registry, it is
prudent to ensure you are able to restore whatever changes you make, this
applies equally to 'manual' edits by Regedit as it does to programs such as
Regseeker. At least most Registry cleaning programs do backup the Registry
before changes are made whereas Regedit does not. Do not trust System
Restore as your sole source of a Registry 'backup' as System Restore is not
reliable.

 

[Alias]

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.

On Sunday I removed over 300 entries to the registry using SystemSuite 5.0.
SS 5.0 has a feature that searches your registry and comes up with a list of
entries that are not right, catagorized as green, yellow and red. The green
ones are safe to remove. The yellow and red ones require looking at the path
and seeing whether you should remove them or leave them alone. SS 5.0,
unlike regedit, makes a back up of what you've removed to you can restore it
if something goes wrong. I have been using SS 5.0 for over three years and
have never, ever, had to restore what I have removed and I am no computer
expert. I highly recommend SS 5.0 not only for that but for the TrendMicro
AV and Sygate Firewall. It's clean up is far more thorough than XP's
resident Disk Clean Up. The also give you Power Desk as a part of the deal.

Alias

 

[Will Denny]

On Sunday I removed over 300 entries to the registry using SystemSuite
5.0. SS 5.0 has a feature that searches your registry and comes up with a
list of entries that are not right, catagorized as green, yellow and red.
The green ones are safe to remove. The yellow and red ones require looking
at the path and seeing whether you should remove them or leave them alone.
SS 5.0, unlike regedit, makes a back up of what you've removed to you can
restore it if something goes wrong. I have been using SS 5.0 for over
three years and have never, ever, had to restore what I have removed and I
am no computer expert. I highly recommend SS 5.0 not only for that but for
the TrendMicro AV and Sygate Firewall. It's clean up is far more thorough
than XP's resident Disk Clean Up. The also give you Power Desk as a part
of the deal.

Hi

Color coding Registry entries - who was the brains behind that idea!!??
It's a ridulous suggestion that all the 'green' colored entries are 'safe'
to remove. These are the kind of so called Registry 'cleaners' that can and
do cause untold harm to a system. A lot of people don't know what the paths
for the 'yellow' and 'red' entries may mean to the overall working of the
Registry!!

 

[Alias]

Hi

Color coding Registry entries - who was the brains behind that idea!!??
It's a ridulous suggestion that all the 'green' colored entries are 'safe'
to remove.

Actually, it suggests deleting some and changing the paths to others. I have
no green entries on any of my three computers and all work fine so you were
saying?

These are the kind of so called Registry 'cleaners' that can and do cause
untold harm to a system.

Not to me in three years nor to a friend who fixes computers since the
program was made by Ontrack back in the mid nineties so you were saying?

A lot of people don't know what the paths for the 'yellow' and 'red'
entries may mean to the overall working of the Registry!!

Have you tried SS 5.0? If not, SFU. It's a great program and not one
computer that I know of has had problems from using it. If you think you can
argue with a 100% success rate, you have problems, not SS 5.0.

Alias

 

[Will Denny]

"> Have you tried SS 5.0? If not, SFU. It's a great program and not one

computer that I know of has had problems from using it. If you think you
can argue with a 100% success rate, you have problems, not SS 5.0.

Alias

NO Registry 'cleaner' is a great/good/efficient/even slightly good program.
I won't allow them near any of my machines. If I think there is some dross
that needs deleting I'll manually edit the Registry, not leave up to some
program that **it** decides on which entries should be deleted. I wish you
would stop recommending Registry 'cleaners' - they are **not** worth the
bother!!

 

[Alias]

"> Have you tried SS 5.0? If not, SFU. It's a great program and not one

NO Registry 'cleaner' is a great/good/efficient/even slightly good
program. I won't allow them near any of my machines. If I think there is
some dross that needs deleting I'll manually edit the Registry, not leave
up to some program that **it** decides on which entries should be deleted.
I wish you would stop recommending Registry 'cleaners' - they are **not**
worth the bother!!

100%. You obviously have not tried it. Yes, it is worth the "bother" and I
will continue to recommend it.

Alias

 

[Will Denny]

100%. You obviously have not tried it. Yes, it is worth the "bother" and I
will continue to recommend it.

Alias

I'll go my way, you go your way. You'll find you're wrong in the opinion of
so these called Registry 'cleaners'!!!!

 

[Jerry Schwartz]

I'm having a persistent "Registry Recovery" pop-up (every time I boot); are
there any utilities or procedures that might help me fix this?

There's no obvious information as to what, in the registry, is hosed; and
obviously the automated recovery isn't working because the problem never
goes away.

--
Regards,

Jerry Schwartz
http://www.writebynight.com
e-card JerryS https://ecardfile.com/

 

[Alias]

I'll go my way, you go your way. You'll find you're wrong in the opinion
of so these called Registry 'cleaners'!!!!

I wouldn't call SS 5.0 a "cleaner" but a "fixer". How you can argue with
100% when you haven't even tried the program is beyond me. Just because
other programs that you may have used or heard about suck doesn't mean that
SS 5.0 sucks.

Mind you, I removed over 300 entries on Sunday and my computer is running
like silk and boots faster.

Alias

 

[Will Denny]

I wouldn't call SS 5.0 a "cleaner" but a "fixer". How you can argue with
100% when you haven't even tried the program is beyond me. Just because
other programs that you may have used or heard about suck doesn't mean
that SS 5.0 sucks.

Mind you, I removed over 300 entries on Sunday and my computer is running
like silk and boots faster.

Alias

The only time I boot my systems is after a Windows Update. So are you
saying you have to boot your system more often now after using this
'cleaner'?

 

[Alias]

The only time I boot my systems is after a Windows Update. So are you
saying you have to boot your system more often now after using this
'cleaner'?

I boot my system after AV updates, WU and program installations. No, I don't
have to boot my system more often.

Alias

 

[Will Denny]

I wouldn't call SS 5.0 a "cleaner" but a "fixer". How you can argue with

I boot my system after AV updates, WU and program installations. No, I
don't have to boot my system more often.

Alias

You're **not** getting the point are you!!?? Registry 'cleaners' under no
circumstance should be used!!!!!!!!