Registry tools

[DrJoel]

Over the last few weeks I have been reading about Registry
Utilities. I came to a conclusion that most are dangerous. But yet two
stand out from the others as excellent applications. PC Tools Registry
Mechanic and Macecraft JV16 Power Tools.

Has anyone had any experience with any of these? Or is there
another company that makes something better. None I know are foolproof
or safe, but with care I guess they can be a valuable asset.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

***All*** so called Registry 'cleaners' can be more trouble than they are
worth - including making a system completely unbootable. My advice would be
to let XP manage the Registry by itself.

--


Will Denny
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[DrJoel]

Hi

***All*** so called Registry 'cleaners' can be more trouble than they are
worth - including making a system completely unbootable. My advice would be
to let XP manage the Registry by itself.

I agree to a point, but XP doesn't manage the registry at all. Junk
builds up from add remove programs and such. Which could be as bad as
spy wear slowing down a perfectly good computer.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

All I can repeat is that Registry 'cleaners' are not the bother. The
Registries on my systems certainly don't slow them down.

--


Will Denny
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "DrJoel" <[email protected]>

| I agree to a point, but XP doesn't manage the registry at all. Junk
| builds up from add remove programs and such. Which could be as bad as
| spy wear slowing down a perfectly good computer.

I agree with Will.

Micro managing the OS can have disastrous effects.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I agree to a point, but XP doesn't manage the registry at all.

That's not correct. Where'd you ever hear such nonsense.

Junk
builds up from add remove programs and such. Which could be as bad as
spy wear slowing down a perfectly good computer.

How so? Please provide some sort of documentation (other than the
marketing claims of those selling snake oil remedies) to support this
claim. It defies years of experience supporting the OS in both private
and corporate environments.


--

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

 

[Bob]

I agree to a point, but XP doesn't manage the registry at all. Junk
builds up from add remove programs and such. Which could be as bad as
spy wear slowing down a perfectly good computer.

Do not listen to these people. The usual crowd. People who do not use
registry cleaners tell other people not to use them.

If you use Windows XP, you must use a registry cleaner. Windows XP is a
trash program. It will routinely make 50-60 useless entries in your
registry every week. My wife has been using XP for about a year. She has
over 2000 useless and invalid registry entries.

I download several market newsletters in .pdf format. I print and delete.
There is a useless registry entry for every one of these .pdf files. I
will save a web .html file for later viewing and then deletion. There is a
useless registry entry for every .html file that I delete.

There are two things that the "usual crowd" will not tell you: (1) All such
programs back up the registry before deletion; (2) You do not have to
delete anything. Run the program. See what the registry looks like. You
can use these programs to monitor your registry if nothing else.

I currently use jv but not Registry Mechanic. I use jv and four other
programs. I suggest that you download and install Regseeker. It is free.
See what it says about your registry.

In any event, you should use ERUNT. Unlike Windows XP, It will make a
COMPLETE backup of your registry every day. It is free.

You can also check on CNET. Search registry. See what USERS say about
these programs.

 

[M and D]

When I read a carefully reasoned, well thought out statement like "Windows XP is a trash program", the writer immediately loses all credibility for me. And how did you calculate that "It will routinely make 50-60 useless entries in your registry every week"?

It's people like you for whom registry programs were written.

Steven

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Most of your posting is ***absolute rubbish***. I do, however, agree with
you on ERUNT - which I use. Exporting the Registry via regedit doesn't
export all the hives.

--


Will Denny
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Bob]

When I read a carefully reasoned, well thought out statement like "Windows XP is a trash program", the writer immediately loses all credibility for me. And how did you calculate that "It will routinely make 50-60 useless entries in your registry every week"?

It's people like you for whom registry programs were written.

Steven

Simple. I use a registry cleaner program. Actually, I use five programs.
Obviously, you did not READ my post. The "usual crowd." I did cite
examples. Since you do not use such programs, why are you posting? You
can have no sensible knowledge of registry cleaner programs or even what
your registry looks like. This is not a pissing match. If you have no
knowledge of such programs, stop telling other people not to use them.

In my posts I always recommend that CNET be checked for what USERS have to
say about such programs. You do not qualify

 

[Bob]

Hi

Most of your posting is ***absolute rubbish***. I do, however, agree with
you on ERUNT - which I use. Exporting the Registry via regedit doesn't
export all the hives.

Nice to hear from you again Will. The usual cant. Please explain to me
what is "***absolute rubbish***" in my post.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: <[email protected]>

| On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 21:35:26 -0000, Will Denny wrote:
||
| Nice to hear from you again Will. The usual cant. Please explain to me
| what is "***absolute rubbish***" in my post.

How about the following FUD !

"Do not listen to these people. The usual crowd. People who do not use
registry cleaners tell other people not to use them.

If you use Windows XP, you must use a registry cleaner. Windows XP is a
trash program."

If you think WinXP is trash software, dump it, get Linus or some other OS and move on...

 

[DrJoel]

I have a test machine here in the office that was formated one week ago.
There is nothing on the machine but XP and a few programs including
Office 2003.

I backed up the registry using ERUNT and created a restore point.
I ran Regseeker on this PC it found 700 errors where about half were
green and safe to remove. I choose only green entries and pressed
delete. Regseeker made a backup of the registry and removed the so
called bad entries. I then rebooted the PC and when I was on desktop and
startup programs started to load I received an windows install box
asking me to insert CD for etray item. Couldn't get out of it. Had to
try to restore registry. Restored registry using Regseeker but when I
rebooted I received the same error. I ran system restore and system was
back to normal.

Then I backed up registry again and ran JV16 which only found 25
items most were keys to obsolete install files. I highlighted and
deleted them. Then rebooted,the system ran fine on reboot. I have had
JV16 for years without one problem, and will continue to use it but
entry by entry will be checked before I fix or delete.

P.S. For information: I ran another test opening PDF files, and sure
enough when i had run Regseeker there was an registry entry for each and
every one I opened. So I think in that respect it is true fact that the
registry does get filled with junk.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Is Regseeker one of these so called 'cleaners' that use Green, Orange and
Red? If so, they are the dangerous ones and I still stand by my original
posting in this thread:

*****leave all so called Registry 'cleaners' well alone*****!!!!

--


Will Denny
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Kerry Brown]

I have a test machine here in the office that was formated one week
ago. There is nothing on the machine but XP and a few programs
including Office 2003.

I backed up the registry using ERUNT and created a restore point.
I ran Regseeker on this PC it found 700 errors where about half were
green and safe to remove. I choose only green entries and pressed
delete. Regseeker made a backup of the registry and removed the so
called bad entries. I then rebooted the PC and when I was on desktop
and startup programs started to load I received an windows install box
asking me to insert CD for etray item. Couldn't get out of it. Had to
try to restore registry. Restored registry using Regseeker but when I
rebooted I received the same error. I ran system restore and system
was back to normal.

Then I backed up registry again and ran JV16 which only found 25
items most were keys to obsolete install files. I highlighted and
deleted them. Then rebooted,the system ran fine on reboot. I have had
JV16 for years without one problem, and will continue to use it but
entry by entry will be checked before I fix or delete.

P.S. For information: I ran another test opening PDF files, and sure
enough when i had run Regseeker there was an registry entry for each
and every one I opened. So I think in that respect it is true fact
that the registry does get filled with junk.

As you have discovered not all registry cleaner programs are safe. That is
why many people routinely advise not to use them. Any program that tries to
identify and clean unneeded registry entries has the potential to cause
problems. A good test is to run a cleaner program and remove what it finds.
Run it again. If it finds more then obviously the first changes affected
more than was safe to remove. Many cleaner programs will find more entires
on each run. If you remove all the entries each time your computer will
probably start malfunctioning in very short order. I use registry cleaning
programs once in while in the course of my work, supporting home and
business computer users. They can be useful. They should not be part of a
regular maintenance program. I have done much testing of cleaning and
compacting the registry, both with new computers and computers that have
been in daily use for many months to several years. With a stop watch I
cannot measure any difference in how long it takes Windows to load or do
normal operations after using a program to clean and compact the registry. I
am sure there is a slight performance increase but it is not measurable with
a stop watch. If my reaction time is the significant factor then the
performance increase is not worth the possible bad consequences. If the
computer is experiencing a problem then erunt and JV16 are excellent tools
that may help to pinpoint the problem. Erunt should be used to backup the
registry as part of normal maintenance. JV16 should be reserved for
diagnosing problems.

Kerry

 

[DrJoel]

As you have discovered not all registry cleaner programs are safe. That is
why many people routinely advise not to use them. Any program that tries to
identify and clean unneeded registry entries has the potential to cause
problems. A good test is to run a cleaner program and remove what it finds.
Run it again. If it finds more then obviously the first changes affected
more than was safe to remove. Many cleaner programs will find more entires
on each run. If you remove all the entries each time your computer will
probably start malfunctioning in very short order. I use registry cleaning
programs once in while in the course of my work, supporting home and
business computer users. They can be useful. They should not be part of a
regular maintenance program. I have done much testing of cleaning and
compacting the registry, both with new computers and computers that have
been in daily use for many months to several years. With a stop watch I
cannot measure any difference in how long it takes Windows to load or do
normal operations after using a program to clean and compact the registry. I
am sure there is a slight performance increase but it is not measurable with
a stop watch. If my reaction time is the significant factor then the
performance increase is not worth the possible bad consequences. If the
computer is experiencing a problem then erunt and JV16 are excellent tools
that may help to pinpoint the problem. Erunt should be used to backup the
registry as part of normal maintenance. JV16 should be reserved for
diagnosing problems.

Kerry

That is exactly what I will do keep JV16 for occasional use and Erunt
for Registry backup.

 

[Bob]

From: <[email protected]>

| On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 21:35:26 -0000, Will Denny wrote:
|
|
| Nice to hear from you again Will. The usual cant. Please explain to me
| what is "***absolute rubbish***" in my post.

How about the following FUD !

"Do not listen to these people. The usual crowd. People who do not use
registry cleaners tell other people not to use them.

If you use Windows XP, you must use a registry cleaner. Windows XP is a
trash program."

If you think WinXP is trash software, dump it, get Linus or some other OS and move on...

Actually, I do use Linux (not "Linus") for most of my work. I also use
Apple. I do have a basis for comparison. That is why I use registry
cleaner programs for my XP machine.

 

[Will Denny]

Actually, I do use Linux (not "Linus") for most of my work. I also use
Apple. I do have a basis for comparison. That is why I use registry
cleaner programs for my XP machine.

If you use Linux - go play with the other kiddies and leave the grown up
OSes to the adults!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


--


Will Denny
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Bob]

If you use Linux - go play with the other kiddies and leave the grown up
OSes to the adults!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh! Little boy has a temper tantrum! Little boy has a temper tantrum that
has nothing to do with the original issue! Nasty little boy!

 

[Rodney]

If you use Linux - go play with the other kiddies and leave the grown up
OSes to the adults!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kiddies? Surely you are aware that there are many open-source servers
connected to the Internet (ISP's, large corporations) run by professional,
credentialed, system administrators. Perhaps you have a "history" with
this poster that would cause you to comment thus, however, your comment as
it stands, is unsubstantiated and somewhat unsupportable. Fairly easy and
safe to make that comment here in a protected environment but ...

My experience is that you offer excellent Windows advice and I have been
lurking here for years and seen a lot of your posts. I was suprised
at your response. Perhaps disscussing GNU/Linux is something you should
avoid.

I generally agree with your advice about registry cleaners and I
certainly would not purchase a commercial one. On Windows95&98 I did use
the unsupported Regcleaner from Microsoft. Since it didn't tell the user
what it was doing, I don't know if it was effective, however, it never
broke any system I used it on and I'm fairly sure the Microsoft developers
intended it to clean up something. I would expect that XP handles the
registry very well, because developers should/do learn from mistakes.

There are "kiddies" using any and all operating systems and my 30+ years
experience in the business does not lead me to believe that only "adults"
use Windows (yes, on mainframes before the first PC was sold). Many of
the crackers who are dropping trojans and virus are "script kiddies" using
programs from a Windows platform.

Bob's post is still mostly rubbish (maybe just due to his misinterpreting
what is actually going on with his system), I also worry about novice
users who take advice about someone's favorite program and run it
improperly thereby trashing their system because they haven't taken the
time to understand what's involved, but your post is not exactly
totally objective truth either.

Rodney