RegistryBooster

[Sanford Aranoff]

Are these programs worth the money? Do they actually make
the computer run faster? Are they dangerous?

Win XP, SP2.

My machine has slowed down a lot. I defrag, chkdsk, Webroot
Spy Sweeper, BitDefender AV. 3GHz, 1 GB ram

 

[::- Alias- ::]

Are these programs worth the money? Do they actually make
the computer run faster? Are they dangerous?

Win XP, SP2.

My machine has slowed down a lot. I defrag, chkdsk, Webroot
Spy Sweeper, BitDefender AV. 3GHz, 1 GB ram

And to clean up temp files, what do you do? I suggest using Crap
Cleaner, available for free at www.ccleaner.com Don't use the Issues
feature, just the clean up feature. Registry cleaners usually don't help
and can render your computer useless. Stay away from them.

Alias

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Are these programs worth the money? Do they actually make
the computer run faster? Are they dangerous?

Win XP, SP2.

My machine has slowed down a lot. I defrag, chkdsk, Webroot
Spy Sweeper, BitDefender AV. 3GHz, 1 GB ram

Yes, they are, if you happen to own the company that sells
them. If you're thinking of buying them then they either have
no effect (if you're lucky) or they damage your installation.
Much better to run msconfig.exe and disable the things you
do not recognise under the startup tab. This process is fully
reversible.

 

[Unknown]

You didn't say you run disk cleanup. I suggest you do.

 

[Twayne]

Yes, they are, if you happen to own the company that sells
them. If you're thinking of buying them then they either have
no effect (if you're lucky) or they damage your installation.
Much better to run msconfig.exe and disable the things you
do not recognise under the startup tab. This process is fully
reversible.

MSConfig.exe is a troubleshooting TOOL, not a means to any end. It is
not meant to make permanent fixes; only to prove they will work. It
will give you headaches down the road if you try to use it as a
permanent fix for things:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560 :

(Msconfig.exe). The System Configuration utility helps you find problems
with your Windows XP configuration. It does not manage the programs that
run when Windows starts.

For more information about disabling or permanently removing the
programs that run when Windows starts, click the following article
number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
270035 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/270035/) How to disable programs
that run when you start Windows XP Home Edition or Windows Vista

 

[Twayne]

Are these programs worth the money? Do they actually make

the computer run faster? Are they dangerous?

Win XP, SP2.

My machine has slowed down a lot. I defrag, chkdsk, Webroot
Spy Sweeper, BitDefender AV. 3GHz, 1 GB ram

In general, NO. There are some good ones, free and pay-for, but chances
of the inexperienced user coming across them are low.
System speed decreases can be caused by many, many things, of which t
hese are only small parts. The registry is seldom if ever the root
cause of a slow performing computer system. If other things are causing
the slow down, straightening out the REgistry will almost NEVER be a fix
because the more important things overshadow it. No, RB in particular
is not worth the money IMO.

You -can- try them, as long as you're certain you have a complete
system and data backup of your drive, but otherwise avoid them. You
should do such a backup ANY time you mess around with the internals of
the OS.
There ARE some pretty decent ones out there though, and if you ask I'm
sure folks would give you a list of some of the better ones. ccleaner
is one that comes to mind; use it all the time on another machine.

However, IMO, your problem is more disk clutter, likely either spyware
or file corruption, spyware being most likely. Get, update and run, to
see if they don't help a fair bit:
= Adaware from lavasoft
= Spybot Search and Destroy
= MS Defender
Read and follow all onscreen dialog boxes or they'll do you no good.
If you don't have a firewall installed, you should. ZoneAlarm still
has an excellent freebie if you look hard enough on their site.

First, do a Disk Cleanup. Click start; programs; accessories; system
tools; disk cleanup. After which, do a disk defrag (same location to
start it). Then run the above scanning tools.

This may sound silly but then do a REstart 3 times in a row. That
optimizes, in a way, the registry structure implementations.

In many cases like this, it's going to be faster but less of a learning
experience to simpy do a backup and clean install and rebuild of your
system.
At a minimum, ALWAYS create a Restore Point before starting ANY of
these suggestions so you can go back to where you started from,
system-wise. Better yet, back up the System State; it's slightly more
inclusive.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

MSConfig.exe is a troubleshooting TOOL, not a means to any end. It is not
meant to make permanent fixes; only to prove they will work. It will give
you headaches down the road if you try to use it as a permanent fix for
things:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560 :

(Msconfig.exe). The System Configuration utility helps you find problems
with your Windows XP configuration. It does not manage the programs that
run when Windows starts.

The OP reports that his PC runs sluggishly. MSConfig is a good
tool to help him identify the software that causes the slow operation.
He can then uninstall it permanently.

 

[Daave]

MSConfig.exe is a troubleshooting TOOL, not a means to any end.

How about AutoRuns? I always saw that program as MSConfig on steroids.
Much more useful, but is it any better than MSConfig if a person
unchecks certain items?

 

[Bill in Co.]

This is good to know. I think you're the first to come out and state it's
not such a horrible thing to use msconfig to permanently disable something!
(it seems most like to say if you're doing it in msconfig, you should be
disabling it elsewhere, and not relying on msconfig to do it for you, since
"it's only for troubleshooting")

 

[Bill in Co.]

Are these programs worth the money? Do they actually make
the computer run faster? Are they dangerous?

For so-called "registry booster programs"?
No, no, and yes (potentially).

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Are these programs worth the money?

No.


Do they actually make
the computer run faster?

No.


Are they dangerous?

Yes, very much so.

Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil. 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]

How about AutoRuns? I always saw that program as MSConfig on steroids.
Much more useful, but is it any better than MSConfig if a person
unchecks certain items?

No, not really. Although MSConfig was *meant* to be a troubleshooting
tool, it also works fine for permanent changes.

 

[Daave]

Despite what Twayne claims, msconfig.exe CAN be use to *permanently*
disable (not delete) some startup items. msconfig move the Run keys
selected to another registry key that it knows about (i.e., msconfig's
storage key).

I believe there may be exceptions. In the past (then again, this may
have been a 98SE issue!), I've disabled items, but some would come back!
So there would be duplicate entries: one disabled and one enabled. This
is why I got into the habit of going into the preferences of the
programs I would rather not run automatically at startup.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I believe there may be exceptions. In the past (then again, this may have
been a 98SE issue!), I've disabled items, but some would come back! So
there would be duplicate entries: one disabled and one enabled. This is
why I got into the habit of going into the preferences of the programs I
would rather not run automatically at startup.

Deleted registry entries wouldn't "come back", as you put it -
they were restored by the respective program that was not
completely disabled. For example: If a program such as a
virus scanner has a "Service" component and a "Program"
component then it's not to hard for the service component to
restore the Program component in case it gets removed from
the registry. ZoneAlarm is a fine example - it used to be very
difficult to completely disable it.

 

[Daave]

Deleted registry entries wouldn't "come back", as you put it -
they were restored by the respective program that was not
completely disabled. For example: If a program such as a
virus scanner has a "Service" component and a "Program"
component then it's not to hard for the service component to
restore the Program component in case it gets removed from
the registry. ZoneAlarm is a fine example - it used to be very
difficult to completely disable it.

Yes, that is what I was referring to; you did a fine job explaining the
phenomenon!