Vista Registry and Systeam Cleaning Tools. Any Recommendations?

[Guest]

Hi there, I have been an XP user and with that I have successfully used PC
Tools Registry Mechanic and Webroot Window Washer for maintaining my system.

Window washer is supposed to be fully Vista compatible and Registry Mechanic
is supposed to offer basic Vista support.

Does any one recommend any other system maintaining software for Vista?

Im wondering if there is good registry tool or system checking tool out
there to help heep my PC running fine?

 

[Michael Yardley]

Hi there, I have been an XP user and with that I have successfully used PC
Tools Registry Mechanic and Webroot Window Washer for maintaining my system.

Window washer is supposed to be fully Vista compatible and Registry Mechanic
is supposed to offer basic Vista support.

Does any one recommend any other system maintaining software for Vista?

Im wondering if there is good registry tool or system checking tool out
there to help heep my PC running fine?

Do not touch the Registry period in Vista. There have been recent
posts on this .On a Registry scan I have over 400 errors showing. I
have been told to leave them along. If you try to clean the Registry
you can do untold non fixable harm. Leave it well alone. Just live
with any errors like I do. Vista can handle it.

 

[Dave]

....or you can just backup your registry first. I have used Registry
Mechanic, Tuneup Utilities, Vista Manager, Advanced System Optimiser and
CCleaner and Vista is running smoothly and I've never had to restore the
registry from a backup. Registry Mechanic does have a bit of an issue on
Vista x64 though.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi there, I have been an XP user and with that I have successfully used PC
Tools Registry Mechanic and Webroot Window Washer for maintaining my system.

Window washer is supposed to be fully Vista compatible and Registry Mechanic
is supposed to offer basic Vista support.

Does any one recommend any other system maintaining software for Vista?

Im wondering if there is good registry tool or system checking tool out
there to help heep my PC running fine?

There's no such thing as a "good" registry cleaner for any OS.
About the best that can be said for any of them is that they don't
render the computer unusable each time you use one.

Why do you think you'd ever 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 only thing needed to safely clean
your registry is knowledge and Regedit.exe.

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 repeatedly 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. 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.

More importantly, no one has ever demonstrated that the use of an
automated registry cleaner, particularly by an untrained, inexperienced
computer user, does any real good, whatsoever. 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. Given the potential for harm, it's just not worth the risk.

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.

For other cleaning and maintenance, Vista's built-in tools are more
than sufficient.


--

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

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Greg]

There's no such thing as a "good" registry cleaner for any OS. About
the best that can be said for any of them is that they don't render the
computer unusable each time you use one.

Why do you think you'd ever 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 only thing needed to safely clean your
registry is knowledge and Regedit.exe.

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 repeatedly 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. 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.

More importantly, no one has ever demonstrated that the use of an
automated registry cleaner, particularly by an untrained, inexperienced
computer user, does any real good, whatsoever. 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.
Given the potential for harm, it's just not worth the risk.

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.

For other cleaning and maintenance, Vista's built-in tools are more than
sufficient.


--

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

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

That's some real good advice Bruce but are you taking into account that most
of the average users have NO idea of the ramifications of incorrectly
"editing the registry". Even with the backup you suggest, many users would
have no idea of how to restore it. Do YOU know what you're doing?

 

[Guest]

Only if you constantly install/uninstall programs, should you consider using
a registry cleaner.

among freeware i can safely vouch for 'ccleaner'.

 

[Adam Albright]

goorambatman wrote:

There's no such thing as a "good" registry cleaner for any OS.
About the best that can be said for any of them is that they don't
render the computer unusable each time you use one.

Based on your totally undocumented highly biased inflammatory opinion.
Thanks for sharing.

Why do you think you'd ever 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.

Well duh, that points to the problem with your advice. If people
already KNEW in advance what if anything was wrong or unnecessary in
their Windows Registry then of course they wouldn't have any need for
any Registry Clearer. Typical pompous overblown over the top useless
grandstanding type of comment we see often in this newsgroup.
Basically just another you're a dummy that don't know what you're
doing, I do kind of "advise" that only serves to pump up the ego of
the person offering it.

The FACT is people don't know. Sorry, you don't either. I know that's
true since the typical Registry runs tens of thousands of lines, so
show me anybody claiming they know exactly what each line does and
I'll show you a fool that's just shooting off his mouth.

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 only thing needed to safely clean
your registry is knowledge and Regedit.exe.

Typical fallacy building. You try to make it look like everyone using
a Registry Cleaner will push some auto clean/fix button (bad choice)
and thereby cause more harm than good. That is a false assumption not
based on anything factual and is really just fear mongering designed
to spread discreditable, misrepresentative information to induce fear
and apprehension. Why do you want to do that?

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.

The typical Registry is also cluttered with tons of unnecessary junk,
orphaned links, useless little or never used pointers. A good Registry
Cleaner will list such things and give you the OPTION to delete as
little or as much junk as you want. What you're doing is no better
than Bush yelling terrorist, terrorist, we have to fight them over
there so we don't have to fight them here kind of bullshit. Again it
is fear mongering, nothing more.

Having repeatedly 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.

Oh here we go... the you're a dummy, I'm not stick. LOL!

Granted, most registry "cleaners" won't cause problems each and
every time they're used, but the potential for harm is always there.

Ah... every time you put food in your mouth you assume the risk you
might choke on it. Still people eat. Your over zealous trashing of
Registry Cleaners in general based on your obvious dislike of them is
the equlivant of saying people better be extra careful every time they
eat. It's a bit overblown don't you think?

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.

Kindly give us any verifiable research to backup your OPINION. BTW,
chicken soup has been clinically proven to actually offer relief and
no it isn't a placebo effect. Ask if you care to learn why.

For other cleaning and maintenance, Vista's built-in tools are more
than sufficient.

That's funny. If that was true, there wouldn't be a thriving after
market for all kinds of third party software that does all kinds of
things Windows never could do right. For example decent file handling
and a fast defrag utility and far better media players, converters,
jointers/splitters compression, etc..

 

[Bruce Chambers]

That's some real good advice Bruce but are you taking into account that
most of the average users have NO idea of the ramifications of
incorrectly "editing the registry". Even with the backup you suggest,
many users would have no idea of how to restore it. Do YOU know what
you're doing?

I do. That's why I advise people to make the backups and to very
carefully follow any instructions provided for the solution of specific
registry problems. Further, the chances of rendering a computer
unbootable by manually editing a single, or even a few, individual
registry entries are much less than those of doing damage using a
registry "cleaner's" shotgun approach.


--

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

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Only if you constantly install/uninstall programs, should you consider using
a registry cleaner.

Oh, why? Especially when it's never been demonstrated that orphaned
entries do any harm, or that using any registry "cleaner" does any good?
What's the point?

among freeware i can safely vouch for 'ccleaner'.

I disagree. Granted, CCleaner's registry scanner seems relatively
benign, as long as you step through each detected "issue" one at a time,
to determine if it really is an "issue" or not, and then decide whether
or not to let the application "fix" it. In my testing, though, most of
the reported "issues" won't be issues, at all. I tried the latest
version on a brand-new OS installation with no additional applications
installed, and certainly none installed and then uninstalled, and
CCleaner still managed to "find" over a hundred allegedly orphaned
registry entries and dozens of purportedly "suspicious" files. Its
findings were utter nonsense, in plain terms.

CCleaner's only real strength, and the only reason I use it, lies
in its usefulness for cleaning up unused temporary files from the hard
drive; as a registry "cleaner," it's not significantly different from
any other snake oil product of the same type.


--

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

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Michael Yardley]

I do. That's why I advise people to make the backups and to very
carefully follow any instructions provided for the solution of specific
registry problems. Further, the chances of rendering a computer
unbootable by manually editing a single, or even a few, individual
registry entries are much less than those of doing damage using a
registry "cleaner's" shotgun approach.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htmhttp://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

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

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

Based on the thread
Leave it well alone. Just live
with any errors like I do. Vista can handle it. This morning it seems
to be working fine.

 

[Richard G. Harper]

I don't recommend ANY registry or system cleaning tool for ANY version of
Windows.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (e-mail address removed)
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

 

[NoStop]

There's no such thing as a "good" registry cleaner for any OS.

Most real OS's don't use a fscking "registry" you idiot. Only MickeyMouse's
toy operating systems use such a silly system.

Cheers.