Wise Registry Cleaner - safe?

[Gordon Stephens]

I have downloaded the free Wise Registry Cleaner, and see the self
promotional blurb that looks like a review, but certain grammatical errors
lead me to be slightly suspect.

Can anyone here say that they have used it, and if so what was their
experience - positive or negative?

TIA

 

[Gordon Stephens]

Oops - the grammatical errors lead me to be 'suspicious' - not suspect! lol.

 

[Gerry]

Gordon

I have not used it and would not recommend anyone using a Registry
Cleaner.

http://aumha.net:80/viewtopic.php?t=28099

Once you have used a registry cleaner there is no way to know whether it
has damaged the registry.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gordon Stephens]

Not too sure where you are coming from with that advice - apart from
Stourport, but thanks anyway

 

[Gerry]

Gordon

Simple really. Using a Registry Cleaner is a waste of time and can
damage your system. Read the link.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Daave]

I have downloaded the free Wise Registry Cleaner, and see the self
promotional blurb that looks like a review, but certain grammatical
errors lead me to be slightly suspect.

Can anyone here say that they have used it, and if so what was their
experience - positive or negative?

Many people believe that "cleaning" the registry improves a PC's
performance. However, there is no evidence that this is the case.
Additionally, if you have hung around this newsgroup long enough, you'd
see many posters reporting problems resulting from having used registry
cleaners. Even if no one has experienced problems with Wise Registry
Cleaner to date, it still doesn't seem wise to use it as there is no
benefit.

Has your PC become sluggish? If so, offer specifics and we will be glad
to offer focused assistance. If you just want to play with this cleaner,
although I wouldn't recommend it, you should at the very least image
your hard drive!

 

[Gordon Stephens]

Thanks Gerry - fair comment - seems like a bad idea, using Registry
cleaners.
--
Gordon

Gordon

Simple really. Using a Registry Cleaner is a waste of time and can damage
your system. Read the link.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

< SNIP >

 

[Gordon Stephens]

Right, thanks Daave - all the advice is about not using Registry cleaners,
so fair enough, I'll avoid doing so.

The reason I asked was not so much about sluggishness, but the fact that
there were legacy entries from a previous user on a laptop where I had done
an upgrade from Win98 to XP Pro and then after getting some data off via the
USB port onto a memory (didn't work under 98) I did a complete fresh install
of XP Pro.

When I looked in Documents and Settings, there was the original user
alongside the current new user, with all the usual folders, but that user
did not show up in the list of users at start up or any other time. When I
looked at the registry, there were hundreds of entries that related to
previous software that must have been deleted rather than uninstalled, so it
seemed to make sense to remove them. That was why I was considering the use
of a cleaner.

 

[Daave]

Right, thanks Daave - all the advice is about not using Registry
cleaners, so fair enough, I'll avoid doing so.

The reason I asked was not so much about sluggishness, but the fact
that there were legacy entries from a previous user on a laptop where
I had done an upgrade from Win98 to XP Pro and then after getting
some data off via the USB port onto a memory (didn't work under 98) I
did a complete fresh install of XP Pro.

When I looked in Documents and Settings, there was the original user
alongside the current new user, with all the usual folders, but that
user did not show up in the list of users at start up or any other
time. When I looked at the registry, there were hundreds of entries
that related to previous software that must have been deleted rather
than uninstalled, so it seemed to make sense to remove them. That was
why I was considering the use of a cleaner.

Gordon, in your situation, it is best to perform a clean install (which
is apparently not what you did) if you are now using someone else's PC.
This way you will be guaranteed there will not be any malicious software
or anything unseemly or illegal on your machine. You may follow these
instructions:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

As far as uninstalling programs the proper way, there are usually traces
of them left over in the registry. This is normal and almost always
never affects performance. Once in a while, it may be necessary to
remove these entries for programs like Norton of McAfee if these entries
cause a conflict. But as a rule, leftover registry entries do not
adversely affect performance.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have downloaded the free Wise Registry Cleaner, and see the self
promotional blurb that looks like a review, but certain grammatical errors
lead me to be slightly suspect.

Can anyone here say that they have used it, and if so what was their
experience - positive or negative?

Registry cleaning programs, free or otherwise, 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.

 

[Dav]

I have downloaded the free Wise Registry Cleaner, and see the self
promotional blurb that looks like a review, but certain grammatical errors
lead me to be slightly suspect.

Can anyone here say that they have used it, and if so what was their
experience - positive or negative?

TIA

I have never needed to use a registry cleaner and anyone who is experiencing
slower operating speeds should defrag their disk drive/s regularly and stay
away from registry cleaners, ok!!

 

[rvqueen]

I also, am considering a registery cleaner. I loaded a driver for a Linksys
usb internet adapter. I didn't get the driver to work and tried to uninstall
it. The uninstall gets to 30% and locks up. I was hoping a cleaner would
solve that problem.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I also, am considering a registery cleaner. I loaded a driver for a Linksys
usb internet adapter. I didn't get the driver to work and tried to uninstall
it. The uninstall gets to 30% and locks up. I was hoping a cleaner would
solve that problem.

I strongly recommend against doing that. 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.