Registry Clean Programs

[Peterf]

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice on purchasing a cleaning program or the like. I've found a number of sites which make various recommendations and warnings, but I'm still unsure of the legitimacy of the claims between these sites and products. Which program/s does what it claims to do, is not going to harm my computer, and is the best value for money?

Some of the programs I have considered are:

Uniblue RegBooster and System Tweeker

Registry Mechanic

Netcom3 Security Suite (includes security and systems cleaning)

Regfix

Regclean

Speedupmypc3

Thankyou for your consideration and advice.

Peterf

[Boris]

Of the ones you've identified, I've used Registry Mechanic (a free version v6 from Computer Active) for 18 months and no problems have arisen because of it.

[Alan2273]

Another one worth a try but not on your list is Piriforms Crap Cleaner.

I have used the registry cleaner in that program for about 2 years and had no problems.

It is free and regularly updated.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

What are you trying to achieve with a "registry cleaner"? If you hope to improve performance, it is very unlikely to achieve that. All they do is remove unused registry entries.

On the other hand it is always possible that these "registry cleaners" do some real damage to your Windows installation, or other installed programs. If you want to try it anyway, be sure to make a full backup of your registry before you start. ERUNT is a proven registry backup/restore program.

[Peterf]

Of the ones you've identified, I've used Registry Mechanic (a free version v6 from Computer Active) for 18 months and no problems have arisen because of it.

Thanks Borus, this gives me some confidence when making a decision.

Peterf

[Peterf]

Another one worth a try but not on your list is Piriforms Crap Cleaner.

I have used the registry cleaner in that program for about 2 years and had no problems.

It is free and regularly updated.

Thanks Alan2273, I'll check it out.

Peterf

[Peterf]

What are you trying to achieve with a "registry cleaner"? If you hope to improve performance, it is very unlikely to achieve that. All they do is remove unused registry entries.

On the other hand it is always possible that these "registry cleaners" do some real damage to your Windows installation, or other installed programs. If you want to try it anyway, be sure to make a full backup of your registry before you start. ERUNT is a proven registry backup/restore program.

Thanks Pat, I've read that problems can be introdced. It's good to get independant feed back. When you google these things it is hard to tell whether or not someone is putting out negative info' about there competitors.

Peterf

[Dencandy]

I used the registry cleaner with CCleaner for a couple of years, and it never caused me any problems. Whether it does any good is a debatable point. About 6 months ago I upgraded to a paid-for cleaner, Registry Mechanic. This gives you the option to scan the registry sector by sector and decide what you want to do. I only run the cleaner for items marked as high priority.

There's some other functions that go with it which claim to compress and speed up the registry. They're not worth bothering with.

Also, be warned, the organisation that market Registry Cleaner don't make it easy to work out how to cancel the subscription - but all you have to do is send them an email.

For most purposes the CCleaner cleaner is probably adequate.

Many people never use a registry cleaner and suffer no adverse results.