Registry cleaners - Good or bad?

[Ramb]

Recently my computer has been running slow, even after defragmenting the HD.

Short of doing a full reinstall, I wanted to look at registry cleaners. Maybe cleaning up my registry would free up some resources and make my system more responsive.

Do registry cleaners actually work though? I've seen no testing or benchmarking of a system before or after registry cleaning to see any noticeable differences.

There is the risk of cleaning the wrong file, of course. But if the promised performance boost is there, why not give it a go after backing up your registry?

 

[Schadenfroh]

I really doubt your slowdown can be fixed with a registry cleaner, especially on a modern OS.

 

[lxskllr]

Registry cleaners are snake oil. You get risk with no reward. Here's a few thing you could try...

Check the SMART status of your hd to make sure it's in good shape
Run chkdsk /r on the hd
Windows works best with >20% free space on the hd in my experience
If using PATA drives, make sure you're in DMA mode
Scan for malware using Antivir and Malwarebytes

 

[BW86]

stay away from them

get a good antivirus - antivir and run a scan
get some good spyware/malware programs - superantispyware, malwarebytes, spybot and run a scan
get ccleaner and run it
turn off indexing

 

[puffywulf]

I wouldn't use them. I ran the CCleaner (which is actually a good product btw in terms of not using their registry cleaner) registry cleaner, and it deleted some of my administrative tools. Stay away from registry cleaners. Though I know you don't want to, you may either have to full reintall or just buy a new computer.

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: BW86
stay away from them

get a good antivirus - antivir and run a scan
get some good spyware/malware programs - superantispyware, malwarebytes, spybot and run a scan
get ccleaner and run it
turn off indexing

Precisely.

 

[Harvey]

I beg to differ with the majority who have posted, so far. I use PC Tools Registry Mechanic, and it has definitely improved the performance of my machine under XP Pro. I've seen far more radical improvenents when I've used it on friends' machines where they have never previously run a registry cleaner.

It creates a restore point so I can always undo any changes it makes, which, to date, I have used ZERO times.

Playing with your registry CAN be dangerous so you have to trust any such software. I trust Registry Mechanic.

For XP, I also trust an older version of WinDoctor, the registry cleaner in Norton SystemWorks 2003, which I have kept updated. Newer versions of that and other Norton products have been far too bloated for my taste.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: puffywulf
I wouldn't use them. I ran the CCleaner (which is actually a good product btw in terms of not using their registry cleaner) registry cleaner, and it deleted some of my administrative tools. Stay away from registry cleaners. Though I know you don't want to, you may either have to full reintall or just buy a new computer.

You definitely want to be careful with registry cleaners, but I've very good luck with CCleaner.