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registry fixers

D

dbarton

Senior member

For many years I kept my system limping along using a registry fixer now and again to fix problems.

Every week, Norton Systemworks would report errors, and I automatically fixed them. It was much more conservative in fixing errors than Vcom's System Suite whch found many *more* errors, so i just trusted Norton for years..

I imagine some people say that its very bad to run these utilities, but I just did a clean Windows installl last week and already I see many new problems reported.

I don't know if running this caused any problems over the years, but i managed to keep most stuff running for many years on an upgraded win 98 install.

I'm looking for some opinions on the safety of running these registry fixers in general, (given that they seem to all have undos) and if so, what registry fixer do people like.

SystemWorks 2006 ok?




 
I was working on a Dell that had been in service for a few years. It had had several security suites in its time, and several versions of AOL as well. Pretty messed-up system, very glitchy.

I said what the heck, I'll hit it with the online Microsoft Live OneCare registry scanner thingie. Despite almost 1000 Registry errors supposedly fixed, it still worked just as badly as before. I burnt it to the ground, reinstalled Windows, and last I heard, it was still working great.

Given that even a bare, fresh, fully-patched WinXP install shows stuff needing fixed, and nevertheless runs like a top, I'd just leave well enough alone.

/ 2¢ worth
 
The only two I use are CCleaner and RegCleaner 4.3,in RegCleaner I only use under Registry Cleanup , OLE Cleaner and Orphaned File Reference Finder.


 
i used to be one of those people who swore by registry cleaners and always used them with XP, i switched to vista ultimate 64 bit last year and had hard time finding one to work with it so i decided to try running it without using one. and to be honest i have not noticed a difference performance wise. i used the cleaner included in vista manager when i first switched to vista then decided to quit using a cleaner. you will find that you are going to have people on both sides of this so it comes down to if it makes you feel good using one. 🙂
 
The registry cleaner from Auslogics is nice, it's also free, same thing with the defragmenter. I think I saw it recommended on DL.TV a couple years ago or something, the defrag has a nice graphical representation of what it's doing which is something vista does not have. They both work well but I have no idea if the registry cleaner does anything, I don't see much of a performance increase even though it says that it cleans things in the registry.
 
They are very useful IMO - the ones that work, that is.

The best one is Registry Mechanic from PCTools - well worth the $30. (can be had for less if you can find rebates).

http://www.pctools.com/registry-mechanic/

A week ago I uninstalled the Real Player on my wife's machine, and it left a TON of registry entries.

I used to run it after every uninstall, and it kept my XP computers running flawlessly.

There is one for me to find that works on Vista 64 though - unless Vista has "self-cleaning" registry...? 😉
 
For kicks I just downloaded and ran Ccleaner, and it found 128 "problems". Funny thing is, my computer's running perfectly so I didn't "fix" them.
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Registry cleaners are like memory defragmenters and memory compression programs. Borderline snake oil, IMHO.
Click to expand...

Strongly agreed! Those that run them typically aren't familiar with the 'problem' they're trying to resolve - it's pure snake oil.
 
back in windows 98 you had to either clean up or restore and compact the registry or else if the system.dat file got too big there were problems. With XP there are still problem and the hive files are easily corrupted. cleaning should only be done if you know what the program is removing otherwise it's most likely just BS or will remove something you might want. I haven't ran into any problems with the hive files size in XP, but the creation dates bothers me, how long can a these files go without being rewritten / recreated. I generally use the system restore snapshot hives to replace the hive files every once in a while because it changes the creation date and also the file size seems to be less, so I assume they have been exported and recreated rather than just copied. I don't bother with hive compacting programs because chances are they do nothing different except have a graphic. I remember testing iolo's System Mechanic for windows 98 years ago and it's compactor was simply scanreg used on boot up, just a script to run a tool already available. So in my opinion too these tools are crap.

Has anyone ever experienced not being able to uninstall norton utilities ?
Now that's ironic IMO.
 
Originally posted by: dclive
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Registry cleaners are like memory defragmenters and memory compression programs. Borderline snake oil, IMHO.
Click to expand...

Strongly agreed! Those that run them typically aren't familiar with the 'problem' they're trying to resolve - it's pure snake oil.
Click to expand...


So what do you do with all the keys that point to non-existing programs...? Like the Real Player, that left over 100 entries.

In my experience, before the Registry Mechanic, I would run the ex. System Mechanic, and manually remove the entries related to the programs that have been removed.

I have full confidence in Registry Mechanic from PC Tools - has been working GREAT, and resolved o few problems I've had with the XP computers.

So what do you do with invalid registry keys when you uninstall a program or a driver...? Like the Real Player I mentioned...?

Any advise...?
 
Originally posted by: JustaGeek

So what do you do with invalid registry keys when you uninstall a program or a driver...? Like the Real Player I mentioned...?

Any advise...?
Click to expand...

Just leave it there. It doesn't hurt anything, or slow anything down, so why even bother?
 
Originally posted by: lxskllr
Originally posted by: JustaGeek

So what do you do with invalid registry keys when you uninstall a program or a driver...? Like the Real Player I mentioned...?

Any advise...?
Click to expand...

Just leave it there. It doesn't hurt anything, or slow anything down, so why even bother?
Click to expand...

In my experience, the Registry Mechanic helped tremendously. My systems worked much smoother with the use of this particular cleaner.

You wouldn't leave the extra files left behind on your Hard Drive by the programs you've just removed.

Why would you leave the registry entries pointing to non-existing files...?
 
You wouldn't leave the extra files left behind on your Hard Drive by the programs you've just removed.

Why would you leave the registry entries pointing to non-existing files...?
Click to expand...

Any performance gains you think you saw were just placebo effect. All the registry amounts to is a text file that just sits there until something reads it. If nothing reads it, nothing is done. I can live with a couple of mb taken up by obsolete registry keys when the alternative is tedious crawling through the registry to remove entries(the correct way), or relying on a automated tool to make the decisions for me(the incorrect way)
 
Originally posted by: lxskllr
You wouldn't leave the extra files left behind on your Hard Drive by the programs you've just removed.

Why would you leave the registry entries pointing to non-existing files...?
Click to expand...

Any performance gains you think you saw were just placebo effect. All the registry amounts to is a text file that just sits there until something reads it. If nothing reads it, nothing is done. I can live with a couple of mb taken up by obsolete registry keys when the alternative is tedious crawling through the registry to remove entries(the correct way), or relying on a automated tool to make the decisions for me(the incorrect way)
Click to expand...

In YOUR opinion, it was a placebo effect. I KNOW that the system worked better for me.

And why would you want to go manually through hundreds of registry entries if you can use an automated tool...?

Why do you use the "search" tools to find files on your Hard Drive...? You can always find everything manually.

If anything, you don't have to remove ALL the entries found by the Registry cleaner, but ONLY the ones that you KNOW are useless.

Again, I've used different tools, and IOLO System Mechanic automatic cleaner once removed something that caused me to loose sound. I had to restore the system to fix it - that's why the manual search/removal makes more sense.

But I've never had an issue with PC Tools Registry Mechanic - I fully trust this program, and would strongly recommend it for the XP x86 users.
 
Originally posted by: JustaGeek


In YOUR opinion, it was a placebo effect. I KNOW that the system worked better for me.
Click to expand...

I have a pretty good idea how the the registry works. Dead entries are dead. They don't do anything but take up a small amount of space. Removing the entries can't give any performance boost. I'll be willing to change my mind if you can provide benchmarks that show improvement after registry cleaning. Otherwise I stand by my statement that it was placebo effect.

 
Originally posted by: lxskllr
Originally posted by: JustaGeek


In YOUR opinion, it was a placebo effect. I KNOW that the system worked better for me.
Click to expand...

I have a pretty good idea how the the registry works. Dead entries are dead. They don't do anything but take up a small amount of space. Removing the entries can't give any performance boost. I'll be willing to change my mind if you can provide benchmarks that show improvement after registry cleaning. Otherwise I stand by my statement that it was placebo effect.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what it is. If you find them useless - don't use them!

I find them invaluable in keeping my systems working flawlessly - and will continue to use them!

But at the same time you use the 'correct way" of regedit manually.

You know, it's like walking to work, when you can actually use the car to get there faster. 😉
 
Originally posted by: JustaGeek
You know, it's like walking to work, when you can actually use the car to get there faster. 😉
Click to expand...

I'd save the fuel if I could. 🙂
 
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