what's a good registry cleaner?

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M

mundane

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2002
5,603
8
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CrapCleaner does do a bit of registry cleaning, but I don't know how thorough. I'll have to look at the jv16 Power Tools, thanks.
 
Y

yelo333

Senior member
Dec 13, 2003
990
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71
I've used RegCleaner successfully on several systems without problems.

Though, I really question the usefulness of such a piece of software. You are removing at best only a few hundred keys out of the vast sea of registry everything. Such a number is just a small dent, and surely can't change performance at all.
 
Snapster

Snapster

Diamond Member
Oct 14, 2001
3,916
0
0
RegCleaner here

Originally posted by: yelo333
I've used RegCleaner successfully on several systems without problems.

Though, I really question the usefulness of such a piece of software. You are removing at best only a few hundred keys out of the vast sea of registry everything. Such a number is just a small dent, and surely can't change performance at all.
Click to expand...

Partially true, however broken registry entries can cause Windows to be a little unhappy (ie hang) :)
 
K

KoolDrew

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
10,226
7
81
The registry is not read sequentially. Also the registry is mapped and when the system needs to read a specific key it will go directly to this key. When using a registry cleaner it may only be decreased by 1MB or so maybe more. Now do you think this would make any difference at all? It won't.

The main reason I do not recommend using registry cleaners though is because many problems can occur from using them. The idea that some registry cleaner knows what should and should not be in my regitry seems really silly to me. I have even fixed one persons PC in the past that used a registry cleaner and his internet failed to work. WS-FTP is known to have problems with soemr registry cleaners too.

I have never seen a registry cleaner fix any problem. Only create problems. They also do nothing for performance.
 
jadinolf

jadinolf

Lifer
Oct 12, 1999
20,952
3
81
Originally posted by: KoolDrew
The registry is not read sequentially. Also the registry is mapped and when the system needs to read a specific key it will go directly to this key. When using a registry cleaner it may only be decreased by 1MB or so maybe more. Now do you think this would make any difference at all? It won't.

The main reason I do not recommend using registry cleaners though is because many problems can occur from using them. The idea that some registry cleaner knows what should and should not be in my regitry seems really silly to me. I have even fixed one persons PC in the past that used a registry cleaner and his internet failed to work. WS-FTP is known to have problems with soemr registry cleaners too.

I have never seen a registry cleaner fix any problem. Only create problems. They also do nothing for performance.
Click to expand...

I have been told that it is not necessary to clean the registry but no one has ever explained why so completely.

Thank you.
 
Snapster

Snapster

Diamond Member
Oct 14, 2001
3,916
0
0
Originally posted by: KoolDrew
The registry is not read sequentially. Also the registry is mapped and when the system needs to read a specific key it will go directly to this key. When using a registry cleaner it may only be decreased by 1MB or so maybe more. Now do you think this would make any difference at all? It won't.

The main reason I do not recommend using registry cleaners though is because many problems can occur from using them. The idea that some registry cleaner knows what should and should not be in my regitry seems really silly to me. I have even fixed one persons PC in the past that used a registry cleaner and his internet failed to work. WS-FTP is known to have problems with soemr registry cleaners too.

I have never seen a registry cleaner fix any problem. Only create problems. They also do nothing for performance.
Click to expand...

I beg to differ. You are correct when you say the registry is mapped to specific keys and that you can have access straight to that key, however registry use isn't always as simple as that. The registry can and is read sequentially in some cases. Take the add remove programs for example (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall), under which you can find a 'list' of sub keys of installed programs. How do you think windows manages to populate the add /remove program list?? It has to sequentially read through a list those sub keys, then for each sub key grab some information about that program. Now, for example if I had a windows system for 4 years, installed and uninstalled many upon many of a program, and say 30% of those have left a footprint into the registry, including the entry for add / remove program. If windows had to read though say 100 entries instead of 30, and for each of those entries gather a few more bits of info via class GUID's etc. Which do you think would be quicker? There are quite a number of things in the registry which are read sequentially and are not absolute paths to keys. (new file context menu's, file extension mapping, favourites/history) Why do you think GUID's exist? Some of the programs I've written in the past have required sequential reading of the registry to gather information I've stored within. It?s not a case of reg cleaners have a list of what should and should not be installed (although some do for spyware etc), some of them actually analyse for broken parts.

RegCleaners can be a good and a bad thing. You've obviously had some bad experiences whereas I haven't. I personally think reg cleaners have their benefits because they can find and remove most of these footprints left behind by programs which have been removed but not been properly by their uninstaller.

 
Rottie

Rottie

Diamond Member
Feb 10, 2002
4,795
2
81
regcleaner
windoc 2005
system mechanic

often use registry opmistizer
 
T

tami

Lifer
Nov 14, 2004
11,588
3
81
Originally posted by: KoolDrew
There are no performance benefits at all from using a registry cleaner.
Click to expand...

you seem to continuously say that in a lot of threads, such as this one. how do you explain the 3fps increase? pure luck?

:confused:
 
W

WildHorse

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2003
5,006
0
0
Originally posted by: KoolDrew
There are no performance benefits at all from using a registry cleaner.
Click to expand...

There was lots of installation/uninstallation activity on an old rig of ours.
It started losing little aspects of functionality in some apps like Windows Explorer & others.

Ran Registry First Aid which cleaned out around 5,000 bits of trash from the registry, & saw functionality immediately restored like new, & lots of lingering little problems solved, e.g.; things like hang on shutdown, etc.

Based on my experience I clearly see that your assertion is not correct, although maybe it has been in your personal experiences.

Since then, I've run Registry First Aid daily. Never saw a single resulting problem.
 
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