Deanodarlo
Senior member
Never touch the registry unless I have a problem. Use ERUNT to compact it one or twice a year, but never bother cleaning it as it doesn't seem to make a difference in performance.
Plus there is a slight chance you'll remove entries that are actually required at a later date. Not worth the effort. Registry lookups are so fast your PC doesn't care about a few dead entries.
CCleaner seems popular as mentioned above. But in my experience, just find a reg compact or rebuild tool, rather than removing keys unless you have an issue (like left over crap in your context menu or filetypes, but this can be sorted manually).
I guess on a really old install, a cleaner might be useful if you are trying to avoid a full re-install.
Registry mechanic compacts the registry like ERUNT, so I'd imagine it's a better registry only tool compared to CCleaner. which covers other areas (ie isn't a specialist tool) and doesn't compact.
Woops, I voted CCleaner. Great tool, but I meant to choose registry mechanic for specific reg optimising (even though I personally just use ERUNT and leave dead entries).
Plus there is a slight chance you'll remove entries that are actually required at a later date. Not worth the effort. Registry lookups are so fast your PC doesn't care about a few dead entries.
CCleaner seems popular as mentioned above. But in my experience, just find a reg compact or rebuild tool, rather than removing keys unless you have an issue (like left over crap in your context menu or filetypes, but this can be sorted manually).
I guess on a really old install, a cleaner might be useful if you are trying to avoid a full re-install.
Registry mechanic compacts the registry like ERUNT, so I'd imagine it's a better registry only tool compared to CCleaner. which covers other areas (ie isn't a specialist tool) and doesn't compact.
Woops, I voted CCleaner. Great tool, but I meant to choose registry mechanic for specific reg optimising (even though I personally just use ERUNT and leave dead entries).
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