Regleaners

[martymas]

ime nor sure how many use regcleaners

in any form

tho ime not a fan off them

i found this article

showing the for and against reg cleaners

and at the end

the buggers say down load

the one with the best performence

which i presume comes from the ones who ran the survey

bloody cunning buggers

condemming all but there own

i was taught a long time ago

leave the reg for the experts

tho i use regcleaner

it still needs to be used properly

any how read it

marty

http://registrycleanerhelp.org/7fjw/

[baker7]

I have been taught during my training that Regcleaners are a bad idea. Most people think that regcleaners are the answer to "speeding up thier slow computers." This is NOT true - Companies advertise that thier cleaner will help the user with speed issues, or specific problems, and when they download an application, it "cleans" the registry. It will mostlikely go in, find empty registry entries and zap them out, but these things also can delete LEGITIMATE reg entries as well.

You have to understand that the registry is like the "Life Blood" of your machines. Going in with a regcleaner to clean the machine is dangerous, because most people do NOT UNDERSTAND what they are doing, and deleting the wrong key(s) can cause the computer to become unstable, cause the computer to give you errors, or make the computer totally INOPERABLE. In the last case, you would be forced to format if you did not make a backup of your registry, which is the FIRST thing you should do, before making any changes to it. The sheer number of entries in your registry would make fixing bad keys harder to do if you tried to fix them one by one.

The registry can be unexplored territory, and I have been learning about it. One thing I can say is that fixing the registry should only be attempted by those that are professionals, and have a handle on what to look for, and what to fix. If you do NOT understand what you are doing, seek the counsel of someone who does, because it can save a lot of time, effort and energy. If a pro tells you that you have a problem in your registry, they mostlikely will know how to fix it, but using a regcleaner program is NOT RECOMMENDED - Please stay away from them!!

I am sure that any member of BT's Hijack This! Team or BT Staff would agree with me here. Registry Fixes should be done under the watchful eye and assiatance of the pros, or you may cause your computer to become unstable or unusable.

Brian

[Pete_C]

I second that; overall regcleaners are a bad idea.

Too much dependence on databases and to likely to delete something important just because it is not in their database.

They do have their purposes; if you are having a specific problem which you suspect is registry related then using one in a manual mode where it will let you pick and choose which entries it deletes (fixes) . Then if you know what you are looking for; the reg cleaner can be useful to help you find and delete the specific entries which are causing a program to not install because you had the old version or trial version installed first; or point you to the entry which changed.

The other time they work passably well is if you install it as the first item installed on a clean install and make sure it is set to monitor installs, patches, updates etc and add those to the database. Then at least they have a fighting chance of actually accurately reflecting what your registry should actually contain.

But even then, it is vital that you make sure that the cleaner makes a backup of any changes it makes and afterwards you test out the applications it affected to make sure nothing was damaged. This in itself is a monumental task with many applications.

[JDoors]

After a decade or so of experience I've learned, through trial and error, what type of entries make sense to delete and what to leave alone, but even then it's possible to get burned (and you better know how to restore what you deleted).

If the entry CLEARLY refers to a program no longer on my system, I'll take the chance and remove it. Even then it could be a coincidence that the wording in the entry SOUNDS LIKE the old program, but refers to a new one instead.

If I don't FULLY understand what the entry says, it stays. It might seem like that old program, maybe, but I just can't tell for sure what it was supposed to do, no touchy!

And I only run one occasionally to satisfy my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I'm not expecting some miracle of efficiency once run.

Reminds me of Homeopathy, plenty of "experts" saying it's great, but in reality it's a potentially dangerous waste of time.

One more thing: I also learned a long time ago that trying to speed up your system by a millesecond here and there by doing something that takes ten, twenty, thirty minutes or that requires hours of backtracking to fix, well, you're NEVER gonna get that much time back, so you've actually LOST time.

[Andro1d]

Here is what I use if I see them installed on a user's PC.

Unless you are comparatively knowledgeable about your version of Windows, you can certainly do more harm to your computer's functioning than any small improvements made by registry cleaners warrant.

There are safer methods to employ to speed performance, and these usually produce noticeable results. See this link for a start.

http://users.telenet.be/bluepatchy/miekiem...owcomputer.html

[rhema7]

Registry Cleaners are as all that have posted one of many diagnostic tools. Use it as a wrench to fix the problem is a bad idea. Too many people want a quick fix or "Magic Bullet" this rarley happens in the real world.

I have used Regseeker and Comodo Registry Cleaner with no ill effects but deleting all with no regard to what it is what I never do.

I run after a uninstall to see what is left behind stuff like that.

Regseeker is portable so it goes in my Flashdrive tool box when I work on friends system.

You want to hear stupid the SA at my 2nd job has regcure set to run auto on a couple of hundred machines in as many depots 20 different states. He works from 9a to 5p

The depots open from 2a til 6a. it's going to happen one day. I stop it when it pops up because it runs a a good time for him not us it is peak time for us at 2a.

Preston

Edited February 23, 2009 by rhema7

[darthvader]

I agree with what most are saying. Registry cleaners only free a few kilobytes of data. They do magically speed up your computer. There are very few registry errors that can impair the speed of your computer. So for those CCleaner fans out there who think that deleting their temporary files and registry files with one click is speeding up your computer, then I'm afraid to inform you that you're sadly mistaken.