Registry cleaner for "idiots"

[aigle]

Is there any registry cleaner for "idiots" that can be used safely, better to be free as well.

[bigc73542]

this is absolutely the safest cleaner app I have ever used and it is free Here (http://www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/)

[bellgamin]

-{ Quote: "Is there any registry cleaner for "idiots" that can be used safely, better to be free as well." }-Ace Utilities (http://www.acelogix.com/) is sooo safe that my granddaughter (age 8) uses it on her computer every day. Has done so every day since age 6, & no sweaty doll. At $29.95 it isn't free, but you can get a for-REAL 20% discount at Dozleng security forums (http://www.dozleng.com/updates/index.php?act=shop&CODE=02&cat=13). AU has superb support, plus a good forum, & is stringently maintained at zero added cost.

[zapjb]

Imo TuneUp Utilities 2006. Their 1-Click Maintenance is the most idiot proof.

[InfinityAz]

-{ Quote: "Imo TuneUp Utilities 2006. Their 1-Click Maintenance is the most idiot proof." }-

I second TuneUp Utilities 2006 for idiot-proof cleaning.

[Graystoke]

Another thumbs up for TuneUp Utilities 2006. Very easy to use. Lots of nice features. Not free, but you can download the 30 day free trial.

[Mrkvonic]

-{ Quote: "I second TuneUp Utilities 2006 for idiot-proof cleaning." }-

Hi,
I third that.
Mrk

EDIT: OOPS, I fourth that, not third that ...

[aigle]

So the max votes go with TuneUp Utilities 2006. What about CCleaner, I used it in past but on my new notebook, I don,t want to touch the registry except as an idiot.

[Eldar]

My vote goes to TuneUp Utilities 2006 too, but I do use Ace Utilities as well. ;D
About TU I like the fact that it gives all necessary information about what it's going to clean. 8)

[zapjb]

cc imo earns the 1st part of it's name.:thumbd:

[sweater]

EasyCleaner 2.0 from ToniArts its free.. :thumb: and also RegScrubXP..I think both of them are safe, and for paid version the Registry Mechanic.. because it has an option to make a System Restore in case something wrong happens...

I uses the registry cleaner and the unnecessary file finder of EasyCleaner 2.0 without any problem with the options attached below. Just don't use the duplicate file finder if you're not expert. ;)

[tansu]

-{ Quote: "this is absolutely the safest cleaner app I have ever used and it is free Here (http://www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/)" }-
I use TuneUp and Ace Utilities both. AU always finds more trash than Tune Up. Whatever, since I followed that I have your taste of software, I tried "cleanup" and it found 364Mb of garbage after tune up and AU :o :o

[TonyW]

-{ Quote: "Ace Utilities (http://www.acelogix.com/) is sooo safe that my granddaughter (age 8) uses it on her computer every day. Has done so every day since age 6, & no sweaty doll." }-Wow, she must be very competent on the computer at such a young age!

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "Wow, she must be very competent on the computer at such a young age!" }-

Yaa, it,s the new generation!!

[bellgamin]

-{ Quote: "Wow, she must be very competent on the computer at such a young age!" }-Yes, and she's very dangerous at checkers, too.8)

[lotuseclat79]

-{ Quote: "this is absolutely the safest cleaner app I have ever used and it is free Here (http://www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/)" }-
Hi Bigc,

Cleanup! from stevengould.org has been found to be defective. It deletes the very necessary index.dat file needed in order to run System Information on WinXP computers.

Here is a fix should anyone every run into the problem where the following file no longer exists due to this problem (upload the fix, install the index.dat file:
System Information Fix for missing index.dat file in
C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\OfflineCache folder (WinXP):

Fix is in post#5 of the following thread uploaded from mike5532g at:
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-xp/380596-solved-system-information-help-support.html#post2776367

Note: Index.dat Suite is safer to use to delete index.dat files since it highlights the necessary file in red and does not delete it:
Index.dat Suite: http://support.it-mate.co.uk/?mode=Products&act=DL&p=index.datsuite

CCleaner has also been found to be safe from this bug.

-- Tom

[StevieO]

Why would an idiot want to use a reg cleaner anyway lol.

I've always found Regseeker to be excellent, especially if you stick to just deleting the Green entries. If you have the backup selected as default, then you can always undo !

bellgamin if your granddaughter is so good at that age, then she'll be probably be doing HJT logs in a few short years lol. What a bright kid.


StevieO

[StevieO]

lotuseclat79

I thought windows automatically recreated the index.dat etc on every reboot ? It does on 98SE anyway !


StevieO

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "Why would an idiot want to use a reg cleaner anyway." }-
Because he doesn,t want to remain an idiot anymore!

[Bob D]

I'm an idiot (or is it moron..... or.... something....).
Anyway, I also recommend Regseeker.
"Backup" on by default to get your bacon out of the fire if something horrible happens.
For paid: Regsupreme Pro, V-Com Fix-It Utilities Pro.

[JRosenfeld]

-{ Quote: "lotuseclat79

I thought windows automatically recreated the index.dat etc on every reboot ? It does on 98SE anyway !


StevieO" }-



The index.dat files for history and temp internet files folders are recreated as fresh (16 or 32KB) files, if an app is used to delete them on restart, but if you delete the one for helpctr, Help and Support and msinfo32 will be broken. As lotuseclat79 says,don't do delete that one.

[Devil's Advocate]

-{ Quote: "Because he doesn,t want to remain an idiot anymore!" }-

Only idiots use registry cleaners. :)

[minnow]

so how MANY registry errors do ya hav ?
Registry Cleaner found 529 errors on my emachine +
it WON'T let me uninstall -a gray box pops up "Invalid-Install log" with
a $20 coupon + survey behind that
how can we uninstall or delete ?

[Hard Rocker]

-{ Quote: "I'm an idiot (or is it moron..... or.... something....).
Anyway, I also recommend Regseeker.
"Backup" on by default to get your bacon out of the fire if something horrible happens.
For paid: Regsupreme Pro, V-Com Fix-It Utilities Pro." }-

I used Regseeker only one time and the next day I discovered it had caused a problem on my PC. When I tried to merge the backup into the registry nothing happened. I tried about 4 or 5 times. Another member here reported having the same issue trying to replace his backup but after many attempts he said it finally worked.

I performed a System Restore and everything returned to normal.;D

Someone else in the thread where I had posted this info before recommended RegHealer and although I performed a scan with it I never actually allowed it to remove anything.

HR8)

[Hard Rocker]

-{ Quote: "Only idiots use registry cleaners. :)" }-

:o I do wonder about that one ! .... :-\ .... just kidding of course !!

HR

[Longboard]

RegSeeker or Easy Cleaner for free

Reg Vaccine for paid

G-Lock Cleaner (free) will show you all sorts of rubbish and leftovers in the files.


You have to ask yourself is the value of cleaning 10 or 100 entries from hundreds of thousands really useful.

There are enough "...so and so regcleaner mucked me up...' threads and posts to be very wary.

Why not: Eraser to clean disc space, defrag, NTREGOPT, ERUNT and reboot?

Just a thought.

[Devil's Advocate]

-{ Quote: ":o I do wonder about that one ! .... :-\ .... just kidding of course !!

HR" }-

For what's it worth, I don't think there is much gain in running registry cleaners.

I mean what's the gain? Do you really run faster (objectively) after cleaning 539 errors? My system is unstable enough with all those multiple 'HIPS' running, i don't need to risk more unstability with registry cleaning.

Oh sure , you can backup those changes, but many of the changes might have obscure effects that you don't notice untill weeks if not months later, and often you don't even connect them with the registry cleaning.

That said, I do remove some entries, but only those i understand 100% , and by that I don't mean reading the help file :)


FYI I also started using computers at 6. It's not that unusual even for the 'older' generation unless you are really that much older.

[dallen]

-{ Quote: "Only idiots use registry cleaners. :)" }-
I would not go that far, but the best registry cleaner, in my opinion, is not to have one. Would it not be time better spent to learn how to use FDISR and Image for Windows/DOS and simply back up any critical data onto an external source. That way when you want a clean registry all you have to do is either use FDISR to copy the snapshot of a fresh system onto the primary and then copy your critical data back into place.

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "I would not go that far, but the best registry cleaner, in my opinion, is not to have one. Would it not be time better spent to learn how to use FDISR and Image for Windows/DOS and simply back up any critical data onto an external source. That way when you want a clean registry all you have to do is either use FDISR to copy the snapshot of a fresh system onto the primary and then copy your critical data back into place." }-
Critical data = ? :)

[Peter2150]

I agree with DA that you have to be very careful. He is right about not noticing obscure effects for a long time.

I also disagree with Dallen. If you want a clean system yes, but if you want to clean junk out of your registry no. I may want to clean up the registry, but I sure don't want to have to reinstall everything, not that this all that bad, just time consuming.

Inexperienced users shouldn't use registry cleaners period. If you need a cleaner for an "idiots", then don't do it.

I use Regsupreme Pro and it's fairly safe, but I still look at what it is doing.

[lotuseclat79]

I also agree with dallen about not using a registry cleaner, except for the free Registrar Registry Manager Lite from: http://www.resplendence.com/downloads (look in right-hand column for lite)

However, in order to keep your registry "clean", the best way is to employ a tool that monitors every detail of installation in both the registry and system files, such as one of following when installing/uninstalling 3rd party software:
TotalUninstall: http://www.martau.com/tu.html (must install w/tu)
(v2.35 is free, otherwise paid):
http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page10.html#Total%20Uninstall
http://www.aplusfreeware.com/categories/util/uninst.html <--
Installwatch: http://www.episonsquared.com/

Its also a good idea to backup the registry before installing, e.g. ERUNT, and when required know how to do a system restore if need be.

Just my $0.02 worth.

-- Tom

[ErikAlbert]

I consider dallen's proposal as another possibility to clean your registry.
I just don't understand what he means with "critical data".

[Infinity]

I'm using CCleaner for a very long time now and I never had any issues with it regarding Registry Cleaning. It probably won't find as many entries/remnants as others but it won't give you any errors eithers after the cleaning is done.

[Infinity]

-{ Quote: "I consider dallen's proposal as another possibility to clean your registry.
I just don't understand what he means with "critical data"." }-

mp3 files will not be considered as critical data :P .. maybe some movies lol :)

[dallen]

What is "critical data?"

Critical date = anything that if lost would upset you. If you are that into porn, then porn might be critical to you. In that case, invest in a large external hard drive (I recomend buying a cheaper internal and coverting to an external with a $50 conversion kit. Nevertheless, once that step is complete and all of your porn is safely backed up onto an external HD (along with anything else you might consider critical), and you have and image or snapshot of either a fresh Windows installation or a clean Windows installation with all of your programs cleanly installed, you can always simply revert to that image or snapshot, reintegrate your porn, and off you go.

[Infinity]

I knew it lol :)

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "What is "critical data?"

Critical date = anything that if lost would upset you. If you are that into porn, then porn might be critical to you. In that case, invest in a large external hard drive (I recomend buying a cheaper internal and coverting to an external with a $50 conversion kit. Nevertheless, once that step is complete and all of your porn is safely backed up onto an external HD (along with anything else you might consider critical), and you have and image or snapshot of either a fresh Windows installation or a clean Windows installation with all of your programs cleanly installed, you can always simply revert to that image or snapshot, reintegrate your porn, and off you go." }-
Thanks for your explanation. I have another name for this : "Personal Data", "Personal Partition", ... and I will have an external harddisk. Unfortunately no porn.
Critical sounds so nuclear. ;D

[Smokey]

-{ Quote: "Only idiots use registry cleaners. :)" }-
Txs for the compliments, in that case i'm for sure an idiot too:thumbd:

[nicM]

The one I prefer is Ace Utilities (http://www.acelogix.com/index.html) ... I didn't check other programs since I bought it, 2 years ago, but I had tested 3 or 4 programs before to buy it (TuneUp, etc), Ace was far the best for me ;D .

It's continueously improved, you get upgrades for free (including the registry compacting add-on utility), and it's ignore-list are very safe : I've only found two errors in two years, theses were fixed as soon as I mailed Acelogix - support is very good too ;) . They have support-forum too.

All registry keys cleaned are backed-up, so that you can undo change very easily if ever you have a problem.

Cheers,
nicM

[solarpowered candle]

the only registry cleaner that I have found to be safe for me is AMUST Registry Cleaner .http://www.amustsoft.com/registrycleaner/ There are a few threads here about it. I do not understand all the fine workings of sorting out what and what not to sift through when deleting and have found that some are a little rough by default leaving the system worse than before deleting and not running quite as smoothly. However not so with AMUST . its not free but worth running with for 30 days .

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "All registry keys cleaned are backed-up, so that you can undo change very easily if ever you have a problem." }-
Here is the problem with less-knowledgeable users.
When a software doesn't work anymore due to a wrong removal of a registry, these users won't know that the registry is the reason.
Usually these users will try anything else to fix it, but restoring the registry won't be one of them.
They just don't make the connection, because they don't know what registry is.
They use registry cleaners as a cleaning tool, just like cleaning the history and cookies.
Everything what is reported by these registry cleaners, will be removed by these users, good or bad.
So all these backups of registry are useless for these users.

Registry cleaners are tools for knowledgeable users only, which is a very small group compared with the rest of the users.
"Better ten registries too many, than one too short" is a safer approach for these users. In other words don't use registry cleaners, unless you know exactly what you are doing.

[nicM]

-{ Quote: "Here is the problem with less-knowledgeable users.
When a software doesn't work anymore due to a wrong removal of a registry, these users won't know that the registry is the reason.
" }-

Yes, you're probably right about it... That's why you need to have confidence in your registry cleaner :) - and try several, before to make your choice.

-{ Quote: "Usually these users will try anything else to fix it, but restoring the registry won't be one of them. They just don't make the connection, because they don't know what registry is." }-

I would be more reserved on this point : I hope an user who look for and download a registry cleaner does know what is registry ;) ...

(unless we're talking about fake registry spy-cleaners, installed without the user consent like winfixer/Error-Safe ;D , lol - that's another problem. Look at the screenshot I made, I've installed it while trying ShadowSurfer, this stuff found 1086 supposed entries :lurking: , that's rubbish...)


I admit you have to try several cleaners before to find the one you like, and a good ignore-list is a more important feature than to remove lots/more of keys than others.

Cheers,
nicM

[dallen]

That bogus registry cleaner you referenced in your screenshot would not have fooled me. Since it was not written in a language I can understand, I would have been suspicious right away.;)

[nicM]

-{ Quote: "That bogus registry cleaner you referenced in your screenshot would not have fooled me. Since it was not written in a language I can understand, I would have been suspicious right away.;)" }-

;D Lol, of course that's not a real one : I posted it to show "what" could be a registry cleaner used by someone who doesn't know what registry is... This one, you doesn't even ask for it, it's just drive-by-download spyware (claiming to be a registy cleaner). But that's just the French version of Winfixer anyway (they are the same program, with different colours, they connect to same ip when installed), if your system is in English language, you get it too.

It was just a proof-by-absurd :gack: , maybe I wasn't clear enough about it :-\ .

Cheers,
nicM