Registry Cleaners: Digital Snake Oil

I have to agree, I wouldn't advice them to anyone.

https://blog.malwarebytes.org/social-engineering/2015/06/digital-snake-oil/

 

+1

 

I would just add, anyone who doesn't know what they're doing shouldn't touch the registry with an "infinitely long pole." There are some legitimate reasons for making changes in the registry but those are few and far between. I hardly ever use a registry cleaner, but do perform manual cleanups once in awhile, especially after uninstalling certain software.

 

With prudence, knowledge, the right program & current backups. With these in place I find registry cleaners useful & effective.

 

Ditto what zapjb said. And...

"There are many software companies all over the world who make registry cleaners. Not all of them are included in our PUP classification."
"Bad things happen when you make uninformed changes to the registry."

The writer should have at least made mention that not-PUP registry cleaners are for diagnostics and repairs successfully used by experts who do not suffer from the placebo effect. You know, experts who can make informed changes if they choose to make changes at all. That one sentence above alludes to that, but by gosh you really have to squeeze it for that validity.

No issues with Malwarebytes trying to sell their products, but within this somewhat informative Labs article is the distinctive wafting of monkey droppings. In some places, the tenor is insulting even in consideration of its intended audience.

"Microsoft does not support the use of registry cleaners." Oh, well that settles that!

 

Hi,
Just joined,after being directed here from a Pro Audio[sound engineers,musicians etc]site called Gearslutz.

I assume Piriform's Ccleaner is no doubt included in the recommendation,which a few years back[Iv'e only used a computer for 4 years,to finally have a cheaper alternative than expensive studio time] Ccleaner won a shootout of all the registry cleaners available at the time,in an Aussie PC mag.

I usually just use the internet "cache cleaning" ability,as I have no doubt in my mind,that some of the problems I had[missing,or non functionality of certain basic operations]were from Ccleaner inadvertently deleting "registry entries" with my first real computer,a Dell 2011 XPS laptop,8GB RAM,750GB Seagate ST97520AS 7,200 rpm drive,Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium.

 

I no longer use Registry Cleaners...

 

When I knew less about PCs, I used reg cleaners because I believed they somehow helped. I should have known when Microsoft stopped making their own, there was a good reason. After a slight, but pain in the neck trashing my PC received (that I was using the reg cleaner on), I learned a lesson. I only needed to get whupped once!

 

This is what I just posted in reply to the article:

 

I take the same view as zapjb on this one .... but only for the "power user" ( I dislike that term but it seems to be the " parlance of our times " ).

I would also add the caution ... Always make a reg back-up first ! .... even if I'm stating the obvious

This reg back-up thing has really caught my interest recently .

I've made them using CCleaner and Glary Utilities .... both offer this as a stand-alone function , but I've also tried this one from Tweaking

and noticed that the back-up file is a good deal bigger than the ones made with the first two .

I know my way around the Windows registry , but I'm no expert !

.... can anybody shed any light ?

 

@quietman The backup from tweaking.com backs up the entire registry, whereas registry cleaners only back up the keys they delete, which is the reason fo the size difference.

 

Thanks roger_m .... I should have guessed ! ..... I'm feeling a little stupid now.

My only vague excuse is that since posting , I was checking the sizes of the three back-ups I mentioned .....

.... and a light came on .... but it was dim , and covered in dust and cobwebs

Edit - next time , I'll go to Tweaking first , to get the size of the entire registry ,and that will give
a useful "yardstick" to see if registry cleaners and defraggers are actually having any real impact.
I'm tending to guess .... NOT .

 

@quietman The registry is designed so that excess registry keys won't affect performance, so the size of the registry for the most part does not matter.

 

I agree...I dont think it has occured to mwb that many people use a reg cleaner to ...well clean the registry of redundant items or items that are no longer needed or wanted....not for for performance which most people with half a brain know is not possible or at most negligible.In fact mwb itself cleans the registry by removing the registry entries of pups or malware it detects doesnt it?.And didnt microsoft have its own registry cleaner called regclean in the old days?.It seems any programme that microsoft tries and fails at, is just cause for them not recommending them universally.

 

The term "registry cleaner" covers a lot of ground. Privazer is in effect a registry cleaner. So is Javacool's MRU Blaster from earlier times. Whether or not they're snake oil depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you're strictly looking for more performance, they have little to offer. You'll get better results disabling excess services and cleaning out your autostart. If your goal is cleaning out usage tracks, activity records, etc, registry cleaners can be invaluable. These articles all fail to mention one simple fact. If the user learns how to make a full backup of the registry, the risk is virtually eliminated.

 

That's true, but they are probably only talking about the specialized cleaners who claim to improve performance. I believe even Baidu and Qihoo are offering reg cleaners, combined with their AV products.

 

What I use and how I use it has not changed since the previous times we've had these "registry cleaner or not" discussions

 

I've had iv16 Power Tools 2012 on my computer since then, and get continuing requests to upgrade. I see no reason to do so because I only use it to clear out obsolete files from apps I've uninstalled. I never delete anything unless I'm certain what it is.

 

Someone use fake registry cleaners (screens in the article) and then bash all of them, the same could be said about AVs then. I have seen registry cleaners fix so many problems, which could otherwise be solved only by reinstall, but why fix problem in a few seconds, when you can spend a few hours, your choice. People like the one, who wrote the article, do not understand, how one bad reg entry can cause issues (prevent soft/windows up installation, launching apps, corrupted icons, even BSOD).

He somewhat said it, not that anyone paid too much attention to it, but he does not recommend them at all. I am surprised about Microsoft statement actually, since reg cleaners even fix problems with Windpws Updates and other Windows related problems. I consider Malwarebytes as non-trustworthy company anyway.

 

@TairikuOkami I've used registry cleaners hundreds, if not thousands of times, and I can only think of three cases where doing so has fixed any problems, and only once have I seen a noticable speed increase as a result of cleaning the registry. I must point out that I often have serious problems with my own computers as a result of continually installing and uninstalling software, and never renstalling windows. Also I reguarly fix computers for others. No matter what issues I encounter, I pretty much guarantee that the cleaning the registry will not fix them.

Sure on occasion problems can be caused by "bad" registry entries, but almost always these require a specific fix for the problem (something that no registry cleaner can do), or maybe be fixed by using a repair software that acutally works, such as tweaking.com's Windows Repair.

Also, there is no such thing as a fake registry cleaner.

I'm not saying that registry cleaners haven't helped you, but I guarantee that at least 99.9% of the time they are worthless. Of course, on top of that, they will amost certainly remove valid registry keys alongside the so called errors.

 

Well my experience says otherwise (hundreds of people over years), but I am talking about real reg cleaners, not something like CCleaner, that really does nothing.

As for Windows Repair, that application is a joke, it can actually damage Windows. I would not recommend it.

 

@TairikuOkami I've used just about every single registry cleaner ever written, and found them all to be pretty much useless.

What issues have you fixed by cleaning the registry?

 

Hands up who has REVO, or any other uninstaller installed?

 

@Krusty13 I'm using the beta version of IObit Uninstaller 5. I haven't tested its performance against Revo yet.

If you're intersted, there's an existing thread about uninstallers on Wilders.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/uninstaller-software.373651/

 

I do not make a list, but for example a user was unable to install a software, because there was a leftover reg entry from a completely different software.
Problems with drivers and software (like update or crashing), because of a reg entry referring to a non-existing location. The BSOD related to it as well.