Reg. Mechanic(?)

Tried Registry Mechanic, as download/offer from PC World mag. e-mail. The program (RM) claims to have found something like 142 errors big and small, etc. RM (the trial ver.) doesn't of course fix anything, unless you buy the program.
I don't mind buying it, if it really works... but anything poking around in and
fixing Registry stuff can make your head spin & cause one to hurl pea soup like Linda Blair in The Exorcist - if the program botches the job.
So, any users out there, who swear by this program? Can you really just
click, "fix it all," and still have a happy ending?

Thanks for any replies/info. SG1 (Pat)

 

It was like this when i first used it. Never had a problem with that software. Alternatively u can use RegSeeker.

 

I've tried Registry Mechanic, and found it to be very good at identifying registry errors and correcting them. HOWEVER....they do not provide a "severity or risk" level, so you are on your own at deciding which ones are safe to remove and repair and which ones are a little more risky. It's always a good idea to check through all of the entries....even if it takes a while....just to make sure that everything looks legit. For example, if I have just uninstalled an application and they have reported a few or several links to it, then of course those are good to go. But while I trust Registry Mechanic (and others) for the most part, I'd still look through the list and read the explanations and paths just to make sure. If you have any doubts, it's probably best to leave it as is.....

 

That is exactly the problem for typical users, they don't see the difference between
- which ones are safe to remove and
- which ones are risky to remove.
A typical user will remove everything, because he trusts Registry Mechanic.
Most users don't even know what registries are and that area is quite dangerous to fool around without any knowledge.
Lucky enough is that area inaccessible for typical users, because they don't even know how to run "regedit".

Is it so difficult to create a safe registry software ?
I also noticed that different registry softwares never do the same job. The results are always different.
What does that mean ? Good and bad programmers or don't programmers know how to do it right or is it just impossible to write a safe registry software for typical users ?

Experts consider this probably as normal, typical users consider this as abnormal.
That's the difference between the logic of experts and the logic of users.

As long software companies aren't able to create a SAFE registry software, I will never recommend typical users to use any registry software. It's much safer for them to live without them.

I also find it weird, that uninstallers of software don't clean their registry as well. Forgotten by programmers ?

 

RegistryMechanic - don't buy it, you will be disappointed. I've had it for over a year and although it has never caused any harm it takes an age to scan and it does not find anything like the number of errors that say RegSupreme Pro ($16.95) finds.

Registry Mechanic costs $29.95. For an extra $10 you could buy TuneUpUtilities 2004 which has a very good registry cleaner within it together with a host of other useful utilities. The registry cleaner is fast and again, in over a year of use, has never caused a problem.

The other alternative is to forget about using a registry cleaner if you are not comfortable with this type of programme. Cleaning up the 142 errors which Registry Mechanic has flagged, for example, will not make a blind bit of difference to the running of your computer.

Link to TuneUpUtilities 2004 http://www.tune-up.com:80/

Link to RegSupremePro http://www.jv16.org/

Link to the last free version of jv16 PowerTools which contains the predecessor of RegSupremPro. This programme works perfectly well on XP Home. http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/

Link to NTREGOPT(Freeware) to optimise your registry after cleaning. NTREGOPT is included within ERUNT or can be downloaded separately. http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

 

I trialed Tune Up Utilities 2004 and found that it offered quite a bit of different features that were nice....but for registry fixing, a novice (or expert, for that matter) would have to COMPLETELY put their trust in that software. At least Registry Mechanic and others offers a recap....detailing which items it finds BEFORE any correction or changes are made. Tune Up Utilities just did it's thing once you pushed the start button...without offering a recap of what it found, option to remove check marks for certain entries it found, etc. I believe it did offer a rollback feature, in case something was screwed up....but as for the scan times, I've actually found Registry Mechanic to be very fast....kind of surprised that it would be called slow, actually. I would say the speed of the scan is comparable between Registry Mechanic and Tune Up Utilities...and they both work...but for registry cleaning and fixing only....I like the way Reg Mechanic handles the procedure better (allowing you to view before any deletion or correction).

 

JRCATES

TuneUp Utilities gives you the option to uncheck whichever items you want, see screenshot. It's no different to Registry Mechanic or most other registry cleaners in that respect. As for the speed of the scan, it takes less than a minute to complete on my system and it finds more errors. However, each to his own as they say.

 

Thanks for the heads up, bch, because I was completely unaware that it provided any info regarding what it found. I know that the "all-in-one" wizard didn't recap that info, but somehow I missed the other. That is helpful to know that it does....because it was a nice little utility that included other nice features as well.

 

Cheers JRCATES.

 

You Might want to take a look here!!

http://registry-repair-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

I use Avanced System Optimizer I find it's Great IMHO!!

Cheers,

 

Yeah, I've seen this list before. I'm currently using the #2 product on the list (Fix-It Utilities)...and that's probably where I have seen the list, because when I was researching which one to use myself, I remember that I liked the reviews it received (and this was one of them).

 

If I would trust these tests, my choice would be "Fix-It Utilities", because that is the ONLY winner for "Safety" and safety is in this case, the most important feature of all for typical users.

 

ASO is very Safe!! It does a back up Before every scan and if you run into problems you can Go Back and restore it in ASO! And the other Utillites are just great also!!

But to Each there own, it's just my opinon.

Cheers,

 

dagolag,

I have no trouble with believing you and trusting ASO. That's not my point.

Typical users,
- don't know anything about registry.
- wouldn't even understand, why the backup is necessary.
- wouldn't even know that deleting a good registry is the cause of a malfunction in their computer
- wouldn't even know to restore their registry as a solution.

Registry is an area for qualified people and certainly not for typical users.
As long registry cleaners aren't safe to use, I would never install it on computers of typical users.
Typical users will always remove every reported registry, because they won't see the difference between a good and bad registry and they completely trust the registry cleaner.
After all registry isn't the same as a WORD document or EXCEL spreadsheet.
It doesn't matter if a backup/restore is available or not, that is only important for qualified people.

It's up to registry cleaner PROGRAMMERS to make a safe registry cleaner for typical users, that reports only registries that can be deleted without any doubts and without getting in trouble.
In other words programmers have to use their imagination to make this possible.
I doubt that these programmers ever thought about this thoroughly.