Registry cleaner for "idiots"

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.

 

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.

 

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 = ?

 

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 Uninstall
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

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

I knew it lol

 

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.

 

Txs for the compliments, in that case i'm for sure an idiot too

 

The one I prefer is Ace Utilities ... 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 .

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

 

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 .

 

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.

 

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.

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 , lol - that's another problem. Look at the screenshot I made, I've installed it while trying ShadowSurfer, this stuff found 1086 supposed entries , 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

 

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.

 

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 , maybe I wasn't clear enough about it .

Cheers,
nicM