Privacy tools

Best registry cleaner and defragger

Sorry if this is in the wrong section, but I couldn't find the right section for this. What I have noticed on cnet downloads is Glary utilities and Advanced system care 4 seem to have the most downloads from users. So I am asking are the cleaners and defraggers in these utilities any good or is there better software?

How good is windows 7 defragger compared to these all in one kits? Is windows 7 defragger enough these days or are these other utilities needed for having a good clean registry and system.
How good is ccleaner and malwarebytes anti malware vs these other system utilities? I normally use ccleaner and malwarebytes.

thanks

 

Windows 7 defragger is good enough, but others can be better. I recommend Puran.
Those 2 are the best of their category.

 

Give O&O Defrag a try

 

CCleaner does a great job of cleaning the system. You can even download and run CCEnhancer which adds more cleaning abilities to CCleaner. Puran Defrag is good as suggested. I personally use Raxco Perfectdisk Pro (my preference obviously). Another good cleaner for advanced useers is Bleachbit.

 

Two words: snake oil. There's no such a think like a ''System Care'' or even the most advertised ''Tune-Up Utilities''. Registry cleaners? Even worst; Windows registry should not be touched in anyway and especially using a software made by iObit, the infamous Chinese company who was caught stealing the MalwareBytes Antimalware database. Just use your common sense, CCleaner to remove junk files and the built-in Windows 7 defrag utility.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...t/thread/0407992a-b9b0-4f14-b9d6-7243ed21a110
http://wordflow.webs.com/apps/blog/show/8271131-registry-cleaners-solution-or-snake-oil-
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2005/04/why-i-dont-use-registry-cleaners/

 

Its best to keep your registry CLEAN AND AS SMALL AS YOU CAN

Your computer will respond better/faster if its clean! (Like you would if trying to find something in your dresser drawers and they were cleaned up and managed opposed to being a mess and not knowing where stuff is)

 

Plenty of experts and experiences disagree with you. The most that you should probably do is hand-delete entries only for programs no longer on your system. Your analogy works fine for defragging a hard drive, but not screwing with the registry.

 

True and all CCleaner and the like do is remove unused (or what they think is unused) keys anyways. I do it by hand after every uninstall.

 

Except the Windows registry is not a dresser drawer that needs to be rummaged through.
An entry exists where it needs to be in order for an application or the OS to find it, or else the entry is not there or is corrupted, in which case the application/OS fails to function normally if at all, and an error message is likely produced.
One 'pair of socks' never has to be moved so that the 'wanted pair' can be seen, nor does an application normally take it upon itself to look in some other drawer once it can't find what it needs in the designated place.

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To the O.P.:
You need ask yourself what privacy you're guarding.
Not wanting your wife or kids to stumble across the list of porn sites you've recently visited is vastly different from ensuring that certain data can't be recovered by the FBI should they confiscate your PC.
Assess your needs, then act accordingly, in other words.

People who think they're doing some sort of valuable maintenance service to their computer by regularly running a reg cleaner are mistaken, pure and simple.
More likely they'll remove something they shouldn't, but won't realize they've screwed up until later, at which time they won't remember what they did that screwed it up.

I run a registry cleaner occasionally, but only to delete the odd 'ghost' entry which might arise from removing/updating software, or some MRU entries, and that sort of minor stuff.
Never do I delete anything merely because the cleaner flagged it, and I always know exactly what I am deleting before I delete it.
I'm also under no illusion that I'm somehow making my machine function better and faster by doing this. I'm not.

As far as privacy-type data: I really don't care.
Nobody uses the machine but me, and I have nothing on it I'm concerned about any law-enforcement agency finding.
If they want to know what porn I've been viewing or they'd like a recommendation on a good porn site, all they need to do is ask me and I'll tell them.

In case someone other than myself should happen to use the computer, I keep my favorite porn videos and any other personal data I don't feel like sharing or letting other people know about inside a TrueCrypt container.

So just to reiterate: First determine that you need to erase all data bits from free space and that sort of thing before you worry about doing it.
Secondly, if clearing browser history and MRUs is enough to cover your privacy concerns, then just do that.
'KISS', as the acronym goes.

My thoughts on the subject, anyway.

 

Really bad analogy. I doubt anybody would really notice any difference in performance, outside of a placebo effect.

Use a good uninstall program like Revo and choose "advanced", and it'll delete leftover keys after uninstalling programs. Then you don't have to go digging manually for them. Besides that I'd just leave the registry alone unless you really know what you're removing.

And to answer the OP's question: CCleaner is great for cleaning. I wouldn't use anything else. And for defragging, your built in Windows 7 one is pretty darned good. I'd say the best alternatives are Auslogics & Puran. If you want boot-time defrags, then the latter is the way to go.