How do I clean up my Windows XP registry?

What is the best way to shape up my Windows XP registry? I hope this is the right forum for this post. Thanks. Ed

 

Is there a specific problem your trying to solve? otherwise i wouldn't mess with it. Can cause more harm then good.

 

No problem, just heard someone talking about it and thought it might be good to do. Like to keep things running as smooth as possible. I'd be just as happy to leave it alone if you think that's the correct move. Ed.

 

The combination of CCleaner and Auslogics Registry Cleaner should afford any user worry free registry maintenance.

 

Personally, I only use CCleaner and *scan for issues* first, check them out, then backup the keys to be removed. In case something goes wrong, one can always *merge* them back later, although I've never had the need to do so. From what I've read, CCleaner is about the safest registry cleaner out there.....

 

I suggest that you use only CCleaner for registry cleaning.

The latest version of CCleaner Slim now has a new option that
allows you to Select or Unselect individual registry entries that it "finds" to be cleaned.

You can also defragment the registry with NTRegOpt.

This tool is bundled with ERUNTgui which adds a nice Graphical User Interface
to the original ERUNT and NTRegOpt.

 

Unless there is a specific reason, you really shouldn't go messing with the registry, i have never once seen a benefit in speed from a "cleaned registery" but have heard plently of tales of people messing up there computers from it. Ccleaner is safe, but i still dont think its worth the risk.

 

I am 100% with Colemanguy on this. There is perfectly no need to "clean" registry entries, and there is absolutely no gain from it.

Many consider the registry cleaning portion of CCleaner as relatively safe, but I have seen quite a few threads with titles like "CCleaner killed my computer!" over at the Piriform forums over the years.

 

My 2 cents:

IMO the vast majority of registry cleaners are snake oil. CCleaner is the only one I would use but I would back up my registry first.

 

to cipher:
Like the sig.
May not be an outlaw, but I have my privacy.

 

Hmm, when on XP there were always registry keys showing in CCleaner to be deleted after downloading and installing software from the desktop. Hardly any showing now in CCleaner doing the exact same thing in Win 7. Guess that somehow Win 7 handles those left over registry keys differently? In memory, mopping them up, or stash them somewhere else perhaps?

 

My 2¢

I think that it's more likely "user error" that caused the "killed computer" and not CCleaner. I suspect that in those
cases, the user did something Else, either before or after using CCleaner, but then attribute the errors to CCleaner.

As gloozit pointed out:

There are other members here who do computer maintenance, and many of them use CCleaner as one of their tools, but I don't
recall any of them mentioning how CCleaner trashed a computer or caused significant damage when They have used it.

When someone screws something up because of their own lack of knowledge, they may be more likely to blame something else for
the damage. Everyone tries to "make connections" based on their own knowledge and perception.

And given that computers and operating systems are so complex and, in the case of most PC's, have a lot of different software installed,
there are countless ways that people can "connect the dots". :eek uke
(I REALLY hate that expression.)

 

Found the answer I think.

Excerpt:

http://www.winvistaclub.com/f23.html

 

Thanks to everyone who replied. I'm probably not going to mess with it. My computer runs well. It ain't broke so......

Thanks again. Ed

 

Confused a little bit here! I am afraid I didn't get your exact question! Is it just cleaning up your Windows XP registry??

 

Confused a little bit here! I am afraid I didn't get your exact question! Is it just cleaning up your Windows XP registry??

 

james321, You probably just missed my recent post where I said I decided not to mess with it. My original ? was just about making sure it was running as smoothly as possible, but 'for now' I have decided not to do anything.