Registry clean up.

This is something that places fear in a lot of PC owners including me. I've been told it's not worth the trouble because of the trouble it causes. Is there a program that can safely clean up one's registry without messing things up? A lot of the things listed on a registry clean up program are difficult to understand and as we all know, once something is removed, getting it back isn't possible.

 

The safest registry cleaner I have used is CCleaner. Never had a problem with it. But, registry cleaners are not really needed. For a few MB that you clean out, you will not notice a difference.

 

>> Re: This is something that places fear in a lot of PC owners including me. I've been told it's not worth the trouble because of the trouble it causes. Is there a program that can safely clean up one's registry without messing things up? A lot of the things listed on a registry clean up program are difficult to understand and as we all know, once something is removed, getting it back isn't possible. Blueone <<

CCleaner is very popular and safe to use as both a "system cleaner" as well as a "registry cleaner." I highly recommend this utility; especially for beginners who are new to cleaning out their registry.

There is also another freeware registry clean-up program called Eusing Free Registry Cleaner which is also a great tool for scanning and then cleaning out 'everyday' dead registry entries. You can choose to scan the entire registry or only selected sections. Eusing Free Registry Cleaner seems to find far more items to 'clean' than many other shareware and freeware utilities which are available. For your own reference I'd strongly suggest that you read the "Feature Details" part of the Eusing Free Registry Cleaner website in order to investigate what this program scans and offers to clean. Overall; I believe that this Eusing program is fairly 'safe' to use. One of the things I like best about the Eusing program is [as the developer's site states]: Eusing Free Registry Cleaner will make an automatic backup creation of the latest repaired entries. Therefore, users will be able to restore any previous changes made using the software by choosing the 'Restore previous registry...' option.

About the only 'negative' thing I can think of about this utility is that every time you start it; a "please donate" registration reminder nag screen pops up. You can just click and that screen goes away but this function cannot be entirely disabled until some donation is made to the developer. This is a minor inconvenience in my opinion, especially considering the quality of the product.

Good Luck

COMP

 

Thanks for the responses, I've used CCleeaner before but was wondering if there was anything else. Thanks again.

 

No, not true.
Most Registry cleaners have the option to make a backup of the entries to be removed, usually in a .REG file.
I recommend that you specify a backup location Outside of the programs folder.
Should anything happen to the program's install folder, you could lose those backups.
Make a new folder and store the .reg backups there.
You can then easily make a copy of those files so that you will have them should you need to Reinstall.

The Elder Geek: Backing Up and Restoring the Windows XP Registry

I just had a troublesome problem with Eusing Free Registry Cleaner.

I had version 2.6.6 installed and I was attempting to update to version 2.8
The programs Uninstaller Failed with an error message that said:
"Can not open INSTALL.LOG"
I checked and the file Was There and I was able to open it with a text editor.
Saving the file to get a fresh Write did not help.
I reinstalled the program and that too did not help.
I Deleted the programs directory in Program Files, and did a fresh install to get a new INSTALL.LOG.
The uninstall process still failed.

Finally, I let Revo Uninstaller clean out the registry entries and I Deleted the program folder.
I then installed version 2.8, which runs OK, but I did not allow it to remove anything.
I have used it in the past without any Apparent problems.
After the very FIRST run and clean, there are about 60 or more common entries that "ReAppear".

 

Check out:
Registry programs at:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads15.html

AND

Top Freeware Picks at:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20

for lots of alternatives.

I use CCleaner, usually daily, and agree it is one of the safest cleaners around. I make sure that I save any alterations I have made EVERY time the programs asks.
I've never had to use the backup, but it is a safety blanket, in case you need it.

Bazza

===

 

Very well said; I second that :cool

 

Thanks everyone for the responses. I guess I'll wait until things get much worse before trying a cleaner other than CC.