Registry defrag, is it something that has to be done?

I've been cleaning out my registry today using RegCleaner, RegScrub and CCleaner, after that i found this program on the web called Registry Booster 2(made by Uniblue), not only did this program find more registry issues (this is after i ran the above 3 programs) but it also offered this other service called Registry Defrag, what i'd like to know is how important it is to defrag ones registry and if it is is there a good program out there that would do this, i don't know how good Registry Booster 2 since i never heard of it. Does anyone know?

 

The Uniblue programs are good, but normally cost money.

The registry is just a bunch of files like all software and can become fragmented, especially when the pc is a few years old and the owner (aged six and a half) has tried (loaded and uninstalled) every program in the northern hemisphere plus most of those in the southern. The registry can reach many megabytes in size.

So yes, for some users on some pcs registry defragmentation will show benefit.

 

Ok, i see, in my case this system is pretty new (only 2 months old) and i haven't uinstalled that many programs. What i don't understand is this: doesn't the registry get defragged when i defrag the hard drive? Or i'll eventually need a special program for this?

 

There are several things which aren't defragged by the windows defragger.
Essentially they are part of windows and can't be touched whilst windows is running.

You shouldn't need to do much housekeeping on a 2 month old system. Is it Vista? This is different anyway as more is automatic.

I generally recommend learning to use the tools Microsoft has provided as they are generally safer than third party ones, albeit less convenient. They are certainly adequate for most users.

 

No, i got XP Pro w/ SP2, didn't want to use Vista yet, gonna wait till they fix all the bugs and develop good drivers for it.

Thanks for clearing this up for me.

 

BUT,if you want to defrag registry,you can do this only with software that have offline defrag aka.boot defrag.I don't know if some free software have boot defrag,but O&O defrag10 have it but you must pay for it.I use O&O defrag10 and I'm very very satisfied with him.

 

TechRepublic recommends this Free Registry Defrag:

http://www.registry-clean.net/free-registry-defrag.htm

I've used it, and it's okay. I really didn't notice any difference in anything, though.

 

Pagedefrag does boot defrag of the Registry as well as pagefile. It's free, and it's from Microsoft (since they acquired Sysinternals). Nice lightweight program, and very easy to use.