Hey everyone,

I've just re-imaged my hp lappy because of the problems outlined in this post. I'm hoping that the problems were software rather than hardware related, and if that's the case, it might be malware related.

However, it occurred to me that there might be another way that I could have messed up my system. I use Ccleaner pretty regularly to clean up the registry, mostly a habit I developed on XP machines, and I've never had a problem. But I was listening to Leo LaPorte the other day and he said he doesn't touch his registry with cleaners because of the problems it causes.

What do you think? Is cleaning your registry a good thing or trouble in Vista?

I would advise against running any reg cleaners, they tend to cause more problems than what they solve, what performance is gained from these is barely noticable.

Other opinions on reg cleaners: miekiemoes has a writeup here and another article by Bill Castner is located here Worth a reading too

The only tool I recommend registry wise is erunt for backing up purposes

Originally Posted by MilesAhead

Speaking of Leo LaPorte I miss the old ScreenSavers show. Does he have a web radio show or something?

Yes! I've been a long-time fan of most of the stuff he does, which includes podcasting, a radio show, and live streaming video. You can catch him at The TWiT Netcast Network with Leo Laporte and TWiT Live - Live Netcasts from TWiT with Leo Laporte and Friends. Patrick Norton is still kicking on Tekzilla from Revision 3.

I have an HP MediaSmart home server that backs up my system every day, so that is covered. The problem is that I didn't recognize that my system was messed up until it was way too late to figure out when it had occurred so I could go back to fix it. It was very subtle...at first.

Cleaning the registry for performance issues is a huge myth...i'd say if you are using one stick to CCleaner and ignore the rest.
Some have been known to do more harm than good.

I'd have to say that cleaning the sytem registry is generally a good thing. I clean mine on a semi regular basis, esp. after install and uninstalling software that I've wanted to test.

Then there are times when you absolutely must clean the registry. I work with an enterprise sized scanning and imaging solution. Un-installing really requires a system reg clean when I need to reinstall it. To the point were it doesn't install at all. In fact the producer even provides a tool to clean the system registry and various componets prior to re-installing.

And sometimes, it's better to go in and clean the registry manually. Before you do, simply export the registry. If you need to, you can re-import it.

In MY experiences, running a system registry cleaner has generally been very good. I've had few, if any problems. I also use CCLeaner and Auslogics Registry Cleaner (both free), and have used others in the past. And yes, there are cleaners out there that are nothing more than scams, wanting you to pay for them before they clean anything.

Auslogics Registry Cleaner

did you not mean Auslogics Registry Defrag.... im looking for a slightly better cleaner my self other than cleaner as i know its missing a lot of stuff and i just searched Auslogics Registry Cleaner but can not find it... if you are correct that it is Auslogics Registry Cleaner could you be so kind as to post a downloadable link to it

your reason to use a registry cleaner, should only be for; error message, system instability, not for performance.

personally i use "Eusing free registry cleaner"is the safest i have used, it first scans your system and labels which entry is safe to delete, but remember to always make a back up of your registry just in case