Registry Cleaners

[Magdelaine]

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?

 

[MilesAhead]

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

As to your question using CCleaner to clean out temp files, cookies and mru lists is fine. I would say the safest way to do registry cleaning is right after a system snapshot taken when your system is working well as far as you can tell.

It's one of those things were most of the time it shouldn't cause a problem but it can be pretty nebulous how to get things back to where they were. Restore point should save the registry too but if you have say an XP multiboot setup, a lot of times if the Vista system partition is visible to XP, then XP will erase your restore points. Many times when I boot back into Vista the first thing I do is check if there are any restore points. There seems to be no way to predict when XP will erase the Vista restore points.

A system snapshot is your best protection. I use Paragon Drive Backup Personal 9.0
but there are other good ones < $50 also.

 

[swarfega]

You could try software such as the Auslogics Registry Defrag: Defragment and Compact the Registry to Speed Up Your Computer

 

[sjb007]

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

 

[Magdelaine]

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.

 

[MilesAhead]

@Magdelaine thanks for the info. Yeah, it's tough esp. with Windows half the time it could be just explorer acting up.

I guess with snapshot backups about all you can do is try to pick a backup you have from when stuff was working well afaycr and lay it on. Run it for awhile and see if anything goes weird. PITA though to be sure. I do believe the main thing with Registry is not "performance" so much as eliminating dead references. It's tough to know safe ways to do it though. On my Vista I had the problem where running a program asked me if I wanted to install it. So I ran the MS installer cleanup tool and that got rid of that strange behavior. OTOH when I run wmi scripts to do stuff like create a restore point, that seem to work for everyone else, I get nadda. So who knows what got hosed? It's just a mess.

 

[patio]

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.

 

[pweegar]

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.

 

[ripbox]

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

 

[gothnezz]

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

 

[roy69]

Do not use a cleaner with auto settings.
Always back-up the registry before cleaning.
If you dont know what a key does leave it alone.
Just because a key is empty does not mean it is not in use.
Only use if your computer is playing up, you will not notice any difference in loading times.
If in doubt leave it out.

 

[ripbox]

hehe yes im needing to try fix some errors what i know are related to the registry and admin tools,but in failing that i cant get it repaired i will have to use the good old fashioned registry cleaner other wise known as a hard disk format.... to be honest i thinking i will need to format in the end but im feeling really lazy right now..... and want a quick easy hassle free solution...... i suppose really i should allocate several hours to make a fresh install

off topic a bit but what would you recommend, i have vista ultimate x64 upgrade, do i use the vista disk to reformat and reduce install time or should i use xp to do a full format install xp and upgrade to vista again? the reason i ask that is vista only seems to have the quick format option where as xp has the full format and quick format option.... impo a full for mat is best but not overly sure how important or recommended it is

 

[PainlessTorture]

I have AusLogics Registry Defrag myself. It seems to work well.

I think someone asked for a download link, not sure -> Auslogics - Download Auslogics Registry Defrag

 

[pweegar]

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

here you go: Auslogics - Speed Up Computer and Internet

 

[ripbox]

thanks but they only seem to have a registry defrag and not a registry cleaner... it was mentioned in pweegar's post that he used Auslogics Registry Cleaner... using their defreger already i thought i had missed something by not seeing the cleaner... mybe a typo on pweegar's part

 

[roy69]

Ripbox, what errors are you needing to fix. Most registry errors happen when there are multiple users on the system. You uninstall a program and the registry is only altered for that user. There are quite a few articles on it on the web. This is the only advantage I can see to using a cleaner.
Always review the results before changing.

Only perform a full format if you are getting errors. (Personal choice).

Are you going to be using vista and xp as a duel boot machine? If not then there is no need to put xp on your system. If Vista is an upgrade disk boot from that and it will ask you to put in a qualifying product. The upgrade disk still has the full version of vista on it.

 

[ripbox]

roy the errors seem to be linked with the admin tools ect.... most of which seemed to happen hen i removed VB8... but some had happened b4 hand.... also im aware that the windows update store is somewhat corrupt too as i cant always download and install all the updates that Microsoft send me and this isn't the 1st time its happened... also im the only user account on this system too...

getting back to the formatting... i am aware that vista will format even from and upgrade disk however what i was asking was... when you format with vista you only get the option of a quick format... when formatting with XP you get the choice of 2 options 1. quick format and 2 full format(formatting the disk even where there is no data)
i cant help getting the feeling its better to do a full format rather than a quick format... would you agree?
would you also agree that a full format would be best in case of any bad sectors that may be on the disk even in non used space?

p.s. today i have seen the worst performance ever with system freezes while only doing such tasks as browsing this forum.... so im getting my self psyched up for hours worth of disk swapping and waiting

what would you make to JV16 power tools Registry Cleaner, Optimize Windows with our System Utilities | Macecraft Software
I used to use regsupreme back on XP and was quite happy with it... but it seems their info is a little sketchy on the compatibility of vista x64

 

[roy69]

I would do a quick format. If you are worried about disk errors then chkdsk will mark a sector as bad then make it unavailable. A full format of a large disk can take a long time, if you have the option of doing a full format in NTFS then it is your choice.
The only cleaner I have ever used is CCleaner.
If you are getting disk errors check the cable and the voltages coming out of the PSU. The voltages can be checked in the bios. Disk errors are not always due to a bad disk.