I want to thank you both for the detailed explanation of why to not use registry cleaners, I was a lot of reading but worth the time, I, like most of the comments in the links you gave, always believed it was better to get rid of the junk left by removed software "deleted programs", I have a few questions if you don't mind, the first is will the optimize part of most reg cleaners try to improve internet connection speed and it seems they do fairly well, I have no proof but after using AVG PC Tuneup I see my download speed increase, I use SpeedTest.net, but I am not an expert and could be misled. The other remark is, should we use a Reg cleaner that makes a restore point, like AVG PC Tuneup does, is it safe to think we can use this restore point to repair any damage AVG PC Tuneup could have done?
There are a lot of programs that can automate the process for people who don't know how to get things to work, like Network Magic from Linksys, I could never get all my computers to use the same printer until I got NM, now I know it can be done if you have the know how and time to look things up, but some people just aren't interested in knowing how things work, they just want to use them.
Know that some installations are down right dangerous, is there somewhere we can visit that we could get trusted advice, other than this forum, what I would like to see is a data base or ratings for downloads that are rated by safety, usefulness. In the past I would read PC World and the use their suggestions, I finally found that to be risky, so I started reading this forum looking for advice and reading solutions to other people's problems.
Again Thanks
God bless
Brandy