What are your thoughts on registry cleaners?

[Computer Hope Admin]

I've got this question a few times in mail and in chat so I thought I'd bring it to the forum community as I'm working on creating a new document for Computer Hope about this question.

Do you think Windows registry cleaners are needed?
Do you use registry cleaners and how often?
What registry cleaner do you like the best (if any)?

My thought on registry cleaners are that they're not needed and on all of my computers apart from trying some out I don't have any installed. On my main system I've never ran a registry cleaner for over two years of its use.

[AzNVi3t2007]

I use registry cleaners on occasions. Especially if I get .Dll,win32 error messages,etc. I use Glary Utilities.I think its very useful actually because it does other things as well.

[brett74]

i'm too afraid to use them in fear they will screw something up and like computer hope i've had this computer for about 3 years and never used one and probably never will.

[Dead_reckon]

Registry cleaners can be quite good, like, random BSOD's after installing something and rebooting. Simple answer for me, reboot in safe mode, run Registry Booster and Registry Mechanic, usually fixes it, if not, reboot again, safe mode, uninstall, reboot. Keeping your registry clean also allows your computer too run a tad faster, and boot a tad faster, as it has fewer registry values, and very few invalid ones.

[Computer Hope Admin]

I use registry cleaners on occasions. Especially if I get .Dll,win32 error messages,etc. I use Glary Utilities.I think its very useful actually because it does other things as well.

Thanks for the response. Do you happen to know or recall if it was the other features in this utility that fixed your .DLL messages or was it the registry cleaner. Also do you happen to recall the .DLL you're encountering a problem with.

Registry cleaners can be quite good, like, random BSOD's after installing something and rebooting. Simple answer for me, reboot in safe mode, run Registry Booster and Registry Mechanic, usually fixes it, if not, reboot again, safe mode, uninstall, reboot. Keeping your registry clean also allows your computer too run a tad faster, and boot a tad faster, as it has fewer registry values, and very few invalid ones.

Thanks for the response. Instead of running these utilities have you tried using the Windows System Restore feature instead? I've read a few other pages of people reporting faster bootups / response times. But I have a hard time believing that a few inappropriate links in the registry would cause the computer to be slower.


While writing these responses I had the good thought of trying a registry cleaner (going with jv16 PowerTools) on a computer running XP that hasn't been formatted for over 4 years that's used moderately. To see if I can get any results. I'll post results.

[AzNVi3t2007]

Here you go sir...

http://www.glaryutilities.com/gu.html

[Computer Hope Admin]

Here you go sir...

http://www.glaryutilities.com/gu.html

Yeah I reviewed the utility and will probably also try it on the computer I'm testing out. I went with JV16 only because it seemed to be rated the highest overall from the 10-15 pages I read.

[Zylstra]

The last time I installed Glary Utilities, my Anti-Spyware/adware/unwanted-software/other-grayware program said that it was a program that would not do what it advertises. (Eg: Wont remove as many unnecessary registry keys as it says it does)


Personally, I use two utilities:
1) A utility that is kept updated, and that is often (or used to be more than it is now) recommended on ComputerHope, CCleaner (Formally: Crap Cleaner)
www.ccleaner.com
Free, no ads, but, you should de-select "Yahoo Toolbar" options. We have and FAQ article about it:
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,22078.0.html

2) A less common, but great tool. Has a few miscellaneous tweaks as well. RegSeeker.
RegSeeker does a very extensive search of the registry, and compares it to all the files of your system, removing more than what your usual registry program would. The con of this, of course, is that it takes a lot longer to run. Still, it can be very beneficial.


Most "Experts" will tell you that Registry cleaners are for losers, and that you should go through the registry yourself...
Though in some cases, with some more risky software, this can be true, there are a lot of registry keys you will never find, since there are hundreds of thousands of keys, and your not likely to go through all of them.

Key idea:
Always back up the registry before removing keys. CCleaner and RegSeeker both have built in back up tools.

Do I need to start my computer in safemode to run registry cleaning software?
Not necessarily. In some cases, it might be faster. There are some unneeded keys that will be "locked" when trying to remove in normal mode, and safemode will allow you to remove some of these. Still, it usually wont yield a considerably higher amount of keys deleted when compared to ones removed in Normal mode, rendering it not necessary to restart in safemode. You might still want to do this every, say, 4 months or so. Its definitely not a weekly/monthly thing.


How often should a registry scan be initiated?
Once a month, depending on how much software you have removed or installed. Some people prefer to run a registry tool right after an installation, or uninstallation, to take care of keys "left behind."

[Computer Hope Admin]

Jv16 powertools results:

178 Registry errors
45 left over keys
0 unneeded data

Noticed many pointing to add/remove program Microsoft updates. Rebooted computer ran immediately again with below results.

0 Registry errors
2 left over keys
0 unneeded data

---

Ran Glary Utilities only running the registry cleaner and none of the other features. Results:

172 problems found (heh), looking at the details it was all missing keys or empty keys. Reboot the computer ran again immediately and reported 17 problems?

---

Running these utilities to me didn't seem to increase the performance of this computer at all and based off what I read it was deleting I couldn't see how it would. I also find it troublesome that running a utility such as this multiple times finds results each time. It shouldn't be finding anything if it's truely deleting all the keys after they're detected IMO.

I'm still sticking with my original opinion on this but would still like to hear from other members.

[Computer Hope Admin]

Most "Experts" will tell you that Registry cleaners are for losers, and that you should go through the registry yourself...
Though in some cases, with some more risky software, this can be true, there are a lot of registry keys you will never find, since there are hundreds of thousands of keys, and your not likely to go through all of them.

I'd never suggest any user to manually edit and clean their registry. The only time someone should be going into the registry in my opinion if there is a direct fix to an error they're encountering or they want to change a Windows setting.

[Zylstra]

As for performance increses:
Some people have credibly messy registries... the first time I ran CCleaner on my old Windows 98 computer, it found around 4000 problems, and fixed them all. (It was a bit of a junk computer, filled with it, worked like it... so, that would explain it)
In that case, it really made a difference.

Also keep in mind that there are tools for defragmenting the registry... this one (Auslogics Registry Defragmenter) http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/registry-defrag/download is shareware.

The idea of a registry cleaner is that there are hundreds of thousands of lines that programs need to go through to get to their settings. In the event that you are running a registry intensive program, it could be extremely beneficial to have a cleaner registry. The difference might not be noticeable on some machines, especially ones that are capable of processing "so fast anyways that a virus wouldent be able to slow it down". Microsoft Windows is an extremely registry intensive program (haha, I wonder why...) and thus, at the operating system level, you may notice a bigger difference.

[Broni]

I'd say, leave registry alone. This especially applies to less computer savvy people.
I do use some registry cleaners: CCleaner, Wise Registry Cleaner, AusLogic Registry Cleaner, AusLogic Registry Optimizer, and NTREGOPT, but I'm cleaning freak. That's why...LOL

[patio]

Registry Myths

WARNING: Grab a coffe and/or the Adult Beverage of your choice...

[soybean]

I'd say, leave registry alone. This especially applies to less computer savvy people.
I do use some registry cleaners: CCleaner, ....

Well, I feel comfortable in recommending CCleaner to almost anyone.  It's not as aggressive as many other registry cleaners, but still removes significant clutter and can help keep a system optimized. 

[soybean]

Do you think Windows registry cleaners are needed?
Do you use registry cleaners and how often?
What registry cleaner do you like the best (if any)?

I think they can be helpful in keeping a system optimized for best performance.  Sometimes, registry cleaners can be used to help resolve problems. 

I use CCleaner and Eusing Free Registry Cleaner.  Concerning frequency, I agree with Zylstra that once a month could be a general guideline.  But, it also depends on how much software you have removed or installed.  I use CCleaner on a more regular basis than Eusing Free Registry Cleaner, the latter being used perhaps only once every quarter.  It's more aggressive, i.e. finds more items to remove, than CCleaner and I'm more cautious when using it.

I like CCleaner best because it's got a very good track record of being a safe registry cleaner.  It prompts the user to backup the registry before executing the scan.  It also runs very fast when doing a registry scan. 

I also have NTREGOPT, the registry optimizer mentioned by Broni.  It's a registry compactor, not a cleaner.  I ran it recently, the first time in about 5 months, as I recall.  It reduced the size of the registry by 6%.