please recommend a registry cleaner tool?

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Guest

Is there a "registry cleaner" ... or "registry tuner" program (out of the
many ...?) out there that can be recommended for me to use?

I would like a little more guidance as I study and clean my HKLM and HKCU
entries.

I'm fairly conversant in understanding my HJT logs ... but I must tinker
with my registry [again]

I did a search, and several programs came up; thought I would present the
question here, to get a - - - safe - - - recommendation.

Thanks greatly,

Michael
 
Registry "cleaners" and "tuners" are neither required nor are they a
good idea. They're a fast way to get yourself into trouble that can't be
fixed.
 
From: "Ted Zieglar" <[email protected]>

| Registry "cleaners" and "tuners" are neither required nor are they a
| good idea. They're a fast way to get yourself into trouble that can't be
| fixed.
|
| ---
| Ted Zieglar
| "Backup is a computer user's best friend."
|


I agree with you Ted !
 
Below is a link to some free registry tools and ratings. I have used
CCleaner [under issues menu] and Regseeker with good results. I recommend
however that you backup the changes before they are made so that you have a
rollback plan and also backup the System State of your computer using the
built in NTbackup before using such programs.

Steve
 
Michael said:
Is there a "registry cleaner" ... or "registry tuner" program (out of the
many ...?) out there that can be recommended for me to use?

I would like a little more guidance as I study and clean my HKLM and HKCU
entries.

I'm fairly conversant in understanding my HJT logs ... but I must tinker
with my registry [again]

I did a search, and several programs came up; thought I would present the
question here, to get a - - - safe - - - recommendation.

Thanks greatly,

Michael
Click to expand...


Why would you think you need to clean your registry?

What specific *problem* are you experiencing that you *know* beyond
all reasonable doubt will be fixed by using a registry cleaner? If you
do have a problem that is rooted in the registry, it would be far better
to simply edit (after backing up, of course) only the specific key(s)
and/or value(s) that are causing the problem. Why use a shotgun when a
scalpel will do the job? Additionally, the manually changing of one or
two registry entries is far less likely to have the dire consequences of
allowing an automated product to make multiple changes simultaneously.

The registry contains all of the operating system's "knowledge" of
the computer's hardware devices, installed software, the location of the
device drivers, and the computer's configuration. A misstep in the
registry can have severe consequences. One should not even turning
loose a poorly understood automated "cleaner," unless he is fully
confident that he knows *exactly* what is going to happen as a result of
each and every change. Having seen the results of inexperienced people
using automated registry "cleaners," I can only advise all but the most
experienced computer technicians (and/or hobbyists) to avoid them all.
Experience has shown me that such tools simply are not safe in the hands
of the inexperienced user.

The only thing needed to safely clean your registry is knowledge
and Regedit.exe. If you lack the knowledge and experience to maintain
your registry by yourself, then you also lack the knowledge and
experience to safely configure and use any automated registry cleaner,
no matter how safe they claim to be.

Further, no one has ever demonstrated, to my satisfaction, that the
use of an automated registry cleaner, particularly by an untrained,
inexperienced computer user, does any real good. There's certainly been
no empirical evidence offered to demonstrate that the use of such
products to "clean" WinXP's registry improves a computer's performance
or stability.

I always use Regedit.exe. I trust my own experience and judgment
far more than I would any automated registry cleaner. I strongly
encourage others to acquire the knowledge, as well.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrum Russell
 
From: "Ted Zieglar" <[email protected]>

| Registry "cleaners" and "tuners" are neither required nor are they a
| good idea. They're a fast way to get yourself into trouble that can't be
| fixed.
|
| ---
| Ted Zieglar
| "Backup is a computer user's best friend."
|


I agree with you Ted !
Click to expand...

I'm with you, too, David. But why do I hear some posters that seem
otherwise savy, recommend registry cleaners, such as CCleaner and
EasyClean? I'm at my wits end with a slow starting machine (Inspiron
6000) that shows no signs of spyware or virusues. I've checked with more
than one virus checker, SpyBot Search and Destroy, AdAware, and
HijackThis (I know how to read the logs). I've also methodically gone
through the Systems Utility, disabling each start up program, one at a
time, and all at once, and I just can't find anything. I was almost
tempted to try a registry cleaner, until your note reinforced what I've
always known...DON'T.

Bruce
 
Bruce said:
I'm with you, too, David. But why do I hear some posters that seem
otherwise savy, recommend registry cleaners, such as CCleaner and
EasyClean? I'm at my wits end with a slow starting machine (Inspiron
6000) that shows no signs of spyware or virusues. I've checked with more
than one virus checker, SpyBot Search and Destroy, AdAware, and
HijackThis (I know how to read the logs). I've also methodically gone
through the Systems Utility, disabling each start up program, one at a
time, and all at once, and I just can't find anything. I was almost
tempted to try a registry cleaner, until your note reinforced what I've
always known...DON'T.

Bruce
Click to expand...

I have Norton SystemWorks installed on my system and run system
check whenever I feel for it for whatever reason. Pretty often it informs
me that I have errors in my registry (and yes, Norton is correct), and
so far I have never had any "accident" by letting Norton fix such errors.

Norton is not free, but I have found it to be worth the money.

(I also let Norton take care of "defrag". What I do not leave to Norton
is virus control and internet security, I use Norman for that).

regards Sven
 
Thanks for the feedback.

Well, what got me thinking about a registry cleaning tool, is that there is
one entry in my HJT log that will regularly reappear (kinda' like
door-to-door sales people!) even though I have HJT "fix it" ... there some
notes in their documentation that imply I must manually remove it (and
others?) from the registry.

I think there must be other things in the reg' I should clear out or clean up.

thanks for the suggestions ... I'll proceed cautiously.

Thanks, Michael


--
Michael


Bruce Chambers said:
Michael said:
Is there a "registry cleaner" ... or "registry tuner" program (out of the
many ...?) out there that can be recommended for me to use?

I would like a little more guidance as I study and clean my HKLM and HKCU
entries.

I'm fairly conversant in understanding my HJT logs ... but I must tinker
with my registry [again]

I did a search, and several programs came up; thought I would present the
question here, to get a - - - safe - - - recommendation.

Thanks greatly,

Michael
Click to expand...


Why would you think you need to clean your registry?

What specific *problem* are you experiencing that you *know* beyond
all reasonable doubt will be fixed by using a registry cleaner? If you
do have a problem that is rooted in the registry, it would be far better
to simply edit (after backing up, of course) only the specific key(s)
and/or value(s) that are causing the problem. Why use a shotgun when a
scalpel will do the job? Additionally, the manually changing of one or
two registry entries is far less likely to have the dire consequences of
allowing an automated product to make multiple changes simultaneously.

The registry contains all of the operating system's "knowledge" of
the computer's hardware devices, installed software, the location of the
device drivers, and the computer's configuration. A misstep in the
registry can have severe consequences. One should not even turning
loose a poorly understood automated "cleaner," unless he is fully
confident that he knows *exactly* what is going to happen as a result of
each and every change. Having seen the results of inexperienced people
using automated registry "cleaners," I can only advise all but the most
experienced computer technicians (and/or hobbyists) to avoid them all.
Experience has shown me that such tools simply are not safe in the hands
of the inexperienced user.

The only thing needed to safely clean your registry is knowledge
and Regedit.exe. If you lack the knowledge and experience to maintain
your registry by yourself, then you also lack the knowledge and
experience to safely configure and use any automated registry cleaner,
no matter how safe they claim to be.

Further, no one has ever demonstrated, to my satisfaction, that the
use of an automated registry cleaner, particularly by an untrained,
inexperienced computer user, does any real good. There's certainly been
no empirical evidence offered to demonstrate that the use of such
products to "clean" WinXP's registry improves a computer's performance
or stability.

I always use Regedit.exe. I trust my own experience and judgment
far more than I would any automated registry cleaner. I strongly
encourage others to acquire the knowledge, as well.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrum Russell
Click to expand...
 
A registry does not need cleaning. It is true that the registry will get
filled with plenty of unneeded keys, but they cause absolutely no harm
to your computer. Removing them won't do any good, but tinkering with
the registry - or letting a third party program do it - can be disastrous.

Registry cleaners cough up all kinds of "errors" that are totally benign.
 
Ted, implied in your post is the idea that removing (manually or with
software ...?) a key in the registry may not repair anything, and may even
render harm to my system.

Do you know: Is there some other procedure I should (must) follow to
eradicate the re-occurring HKCU line in my HJT log (a troublesome
dexplore.exe thing) instead of going into the registry to get rid of it?

I'm fairly exhausted from doing over and over the 8 or more different
anti-viral things I've been working with (NAV, kaspersky, Ewido, HJT, SpyBot,
CCcleaner, Lavasoft, ...etc., etc)

Thanks, --
Michael
 
I didn't imply it...I came out and said it :-)

If you are unable to remove malware by any other means, the only other
solution is to erase your hard disk and start from scratch.
 
From: "Bruce" <[email protected]>


| I'm with you, too, David. But why do I hear some posters that seem
| otherwise savy, recommend registry cleaners, such as CCleaner and
| EasyClean? I'm at my wits end with a slow starting machine (Inspiron
| 6000) that shows no signs of spyware or virusues. I've checked with more
| than one virus checker, SpyBot Search and Destroy, AdAware, and
| HijackThis (I know how to read the logs). I've also methodically gone
| through the Systems Utility, disabling each start up program, one at a
| time, and all at once, and I just can't find anything. I was almost
| tempted to try a registry cleaner, until your note reinforced what I've
| always known...DON'T.
|
| Bruce

There have been *many* posts where someone used a registry Cleaner and actually removed
important keys. They then get screwed. Many so-called Registry Cleaners are in fact
malware.

The *only* Registry cleaner I *may* suggest is the one on the Microsoft
http://safety.live.com web site. However, this is still a Beta site so I don't really
suggest it.

If a PC is slow starting, you need to look at the; RAM, Virtual RAM, disk space that is
free, defragmentation of the disk, amount of "junk" in the TEMP folder(s) and the number of
utilities, programs or program stubs that are being loaded at startup.
 
Yikes! Whew boy, ... thanks for that clarification.

I guess it's "bulldozer time" if I don't succeed in cleaning.

Another day of re-installing Windows? .... urgh ,,, last time I did that, a
year ago, ... took the whole day ... and a whole lot of coffee ...

Thanks for the tips.

Michael
 
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