Regclean

  • Thread starter Thread starter J&P Steele
  • Start date Start date
Do not use MS RegClean with Windows XP! XP's registry differs
from previous Windows registries. Only use a registry cleaner that was
designed to be compatible with XP. System Mechanic (www.iolo.com)
has an excellent registry/optimizer program for use with XP.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

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| Has Microsoft a Regclean version or an equivalent for XP?
|
| Regards,
| Joe Steele
 
So, Microsoft hasn't got anything for cleaning up the registry, I am most
surprised. Does anyone know if they are considering any such program?

Thanks for the replies, Kamal and Carey.

Regards,
Joe Steele
 
Do not use MS RegClean with Windows XP! XP's registry differs
from previous Windows registries. Only use a registry cleaner that was
designed to be compatible with XP. System Mechanic (www.iolo.com)
has an excellent registry/optimizer program for use with XP.

Does anyone know if XP actually *NEEDS* a RegClean type facility in the first
place? Win98 only needed it AFAIK, because it was a poor design that
accumulated a lot of clutter and junk in the registry each time you updated
it. Is there some reason to believe that Microsoft did it right this time
and the registry doesn't accumulate anything that needs to be cleaned out
anyhow?

This question is of interest to me since I'm considering using a program that
would touch the XP registry every time I enter OE. I wouldn't want to use it
if the XP registry acts like the Win98 one did.

Thanks...

Bill -- (Remove KILLSPAM from my address to use it)
 
RegClean is very limited as cleaner of the Registry and not meant for
general use as such.
It came with MicroSoft programming languages such as Visual Basic to
remove traces of trial installs of user produced code.

That's why RegClean inspects only a small part of the Registry and
shouldn't be compared with a program like EasyCleaner that does a more
complete job.
 
That's why RegClean inspects only a small part of the Registry and
shouldn't be compared with a program like EasyCleaner that does a more
complete job.

Which brings me back to the question. Does WinXP need such a companion
product as EasyCleaner? Or was the design cleaned up to where it's no longer
really doing anything valuable?

EasyCleaner for example says it searches out registry entries that don't
point anywhere. A problem with Win98. Does the same problem still exist
with XP?

Bill -- (Remove KILLSPAM from my address to use it)
 
Yes, the problem still exists with XP.
I always use RegSupreme and just scan in normal mode.
A non-volatile prog & extremely easy to follow what it's talking about.
I guarantee the first time you run it, you'll find literally many hundreds
of registry entries still there which still point to files originally saved
or downloaded to one location, but later moved to their permanent home
elsewhere or deleted/renamed.
 
Your question is valid. WINXP does not "need" periodic "cleaning" of the
Registry to preserve functionality notwithstanding the accumulation of junk
entries. All "reg cleaners" really do is to reduce the size of the registry
files by removing irrelevant entries. This may be of use if you have
limited HDD storage but normally that isn't the case and a MB here or there
is not important. Despite claims made, using a "Reg Cleaner" will not
improve system performance. Having said all this I do use a Reg Cleaner
(System Mechanic) purely because I like the idea of the Registry being "lean
and clean". These comments apply equally to "compacting" the Registry.
Compacting will reduce space used but will not improve performance.
 
...All "reg cleaners" really do is to reduce the size of the registry
files by removing irrelevant entries....

This is curious, though of course Microsoft has chosen to do many curious
things.

XP-Home natters at me and offers suggestions that I find intrusive and a
waste of CPU cycles like suggesting to me periodically that I remove certain
icons from my desktop or whatever. Why does it care? Yet at the same time
they don't keep a well organized, tight registry which is something the
operating system really should be concerned with.

A puzzle...

Bill -- (Remove KILLSPAM from my address to use it)
 
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