Vista Registry cleaner

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PVR

Is there a Registry Cleaner out there which is compatible with Vista? It
should have a good track record.

Peter.
 
PVR said:
Is there a Registry Cleaner out there which is compatible with Vista? It
should have a good track record.

Peter.
Click to expand...


Any so-called registry "cleaner" is nothing more than a worthless
snake oil remedy whose sole purpose is to separate you from some of your
money.

Why do you think you'd ever need to clean your registry? What
specific *problems* are you actually experiencing (not some program's
bogus listing of imaginary problems) that you think can 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. After
all, why use a chainsaw 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 only thing needed to safely clean
your registry is knowledge and Regedit.exe.

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 repeatedly 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. 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.

More importantly, no one has ever demonstrated that the use of an
automated registry "cleaner," particularly by an untrained,
inexperienced computer user, does any real good, whatsoever. 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. Given the potential for harm, it's just not
worth the risk.

Granted, most registry "cleaners" won't cause problems each and
every time they're used, but the potential for harm is always there.
And, since no registry "cleaner" has ever been demonstrated to do any
good (think of them like treating the flu with chicken soup - there's no
real medicinal value, but it sometimes provides a warming placebo
effect), I always tell people that the risks far out-weigh the
non-existent benefits.

I will concede that a good registry *scanning* tool, in the hands
of an experienced and knowledgeable technician or hobbyist can be a
useful time-saving diagnostic tool, as long as it's not allowed to make
any changes automatically. But I really don't think that there are any
registry "cleaners" that are truly safe for the general public to use.
Experience has proven just the opposite: such tools simply are not safe
in the hands of the inexperienced user.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

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. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
Ramone said:
Ccleaner works good for me.

Ramone
Click to expand...


CCleaner's only real strength, and the only reason anyone should
use it, lies in its usefulness for cleaning up unused temporary files
from the hard drive; in this regard, it works well with Vista and is
completely harmless.

As a registry "cleaner," it's not significantly better or worse
than any other snake oil product of the same type. CCleaner's registry
scanner seems relatively benign, as long as you step through each
detected "issue" one at a time, to determine if it really is an "issue"
or not, and then decide whether or not to let the application "fix" it.
In my testing, though, most (95% or so) of the reported "issues"
aren't issues, at all. I tried the latest version on a brand-new OS
installation with no additional applications installed, and certainly
none installed and then uninstalled, and CCleaner still managed to
"find" over a hundred allegedly orphaned registry entries and dozens of
purportedly "suspicious" files, making it clearly a worthless product,
in this regard. (Not that *any* registry cleaner can ever be anything
but worthless, as they don't serve any useful purpose, to start with.)


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

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. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
snip...
I will concede that a good registry *scanning* tool, in the hands of
an experienced and knowledgeable technician or hobbyist can be a useful
time-saving diagnostic tool, as long as it's not allowed to make any
changes automatically. But I really don't think that there are any
registry "cleaners" that are truly safe for the general public to use.
Experience has proven just the opposite: such tools simply are not safe in
the hands of the inexperienced user.
Click to expand...
I agree. If the user needs a utility that is both harmless AND worthless he
should look at ram defraggers <g>.
 
A registry cleaner is like a gun, in the right (trained) hands, a useful
tool.
But load & cock it and hand it to a 4 year old... I think not!
I have yet to see a registry cleaner that should be used by anyone that
can't do the same thing without it.
If you think you need one, you probably aren't experienced enough to use it
properly.
I do have ccleaner installed, but I don't allow it to mess with my registry.
I just use it to clean up temp files.
 
A registry cleaner is like a gun, in the right (trained) hands, a useful
tool.
But load & cock it and hand it to a 4 year old... I think not!
I have yet to see a registry cleaner that should be used by anyone that
can't do the same thing without it.
If you think you need one, you probably aren't experienced enough to use it
properly.
I do have ccleaner installed, but I don't allow it to mess with my registry.
I just use it to clean up temp files.
Click to expand...

All you need to "clean up" .tmp files is simply delete them. Duh! So
it doesn't seem you are very experienced.

BTW, any tool in the hands of fanboy is dangerous. That becomes self
evident to everyone reading the crap they keep posting like your rant
above which every time the topic comes up is echoed by many members of
the fanboy club.

Registry cleaners have their place. The false premise the fanboy gang
always attack them for is they pretend anyone that uses them puts them
in to some auto mode. Simply isn't the case. The other loony comment
often made by fanboys is they love to pretend they know how to edit
their Registry manually, line by line. It is absurd for anyone to
pretend they know the purpose of each of the tens of thousands of
lines in a typical Registry file. Of course fanboys are light weight
players. Good for a few laughs, that's about it.

What's a fanboy? Any dope that runs his mouth and doesn't have a clue
what he jabbering about. You seem to qualify.
 
PVR said:
Is there a Registry Cleaner out there which is compatible with Vista? It
should have a good track record.

Peter.
Click to expand...

Registry cleaners are totally unnecessary. The only thing they
accomplish is causing problems.

C.B.
 
My opinion comes from the many machines I have had to repair due to people
using registry cleaners.
Maybe you don't have to fix others peoples mistakes, but I have seen a great
many screw ups done by people who THINK they know everything.
You seem to qualify.
 
My opinion comes from the many machines I have had to repair due to people
using registry cleaners.
Maybe you don't have to fix others peoples mistakes, but I have seen a great
many screw ups done by people who THINK they know everything.
You seem to qualify.
Click to expand...

I don't claim to know everything, but I sure know the pompous jerks
that post here. One of their pet peeves is Registry Cleaners. Like I
said, EVERY TIME the topic comes up they come out of the woodwork and
spout the same garbage. I see you want to keep that tradition alive.
How precious.
 
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