Welcome, Digg visitors. Wow, twice in three days an old post of mine gets picked up and Dugg like crazy. Just to be clear: If you have a specific problem with removing a specific program, a registry cleaning utility might be able to identify keys that will help you solve that specific problem. But that’s a rare scenario. Most people I know use registry cleaners as part of their magic cleanup routine, and I see very little upside and a lot of potential downside in this sort of routine use. Specifically, as I write below, I have never seen any evidence that routine “cleaning” of the registry has any positive effect. I stand behind that statement.
Via Matt Goyer, John Hoole offers this cautionary tale:
just a note to say if you have Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (probably all versions actually) steer clear of registry clean programs such as Reg Mechanic they go through your registry and delete unnecessary keys….. sounds good but it didn’t count on Media Center I ran it a few days back and when I came to use Media Center it loaded then produced a crash report and died, took me ages to figure it out until I came to run Reg Mechanic again and realized This program deletes DLL files too so….. I restored the first backup and rebooted and media center worked fine so if you have that error on startup that’s your problem right there. Just restore the backup from Reg Mechanic. So you have been warned.
I’d go a step further: Don’t run registry cleaner programs, period. I won’t go so far as to call them snake oil, but what possible performance benefits can you get from “cleaning up” unneeded registry entries and eliminating a few stray DLL files? Even in the best-case scenario the impact should be trivial at best. Maybe a second or two here and there, maybe a few kilobytes of freed-up RAM, and I’m being generous. How can you balance those against the risk that the utility will “clean” (in other words, delete) something you really need, causing a program or feature to fail?
If anyone has done any serious performance testing on this class of software, I’d be interested in seeing it. In the absence of really rigorous testing and fail-safe design, I say: Stay far away from this sort of utility.
If you have a counter-argument to make, leave a comment. But simply saying, “I use Reg-o-matic Deluxe and my computer is way faster than ever!” isn’t good enough. Show me the data!
Update: I did a Google search for “registry cleaner” performance tests, and got more than 25,000 hits. In the first 15 pages, however, there wasn’t a single example of an actual performance test. Virtually all the results were from companies that make and sell this sort of utility, or from download sites that have affiliate agreements with these developers. I found one recent how-to article from Ed Tittel on TechWeb. Ed asserts that “Most Windows experts recommend a Registry clean-up on all systems at least once every six months.” He didn’t link to any of those experts, however.
Later in the same article, Ed advises: “I urge you to check comparative reviews, ratings, and rankings of Registry Clean-up Tools before you invest hard-earned dollars on these products.” Sadly, there are no links here either. I suspect that’s because detailed comparative reviews of this class of software don’t exist. Ironically, the article inadvertently documents the case against this sort of utility. Early on, it states: “The typical Windows system has literally hundreds of thousands of Registry entries.” The screen shot from the free utility he spotlights shows a grand total of 19 “errors,” most of which are simply pointers to CLSIDs that don’t exist. Is it really worth spending hours on this task? I don’t think so.
The best bit of reading I found in my search was this rant from a poster named Jabarnut on a thread at DSL Reports’ Software Forum:
The Registry is an enormous database and all this “Cleaning” really doesn’t amount to much…I’ve said this before, but I liken it to “sweeping out one parking space in a parking lot the size of Montana” … a registry “tweak” here and there is desirable or even necessary sometimes, but random “cleaning”, especially for the novice, is inviting disaster.
I also would like someone to show me any hard evidence that registry cleaning actually improves performance. (Unless there is a specific problem that has to be addressed by making changes to the registry).
Sorry to go on like this, but I feel there is way to much Registry “Cleaning” going on these days just for the sake of “cleaning”.
Amen.
Update 11-Sep: Several commenters have made a good case for a handful of utilities that include registry repair and cleaning options. They make the point that these are useful when used intelligently, not indiscriminately. My colleague George Ou from ZDNet passed along these comments:
I do like the free CCleaner. I’ve cleaned out 1 GB or more of junk on friends computers and it does make the system a little more responsive. You don’t get as many unexplained pauses. This is a problem with the lack of multithreading in Windows Explorer most of the time when it times out on dead resources like a detached network drive. I thought I remember reading something on the Vista features that fixes this by supporting multiple threads.
Other than that, I’ve made sure that I don’t have any dead links the system is trying to access on the desktop that are sure to cause a 30 second lockup even if I drag an icon across the dead link icon. Ccleaner also does a nice job removing a lot of that junk. The combination of MSCONFIG and Ccleaner works wonders.
OK, I’ll give it a try.
Cleaning the Registry -by itself- does NOT actually free too much hard drive space, yet helps in preventing POSSIBLE Registry conflicts.
Nevertheless, Registry Mechanic is but a S-C-A-M, as are many other registry “cleaners” out-there… meant to fool innocent people, and -perhaps- cleanse people’s wallets !
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I DO USE SUCCESSFULLY 2 F-R-E-E Registry Cleaners in all of my computers (about one dozen of them -sic), and have also installed them in other people’s computers, many of them computer-illiterate, retired senior citizens, some over 70, for the main purpose of removing UN-WANTED FILES.
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They use them regularly, at least once-a-month, for many, many years, on many different Windows Operating Systems, with notable exceptions on some Win 95′s, where I installed some older versions that are somewhat compatibile.
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Here’s what I’m using, STRICTLY in their “default” settings, without any “tinkering” to their settings:
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1.) EasyCleaner, from: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm
2.) RegCleaner, from: http://www.worldstart.com/weekly-download/archives/reg-cleaner4.3.htm
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REPEAT, unless you know what you’re doing, do NOT change their respective Default Settings, or serious damage may be done to the computer.
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EasyCleaner … In example, only use the followings EasyCleaner “thingies”: MRU, Clear History, Clear Cookies, Clear Files, UnNecessary (make sure you have clicked/ticked all of the entries available here [Normal Types, Extra Types...etc.], followed by Search, … then Delete All, … followed by OK, wait… one more OK, … then Close -n.b.), and Registry, in the same way as UnNecessary.
* NOTE that the UnDo feature leaves a lot to desire, and that the Clear Cookies is not too complete.
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RegCleaner … just go to the Tools > Registry CleanUp > Do Them All.
Once it’s done, go to Select > All, to check/tick all entries, then click/tick on the Remove Selected (lower right corner -n.b.)
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Furthermore, these people also regularly do a C:\ and/or D:\
Disk CleanUp from their respective Properties …, plus Internet Explorer Ptroperties CleanUp of Cookies, History and Files (including OffLine -n.b.).
…..
All this is followed by a Disk DeFragmentation.
NOTE: Defragmentation and Disk CleanUp are most efficiently done in Safe-Mode, although very few people bother to do it.
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I also teach others these same procedures, without even a single complaint.
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Needless to say that I -personally- “tinker” with these settings, whenever necessary…
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Incidentally, as I correctly observed in various more-or-less technical postings elsewhere, these 2 fine programs need not be updated, and come FREE and CLEAR of any mal-ware, or other similar garbage, meant to extort money.
The creators of these applications appear to be pure computing enthusiasts (like Patyrick Kolla of SpyBot Search & Destroy -n.b.), who love what they’re doing, and dream of a safer and cleaner Internet browsing and experience, while most others are in just for the money, at times even STEALING such good programs from well-intended people.
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This was my 2-cents. There are 98 more cents to make the Mighty Dollar !
Charlotte K., please elaborate; what do you mean/imagine by: “preventing POSSIBLE Registry conflicts.”, i.e. what are “registry conflicts” ??
regards, Ivan Tadej
By “possible registry conflicts” I mean … potential “disagreements” between certain Registry Entries.
In a more plain language, here are some examples of such:
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1.) Boot up your computer, then have one, or even more message(s) DURING, or AFTER complete boot, requesting so-and-so file(s)… whereas such file(s) once belonged to program(s) that was/were “supposedly” un-installed ;
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2.) Similar message(s) as per above, due as a result of incorrect and/or incomplete un-installation operation(s), such as in the case of just DELETE, rather than UnInstall certain program(s), as done by inexperienced people ;
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3) Have program “XYZ, vs 1.xxx” un-installed, so that one can install an upgrade … say “XYZ, vs 2.xxx” . More often than not, some left-over files from the previous -and obsolete version- may end up interfering with the interface and operations of the newer version ;
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4.) Quite often, one may encounter even some executables still “alive-and-well” in the background, although these may
not always be visible from the Windows Task Manager, yet they are THERE, un-necessarily eating up precious memory resources, that results in dramatic slow-down of the computer.
.
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Incidentally, following a detailed clean-up from spyware adware, germs, trojan horses, and others such “beasts”, many-a-time these “left-overs” are capable of completely regenerating themselves, rendering your tedious clean-up work as useless. Same goes for Registry entries, of course.
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Needless to say that manually editing the Registry should be -DEFINITELY- left to those that truly know what they are doing… for serious operating damage may occur as a result of error(s), even to the extent of “killing” the Operating System.
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However, more and more people desire to acquire a certain degree of “say” and control over their personal computers, thus … people’s tampering -in one way or another- with the Registry is inevitable.
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Strictly in THIS CONTEXT, my recommendation was -and is- to use these 2 Registry Cleaners, especially for their features that enable one to remove most of those unwanted files (history, cookies, temps, un-necessaries, and the like -n.b.). AND … Leave the Registry ITSELF alone !
In other words, don’t do a Registry clean-up if you aren’t sure, or … are afraid.
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NOTE: a.)Every one of my clients (private & Corporate -n.b.) does every one of the above procedures, inclusive of the Registry clean-up, exactly as I trained them.
b.) Every computer was “clean-as-a-whistle” prior to turning it over to their owner !!
In other words, there was ABSOLUTELY no other possible interference from any loose Registry Entry, or “forgotten” invalid “Registry references” left by me. I specify this because I suspect that many Registry Cleaners’ users may have problems in using these wonderful applications due to certain OTHER pre-existing conditions, or incomplete PREVIOUS clean-ups, or naive attempts thereof.
) …
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The SPEED INCREASE WAS CONSIDERABLE, if you take in account that some of the computers I worked on had almost everything “dead”, even the mouse … and I had to use “manual” means of accessing it, occasionally the MS-DOS.
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Not ONE of these computers had to be re-formatted, or OS re-installed, although the amount of work is considerable, and need to have lots of patience and -especially- passion, in doing it. As it were the case, almost every one of these computers contained some photos, and/or documents of importance that needed to be salvaged intactly, and absolutely no one area “specialist” was either capable, or willing to do it; They urged a clean re-install instead.
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In several years of working on computers, I ONLY “lost” two (2) of them, due to -I suspect- hard drive failure; However, I managed to salvage every single needed and prized item from them, whether with “manual” commands, or with home-made “improvisations”, in one of the two cases having the Hard Drive in the freezer, over-night !!!
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Keep in mind that cleaning the Registry is not -by itself- going to speed up too much of your computer, unless it has severe Registry “conflicts”, as heretofore defined.
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The real speed increase comes from removing those ever accumulating un-necessary files, to be followed by Defragmentation.
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NO ANY SEARCH BAR ALLOWED, except for Google’s Advanced.
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Also, I tweak the IE’s Options, from Advanced >Empty Temp Internet files … (It’s but one of the many that are checked -n.b.), Programs >Manage Add-Ons, Content > AutoComplete is DISABLED, Content >MyProfile is DISABLED, Security is all CUSTOMIZED, while the General >Settings is set to NEVER.
Likewise, the SpyBot Search & Destroy is tweaked in its Advanced Mode (I love its great capabilities !!), so are the others that I ALWAYS install on their computers, be it anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti- … rust ! …
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I’m fully aware that -by and large- people should abstain to get into the Registry, unless they are knowledgeable; Yet, they do it anyway. So … My advice is for those that still want to do it.
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From my extensive experimentations with various utilities, I regretfully have to admit that programs created by pure “Computer Enthusiasts” are -in general- far better than the “commercial”, for-money versions !!!
Also, most of the U.S.-made ones are inferiour, and almost every time associated with some sort of spy- , or ad- ware application, whether from the onset, or -more commonly- following the up-dating process. That includes Norton (one of my former “darlings”, and McAfee.
PandaSoftware shows some timid promises… while TrendMicro appears to be Trend-Mendous with its FREE scanning & cleaning !
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In my recent experience, we fail to have any really clean & good US-made applications, at present time, while Open-Source scored yet another welcome victory throughout Europe and the rest of the World.
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EasyCleaner’s stolen-version owners try to sell it for some $ 24.99 or so, and is LOUSY…, so do two almost-identical copies of SpyBot Search & Destroy (marketed under other names -n.b.), while the real one was greatly handicapped by the “workings” of one of our US companies, by rendering a “funny” Tea-Timer interface… that I corrected, partially.
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ADVICE: To ensure that you have good program applications, one needs to do lots of research prior to trusting any of these !
I, for one, test new applications in full for about 3 to 5 months, prior to installing them on others’ computers, going to as far as e-Mail exchanges with their authors, which enables me to know far more about their personal philosophy and/or motivations, as compared to most of us.
My eMail addy is openly availabble: In-Direct@MyWay.com, for anyone with bona-fide, reasonable, and common-sensical issues.
Do NOT S-P-A-M , please, for I know how to trace ALL of it, and act accordingly !
Dear Charlotte K.,
[quote]1.) Boot up your computer, then have one, or even more message(s) DURING, or AFTER complete boot, requesting so-and-so file(s)… whereas such file(s) once belonged to program(s) that was/were “supposedly” un-installed ;[/quote]
Yes, but these aren’t dangerous at all, just annoying. Also, they are easy to track and you can usually get rid of them (delete them) quite easily, since these entries normally reside under “HKCU\…\Run” and “HKLM\…\Run” keys.
[quote]4.) Quite often, one may encounter even some executables still “alive-and-well” in the background, although these may not always be visible from the Windows Task Manager, yet they are THERE, un-necessarily eating up precious memory resources, that results in dramatic slow-down of the computer.[/quote]
Well I can’t imagine how some executable would be still “alive-and-well” (you mean running as a process I assume), but not visible from the Windows Task Manager.
[quote]Incidentally, following a detailed clean-up from spyware adware, germs, trojan horses, and others such “beasts”, many-a-time these “left-overs” are capable of completely regenerating themselves, rendering your tedious clean-up work as useless. Same goes for Registry entries, of course.[/quote]
I can’t imagine any registry entry being responsible for re-creating the executable of already deleted program, i.e. if you deleted the executable no registry entry by itself can bring it back.
[quote]The SPEED INCREASE WAS CONSIDERABLE, if you take in account that some of the computers I worked on had almost everything “dead”, even the mouse …[/quote]
???
[quote]Strictly in THIS CONTEXT, my recommendation was -and is- to use these 2 Registry Cleaners, especially for their features that enable one to remove most of those unwanted files (history, cookies, temps, un-necessaries, and the like -n.b.)[/quote]
This can be done from any file-manager or from Internet Options Control Panel’s applet (the General tab), i.e. particulary the “Delete Cookies…”, “Delete Files…” and “Delete History…” buttons. Don’t know why anyone would need a special program for that.
[quote]Also, I tweak the IE’s Options, from Advanced >Empty Temp Internet files … (It’s but one of the many that are checked -n.b.), Programs >Manage Add-Ons, Content > AutoComplete is DISABLED, Content >MyProfile is DISABLED, Security is all CUSTOMIZED, while the General >Settings is set to NEVER.[/quote]
Not quite sure what this has to do with registry cleaners…
regards, Ivan Tadej
>> The flip side is that a cache that’s overfilled with more
>> data than is necessary, or that’s filled with old and
>> obsolete data also is bad: That useless data is just so
>> much junk that gets in the way.
Yes, but as stated in Ed Bott’s original article (and I guess on Microsoft’s site too), the Windows cleans the old/obsolete files in Prefetch folder by itself (after 128 files were created); so why bothering with doing the OS’ job ??
regards, Ivan Tadej
Sorry all, I posted this last comment under the wrong article; it should be posted under “One more time: do not clean out your Prefetch folder!” one…
Ivan Tadej
I was about to buy a registry cleaner but, reading this board, have now reconsidered. I have been using Windows ME for several years and my computer has slowed appreciably. Can someone point a real computer novice to simple information which will help me to get rid of unwanted “stuff” and enhance performance?
I too was considering purchasing a registry cleaner to help speed up my computer but after reading this board I’ve decided against it. Thanks for the info Ed. Much appreciated.
You should try Tuneup Utilities (cf. http://www.tune-up.com/) before saying all that. It have a registry cleaner that have been reliable and efficient on all my 32 bit Windows XP systems (home, pro and media center 2005) since years, and it is free!
Best regards,
Sensi
Well Sensi, please tell us what do you mean by “reliable and efficient” ??
________________
regards,
Ivan Tadej, Slovenija, Europe
http://users.volja.net/tayiper
http://satyrhosts.bravehost.com
http://ivan-tadej.atspace.com
i tried a LOT of them – and (assuming) 99% of them are ineffective (because they dont find many wrong entried) and/or DANGEROUS since they delete important registry entries.
IN FACT – i can *only* recommend two cleaner/defragger tools which is the excellent
jv16 power tools (with other great essential tools)
and/or
regsupreme pro
which is from the same company, similiar to jv16 tools but rather a registry-only tool.
STAY AWAY FROM ANY OTHER registry-cleaner – i speak from experience and i had bad ones with other tools than the two above.
A very good registry defragger (== purging of the deleted entries, therefore shrinking the registry) is
NTREGOPT (together with erunt, which is a registry backup tools)
I use both of those tools with success for a while.
“success” in a sense that i find many unused/wrong entries once in a while and after deleting i *usually* dont see problems on my PC.
BUT BEWARE – editing, deleting (even with a automatic tool) is NOT something for everyone – it’s my opinion it’s tools for geeks and hardcore computer literates which know what they’re doing ! You need a pretty good understanding about PCs and Windows internals – otherwise you will create more problems. DO NOT buy those tools if you’re rather inexperienced and expect wonders and magic solutions for software problems.
BUT if you’re an experienced user those tools CAN be very might and powerful. I personally dont have a doubt that purging the registry of unused/wrong entries (sometimes hundreds at a time) and then defragging (shrinking) the registry about 3% or so in the long run benefits my machine.
Windows (XP), respective the software you install, has the problem that (even after a proper un-install) MANY of the programs leave entries in the registry.
Those tools are also good for selective deleting entries if you know that you deleted a certain program and STILL there are related entries in the registry.
BEWARE AGAIN – deleting ONE wrong entry can make software non-working, and if it comes really bad can screw up a whole system.
Hi Ed,
I also tried a lot of them Reg Mechanic, RFA, reg cleaner, reg seeker, etc. I ‘cleaned’ the registry on a regarly base
My conclusion: what a waste of time.
I noticed no single performance improvement or what so ever, but after a while i faced a lot of problems wrt a lot of programs (won’t start up or some functionalities were gone.
I remove all that crap from my PC and now after 6 months my PC is still spinning like a Ferrari.
Kind regards,
Erik, The Netherlands
I have XP Media Center Edition 2005 and recently whenever I load up Windows, my Systemworks 2006 deletes a backdoor virus. Because of this I thought about the old program I used to use, back in the day of Windows ME, Registery Mechanic, since it allows me to customize my start options. I don’t use these kind of programs to clean the registery, but to stop several processes that automatically run on my computer that I do not want. I found out that Registery is worse than ever and isn’t compatible with MCE05. So, I’m wondering, do all these utilities that can alter the startup always fall under registery cleanups? I’ve downloaded programs that claim to help startup but they are so complicated, I don’t want to mess with them. Does anyone have a utility they can recommend that will not destroy my system? This virus automatically running on startup is annoying, I don’t want whatever program it is that’s trying to run it to start. I wish I could find out what it is and remove it. Systemworks told me to run a system scan, which doesn’t do anything.
I hate to break it to you but cleaning up the Registry is a requirement. Installing Office 2000 on a fresh system adds about 3 MB to the registry. And guess what, uninstalling Office doesn’t make the registry shrink back. Just of curiosity I compared a “before Office” and “after Office” full registry export. There were dozens of leftover Office entries, that the uninstallation doesn’t remove, that’s without mentioning files that were left behind.
And not only that but I have several user accounts on my PC. I have one that has a user profile hive of about 15 MB. And it’s slow as hell. Copying and opening up Win Explorer is slooow. On the clean user profile, the user hive is about 1 MB (but it’s only clean because I don’t use it often), and the difference is visible. Explorer opens right away, regular tasks perform better. Even right clicking brings up the menu faster. The registry seems to suffer from the same problem as Access databases, which require recompressing periodically (I’ve seen an Access database of about 2 MB shrink to 1 MB after recompressing). The registry is the dumbest idea anyone could possibly come up with.
>> The registry is the dumbest idea anyone could possibly come up with.
Well, what do you then suggest to use instead? Maybe the .ini files to store all the information about the devices, computer/hardware configuration and software installations like in the 9x days??
regards,
Ivan Tadej, Slovenija, Europe
Sha Boland, you might want to try the “Autoruns” program: http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/autoruns.html from Sysinternals site. It is a free and “non-setup” application, i.e. “non-setup” in a meaning that it’s only a .zip archive that requires no special installation whatsoever.
best regards,
Ivan Tadej, Slovenia, Europe
http://www.tadej-ivan.be/
i used to use registery cleaners and felt that my pc was more prone to ustablity and in 12 months i havent been using them my pc runs just fine.I figure that if everything gets out of shape just renistall everything on a fresh hd , you cant do better , in short install as few programs as possible . I have also found that sometimes sticking to original installations discs/files is better then upgrading to later upgrades , if it not broken dont try to fix it. if you pc is running ok , leave it alone.
ken, I know precisely what you are trying to say, and be sure that this is only a so-called “placebo effect” and believe me, that that’s pretty much all there is about it …
best regards,
Ivan Tadej, Slovenia, Europe
http://www.tadej-ivan.be/
first off if u use registry cleaner just to clean crap out then u r fool and should have your computer crash on u other wise a registry cleaner can be useful just not in way u all think proable cuz most of u r point and click operator not trying to be mean here but ok u should never do anything to registry if u dont know what u r doing so if get a program just click away and let it delete stuff then u desrve to have your pc crash
now that being said i use a small registry cleaner not to increase speed but i install and unistall alot apps now a alot the apps leave regkeys that can lead to system conflic ok here exsample i uninstall my old torrent client and i had torrent file associated with it but when i uninstalled it my pc still thought it was my defult do to a regkey now that leads to problem using my newclient as my defult true i can manuly regkey remove and in most cases i do but i can just bring up my registry cleaner have it do keep swipe then scane though all the one i know i need to get rid notice i said scane them meaning look over them my self using registry cleaner save me time going through my regregistry manualy when i can just pull up a list of all the old regkeys in my sytem and look to see what i know needs to go for u people that just run them registry cleaner and click your way though and dont take the few seconds it take to read what u r geting rid and what it conneted to then shouldnt be on a computer u wasting your money even having one but a registry cleaner can be useful to clear up bit and peices of left over regkeys that your system might think still active and that will give u some type of conflic but u still should take the time to learn a bit about regkey befor u remove any even if a an app sayes it ok if u dont run the registry cleaner to speed your computer but to keep for having sytem erors my sugation to u all if u seeing how from what i read none of u seam to know that much is take your computer to best buy and let them do mantinance seeing how u all r wasting your money any how even own the thing whats a couple more dollars
Thanks for your input. I actually convinced myself to download one, however reluctantly. When it finished loading, I found it peculiar that it immediately gave me and error message: Error Doctor has created an unexpected error in errordoctor.exe! Just as well, as I was too suspicious anyway because none give the price before the “free” download. It’s like here’s your problem, do you want to pay us to fix it or take a huge risk?
Enough of that. The reason I considered their offer(s) is I have lost my sound and volume control altogether and my computor says there is no driver. Perhaps you can advise me on this problem. My operator is ME and I have had sound for 5+ years. a small ps: System Restore is also disabled.
Thank You’
Jim