Best Registry Cleaner? [Poll]

[thespin]

Don't the BIG BANANAS like NORTON count ? I would guess McAffee has a utility to do it too ...

[Andromeda43]

Don't the BIG BANANAS like NORTON count ? I would guess McAffee has a utility to do it too ...

Big bananas? You mean the two biggest P.O.C.'s on the planet?

All they do, and they do it very well, is load down your system with superfluous BS.

This thread is devoted to those who want to 'clean up' their PC's....and getting rid of BS like the two above mentioned programs is the best place to start.

Sorry, if I come off here a bit on the hard side....but I fight this battle every day in my own Computer business.

Every day I take Norton or McAfee off of a customer's PC, with their blessings, and replace them with FREE software that actually does a much better job.

y'all have a great day now, y'hear?

Andromeda

[Jeremy]

Agreed.

[Wesmosis]

you **** right Andromeda!

but man I can feel you suffering to convince the average-joe customers that Norton + McAfee + PC Cillin are just Empty Barrels making big bubbles and noises :)

[gdogg]

ROFLCOPTER

nice on.

yeh, since im soo good with comptuers, i dont have trouble convicing anyone of this. cause after i fix there computer once. I tell them, try these, if you dont like your computer going faster, or if you dont like less virus' and spyware, then call me when you want me to install norton back on, never had one of those calls

[Wesmosis]

never had one of those calls

Suuuuuuuuuuure :)

[breadandbubbles]

alright, so i have registry mechanic and CCleaner....and what do they DO, exactly?

what does it mean to "compact the registry"?

[Crash&Burn]

Well I went to check out CCleaner, and I mean come on, the guy can't even code an app that follows basic WinAPI principles, when using Window Background color, the program must use Window Foreground (Text) Color. And VicaVersa. And you trust this app to purge your Registry?

Looks like the new board is having problems - claims the following is an invalid "extension" ? Which is just a gif in a subdir ah well.

img] http://ca.geocities.com/crashnbrn71/CCleaner.gif[/img

And while Nortons may bloat up the registry, if you have the skills, you can easily make selfcontained program installs of its various Utilities. And it's regCleaner has some of the best features/ease of use.

Along w/ SpeedDisk and a few of the other tools.

Edited October 19, 2005 by Crash&Burn

[Jeremy]

I only use CCleaner to do exactly what its name says, clean temp/cache/MRUs. All-In-One programs do not do the job well. They have to be devoted 100% to a task in order to do it right. To 3/4 clean and 1/4 regfix does not appeal to me. JV16's RegSupreme Pro, now that's a reg cleaner!

And about reg compacting, I have a program called Registry Compactor that does that. When you delete something from the reg, it leaves behind a bit of empty space. A "gap" in the reg that just stays there. Think of it as boxes that are beside each other but aren't touching each other. So the total length from the first to last is longer than it could be. Reg Compactor simply pushes all the reg back together, thus removing the empty/vacant filesize and thus lowering the actual size of those regs. I'd only use it once a month or so if you are a hardcore installer and uninstaller, making shortcuts, deleting them, installing massive software that installs its own Services, etc, etc. The most I've ever had in fragmentation of the reg was 14% and when I compacted it, it saved 800+ KBs. The entire reg is about 15 MBs. They say there are speed benefits to compacting the reg because it improves disk access to needed sections of the reg. I've noticed maybe a few milleseconds worth, but nothing that would make me microwave soup for 1:15 instead of 1:30.

[Crash&Burn]

As a reg-cleaner its useless, it found almost no "crap" entries. As a FileCleanup, Opera can clean its own cache, and can easily run a couple clicks in TotalCommander to clean out temp files older than a specified amount of time, or search for duplicate files, or specific "junk" extensions. It just strikes me as another useless app. But to each their own

The best reg-cleaner I used was nortons, JV-16's wants to delete far too much stuff that is important, and if you aren't a hardcore tweaker it will serious F your registry.

There was one other I don't recall, but again it wanted to delete stuff that it really shouldn't.

I'd rather have a little bigger registry than one thats screwed.

[laurens]

CCleaner for me!!

@Crash&Burn

jo dont have to use it. its your PC

CCleaner looks for extensions that are not in use for a program. If there is no programm that claim the *.pmm extension. CCleaner will see it as crap. however it isnt crap but it doesnt make your pc slower or mallfunctional.

*.pmm is just a example

Edited October 20, 2005 by laurens

[Woomera]

im using TUNEUP UTILITIES registry cleaner and its good.

[Crash&Burn]

But this thread/poll was in regards to the "best registry cleaner" and CCleaner is subpar at that. Decent at cleaning up junk files, but really thats easy enough to do w/ TotalCommander or batch files.

[stargateok]

Ad-Aware SE Pro

BPS spyware & adware remover

Fix-It

JV16 Powertools

WinXP Manager

Spybot - Search & Destroy

Registry Mechanic

RegVac

Registry First Aid

RegDoctor

RegSupreme Pro

Spy Emergency 2005

System Mechanic v6

I use these and try new ones often. None seems to get it all!. What one leaves another removes. You really would think the "genius crew" at MS could make a registry that would clean itself or at the least ask program makers to make their individual programs clean up after themselves, they're all PIGS! LOL.

[Jeremy]

Finally, someone figured out that no matter what registry cleaner you use gets rid of everything that is invalid. Every reg cleaner has a different definition of "valid" and "invalid" it seems. The best way to clean your registry IMHO is:

Use one that removed MRU's, broken shortcuts, invalid file associations, dead file locations, uninstalled program leftovers, stuff like that.

Then go into your reg and manually look through:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE

for anything the reg cleaner missed that you know for a fact is useless.

Windows Registry... what a weird thing that is, eh?