Registry Cleaner Comparison

[Jeremy]

Removed.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Jeremy

[godan]

nice work, only one suggestion thouhg, you may want to post how much each costs cuz that can be a very important bit of information to many people. sure one program might do a really good job but cost $50 and you can get another that is almost as good free... just an idea.

[jaclaz]

Nice work Jeremy!

Your findings are very similar to mine.

I would like to add a couple more "specialistic" proggies OLE/ActiveX related (FREEWARE):

OLECLEAN

http://www.geocities.com/drdole/ScreenShots/OleClean.html

Control Registration Utility 2.00

http://www.softcircuits.com/dl/apps/regctrls.zip

Using Regseeker, then the two above, and later using ERUNT

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

that includes NTREGOPT, has made the smallest, cleanest Registry I could expect, much better than many COMMERCIAL apps.

jaclaz

[Jeremy]

14. OLEClean

Very basic GUI, very old. Only searches for invalid ProgIDs/TypeLibs/OLEs. Only 85 were found. Not very thorough. Garbage.

18. RegCtrls

This looks like the type of thing you'd find at SysInternals or Nirsoft. Able to unregister "classes". it's over 5 years old. Garbage.

[jaclaz]

Sorry Jeremy,

I did not want to "duplicate" the things or "spoiling" your good work, I just wanted to add the links to the two programs, and to say that in my experience, whilst UNDOUBTEDLY they are by no means good/complete when used alone, they represent valid "post-processors" for RegSeeker.

jaclaz

[alsiladka]

Well done Jeremy ,

Although , only if anyone wants to consider these , i would like to add a few of my inferences or experiences.

I think one of the important info. in this context is , that i have an HP All in One 1402 . Now its driver and software installations are pretty uncommon. It installs them from the path of the cddrive itself , and strangely , the uninstallation entries also point towards the CD. I mean that to uninstall most of its components , you require the cd!!!

Now this is the point which most of the RegCleaners falter with me. They remove some such entries , that Whenever i want to use my All in one , some of its components registry entries are corrupeted and it always pops up the MSI installation and asks for the CD.

I currently use Tune-Up and CCleaner both. They are the only ones which do not give me problems with my All in One. I would reccomend them to those of you , who want to quickly clean the registry without worrying about some important misses. I trust these two blindly , do not even have a look at what all they have found. It never harms my system.

Now about those cleaners who clean the registry and with it , also gave me registry problems.

The first Software on my list is SYSTEM MECHANIC. I simply caution everyone against using it except if you shall carefully and extremely carefully study each and every of its steps before letting it do anything!!! One of its way of safegaurding your system is by changing the way MSI and MSP files work. What an idea, it makes them open in notepad by default!!! and i could not revert back to normal because i could not find its backup inspite of that software having an organized restore system.

About regseeker , well i somehow feel it scans really too aggresively. On doing 3 4 scans one after the other, it must have removed nearly about 2000 entries!!!!!! gave me problems with my All in One.

Even registry First aid gives me problems with my ALl in one.

Have not tried many other of these, happy with Tune up and Ccleaner

ps - anyone having HP All in ones? do you suffer from problem like me? maybe you could help me too out with it

[Jeremy]

@Godan, I didn't list the prices because most of the registry cleaners shouldn't be paid for, plus a lot of them are so poorly made that wasting your money on them would be a sin.

@Alsiladka, I understand your particular frustrations with registry cleaners, and it is odd for a program to point to the CD-ROM by default. Registry cleaners see that as temporary links to files being run off the CD/DVD ROM, not actual program references, so they feel free to remove those entries.

[Jeremy]

I had a chat with a friend of mine about my findings from the registry cleaners experiment, to get far more elaboration of the whole scheme of things, here's a paste of our chat:

[01:14]Fredrik: Do you just measure the size difference or how good they are in making sure that nothing of potential value goes lost too?

[01:16] Jeremy: The registry cleaners? I made a complete backup of the registry before any tests were done, then installed/uninstalled some stuff and deleted some folders with files in them. Then I made another backup of the registry and the filesize difference was approximately 500 KBs.

[01:16] Jeremy: I didn't keep those files, though.

[01:17] Jeremy: I used the registry cleaners with the intention of seeing invalid filepaths and references to software that were uninstalled but left entries behind because, after all, nothing's perfect.

[01:18] Jeremy: The Windows XP registry even after slipping SP2, RyanVM's Pack and XPize, there were a lot of invalid filepaths, possibly temporary files used during the install of Windows, not sure.

[01:19] Jeremy: I based my conclusion on the fact that few registry cleaners actually managed to find all the uninstalled software references. In some cleaners, one was left out but all others were found, and in other cleaners, it was the exact opposite.

[01:20] Jeremy: Some registry cleaners focused on certain references moreso than others, which bothered me.

[01:21] Fredrik: Interesting. Which one would you recommend if you could recommend only one or possibly two? I want to get rid of stuff like that.

[01:21] Jeremy: For example, some focused on MRUs (recent file lists), some focused on OLE / COM / ActiveX / CLSID / TypeLibs / ProgIDs, which are the most risky to deal with in the registry.

[01:22] Fredrik: How much actual space was saved, in megabytes?

[01:22] Fredrik: Yeah.

[01:22] Jeremy: And others focused on invalid filepaths, which are the most in abundance in the registry.

[01:23] Jeremy: As for final filesize, I did no comparison of that, I might redo the whole process at a later date just to give assurance to my findings, or perhaps it'll bring a whole new ballgame.

[01:25] Jeremy: Anyway, as for recommendations, Ace Utilities handles filepaths and software entries brilliantly. JV16 PowerTools gets the OLE / COM / ActiveX / CLSID / TypeLibs / ProgIDs, and RegSeeker seems to find entries that others miss, which makes me suspicious of it, but its freeware and has a finder feature so I love it.

[01:25] Fredrik: But what really matters is how smooth and clean everything feels right now, so what's your rating on that?

[01:26] Fredrik: I mean as far as the different programs go, but there's no way of comparing that in a good way is there

[01:27] Jeremy: Well, after doing a sweep on the registry with several programs, anyone would generally be satisfied with the feeling that their registry is cleaned out of anything invalid and just needs to be compacted to get rid of the empty parts and reduce filesize.

[01:28] Jeremy: It's basically like running into a burning house and rescuing 5 kids and feeling great that you saved lives, but at the same time, you wonder if you missed anyone.

[01:28] Jeremy: Because there are literally dozens of cleaners and each one finds something that another did not.

[01:29] Fredrik: NT Registry Optimizer is good too, it just compacts the registry files, but I think it has a small impact.

[01:29] Fredrik: Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

[01:29] Jeremy: Which does not necessarily mean that the registry cleaner is better or worse than another, but it makes you wonder how they go about actually determining what IS invalid.

[01:30] Fredrik: True.

[01:30] Jeremy: However, when I cleaned the registry with Ace Utilities and RegSeeker, JV16 PowerTools found nothing afterwards.

[01:31] Jeremy: But crappy ones like 3B Registry Repair Pro still found around 80+ entries, but it's just so hard to tell where these other ones get their results from.

Edited February 28, 2006 by Jeremy

[kartel]

I tried JV16 PowerTools 2005 and did the registry cleaner and it did a great job on agressive I had a long time to check every entry on the list one by one but I swear my computer runs faster now, good job Jeremy.

Edited February 28, 2006 by kartel

[Jeremy]

Glad to have helped.

[eidenk]

18. RegCtrls

This looks like the type of thing you'd find at SysInternals or Nirsoft. Able to unregister "classes". it's over 5 years old. Garbage.

This shouldn't be in the list as it is not exactly a registry cleaner but rather a COM manager and it's not garbage IMO.

Check also COMView at http://www.japheth.de/ for an even better tool in the same category.

17. RegCleaner

This program is old and everything it has to offer is found in JV16 PowerTools. It doesn't have an actual registry cleaner, but only able to remove items from shell extensions, add/remove list, etc. As I said, same as JV16. It creates an entry in your start-up list. This is essentially garbage now.

Yes it does have a registry cleaner under Tools/Registry Cleanup and it is still one of the best free maintenance tools IMO.

[Jeremy]

This a trial of elimination. The following programs have won so far. I have screenshots that will elaborate things for you as you read. Enjoy.

Registry/Maintenance Programs That Are Worth It – Revision 1

(Keep in mind that my first priority in judgment for these programs is registry and then maintenance. If it were maintenance first, CCleaner would be #1.

1. JV16 PowerTools 2005

http://www.jv16.org/

Payware ($29.95 US / $34.03 CAN)

Main GUI

As clearly shown, a multi-functional program capable of over a dozen very useful tasks that will keep your PC in optimal shape, especially when combined with CCleaner, due to how many programs’ temp/cache locations are integrated into it, which no other program has.

2. CCleaner (Crap Cleaner)

http://www.ccleaner.com/

Freeware

Straightforward, easy-to-use GUI

Includes a registry cleaner that finds critical invalids, allows for backup if desired

Removes countless junk, temp, cache, MRU files

Add/Remove applet-like menu with rename, remove and execute abilities

Start-Up Manager

Secure File Deletion

Protect desired cookies

Context menu entries optional

3. Ace Utilities

http://www.acelogix.com/aceutils.html

Payware ($29.95 US / $34.03 CAN)

Features include:

Remove Junk Files

Clean Registry

Find Duplicate Files

Start-Up Manager

Complete list of features, explanations and screenshots can be found at the link above

4. RegSeeker

http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

Freeware

RegSeeker GUI & Features

RegSeeker has several features that remind you of CCleaner and JV16 or RegCleaner. Some people say it removes too much from the registry but I have been using it for a while and haven't had any problems with corruption. It has a great GUI and is free so I thought I would mention it.

5. Registry First Aid

Payware ($27.95 US, $31.75 CAN)

http://www.rosecitysoftware.com/reg1aid/

RFA Options

RFA Scan Options

RFA Scan Results

RFA is recently updated, has many useful options that generally make it an overall great registry cleaner. It has many awards and generally gives off the vibe of being a trustworthy program. It is good for removing unused shell extensions and MRUs among many other types of references. It can view entries in safety categories which enforces a boundary for users and makes them feel safer about removing entries than they might otherwise. It adds a start-up entry for its “Agent”.

6. RegCleaner

http://www.worldstart.com/weekly-download/...-cleaner4.3.htm

Freeware

Main GUI

Tools > ...

Contains many of the same functions that JV16 PowerTools has. It has an OLE Cleaner and registry cleaner and is very small in filesize. This is probably the only freeware partial alternative to JV16 for those who want the functions of JV16, but don’t want to buy it. It also allows viewing of OCX and DLL files, which can be used in troubleshooting situations. Overall a terrific freeware solution, despite initial misjudgment from myself. Sorry, eidenk.

7. Registry Healer

http://www.fixregistry.com/regheal/index.htm

Payware ($19.95 US, $22.68 CAN)

Registry Healer Options

RH Main GUI

I’m pleased with this registry cleaner because it intelligently manages to not pick every entry by default, but picks what it thinks should be removed and leaves the rest up to you. The same thing can be said about Registry First Aid, of course, but to have more than one cleaner with this design gives users more variety.

It is clearly highly customizable, and allows you to protect desired areas of the registy so you don’t have to fear of corruption.

8. RegScrubXP

I did not find a homepage.

Freeware

RegScrubXP Extras

ReGScrubXP Results

RegScrubXP scans very quickly and removes a lot of null entries, which is good. It is free and very popular.

Edited March 1, 2006 by Jeremy

[ripken204]

thx for the list Jeremy, ive been using ccleaner for a while now and i see u have it as #2 . #1 costs money so im staying where i am.

[mentalindustrie]

RegCleaner does not work on windows xp x64.

As soon as it starts to scan it crashes.

JV16 PowerTools 2006 does work for x64 though

[eidenk]

RegSeeker has several features that remind you of CCleaner and JV16 or RegCleaner. Some people say it removes too much from the registry but I have been using it for a while and haven't had any problems with corruption. It has a great GUI and is free so I thought I would mention it.

RegSeeker does break the windows setup applet functionality on WinME. That's the line to add to the exclude.ini file to prevent it from happening :

2|SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\VarLDID

Best "automatic" registry cleaner IMO.

Edited March 1, 2006 by eidenk