To regedit or not?

[stanch]

In trying to find info on registry editing, I used XP help and tried "regedit". As well as informing you how to call up regedit, giving you dire warnings about screwing your system up, and recommeding backing up your registry, it implies there is no real need to modify or delete anything in the registry. My question is, does windows have a program that cleans up the registry? Are the commercial registry cleaners really necessary? I am not trying to start anything. I would just like an imformed common sense opinion.

[CoffeeFiend]

There's no registry cleaner included in Windows. And no, they're not "necessary" - windows will still run perfectly fine without one. I don't use any, and don't see why I would bother. Most often do more harm than good.

Edited October 15, 2006 by crahak

[Glen]

With the registry it's a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Only if there is a problem or you know exactly what you're doing and wish to change a particular setting that can't be done any other way, should you bother messing about in there. If that's not the case, just leave it because you can very easily screw up your system beyond recovery, changing just one setting can do so in the blink of an eye. That said, it's a very powerful tool and comes in very handy but only when you know your way around, so ask before you go and play with any values.

[stanch]

With the registry it's a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Only if there is a problem or you know exactly what you're doing and wish to change a particular setting that can't be done any other way, should you bother messing about in there. If that's not the case, just leave it because you can very easily screw up your system beyond recovery, changing just one setting can do so in the blink of an eye. That said, it's a very powerful tool and comes in very handy but only when you know your way around, so ask before you go and play with any values.

Thanks to you both. I don't know enough about the registry to do anything unless someone tells me exactly where to go and exactly how to make the entry. I have bought a commercial cleaner/mechanic but they automatically renew their own subscriptions unless you cancel them before hand. That's the part that really bothers me. So, I believe I will scratch them now.

stanch

[Andromeda43]

If you're just a casual user and not a Geek, Computer Nerd or Tech wannabee, leave the registry strictly ALONE.

As a tech that knows how to edit the Windows Registry without getting into trouble, that's the best advise I could ever give you.

However, to properly answer your question, there are several very good Registry Cleaners out there and yes one was written by Microsoft.

It's called "RegClean" and it will find and remove bad lines from your registry and create an UNDO file every time it finds things to remove. It's free.

And then there's "Easy Cleaner" written by a guy a whole lot smarter than I and it too is free.

Easy Cleaner is one heck of a good Registry Cleaner, but it also has functions in it that can get a person into all sorts of trouble if they don't follow my advise and leave those things Alone.

Then after cleaning the registry of all its dead links and just plain garbage, NTREGOPT is a neat little program that can compress the registry to save space in RAM when the registry loads during Boot Up of the system.

I use all three of these programs to clean up the registry on a customers' PC when I'm servicing it.

Registry cleaners are sort of like Dynamite.....you need to use them with care and only when and where required and with all proper safe guards.

I incorporate RegClean into a Weekly (not Weakly) maintenance routine for all my customers.

I reserve Easy Cleaner and NTREGOPT for my own use.

All three of the FREE programs I've mentioned here in this post are ready for download from my (rented) Download Page.

If you decide to 'walk on the wild side' and do your own Registry Maintenance, just go to that site, enter the Computer Tools section and download those three programs and.....

Good Luck!

Andromeda43

[Tarun]

No, you don't use RegClean. Microsoft pulled it because it breaks numerous programs.

The RegClean utility is no longer supported by Microsoft and has been removed from all Microsoft download sites. This was done for legitimate compatibility reasons with certain applications and Operating Systems. The RegClean utility was originally supplied with Microsoft Visual Basic version 4.0 for Windows. The last version of RegClean was 4.1a (build 7364.1) released on March 13, 1998 (RegClean.exe is dated December 30, 1997). During this time the latest Operating Systems were Windows 95 OSR2.1 and Windows NT 4.0. Windows 98 was not released until June 25, 1998. Compatibility with any Operating System besides Windows 95 and NT 4.0 was never substantiated, especially Windows XP. It is very dangerous to run a Registry Cleaner that was never certified to run on your Operating System since removing the wrong Registry Keys can break Applications and the Operating System.

RegClean breaks functionality in the following Applications:

• Microsoft Office XP (Setup)
  
• Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
  
• Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003
  
• Microsoft Office Access 2003
  
• Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
  
• Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
  
• Microsoft Office Word 2003
  
• Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
  
• Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003
  
• Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003
  
• Microsoft Office Excel 2003
  
• Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
  
• Microsoft Office Publisher 2003
  
• Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Edition
  
• Microsoft Office 2000 Professional Edition
  
• Microsoft Office 2000 Standard Edition
  
• Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business Edition
  
• Microsoft Office 2000 Developer Edition
  
• Microsoft Access 2002 Standard Edition
  
• Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
  
• Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Standard Edition
  
• Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition
  
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Standard Edition
  
• Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition
  

Learn more...

But wait, there's more!

"A few hundred kilobytes of unused keys and values causes no noticeable performance impact on system operation. Even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive searches."

"Registry Cleaners can fix problems associated with traces of applications left behind due to incomplete uninstalls. So it seems that Registry junk is a Windows fact of life and that Registry cleaners will continue to have a place in the anal-sysadmin's tool chest, at least until we're all running .NET applications that store their per-user settings in XML files - and then of course we'll need XML cleaners."

Source: Sysinternals / Mark Russinovich / Registry Junk: A Windows Fact of Life

[CoffeeFiend]

Indeed. RegClean is a prime example of registry "cleaners" doing more damage than good. And just like Tarun quoted, it takes a LOT of bloat before it makes any difference. I've tried quite a few over a few years (RegSupreme, JV16, Registry First Aid, etc - registry "defraggers" and compactors too), and it's NEVER made a noticeable difference in speed on any PC, not even once. Unless one has a VERY extreme case there's no point to risk screwing up a system that's working perfectly fine - like Glen said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"... And I'm saying a VERY severe case (to quote Mr Russinovich too: "even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive searches"), in which case likely other things are wrong, and a reinstall might be a better fix.

I'll consider using one the day there's some type of benchmark showing how much of an improvement they make or any kind of hard evidence (I don't expect that to ever happen), and that they fully document what they screw up^H^H^H^H^H err, I mean remove - which I'm not expecting any will ever do. It's a bit like letting some app do voodoo magic with your registry. There's potential for a lot of screw ups, and I don't trust them. And considering most cost money, and offer much more potential to screw up things royally than to really offer any improvement...

The only registry tool I'd really recommend is a registry backup program, like erunt.

[tal ormanda]

jv16 PowerTools’ Registry Cleaner lets you edit registry and makes back ups so u wont mess things up.

[Tarun]

System Restore makes automatic backups of the registry.

RegCompact.NET is also very nice for cleaning the registry and backups as well.

[Jeremy]

I've used dozens of registry cleaners over the years and the best one I've ever used is within jv16 PowerTools. See my post about it on my web blog here.

But in case you're wondering, using nothing to clean your registry isn't a bad thing. People say that cleaning it with benefit access times, but realistically speaking, by how much? 1ms? My mother once told me that her PC was running extremely slow and that using the registry cleaner I advised at the time fixed the slowness completely. I could spend a month in VMware just doing everything in my power to make the registry vomit on itself, but I don't know if it would really slow anything down. Only one way to find out.

[Takeshi]

System Restore makes automatic backups of the registry.

Yes, but so many users disable SR.

Windows' own ntbackup can also backup the whole registry (as part of System State).

Back to the OP's topic, there's no need to get registryphobia. Most changes won't

very easily screw up your system beyond recovery

. Editing the registry is a good way to learn about Windows. Just use common sense.