registry cleaners?

Question

does anyone use registry cleaners? Are they good or bad, and if so what is a good one. Thank you

Answer 1

The safest & best is TuneUp Utils. Download a fully working free trial from:
http://www.tune-up.com/
It also has many other tune up utilities.

Alternatively use Ccleaner. In the left hand pane is 'Issues' this a a registry cleaner. Ccleaner is an excellent free tool from:
http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

wdw

Answer 2

If you want to use a registry cleaner, use one that you searched for. Start at a reputable site like HP help. NEVER use a registry cleaner that you get from a pop-up ad or an unsolicited e-mail. There are a whole bunch of these out there that try to scare you into buying them by telling you that your registry has 50,000 errors. If this were true your computer wouldn't function. I have had some experience with using free trial versions that screwed up my computer beyond use, then they wanted $89.95 to buy their software to fix it. Most of these things are scams and rip-offs. If your computer is not working well, your best option is to use the built-in system tools to try and fix it. In the worst case using system restore will return your machine to its' original factory condition, but this option will delete any programs you have added since the computer was new, so make sure you have the discs to reinstall them or back them up first. Also if you do this make sure to save all your pictures and personal documents first. I would only recommend this in extreme cases where there is no other way to fix your computer. Hope this helps;-)

Answer 3

Registry cleaner software eliminates the clutter and junk that builds up in your computer's registry from installing and removing programs, deleting and creating files and surfing online which results in a fast optimized registry that keeps your computer running properly. Without such tune ups your computer can become sluggish, full of error messages and experience frequent system crashes.

What Is The Registry?
Think of your registry as a huge database that holds the complete inventory and location of every file, folder, program and process that resides on your computer. This information is used to tell programs how to run and locate the files needed to perform a certain task (kind of like an huge instruction booklet) When files or programs are added to or removed from your PC, the registry is modified to make note of these changes. Overtime the registry becomes bloated and disorganized as a result of these changes leading to poor PC performance.

BE CAREFUL---selecting the wrong things to delete can render your system useless. Always (I repeat) ALWAYS back up the registry before running any type of cleaner

Answer 4

I've had good luck with the one from UniBlue called Registry Booster.

I wouldn't recommend any of the other utilities that Uniblue sells, even though I bought a couple of them.

Answer 5

In my experience, they are all overrated and unnecessary.
If you properly maintain your add/remove programs they are not needed.
I would rather reinstall the OS then let someone glean history from my registry.