[Debate] Registry Cleaners : Are they really useful or not ?

[Aura]

Hey guys, Aura here.

So here's a question/debate I confront daily on the forums where I offer technical support, and it's the famous question about the registry cleaners. A lot of people have them installed (mostly RegClean Pro) and I always, ALWAYS, tell them to uninstall it. Why you ask ? Not only I see these programs as PUPs/Junkwares (and they install other PUPs/Junkwares in the background), but I also see them as totally useless. I never recommend them and always tell the person that have it installed that it will never solve his issues, BSODs, etc.

I have the same position as HowToGeek in their article here :


[URL='http://www.howtogeek.com/171633/why-using-a-registry-cleaner-wont-speed-up-your-pc-or-fix-crashes/']Why Using a Registry Cleaner Won’t Speed Up Your PC or Fix Crashes
[/url]

The only, ONLY registry entries that makes a difference in your system's performance is the ones controlling application execution and mostly, Start-up entries and Services. However, these can EASILY be managed MANUALLY as they are at the user's discretion and differences.

Hence why I'm such against such softwares and consider them more of a threat and waste of time than anything else.

What's your opinion on these programs guys ?

 

[Oxygen]

If my computer is running perfectly fine I see no need to use a registry cleaner, but if I decide to use a registry cleaner I use CCleaner and it is the "safest" one I've used.

 

[Deleted member 178]

I generally clean my registry with Ccleaner (the safest one) , what you have to know that idiot-Microsoft added that stuff to centralized system components configurations...

i observed with time (not a day or week but months) that my system was less responsive so i used to clean it from obsolete entries then defragment it.

there is a good explanation from our very old friend Comodo

http://help.comodo.com/topic-159-1-290-3248-.html

 

[viktik]

Using Registry cleaner is not necessary. Still if you use a registry cleaner then use a very trustworthy one.

I have been using registry cleaners like ccleaner , ashampoo winoptimizer , wisecare regularly. So far no problem has occurred.

 

[Aura]

I generally clean my registry with Ccleaner (the safest one) , what you have to know that idiot-Microsoft added that stuff to centralized system components configurations...

i observed with time (not a day or week but months) that my system was less responsive so i used to clean it from obsolete entries then defragment it.

there is a good explanation from our very old friend Comodo

http://help.comodo.com/topic-159-1-290-3248-.html

If you uninstall your programs properly or use a powerful uninstaller (such as Revo Uninstaller), this kind of situation won't happen and you'll never face it. Also, most Antimalwares and Antiviruses will clean the registry from malicious entries, and this is a good thing as compared to a lot of entries that are "removed" by registry cleaners, these are entries you do not want in it as they are sign of an infection.

 

[software182]

Yes, it's needed i think, i use RTKF + CCleaner Pro

 

[Deleted member 178]

i used Ccleaner because it is my main maintenance tool, of course i have some hard uninstaller (iobit one in my case) but Ccleaner does all the job properly without issues.

 

[Jaspion]

Very good article. But I do use registry cleaners, just the way the article itself described too: for rare and specific circumstances. The problem is they are not as rare as one might want, but the important thing is these circumstances should be specific. Don't go just deleting everything. Review one by one the entries, and look for programs you uninstalled, etc. So, you can't blindly trust ANY registry cleaner, although some (CCleaner, for example) are much safer than others.

Bottom line is yes, they can be useful, but they are not the one-click miracle workers that some would have you believe.

 

[WinXPert]

Everyday use CCleaner is enough.

Reg Cleaners can get rid of invalid registry entries, some do it better than most, much better that it can make your PC crash on the next reboot. Honest, been there done that. So far I'm content with Wise Care 365. Never had crash issues with it. Plus I just don't end in cleaning the registry, I also defrag if, flush my restore points and do a Quick Defrag with Auslogic. I do this about once a month.

Question is do you really need it, well if you are the adventurous type and have the time in the world to repair your windows when these reg cleaners trashed your system, then go ahead. Just stick with CCleaner to be on the safe side.

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

I have happily used CCleaner ever since becoming a member, and have further recommended it for it's cleaning, wiping free space on drives, and even uninstalling of programs, but I've not used it's registry cleaning abilities as I've read sensible warnings similar to those here. CCleaner seems to be the excepton though. Perhaps I have been too cautious by not using CCleaner's registry cleaning functions up until now. What do you say, and think, people? Should this ground hog whom is certainly not afraid of cats quit being afraid of his own registry shadow?? BTW, thanks Aura for the enlightening article!

 

[Deleted member 178]

with Ccleaner:

1- click scan
2- choose to backup the regitry or not
3- click fix

easy & secure

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

Thank you, Umbra. I shall try it.
..but if I used something else, other than CCleaner, that messed up my system while inside of Shadow Defender, everything would return to a state of non-cleaned registries and also back to normal, right?

 

[Deleted member 178]

exactly

 

[hamo]

I have never use Reg cleaner , Only try Ccleaner and I don't observe any change in my PC performance .
So I will never use any kind of those app.
------
- Now I know that I am right after reading those articles
http://www.howtogeek.com/171633/why-using-a-registry-cleaner-wont-speed-up-your-pc-or-fix-crashes/
http://help.comodo.com/topic-159-1-290-3248-.html
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Windows 8.1 gives users good tools to keep your PC at good condition Like ( Task Manger ):



You control your Start - up App. ( Disable )
And more as shown above .

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To free up your Space and ( you have 2 choice original and advanced ):

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For Defragment your hard :


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@Aura
Thanks
And for any Reg. key remaining after uninstall any App. you have 2 option :
1 - Use any uninstall tool as you wish.
2 - Normal Win tool , then copy the name of your uninstalled App. in " Regedit " , Search & delete it .


Do not INSTALL any App. you and your PC , do not Need it .

 

[Littlebits]

Before the NT file system, registry cleaners were able to fix all sorts of system and program errors. After NT (Windows 2000), registry cleaners only were able to fix program installations issues and program errors. Registry Cleaners are no longer able to fix BSOD and system crashes on modern Windows. They are no longer necessary unless you have a problem with installing or upgrading an existing program or program that keeps giving errors which is usually fixed by reinstalling.

I can remember back to Windows 95 & 98 having boot errors that was commonly fixed by Microsoft's own Registry Cleaner which gave birth to all other Registry Cleaners.

Registry Cleaners do not add any system performance, just because they find invalid keys doesn't mean they will cause errors.
I generally advise against using Registry Cleaners since many can do harm to Windows. CCleaner is the safest to use but always use the backup option just in case.

Enjoy!!

 

[hamo]

All browser have an option in there sitting to delete all Data after close the browser.

 

[Aura]

I went through everyone's opinion and here's what I can sum up from it :

If you take care of your system like you should : clean uninstall (pick custom, check everything, check the option to delete the settings, clean up the remaining folders if needed after) manually or via an uninstaller (like Revo Uninstaller), managing your Start-up entries and Services, running Antimalware tools that will remove rogue entries in the Registry, etc., you'll never need a Registry Cleaner. They won't be needed as you'll gain nothing out of it. When you have an issue installing a program, there's bigger chances that the problem comes from a remaining file than a remaining Registry entry as these are easily overwritten compared to some files and folders (just take a classic case of Malwarebytes reinstallation). The Registry is only one big database, huge one with millions of entries. Even if you were to clean 1,000 of these entries, 1,000 is nothing compared to millions and you would end up getting a "performance boost" of what ? 0.00000001 second ? It's not worth it. Also, yes doing a Registry back-up before using a Registry Cleaner can be a "good practice", but playing with the Registry : clean, add, clean, add, clean, add via cleaners and .reg script isn't always the best thing to do too.

So in fact, if you handle your system properly, use it like you should, you'll never need a Registry Cleaner and even if you use one, you won't get anything out of it.

I think people are mostly using Registry Cleaners to gain some kind of "peace of mind", knowing that their Registry is "clean and performing". That's it.

 

[SherKaan]

It's a very difficult and tricky question to answer.

I think over a period of time, your registry does need cleaning. Now, which program is the best, I don't even know myself.

As for Revo Uninstaller, I have been using it for quite a long time now and must say that it also leaves a lot of registry entries after an uninstall. All in all, nothing gives you perfect results. You must manually look into a lot of things yourself to be hundred percent sure.

 

[jackuars]

It's good be aware of the risks but it is not that complicated!

The registry is a hierarchical database. The structure is no more complicated than the file storage system on our disks. Understanding what each key value means is a lot more work but it is not insurmountable.

Automated programs manage registry entries all the time. That happens for install, uninstall, save settings, store preferences, etc. This is possible because there are standardized methods documented and made available by Microsoft.

Yes, making changes can stop Windows working in the same way that you can accidentally delete a file on your disk and Windows won't start. But to say we shouldn't make changes is as muddled as saying we shouldn't manage files on our disks

In general, I would prefer an automated tool because the processes in this heavily tested programs are less likely to succumb to random human error than ... a user doing manual edits using RegEdit.

 

[Aura]

It's a very difficult and tricky question to answer.

I think over a period of time, your registry does need cleaning. Now, which program is the best, I don't even know myself.

As for Revo Uninstaller, I have been using it for quite a long time now and must say that it also leaves a lot of registry entries after an uninstall. All in all, nothing gives you perfect results. You must manually look into a lot of things yourself to be hundred percent sure.

Revo Uninstaller will grab the important entries which is the main point too. What scan type are you using on it when uninstalling a program ? And I agree with that, looking into your system manually is better than using third-party software sometimes.