JS wrote:
Not a good idea.
The only good registry cleaner is one that will list what it finds by
grouping them into categories.
The gives you the option to manually make a change after
investigating any information provided
by the cleaner. If you can determine the cause for what it found and
decide on a fix then in effect
you are the registry cleaner and not some automated vacuum cleaner.

And programs are the automation of that; good ones are invaluable in
some instances.


Example #1
Ran a scan to count the number of entries in my PC's registry
Total was over 260,000
So if a registry cleaner (if it worked properly) removed say 1,000
entries that would be less than one half of one percent space savings.

A single program can have tens of thousands of registry entries. Those
"lost" entries can occasionally even be picked up by new installs of
other programs and used; creating installation problems. I've only seen
it once, but that means it's possible. The numbers aren't the complete
issue; lots more to it.

Example #2
I while back I ran a registry cleaner knowing in advance what some of
the fixes the cleaner should find and the suggested changes.
This was based on the fact I had uninstalled an application (knowing
it would leave some orphaned registry entries) and then reinstalled
the same application to a different directory location.

The cleaner's default suggested fix for the application's old
directory location (the orphaned entries) was to change these entries
to the new location, which was not necessary as you would have to
entries point to the same location, so I manually deleted these
entries.

Should have let the cleaner do it; you wasted time and effort, if it was
a decent cleaner.

Now here is where a registry cleaner could cause a real problem!
A few months ago I removed a large number but not all of the
$NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$ folders
(these are the folders and associated files left behind each time you
install the latest Windows Updates each month)
The cleaner reported the broken (orphaned) registry entries but the
suggested fix was to point the broken entries to more recent
$NtUninstall files still on the hard drive (on a random basis), thus
royally screwing up the registry pointers. By that I mean: if you go
to uninstall (in rare cases) a MS KB patch that may be giving you
problems and due to the screwed up registry entry it may instead
removes the wrong patch.

You do not fully comprehend how that system is managed and this nameless
registry cleaner sounds like a purposely pulled piece of SH_T you hand
picked anyway.

If the above isn't enough to convince you then read this:
AUMHA Discussion: Should I Use a Registry Cleaner?
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099

Ah yes, go to the infamous um,ha site, with the responses written by the
SAME people who started all the myths and misinformation about registry
cleaners right here in the MS groups! Yup, that's sure to be an
unbiased look and full of excellent detailed, information to support
their myths, right? !

HTH,

Twayne`




"Bill Ridgeway" wrote in message
...
Ken Blake wrote (in response to another thread) -
Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil. Cleaning of the
registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the registry alone and
don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many people think, and
what vendors of registry cleaning software try to convince you of,
having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner
erroneously removing an entry you need is far greater than any
potential benefit it may
have.

I would agree with the warning of the possibility of (serious)
damage to the
Registry and the consequence that the computer may not boot up. I
would also agree that it may not be necessary to clean the Registry
very regularly. However, the Registry does become bloated with
calls to uninstalled software which does increase the time needed to
boot up - at the
very least. However, the additional space requirement of a bloated
Registry
may not be significant. I would suggest, say, an annual tidy-up.

I have used two Registry cleaners over the years (Max Registry
Cleaner and Registry Mechanic) both without any problem. Mind you,
my backup system includes a cloned hard disk drive and separate copy
of all key files (as at
the previous day). I have recently proved that I can get a system
with a failed hard disk drive up and running in the time it takes to
swap a hard disk, copy key files and update Windows and NIS: About
30 minutes. Bill Ridgeway