Adam wrote:
This might be to general of a question, but I believe that I am having
problems with my registry.


What specific *problems* are you actually experiencing (not snake
oil some program's bogus listing of imaginary problems, created with the
primary purpose of selling you a useless product) that you think can be
fixed by using a registry cleaner?


? Is there any way, preferably free, that I can fix
these problems?


Certainly. Start Run Regedit.exe. Correct the specific key(s)
that's causing your specific problem.


I tried to download a program to fix them, but they wanted
me to purchases the program to actually take care of my registry problems,
which they said I had something like 347 of.


Avoid snake oil solutions. If you do have a problem that is rooted in
the registry, it would be far better to simply edit (after backing up,
of course) only the specific key(s) and/or value(s) that are causing the
problem. After all, why use a chainsaw when a scalpel will do the job?
Additionally, the manually changing of one or two registry entries is
far less likely to have the dire consequences of allowing an automated
product to make multiple changes simultaneously.

The registry contains all of the operating system's "knowledge" of
the computer's hardware devices, installed software, the location of the
device drivers, and the computer's configuration. A misstep in the
registry can have severe consequences. One should not even turning
loose a poorly understood automated "cleaner," unless he is fully
confident that he knows *exactly* what is going to happen as a result of
each and every change. Having seen the results of inexperienced people
using automated registry "cleaners," I can only advise all but the most
experienced computer technicians (and/or hobbyists) to avoid them all.
Experience has shown me that such tools simply are not safe in the hands
of the inexperienced user.

The only thing needed to safely clean your registry is knowledge
and Regedit.exe. If you lack the knowledge and experience to maintain
your registry by yourself, then you also lack the knowledge and
experience to safely configure and use any automated registry cleaner,
no matter how safe they claim to be.

Further, no one has ever demonstrated, to my satisfaction, that the
use of an automated registry cleaner, particularly by an untrained,
inexperienced computer user, does any real good. There's certainly been
no empirical evidence offered to demonstrate that the use of such
products to "clean" WinXP's registry improves a computer's performance
or stability.

I always use Regedit.exe. I trust my own experience and judgment
far more than I would any automated registry cleaner. I strongly
encourage others to acquire the knowledge, as well.



--

Bruce Chambers

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