It is debateable whether a Registry Cleaner has any value in WINXP,
other than psychological value. There is, however, a considerable
amout of experience of these 'cleaners' giving rise to problems
although I have never had a problem.

To directly address your question, don't use a Registry Cleaner unless
you are very sure you can recover the Registry in the event of a
problem. Far more important than a Registry Cleaner are programs such
as Firewalls, Disk Cleaners, Defrag, AVP.



On Sun, 01 Aug 2004 02:57:22 GMT, "Lillly"
wrote:

I'm a slightly computer savvy woman who needs good some advice. My petunia
business relies on my computer's good function. I'm trying to keep it
working well. I keep it defragmented and well protected against virus
threats and spyware. I have to use the internet and I'm currently relying
on Windows-XP built in software firewall. So far I've remained afloat.
(And, I want to keep it that way!)

I'm curious to know if anyone thinks any of those so called 'Registry
Cleaners' are any good.

Several years ago I tried a Norton product, when I was using Windows 98, and
I was very-very unimpressed. I have no doubt that Mr. Norton's program
found some innacurate registry entries and removed them; however, the speed
and efficency of my system was not noticably different. Moreover, the size
of those big old registry data files was only diminished by an itsy-witsy
tiny little bit. And, I was always so nervous using it; although thank
goodness, it never seemed to harm a darn thing! I guess I stopped using it
because it didn't seem to hurt, but it sure didn't help me out one doggone
bit.

Unless someone can show me a good reason to use one I am quite unlikely to
try it again. It seems the risk is too great and the upside is very little.

Thanks,
Lil