Greetings --

Having seen the results of inexperienced people using automated
registry "cleaners," I can only advise to you to avoid them all.

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.

I always use Regedit.exe. I trust my own experience and judgment
far more than I would any automated registry cleaner.

WinXP's built-in firewall is _adequate_ at stopping incoming
attacks, and hiding your ports from probes. It doesn't give you any
alarms, or any other kind of indication, to tell you that it is
working, though. Nor is it very easily configurable. What WinXP also
does not do, is protect you from any Trojans or spyware that you (or
someone else using your computer) might download and install
inadvertently. It doesn't monitor out-going traffic at all, other
than to check for IP-spoofing, much less block (or at even ask you
about) the bad or the questionable out-going signals. It assumes that
any application you have on your hard drive is there because you want
it there, and therefore has your "permission" to access the Internet.
Further, because the ICF is a "stateful" firewall, it will also assume
that any incoming traffic that's a direct response to a Trojan's or
spyware's out-going signal is also authorized.

ZoneAlarm, Kerio, or Sygate are all much better than WinXP's
built-in firewall, and are much more easily configured, and there are
free versions of each readily available. Even the commercially
available Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall is superior by far,
although it does take a heavier toll of system performance then do
ZoneAlarm or Sygate.

If you're 100% confident of your own ability in precluding the
installation of malware by yourself and everyone else who might ever
use your computer, WinXP's ICF should be enough.


Bruce Chambers
--
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having both at once. - RAH


"Lillly" wrote in message
...
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