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Registry Cleaners
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 |
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#2
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Registry Cleaners
Bill
You do not need a Registry Cleaner. Use Autoruns to remove the orphaned start-up entries To identify what loads when you boot use Autoruns (freeware from Microsoft). http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys.../Autoruns.mspx With Autoruns you can uncheck an item, which disables it from starting,or you can right click an item and then delete it. If you uncheck you can recheck to re-enable the item. It is a much safer approach than editing the Registry and better than using msconfig.. Another useful feature of the programme is that you can right click an item and select Search Online to get information about the item selected. You will spot them by seeing an entry like this -File not found being the relevant bit Display Panning CPL Extension File not found: deskpan.dll Using the Online feature you can get information as illustrated in the next link. http://www.bing.com/search?q=deskpan...ox&Form=IE8SRC Using a Registry Cleaner produces so much information that you cannot see the wood for the trees. -- Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~ FCA Stourport, England Enquire, plan and execute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bill Ridgeway wrote: 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 |
#3
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Registry Cleaners
Bill
You do not need a Registry Cleaner. Use Autoruns to remove the orphaned start-up entries To identify what loads when you boot use Autoruns (freeware from Microsoft). http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys.../Autoruns.mspx With Autoruns you can uncheck an item, which disables it from starting,or you can right click an item and then delete it. If you uncheck you can recheck to re-enable the item. It is a much safer approach than editing the Registry and better than using msconfig.. Another useful feature of the programme is that you can right click an item and select Search Online to get information about the item selected. You will spot them by seeing an entry like this -File not found being the relevant bit Display Panning CPL Extension File not found: deskpan.dll Using the Online feature you can get information as illustrated in the next link. http://www.bing.com/search?q=deskpan...ox&Form=IE8SRC Using a Registry Cleaner produces so much information that you cannot see the wood for the trees. -- Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~ FCA Stourport, England Enquire, plan and execute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bill Ridgeway wrote: 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 |
#4
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Registry Cleaners
"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. ================================================== "Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil." Well why is it then that Windows Live OneCare promotes this on their website: "As part of its Clean Up scan, the Windows Live OneCare safety scanner offers a free registry cleaner. Running this scan is a great way to rid your PC of clutter and keep it running at its speediest." ?? For the full details http://onecare.live.com/site/en-Us/a...leaner_why.htm I have used CCleaner on mine and client computers for some time and I have yet to have a call back complaining that something has gone amiss. I have also regularly used RegCleaner by Jouni Vuoro with no bad repercussions. -- Regards, Touch Base Report back on the results, good or bad so others may benefit |
#5
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Registry Cleaners
"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. ================================================== "Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil." Well why is it then that Windows Live OneCare promotes this on their website: "As part of its Clean Up scan, the Windows Live OneCare safety scanner offers a free registry cleaner. Running this scan is a great way to rid your PC of clutter and keep it running at its speediest." ?? For the full details http://onecare.live.com/site/en-Us/a...leaner_why.htm I have used CCleaner on mine and client computers for some time and I have yet to have a call back complaining that something has gone amiss. I have also regularly used RegCleaner by Jouni Vuoro with no bad repercussions. -- Regards, Touch Base Report back on the results, good or bad so others may benefit |
#6
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Registry Cleaners
Touch Base
Does Windows Live OneCare have an assured future? It is being dropped by Microsoft! The problem is that using a Registry Cleaner gives negligible gains for a certain risk that any errors it makes are invariably insoluble problems for all but the most expert users. -- Gerry ~~~~ FCA Stourport, England Enquire, plan and execute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Touch Base wrote: "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. ================================================== "Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil." Well why is it then that Windows Live OneCare promotes this on their website: "As part of its Clean Up scan, the Windows Live OneCare safety scanner offers a free registry cleaner. Running this scan is a great way to rid your PC of clutter and keep it running at its speediest." ?? For the full details http://onecare.live.com/site/en-Us/a...leaner_why.htm I have used CCleaner on mine and client computers for some time and I have yet to have a call back complaining that something has gone amiss. I have also regularly used RegCleaner by Jouni Vuoro with no bad repercussions. |
#7
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Registry Cleaners
Touch Base
Does Windows Live OneCare have an assured future? It is being dropped by Microsoft! The problem is that using a Registry Cleaner gives negligible gains for a certain risk that any errors it makes are invariably insoluble problems for all but the most expert users. -- Gerry ~~~~ FCA Stourport, England Enquire, plan and execute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Touch Base wrote: "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. ================================================== "Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil." Well why is it then that Windows Live OneCare promotes this on their website: "As part of its Clean Up scan, the Windows Live OneCare safety scanner offers a free registry cleaner. Running this scan is a great way to rid your PC of clutter and keep it running at its speediest." ?? For the full details http://onecare.live.com/site/en-Us/a...leaner_why.htm I have used CCleaner on mine and client computers for some time and I have yet to have a call back complaining that something has gone amiss. I have also regularly used RegCleaner by Jouni Vuoro with no bad repercussions. |
#8
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Registry Cleaners
On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:03:21 +0100, "Bill Ridgeway"
wrote: 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. What you call "bloated up" is true in the sense that it becomes somewhat bigger. However the extra size is minimal and the significance of that extra size is also minimal, since access to the registry is random. Since most people boot up not much more than once a day, how long it takes to boot up is of very little consequence. My standard statement is "In the overall scheme of things, even a few minutes to start up isn't very important. Personally I power on my computer when I get up in the morning, then go get my coffee. When I come back, it's done booting. I don't know how long it took to boot and I don't care." Moreover, a slightly bigger registry will make such a small difference to the time it takes to boot that it's insignificant. However, the additional space requirement of a bloated Registry may not be significant. Exactly! I would suggest, say, an annual tidy-up. I wouldn't. Using a registry cleaner is dangerous. Using it less often is, of course, less dangerous, but I believe you should eliminate that danger, not reduce it. I have used two Registry cleaners over the years (Max Registry Cleaner and Registry Mechanic) both without any problem. There are *many* people who have had similar experiences. None of us has ever claimed that every time someone uses a registry cleaner, the result is a problem. If that were the case, everyone would know that they couldn't be used, and all registry cleaners would quickly disappear. But although no registry cleaner always causes a problem, there is *always* a risk in using one. Since there is no benefit to using it, running any risk at all is foolhardy. 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. Good! Then the risk of using a registry cleaner is less to you than it is to most people. But not everyone is as well backed-up as you are. Moreover, there is no point in taking any risk at all for no benefit at all. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience Please Reply to the Newsgroup |
#9
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Registry Cleaners
On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:03:21 +0100, "Bill Ridgeway"
wrote: 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. What you call "bloated up" is true in the sense that it becomes somewhat bigger. However the extra size is minimal and the significance of that extra size is also minimal, since access to the registry is random. Since most people boot up not much more than once a day, how long it takes to boot up is of very little consequence. My standard statement is "In the overall scheme of things, even a few minutes to start up isn't very important. Personally I power on my computer when I get up in the morning, then go get my coffee. When I come back, it's done booting. I don't know how long it took to boot and I don't care." Moreover, a slightly bigger registry will make such a small difference to the time it takes to boot that it's insignificant. However, the additional space requirement of a bloated Registry may not be significant. Exactly! I would suggest, say, an annual tidy-up. I wouldn't. Using a registry cleaner is dangerous. Using it less often is, of course, less dangerous, but I believe you should eliminate that danger, not reduce it. I have used two Registry cleaners over the years (Max Registry Cleaner and Registry Mechanic) both without any problem. There are *many* people who have had similar experiences. None of us has ever claimed that every time someone uses a registry cleaner, the result is a problem. If that were the case, everyone would know that they couldn't be used, and all registry cleaners would quickly disappear. But although no registry cleaner always causes a problem, there is *always* a risk in using one. Since there is no benefit to using it, running any risk at all is foolhardy. 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. Good! Then the risk of using a registry cleaner is less to you than it is to most people. But not everyone is as well backed-up as you are. Moreover, there is no point in taking any risk at all for no benefit at all. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience Please Reply to the Newsgroup |
#10
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Registry Cleaners
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. 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. 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. 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. 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 -- JS http://www.pagestart.com "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 |
#11
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Registry Cleaners
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. 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. 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. 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. 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 -- JS http://www.pagestart.com "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 |
#12
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Registry Cleaners
To add to Gerry's typically good advice:
Many people have this vision of the Windows registry: They see Windows scurrying through the registry and getting stuck in all those dead-ends left behind by uninstalled software. They think: "this is surely slowing my computer's performance." However, the registry does not work that way. Applications make specific calls to registry keys; they don't go hunting for data. Another misconception: the "bloated" registry. In theory, if you remove an unused registry key, it will take less time to load the registry into memory. However, since a registry key typically occupies only a few bytes, you would have to remove millions of registry keys to notice the difference. And even if you could remove millions of registry keys, the time needed to load, run and then exit the registry cleaner would outstrip the time saved, by far. In general, the more you know about the registry, the more you understand why we like to poke fun at registry cleaners (and the people who use them.) --- Leonard Grey Errare humanum est Gerry wrote: Touch Base Does Windows Live OneCare have an assured future? It is being dropped by Microsoft! The problem is that using a Registry Cleaner gives negligible gains for a certain risk that any errors it makes are invariably insoluble problems for all but the most expert users. |
#13
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Registry Cleaners
To add to Gerry's typically good advice:
Many people have this vision of the Windows registry: They see Windows scurrying through the registry and getting stuck in all those dead-ends left behind by uninstalled software. They think: "this is surely slowing my computer's performance." However, the registry does not work that way. Applications make specific calls to registry keys; they don't go hunting for data. Another misconception: the "bloated" registry. In theory, if you remove an unused registry key, it will take less time to load the registry into memory. However, since a registry key typically occupies only a few bytes, you would have to remove millions of registry keys to notice the difference. And even if you could remove millions of registry keys, the time needed to load, run and then exit the registry cleaner would outstrip the time saved, by far. In general, the more you know about the registry, the more you understand why we like to poke fun at registry cleaners (and the people who use them.) --- Leonard Grey Errare humanum est Gerry wrote: Touch Base Does Windows Live OneCare have an assured future? It is being dropped by Microsoft! The problem is that using a Registry Cleaner gives negligible gains for a certain risk that any errors it makes are invariably insoluble problems for all but the most expert users. |
#14
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Registry Cleaners
Bill
However, the Registry does become bloated with calls to uninstalled software which does increase the time needed to boot up That is also not true and is a misconception. You need to remove hundreds if not thousands of dead entries to be able to notice even a very small difference. Best advice to anyone is to DO NOT TOUCH the registry -- Peter Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged. "Bill Ridgeway" wrote in message ... 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. |
#15
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Registry Cleaners
Bill
However, the Registry does become bloated with calls to uninstalled software which does increase the time needed to boot up That is also not true and is a misconception. You need to remove hundreds if not thousands of dead entries to be able to notice even a very small difference. Best advice to anyone is to DO NOT TOUCH the registry -- Peter Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged. "Bill Ridgeway" wrote in message ... 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. |
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