Registry cleaners for Vista

[alanschu]

A friend of mine has had her computer for 4 years, and as we know things tend to get a little sluggish. Someone suggested to her she clean out her registry and defrag, and while she did the second one no problem on her own, she isn't sure which application to use.

 

Any suggestions for a Vista registry cleaner? Also, any way for her to revert her changes (a restore point) in Vista? XP guy here so I have no experience with Vista.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

CCleaner might be a good bet.

[alanschu]

Whoops, apparently it's for XP after all! I'll still look into CCleaner

[Mera]

I would avoid registry cleaners. They are more trouble than worth.

[Guest Slinky]

I have used CCleaner for few years every now and then. I have never had any problems with it.

[TheHarlequin]

I would avoid registry cleaners. They are more trouble than worth.

 

If you get a good one they are invaluable and a excellent tool.

[LadyCrimson]

Finding a good one is the hard part. If you get a bad one, they can really screw things up. Or at the least, don't really get rid of the sluggishness. I don't use them regularly and only use them in alan's friends situation...where it's been ages and you're trying to avoid having to reformat. I also tend to manually delete things off the list, rather than have the program delete everything it finds wholesale.

 

Hubby just tried that CCleaner one, said it wasn't bad. I think I'll try it myself.

[Walsingham]

OK. What the hell is a registry cleaner?

[Gorgon]

I'm not entirely sure what a registry does, just that every time you install something windows writes loads of crap into it, and that it doesn't necessarily go away after you uninstall. Other operating systems seem to manage fine without one.

 

After X amount of years there is so much dusty old code in the registry it slows everything to a crawl.

[Morgoth]

I'd stay away from these registry cleaners. They once prevented me to install SP2 on Vista.

[LostStraw]

I'd also suggest avoiding registry cleaners -- they don't necessarily help and can cause stability issues. If Windows ever gets to the point where it's crawling around on its belly it's much more than the registry that needs fixing.

 

@Walshingham A registry cleaner is a program that searches through the Windows registry trying to find invalid entries for deletion. There are a few cases where deleting registry entries is actually useful and can help speed things up.

 

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html

There is a quote at the end of the article in support of CCleaner.

[Gorgon]

Isn't the main reason why an old windows installation runs like crap that there are too many processes being loaded into memory at start up, and you can't configure them all to go away

[Walsingham]

Thanks for the explanation. Sounds like a sort of etch-a-sketch lobotomy.

[TheHarlequin]

I'd stay away from these registry cleaners. They once prevented me to install SP2 on Vista.

 

> I'd also suggest avoiding registry cleaners -- they don't necessarily help and can cause stability issues. If Windows ever gets to the point where it's crawling around on its belly it's much more than the registry that needs fixing.

 

If you know what they are doing cleaning you reg every 6 months or so ALWAYS helps.

 

Would you use the tools to do autobody work on your car if you have little to no training or experience?

 

Reg cleaner is the SAME difference. If you don't know what you are doing you can end up causing more damage then you are trying to fix, just like the car example. At the risk of sounding like a geek elitist if you don't know what you are doing then you shouldn't be using a reg cleaner. While most try to find only invalid reg entires you still need to visually confirm them and make sure valid ones were not in error selected.

 

And any good reg cleaner has a backup feature before you make changes. And even if you don't theres always windows restore as long as the PC boots to the desk top your fine.

 

Again its not something you should do if you don't understand windows beyond 'I click twice to open this' or the principals and setup of how the registry works in the first place. Just becasue you know how to naviagte around the GUI of windows does not make one a PC tech of its under the hood operation. and if you are saying to yourself 'I dont really understand what this does but ill run this app that modifies it anyways' you are just asking for a world of hurt. PC operation or otherwise.

Edited November 24, 2009 by TheHarlequin

[Fenghuang]

CCleaner is pretty dope. I fix computers, networks, and other tech widgets professionally. HTH.

[Maria Caliban]

I'd stay away from these registry cleaners. They once prevented me to install SP2 on Vista.

 

Morgtoh once got soap in his eyes and it really hurt. That's why he won't bathe anymore.

 

If you have a Windows computer. Download CCleaner, and run it once a month.

[jaguars4ever]

I would avoid registry cleaners. They are more trouble than worth.

 

If you get a good one they are invaluable and a excellent tool.

That's what they said about women.

 

I say easier said than done.

[Walsingham]

I would avoid registry cleaners. They are more trouble than worth.

 

If you get a good one they are invaluable and a excellent tool.

That's what they said about women.

 

I say easier said than done.

 

Damn straight.