Registry cleaning.

aitch wrote:<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> A friend has recommended that I clean up my registry.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->


Why do you even think you'd ever need to clean your registry? What
specific *problems* are you actually experiencing (not some program's
bogus listing of imaginary problems) that you think can be fixed by
using a registry "cleaner?"

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 only thing needed to safely clean
your registry is knowledge and Regedit.exe.

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 repeatedly 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. 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.

More importantly, no one has ever demonstrated that the use of an
automated registry "cleaner," particularly by an untrained,
inexperienced computer user, does any real good, whatsoever. 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. Given the potential for harm, it's just not
worth the risk.

Granted, most registry "cleaners" won't cause problems each and
every time they're used, but the potential for harm is always there.
And, since no registry "cleaner" has ever been demonstrated to do any
good (think of them like treating the flu with chicken soup - there's no
real medicinal value, but it sometimes provides a warming placebo
effect), I always tell people that the risks far out-weigh the
non-existent benefits.

I will concede that a good registry *scanning* tool, in the hands
of an experienced and knowledgeable technician or hobbyist can be a
useful time-saving diagnostic tool, as long as it's not allowed to make
any changes automatically. But I really don't think that there are any
registry "cleaners" that are truly safe for the general public to use.
Experience has proven just the opposite: such tools simply are not safe
in the hands of the inexperienced user.

A little further reading on the subject:

Why I don't use registry cleaners


AumHa Forums • View topic - AUMHA Discussion: Should I Use a Registry
Cleaner?


<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> He admits he is no
> expert so I would appreciate other comments before I commit myself.
> The software I would use would be C Cleaner.
> <!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->


CCleaner's registry scanner seems relatively benign, as long as you
step through each detected "issue" (almost all of which will be bogus)
one at a time, to determine if it really is an "issue" or not, and then
decide whether or not to let the application "fix" it. In my testing,
though, most of the reported "issues" won't be issues, at all. I tried
the latest version on a brand-new OS installation with no additional
applications installed, and certainly none installed and then
uninstalled, and CCleaner still managed to "find" over a hundred
allegedly orphaned registry entries and dozens of purportedly
"suspicious" files. Its findings were utter nonsense, in plain terms.

CCleaner's only real strength, and the only reason I use it, lies
in its usefulness for cleaning up unused temporary files from the hard
drive; as a registry "cleaner," it's not significantly different from
any other snake oil product of the same type.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:




They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

Jon wrote:<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
>
> It's not ony desirable to clean up the registry with Vista, it's essential.
> <!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->


Utter nonsense.

<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> Otherwise your experience of the OS will be greatly reduced within a few
> months. You'll have certain applications mysteriously slowing, and your
> overall experience of the OS will be greatly reduced. Often
> imperceptibly, since the changes are generally incremental.
>
> A regular and targetted cleanout will keep the system speeding along.
> <!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->


Please provide some sort of proof or documentation to support this
patently absurd claim. You'd be the very first person to ever do so.

In all the years I've supported the various Windows operating systems,
I've *never* been able to find any verifiable, independent laboratory
reports that demonstrate the alleged value of registry cleaners. The
only people claiming that registry cleaners do any real good are the
people selling them.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:




They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

Jon wrote:<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
>
>
> I could cite specific examples of in-built Vista programs that
> progressively build up superfluous entries in the registry over time,
> and cause a slowdown , but I'll refrain. <!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->


Meaning that you have no such examples.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:




They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

ray;1078154 Wrote: <!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:49:02 -0700, aitch wrote:<!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro--><!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
> > > >
> > > A friend has recommended that I clean up my registry. He admits he is<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
> > no<!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
> > > expert so I would appreciate other comments before I commit myself.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
> > The<!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
> > > software I would use would be C Cleaner.
> > >
> > > All views would be welcomed > > <!--colorc--><!--/colorc--><!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>
> Another point in favor of Linux, I would say. No obnoxious 'registry'
> to
> worry about.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
So you mean registry is a problem? What about the other 99% problems in
Linux? :sarc:


--
kavita

God Helps Those Who Help Others.
A Man In Need Is A Man In Deed.
This is all I learn here......

 

Mike Hall - MVP wrote:
<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
>
> I have endeavored to search for anything good about registry cleaners,
> and have yet to locate any other than the sales blurb put out by the
> authors of said utilities..
><!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

Mike

Here is what Mark Russinovich has to say about it. Whatever you think of
Mark (sys internals fame) he is NOT a "sales blurb author"



Summary
"Registry cleaners have always been popular, but I never paid much
attention to them. I originally thought that there might be valid
reasons for their existence, but over time changed my mind, only to
recently recognize that even today they can help maintain Registry hygiene."

 

Thanks everyone. I'm a lot clearer now and have learned a few things. For
the record I won't be using any form of cleaner on my registry. A little
surprised to see that that no-one suggested using a Hoover as my wife did.
Enjoyed the little sideshow too.
Thanks again.

Aitch





"aitch" wrote:
<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> A friend has recommended that I clean up my registry. He admits he is no
> expert so I would appreciate other comments before I commit myself.
> The software I would use would be C Cleaner.
>
> All views would be welcomed<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

 

"occam" <occam@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:O4a%23vtU%23JHA.3340@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> Here is what Mark Russinovich has to say about it. Whatever you think of
> Mark (sys internals fame) he is NOT a "sales blurb author"
>
>
>
> Summary
> "Registry cleaners have always been popular, but I never paid much
> attention to them. I originally thought that there might be valid reasons
> for their existence, but over time changed my mind, only to recently
> recognize that even today they can help maintain Registry hygiene."<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->



Good find / article, eg the far-sighted comment about the future need for
xml cleaners.

--
Jon

 

The bottom line is "You should know what you are doing" . I personally
recommend CCleaner as this is a little cool app that has made my system
a lot faster ( though i had used some more tricks myself). The main
purpose of a registry cleaner is that it takes off "junk" and "obsolete"
entries from the windows registry because of which system takes long to
open programs , respond to certain commands and boot up. The worst i
have come across (let me admit that i have never tried this myself but i
ahve handled calls where customers reported the same) is UniBlue
software. Now , my advice is no matter what you try please make sure
that your software gives you the option to save the backup to some
location before it does the actual cleanup so that if anything goes
wrong by chance you can always revert back to the old registry backup.

You are free to contact me on this page so that i can guide you
further...


--
MSDOS

'
*_Welcome_to_my_Blog_*_
' ()

 

Hi, occam.

Very interesting read. But did you note that it is dated 10/2/05 - a full
year before Vista RTM? And you left out the best part: the later comment
there by Mark, on 10/7/05,, which closed with:

"I haven't and never will implement a Registry cleaner since it's of little
practical use on anything other than Win2K terminal servers and developing
one that's both safe and effective requires a huge amount of
application-specific knowledge. "

Sometimes it helps our argument to leave out The Rest of The Story, doesn't
it? :^{

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

"occam" <occam@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:O4a#vtU#JHA.3340@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> Mike Hall - MVP wrote:
><!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
>>
>> I have endeavored to search for anything good about registry cleaners,
>> and have yet to locate any other than the sales blurb put out by the
>> authors of said utilities..
>><!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>
> Mike
>
> Here is what Mark Russinovich has to say about it. Whatever you think of
> Mark (sys internals fame) he is NOT a "sales blurb author"
>
>
>
> Summary
> "Registry cleaners have always been popular, but I never paid much
> attention to them. I originally thought that there might be valid reasons
> for their existence, but over time changed my mind, only to recently
> recognize that even today they can help maintain Registry hygiene." <!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

 

On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:01:48 -0500, kavita wrote:
<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> ray;1078154 Wrote:<!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
>> On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:49:02 -0700, aitch wrote:<!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
>> > > >
>> > > A friend has recommended that I clean up my registry. He admits he
>> > > is
>> > no
>> > > expert so I would appreciate other comments before I commit myself.
>> > The
>> > > software I would use would be C Cleaner.
>> > >
>> > > All views would be welcomed > ><!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>>
>> Another point in favor of Linux, I would say. No obnoxious 'registry'
>> to
>> worry about.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
> So you mean registry is a problem? What about the other 99% problems in
> Linux? :sarc:<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

You mean like not being able to run MS malware? Other than that I can't
imagine what you're getting at. We've been running Linux totally at home
for five years with no issues.

 

"ray" <ray@zianet.com> wrote in message
news:7auo32F1u6fq6U7@mid.individual.net...<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:01:48 -0500, kavita wrote:
><!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
>> ray;1078154 Wrote:<!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
>>> On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:49:02 -0700, aitch wrote:
>>> > > >
>>> > > A friend has recommended that I clean up my registry. He admits he
>>> > > is
>>> > no
>>> > > expert so I would appreciate other comments before I commit myself.
>>> > The
>>> > > software I would use would be C Cleaner.
>>> > >
>>> > > All views would be welcomed > >
>>>
>>> Another point in favor of Linux, I would say. No obnoxious 'registry'
>>> to
>>> worry about.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>> So you mean registry is a problem? What about the other 99% problems in
>> Linux? :sarc:<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>
> You mean like not being able to run MS malware? Other than that I can't
> imagine what you're getting at. We've been running Linux totally at home
> for five years with no issues.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

Five years with no issues? You must not be running any programs. Perfect
for Linux.

 

On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:27:32 -0700, Bill Yanaire wrote:
<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> "ray" <ray@zianet.com> wrote in message
> news:7auo32F1u6fq6U7@mid.individual.net...<!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
>> On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:01:48 -0500, kavita wrote:
>><!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
>>> ray;1078154 Wrote:
>>>> On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:49:02 -0700, aitch wrote:
>>>> > > >
>>>> > > A friend has recommended that I clean up my registry. He admits
>>>> > > he is
>>>> > no
>>>> > > expert so I would appreciate other comments before I commit
>>>> > > myself.
>>>> > The
>>>> > > software I would use would be C Cleaner.
>>>> > >
>>>> > > All views would be welcomed > >
>>>>
>>>> Another point in favor of Linux, I would say. No obnoxious 'registry'
>>>> to
>>>> worry about.
>>> So you mean registry is a problem? What about the other 99% problems
>>> in Linux? :sarc:<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>>
>> You mean like not being able to run MS malware? Other than that I can't
>> imagine what you're getting at. We've been running Linux totally at
>> home for five years with no issues.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>
> Five years with no issues? You must not be running any programs.
> Perfect for Linux.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

Running quite a few, actually. Never had any problems.

 

On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:42:43 -0600, Bruce Chambers wrote:
<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> And, since no registry "cleaner" has ever been demonstrated to do any
> good (think of them like treating the flu with chicken soup - there's no
> real medicinal value, but it sometimes provides a warming placebo
> effect), I always tell people that the risks far out-weigh the
> non-existent benefits.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

I have to comment here.

A number of years ago, I read an article in Scientific American by some
medical scientists who devised a supportive diet for victims of cholera.

The problem with cholera is the disease causes loss of fluids and
electrolytes and interferes with regaining same. The supportive diet
consisted of a fluid with electrolytes and some protein and carbohydrate
content that could be fed to people to refresh those items, and enough
could be fed and retained that the patients could survive long enough for
the immune system to defeat the Vibrio cholerae.

The authors' punchline was that it was in fact a lot like your
grandmother's chicken soup, and that she was right.

The same substances would be helpful for flu victims, some of whom might
benefit from that kind of supportive therapy.

I still think that registry cleaners are snake oil, though

--
Gene E. Bloch letters0x40blochg0x2Ecom

 

On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:12:23 +0000 (UTC), the wharf rat wrote:
<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> In article <uLJ5muP#JHA.1380@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl>,
> Jon <qwerty9873@hotmail.com> wrote:<!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
>>
>>
>>Pearls to pigs DrTeeth, pearls to pigs .......<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>
> Stop swhining, you crybaby.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

For some odd reason, today (July 10) I am seeing a lot of posts for the
first time that are dated Jun 29.

I wish your awful pun had remained in that limbo

Be reminded: groaning or complaining about puns *is* a form of praise - or
at least acknowledgment ;-/

--
Gene E. Bloch letters0x40blochg0x2Ecom

 

"Gene E. Bloch" <not-me@other.invalid> wrote in message
news:tkfblk6a0sr6.1xg7du7pv28h1$.dlg@40tude.net...<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:12:23 +0000 (UTC), the wharf rat wrote:
>
> For some odd reason, today (July 10) I am seeing a lot of posts for the
> first time that are dated Jun 29.
>
> I wish your awful pun had remained in that limbo
>
> Be reminded: groaning or complaining about puns *is* a form of praise - or
> at least acknowledgment ;-/
>
> --
> Gene E. Bloch letters0x40blochg0x2Ecom<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

Same here except mine are dated 30 June (Australia).

Camper

 

Camper wrote:
<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
>
> Same here except mine are dated 30 June (Australia).
>
> Camper<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

That's odd, I'm in Australia and saw a lot dated June 26th. The
newsgroup gremlins have been playing again....
--
Jane, not plain 64 bit enabled
Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation ;-)
MVP - Windows Desktop Experience 2007-2009