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After posting the previous entry it occurred to me that some readers will be prompted to wonder about Registry Cleaners.
First question: what is “the Registry”? Wikipedia provides this description:
The Windows Registry is a directory which stores settings and options for the operating system for Microsoft Windows 32/64-bit versions and Windows Mobile. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, operating system software, most non-operating system software, users preferences of the PC, etc. Whenever a user makes changes to Control Panel settings, file associations, system policies, or most installed software, the changes are reflected and stored in the Registry.
In other words, the Registry is a very large repository of critical system, program and user information.
As programs and settings are installed, uninstalled and modified over time, the Registry begins to accumulate redundant and unwanted items of information, such as data left behind by software that has not been completely uninstalled from the computer, or settings that are no longer of any use, or even rogue settings used by malware.
What does a Registry Cleaner do?
Registry Cleaner software is designed to scan the Registry and attempt to identify invalid entries, missing file references, broken links, etc and then, optionally, delete the unwanted values and/or repair errors.
While there is no doubt that a pristine Registry aids in the maintenance of a healthy PC, there are some claims made for Registry cleaners that warrant closer inspection. For example, every publisher of Registry Cleaner software invariably makes the claim that a major benefit of using their software will be to “speed up your PC”, and users are often disappointed when they find this hope is not realised.
Why is this so?
On computers running Windows 95/98 an excessively bloated Registry might adversely affect the computer’s startup time to varying degrees. However the improved architecture of later operating system versions makes Registry size much less of an issue. And anyway, a Registry Cleaner is unlikely to reduce Registry size by more than a few kilobytes at most — an insignificant and unnoticeable saving in terms of performance.
However there are certainly circumstances where the use of a Registry Cleaner can provide noticeable performance improvements.
For example, if there exists a Registry entry indicating that some program installed on another networked computer or server should be run at startup, and if the relevant network path no longer exists, startup can be delayed significantly, for as long as the network protocol takes to time-out. Cleaning up such a situation would probably produce a noticeable improvement in start-up time.
Thus it should be clearly understood that the likelihood of any performance improvement as a result of using a Registry Cleaner will depend on the nature of any Registry errors discovered. So while a Registry Cleaner is very useful for computer users who frequently add or remove programs from their computer, the result will probably be improved reliability rather than any noticeable improvement in performance.
Another consideration is that computer users often expect too much from Registry Cleaner software. Given the vast number of application software programs available from innumerable sources and developers, it is simply not possible for any Registry Cleaner to “know” all about the requirements and parameters of each and every program.
Some Registry cleaners are more capable in this regard than others, having a larger and more accurate database of program settings to work with. But expecting a Registry Cleaner to be able to put right every minor inconsistency in every possible program is obviously unreasonable.
Caveat emptor!
Unfortunately the Registry Cleaner software category as a whole has acquired something of a suspect reputation, thanks to the efforts of certain underhanded vendors and malware developers. Rogue Registry Cleaners are being marketed with scaremongering advertisements that falsely claim to have analyzed your PC and found serious problems. You are then confronted with bogus warnings that corrective action must be taken immediately to avoid impending catastrophe. Of course in order to take the recommended “corrective action” you’ll need to purchase their product. In some cases the product will be a real, though almost certainly substandard, Registry Cleaner. In the worst-case scenario the product will be a carrier for some form of malware controlled by its developer.
As daunting as these possibilities may appear they should not, in my opinion, be a reason to avoid using a Registry Cleaner. Clearly the same ploy could be (and is!) used with any type of software. The lesson to be learned is always know what you are downloading and where you are downloading it from. A little time spent on research using a search engine such as Google can provide a wealth of information and eliminate the possibility of making an expensive mistake.
However, since you have taken the trouble to read this far, I’ll give you the benefit of my well researched recommendation.
My personal preference
There are many Registry Cleaner tools to choose from. While most will to some extent do the job for which they are intended, it’s important to keep in mind that they do come in various flavors which can include “probably useless” to “possibly dangerous”. A substandard Registry Cleaner may not be able to determine whether a particular Registry key is still being used by Windows or what detrimental effects removing it may have. This has led to examples of Registry Cleaners causing loss of functionality and/or system instability.
This is unfortunately a caveat that applies to all utility programs, anti-virus and anti-spyware included. The trick is to determine the best performing from the most reputable — not always an easy task when faced with myriad conflicting, and often uninformed, “opinions”.
After a satisfactory trial of close to five months I have settled on Registry Booster from Uniblue as my Registry Cleaner of choice.
I won’t claim that Registry Booster does a better job of Registry optimization than any other product. It may do, but from a purely scan-and-fix perspective I was quite happy with the scanner we had used for some time beforehand.
However Registry Booster does at least as good a job, faster, with a lot less fuss, less user interaction required, easier configuration, and with an excellent user interface.
Ultimately my conclusion was that Registry Booster is a safe and reliable product that is well supported by a publisher with a responsive and customer-centric attitude. We now use Registry Booster exclusively in-house, as do many of our clients and subscribers. Between us we’ve had Registry Booster running for some months on Windows 2000, XP and Vista that I’m aware of, and we have never had a problem report to date.
Test drive a free scan
There is a free trial version of Registry Booster available which, although it does perform a complete scan of the entire Registry, restricts any fixes to just 15 of the errors discovered. On a well used computer the number of Registry errors reported may well number into the many hundreds. This is not unusual the first time a Registry scan is run.
Quite reasonably, to run a complete fix for all errors you will need to register the software. However, even then, if you aren’t happy with the product or the results, you can request a full no-questions-asked refund at any time up to 30 days after your purchase, plenty of time to give the program a real workout.
Click here to get a free trial of Registry Booster. This isn’t an online, across-the-Internet scan — the Instant Scan button will prompt you to download the trial application, which you need to install.
Please be sure to follow these software installation safe practice guidelines:
- Reboot your computer before installing any software
- Close any applications that may have started with Windows
- Install the Registry Booster trial
- Reboot your computer again
In the unlikely event that you do encounter problems during or after optimizing the registry, the remedy is simple. When you ran Registry Booster it offered to save a backup of your existing Registry — an offer which of course you would have accepted. Restoring the Registry backup will return your system to its pre-scanned status.
Regular use
Depending on the workload of each PC, I run Uniblue Registry Booster approximately weekly as part of my regimen to keep my systems healthy and working optimally.
Click here to download your free trial of Uniblue Registry Booster
Postscript
You may also be interested in this more recent PowerSuite article in which I discuss a new application that combines RegistryBooster with DriverScanner and SpeedupMyPC. Since it’s release, PowerSuite 2010 is what I use now. It means I’m still using RegistryBooster, but supplemented by two other powerful utilities.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Bill,
Very informative and, as always, to the point. You touched on the point that the Registry could get bloated without necessarily affecting the operation of the computer. It would be much appreciated if you could go one step further and coach me to remove the bloat, wether it was from uninstall left overs, data corruptions or Recovery points less painfully then depending on reinstalling from scratch or earlier images?
Since using the virtual pc, surfing the internet appears to be less bothersome, but somehow unsolicited emails still arrive, perhaps out of a older database when I surfed less discriminately. This perhaps is the price of learning.
Your articles are always read with interest even though much is not applicable to me but what I am able to glean proves invaluable when the unwelcome instances eventuate.
Thanks and please keep up the good work.
Regards
Patrick Chong
When did you change from Macecraft as your recommended registry repairer
Hi David.
I initially discussed this in my newsletter dated Fri 11/07/2008. This blog has since taken the place of the newsletter.
Also please see item #7 in the Recent Updates section of The Hacker's Nightmare private members pages (login required).
Patrick, my apologies — I completely missed your post and question and it was only just pointed out to me that I had not responded.
You can “de-bloat” the Registry by running a good Registry Cleaner, and some such utilities, such as Uniblue’s RegistryBooster 2009, also embody a Registry defragging module.
In RegistryBooster 2009 click the Registry Scan tab at the top of the user interface, then the Registry defrag option on the left-hand side.
You might also want to check out Mark Russinovich’s PageDefrag utility which is available from the Microsoft Web site at:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426.aspx
In the last 2 weeks, my computer has become VERY slow with Thunderbird taking a looooooong time to load.
Various programs have crashed or give “not responding” message, then may go on after 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
In the last 3 days, my Thunderbird inbox has been flooded with OVER 1500 repetitions of “undelivered mail returned to sender * from AVG for email”. The only way to stop the 1000s of emails is to disconnect from the web.
I have run Avg, Spy Sweeper, Malwarebytes, Spybot, and Adaware. They all report no problems.
PLEASE HELP ! I don’t know what to do next. Thanks in advance for your ideas.
Hi Rod.
My suggestion is to grab yourself a copy of “Seven Steps to Clean PC” (see the right-hand column on this page) and jump to the section on using HijackThis to get an expert to analyze your system.
Please report back with the results.
Sir:
You are correct, sir. Registry cleaners can be dangerous to use if not done with a great knowledge of what kinds of software and hardware drivers you are removing.
Donald, I’m afraid I can only “sort of” agree with that position.
As with many tasks we perform on our computers, the quality of the results is in direct proportion to the quality of the software we use.
For obvious reasons I would never suggest that anyone other than a real expert should take on the task of manually cleaning or defragging the Windows Registry. And if that’s a valid position to take, then it is also valid to suggest that only a real expert should be making decisions about what Registry cleaning software should be allowed to remove.
But the fact is that even many power users and consultants don’t have the requisite knowledge to make that call.
So does that mean that Registry cleaning should be a no-no for the majority of the computer using population?
Not at all.
It comes back to the quality of the software. I am just one of dozens (possibly hundreds) of reviewers who has thoroughly tested Uniblue’s RegistryBooster and found it to be a simple and safe solution that can be used by anyone.
I think I’ve pretty much covered all arguments and objections in these other articles (in order of publication date):
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