Guest Sammy Castagna Posted October 25, 2008 Posted October 25, 2008 Are registry cleaners a good idea or bad? I have done some reading and some say they are bad and some say they are bad. Has any one here had any experience with them good or bad. Or are they even necessary looks like Microsoft would build it into the operating system if it were needed. Sammy Castagna
Guest Mike Hall - MVP Posted October 25, 2008 Posted October 25, 2008 Re: registry cleaners "Sammy Castagna" <sammycastagna@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:usSsSkvNJHA.3676@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > Are registry cleaners a good idea or bad? I have done some reading and > some say they are bad and some say they are bad. Has any one here had any > experience with them good or bad. Or are they even necessary looks like > Microsoft would build it into the operating system if it were needed. > > Sammy Castagna > A safe registry cleaner only removes what would have been perfectly innocuous if left where it was. Other functions included in registry cleaners can stop some programs from running as they should, and can also bring an OS to its knees.. Some advertized registry cleaners are bad news even in their 'safe' mode. Don't use registry cleaners.. -- Mike Hall - MVP How to construct a good post.. http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups.. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc Mike's Window - My Blog.. http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx
Guest JS Posted October 25, 2008 Posted October 25, 2008 Re: registry cleaners Not a good idea. Freeware registry cleaners can trash your PC at no cost $$$ to you. Those registry cleaner utilities that cost money are best known for cleaning your wallet and then trashing your PC. 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 "Sammy Castagna" <sammycastagna@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:usSsSkvNJHA.3676@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > Are registry cleaners a good idea or bad? I have done some reading and > some say they are bad and some say they are bad. Has any one here had any > experience with them good or bad. Or are they even necessary looks like > Microsoft would build it into the operating system if it were needed. > > Sammy Castagna >
Guest The Real Truth MVP Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. Why include it if it is not necessary. Registry cleaners are needed and anyone who tells you differently does not have the expertise and/or experience in the windows registry or registry cleaners in general. That said you should not have to pay for any. CCleaner is a good free registry cleaner which does an excellent job cleaning the registry http://www.ccleaner.com/. It is also user friendly and shows you each and every thing it is going to remove and gives you the option remove it or not. It also does backups. -- The Real Truth http://pcbutts1-therealtruth.blogspot.com/ "Sammy Castagna" <sammycastagna@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:usSsSkvNJHA.3676@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > Are registry cleaners a good idea or bad? I have done some reading and > some say they are bad and some say they are bad. Has any one here had any > experience with them good or bad. Or are they even necessary looks like > Microsoft would build it into the operating system if it were needed. > > Sammy Castagna >
Guest Ken Blake, MVP Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:26:11 -0400, "Sammy Castagna" <sammycastagna@hotmail.com> wrote: > Are registry cleaners a good idea or bad? I have done some reading and some > say they are bad and some say they are bad. Has any one here had any > experience with them good or bad. Or are they even necessary looks like > Microsoft would build it into the operating system if it were needed. You'll get both kinds of views of them here. My view, and the view of almost everyone here who has opinions you can trust is the following: 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. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Guest Anthony Buckland Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners "Sammy Castagna" <sammycastagna@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:usSsSkvNJHA.3676@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > Are registry cleaners a good idea or bad? About once a week, someone asks. The same day or the next, someone knowledgeable says stay away from them. All of them. Always. Does that help?
Guest Dave Onex Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners Never use a registry cleaner - they cause more problems then they solve. A registry cleaner is right up there with tune-up in a can, engine overhaul in a can, a/c repair in a can, compression restorer and every other kind of snake oil. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise, run, don't walk away from them. The only way to properly 'clean' a registry is manually and that can only be done when you understand what you're doing and what your unique system is comprised of. Every computer is different and because registry 'cleaner' software is generic it doesn't understand the unique nature of your computer and as such it will likely cause harm. In short, leave the registry alone unless you know what you're doing. In the olden days programs used to leave lots of pieces of themselves behind when they were removed. This caused registries to grow over time as they would be filled with useless junk. Some years ago Microsoft spent a great deal of time on creating installer programs (such as the windows installer) that would _properly_ uninstall programs. In short, the problem was identified, programmers were educated, and steps were taken to address the problem. If you are using _quality_ software then generally they don't leave pieces behind when you un-install them. When you have a program that is botched and won't un-install itself properly the proper way to address the issue is to re-install the software completely and then try un-installing it. There was a short period of time long ago when registry cleaners were actually useful but their time has come and gone because the issue has been addressed by all but poor programmers. If you believe you can solve all your computer problems by using tune up in a can then you should also play the lottery and buy that bridge from that fellow in New York.... http://www.asksomeone.net/forums "The Real Truth MVP" <toidi@tpap.com> wrote in message news:oCOMk.1344$%11.676@flpi144.ffdc.sbc.com... > Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. Why include it if it > is not necessary. Registry cleaners are needed and anyone who tells you > differently does not have the expertise and/or experience in the windows > registry or registry cleaners in general. That said you should not have to > pay for any. CCleaner is a good free registry cleaner which does an > excellent job cleaning the registry http://www.ccleaner.com/. It is also > user friendly and shows you each and every thing it is going to remove and > gives you the option remove it or not. It also does backups. > > > -- > The Real Truth http://pcbutts1-therealtruth.blogspot.com/ > > > > > "Sammy Castagna" <sammycastagna@hotmail.com> wrote in message > news:usSsSkvNJHA.3676@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... >> Are registry cleaners a good idea or bad? I have done some reading and >> some say they are bad and some say they are bad. Has any one here had any >> experience with them good or bad. Or are they even necessary looks like >> Microsoft would build it into the operating system if it were needed. >> >> Sammy Castagna >> >
Guest Marianne Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners The Real Truth MVP wrote: > Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. Why include it if > it is not necessary. What a pile of rubish! Real True Nonsense. Microsoft does not and has never included a registry cleaner in any of its operating systems. MVP my ass, you're a fraud! M
Guest HeyBub Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners The Real Truth MVP wrote: > Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. Why include it > if it is not necessary. Oh? Tell us the name of this included "Microsoft Registry Cleaner" wise one.
Guest The Real Truth MVP Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners It's part of the process when using disk cleanup, it's hidden, but they also include it in their Windows Live OneCare scanner http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/default.htm which is not. Now why would they do that if it is not needed. You also need to learn that MS is not responsible for 3rd party software and their failure to completely uninstall the crap they put in. Any left over crap in the registry whether it is used or not is corruption. Would you leave little bits of malware files or virus file entries in your registry? How would you even know they are there without the use of a registry cleaner. There is no such thing as a lucky guess. -- The Real Truth http://pcbutts1-therealtruth.blogspot.com/ "HeyBub" <heybub@gmail.com> wrote in message news:OhYqJu2NJHA.1896@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > The Real Truth MVP wrote: >> Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. Why include it >> if it is not necessary. > > Oh? Tell us the name of this included "Microsoft Registry Cleaner" wise > one. >
Guest Bruce Chambers Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners Sammy Castagna wrote: > Are registry cleaners a good idea or bad? I have done some reading and some > say they are bad and some say they are bad. A registry cleaner - even a safe one, should such ever be developed - is an exercise in, at best, futility. There is no real need for registry cleaners, other than to provide a profit to their manufacturers. On rare occasions, registry cleaners can be, in the hands of a skilled technician, useful, time-saving diagnostic tools. Otherwise, they're nothing but snake oil. Remember, the registry is an *indexed* database. The OS doesn't have scan through each and every registry entry to find the one that it's looking for. To use an imperfect analogy, try thinking of the registry as a book with a very detailed table of contents. Once the OS knows to which "page" it must turn to find the information needed, the OS goes *directly* (much more so than you or I could do with a physical book) to the pertinent data. The number of intervening "pages, paragraphs, and words" is utterly irrelevant. The only time the sheer number of registry entries matters, and can possibly affect performance, is when one is doing something that requires a full entry-by-entry scan of the registry. And one does this *only* on those rare occasions when it is necessary to search the registry for a particular value, or when using something like a registry scanner or "cleaner." Day-to-day operations remain untouched. > Has any one here had any > experience with them good or bad. Or are they even necessary looks like > Microsoft would build it into the operating system if it were needed. > > Sammy Castagna > > 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. Why I don't use registry cleaners http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=643 AumHa Forums • View topic - AUMHA Discussion: Should I Use a Registry Cleaner? http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099 -- Bruce Chambers Help us help you: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375 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
Guest Bruce Chambers Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners The Real Truth MVP wrote: > Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. No, it doesn't. That's a deliberate lie. > Why include it if > it is not necessary. Registry cleaners are needed and anyone who tells > you differently does not have the expertise and/or experience in the > windows registry or registry cleaners in general. That's another deliberate lie. The only people who recommend the use of registry cleaners are either tolls like yourself, or sanke oil scam artists looking for a profit. > That said you should > not have to pay for any. CCleaner is a good free registry cleaner which > does an excellent job cleaning the registry http://www.ccleaner.com/. Another falsehood. 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, making it clearly a *worthless* product, in this regard. (Not that any registry cleaner can ever be anything but worthless, as they don't serve any *useful* purpose, to start with.) As a registry "cleaner," it's not significantly better or worse than any other snake oil product of the same type. -- Bruce Chambers Help us help you: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375 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
Guest Gerry Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners Marianne I agree with your sentiments. Sad to say Microsoft do offer a registry cleaner as a component of Windows Live OneCare. This may not be part of the operating system but it's getting close to that. http://www.microsoft.com/protect/products/computer/safetyscanner.mspx -- Gerry ~~~~ FCA Stourport, England Enquire, plan and execute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Marianne wrote: > The Real Truth MVP wrote: >> Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. Why include it >> if it is not necessary. > > What a pile of rubish! Real True Nonsense. Microsoft does not and > has never included a registry cleaner in any of its operating > systems. MVP my ass, you're a fraud! > > M
Guest Gerry Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners Bruce Sadly Microsoft do include a Registry Cleaner as a component of Windows Live OneCare. This is not bundled with the operating system so in that respect you are right. Windows Live OneCare is, however, being marketted strongly by Microsoft. I doubt that many of us here think it is a good piece of software to have installed; certainly not software to be recommended to others. -- Gerry ~~~~ FCA Stourport, England Enquire, plan and execute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bruce Chambers wrote: > The Real Truth MVP wrote: >> Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. > > No, it doesn't. That's a deliberate lie. > >> Why include it if >> it is not necessary. Registry cleaners are needed and anyone who >> tells you differently does not have the expertise and/or experience >> in the windows registry or registry cleaners in general. > > That's another deliberate lie. The only people who recommend the use > of registry cleaners are either tolls like yourself, or sanke oil scam > artists looking for a profit. > > >> That said you should >> not have to pay for any. CCleaner is a good free registry cleaner >> which does an excellent job cleaning the registry >> http://www.ccleaner.com/. > > > Another falsehood. 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, making it clearly a *worthless* > product, in this regard. (Not that any registry cleaner can ever be > anything but worthless, as they don't serve any *useful* purpose, to > start with.) > As a registry "cleaner," it's not significantly better or worse > than any other snake oil product of the same type.
Guest The Real Truth MVP Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners You've been stating that same thing for years. How can something that has had numerous updates, most recently 1 month ago be the latest version years ago when you did your "Test". You must think I'm a fool to believe that formatted a system just to test the latest version of CCleaner or any registry cleaner for that matter. Tell us then in your "Tests" did you allow CCleaner to remove what it found? Did it crash your system? What hundreds of orphaned entries did it find? Could you manually find those entries without the use of CCleaner? You know as well as I do that those entries can get there by any type of change to software or drivers. I think what you are really trying to say is that MS OS is flawed. CCleaner is doing exactly what it was designed to when cleaning the registry so you can take your snake oil BS elsewhere. -- The Real Truth http://pcbutts1-therealtruth.blogspot.com/ "Bruce Chambers" <bchambers@cable0ne.n3t> wrote in message news:u1y8Fd4NJHA.1552@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > The Real Truth MVP wrote: >> Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. > > No, it doesn't. That's a deliberate lie. > >> Why include it if it is not necessary. Registry cleaners are needed and >> anyone who tells you differently does not have the expertise and/or >> experience in the windows registry or registry cleaners in general. > > That's another deliberate lie. The only people who recommend the use of > registry cleaners are either tolls like yourself, or sanke oil scam > artists looking for a profit. > > >> That said you should not have to pay for any. CCleaner is a good free >> registry cleaner which does an excellent job cleaning the registry >> http://www.ccleaner.com/. > > > Another falsehood. 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, making it clearly a *worthless* product, in this > regard. (Not that any registry cleaner can ever be anything but > worthless, as they don't serve any *useful* purpose, to start with.) > > As a registry "cleaner," it's not significantly better or worse than > any other snake oil product of the same type. > > > > -- > > Bruce Chambers > > Help us help you: > http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html > > http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375 > > 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
Guest Bruce Chambers Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners Gerry wrote: > Bruce > > Sadly Microsoft do include a Registry Cleaner as a component of Windows > Live OneCare. I'm aware of that. > This is not bundled with the operating system so in that > respect you are right. Exactly, and the troll was lying. > Windows Live OneCare is, however, being marketted > strongly by Microsoft. I doubt that many of us here think it is a good > piece of software to have installed; certainly not software to be > recommended to others. > > Agreed. I've never thought of Live OneCare, or any other web-based subscription service as a good idea. But now that Microsoft has decided to milk people's superstitious "desire" for a registry cleaner, it's an even worse deal. Instead of being something that one simlpy doesn't recommend, Live OneCare is now something whose use competent and conscientious technicians will have to actively recommend against. -- Bruce Chambers Help us help you: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375 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
Guest Leythos Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners In article <ge1lj6$drp$1@aioe.org>, nogood@notvalid.com says... > The Real Truth MVP wrote: > > Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. Why include it if > > it is not necessary. > > What a pile of rubish! Real True Nonsense. Microsoft does not and has > never included a registry cleaner in any of its operating systems. MVP > my ass, you're a fraud! Actually, you could download a registry cleaner from MS long ago. I remember doing so. They don't offer it for download any longer. The real problem is "Registry Cleaner" products is that they are almost always bundled with LOTS OF CRAP. -- - Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum. - Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist" spam999free@rrohio.com (remove 999 for proper email address)
Guest Unknown Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners Why on earth do you insist on making an ass of yourself? Please explain. Week after week it's the same. "The Real Truth MVP" <toidi@tpap.com> wrote in message news:ol2Nk.4486$as4.4276@nlpi069.nbdc.sbc.com... > You've been stating that same thing for years. How can something that has > had numerous updates, most recently 1 month ago be the latest version > years ago when you did your "Test". You must think I'm a fool to believe > that formatted a system just to test the latest version of CCleaner or any > registry cleaner for that matter. Tell us then in your "Tests" did you > allow CCleaner to remove what it found? Did it crash your system? What > hundreds of orphaned entries did it find? Could you manually find those > entries without the use of CCleaner? You know as well as I do that those > entries can get there by any type of change to software or drivers. I > think what you are really trying to say is that MS OS is flawed. CCleaner > is doing exactly what it was designed to when cleaning the registry so you > can take your snake oil BS elsewhere. > > -- > The Real Truth http://pcbutts1-therealtruth.blogspot.com/ > > > > > "Bruce Chambers" <bchambers@cable0ne.n3t> wrote in message > news:u1y8Fd4NJHA.1552@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >> The Real Truth MVP wrote: >>> Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. >> >> No, it doesn't. That's a deliberate lie. >> >>> Why include it if it is not necessary. Registry cleaners are needed and >>> anyone who tells you differently does not have the expertise and/or >>> experience in the windows registry or registry cleaners in general. >> >> That's another deliberate lie. The only people who recommend the use of >> registry cleaners are either tolls like yourself, or sanke oil scam >> artists looking for a profit. >> >> >>> That said you should not have to pay for any. CCleaner is a good free >>> registry cleaner which does an excellent job cleaning the registry >>> http://www.ccleaner.com/. >> >> >> Another falsehood. 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, making it clearly a *worthless* product, >> in this regard. (Not that any registry cleaner can ever be anything but >> worthless, as they don't serve any *useful* purpose, to start with.) >> >> As a registry "cleaner," it's not significantly better or worse than >> any other snake oil product of the same type. >> >> >> >> -- >> >> Bruce Chambers >> >> Help us help you: >> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html >> >> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375 >> >> 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 >
Guest John John (MVP) Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners Bullshit! Disk cleanup does not clean the registry. John The Real Truth MVP wrote: > It's part of the process when using disk cleanup, it's hidden, but they > also include it in their Windows Live OneCare scanner > http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/default.htm which is not. Now why > would they do that if it is not needed. You also need to learn that MS > is not responsible for 3rd party software and their failure to > completely uninstall the crap they put in. Any left over crap in the > registry whether it is used or not is corruption. Would you leave little > bits of malware files or virus file entries in your registry? How would > you even know they are there without the use of a registry cleaner. > There is no such thing as a lucky guess. >
Guest Muddle Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners "Leythos" <spam999free@rrohio.com> wrote in message news:MPG.236e8a7f3ff4356298968d@us.news.astraweb.com... > In article <ge1lj6$drp$1@aioe.org>, nogood@notvalid.com says... >> The Real Truth MVP wrote: >> > Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. Why include it if >> > it is not necessary. >> >> What a pile of rubish! Real True Nonsense. Microsoft does not and has >> never included a registry cleaner in any of its operating systems. MVP >> my ass, you're a fraud! > > Actually, you could download a registry cleaner from MS long ago. I > remember doing so. They don't offer it for download any longer. > > The real problem is "Registry Cleaner" products is that they are almost > always bundled with LOTS OF CRAP. > > -- > - Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum. > - Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a > drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist" > spam999free@rrohio.com (remove 999 for proper email address) RegClean and OleClean. Both put out by Microsoft, both work just fine in XP and both can be downloaded from various places on the web such as CNET, Major Geeks etc. I've never had either one remove any registry entries that were actually needed by anything, but that doesn't mean others haven't. Although neither one cleans up -run registry settings nor will any other cleaner that I know of as these registry entries point to programs that are still on your hard drive. You've deselected them in MsConfig because you don't want them to run resident. The only way to get rid of them is to uninstall the goofy program that put them there in the first place. Use some other program that reads adobe files, there are others with a smaller footprint on your hard drive that don't use a damned gig of memory even when they're not being used. Let the programmers of Adobe Reader, Macromedia Flash, Apple QuickTime and the rest know your not putting up with this crap and then uninstall it.
Guest Twayne Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners > It's part of the process when using disk cleanup, it's hidden, but > they also include it in their Windows Live OneCare scanner > http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/default.htm which is not. Now > why would they do that if it is not needed. You also need to learn > that MS is not responsible for 3rd party software and their failure > to completely uninstall the crap they put in. Any left over crap in > the registry whether it is used or not is corruption. Would you leave > little bits of malware files or virus file entries in your registry? > How would you even know they are there without the use of a registry > cleaner. There is no such thing as a lucky guess. > > > "HeyBub" <heybub@gmail.com> wrote in message > news:OhYqJu2NJHA.1896@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... >> The Real Truth MVP wrote: >>> Microsoft does include a registry cleaner in its OS. Why include it >>> if it is not necessary. >> >> Oh? Tell us the name of this included "Microsoft Registry Cleaner" >> wise one. A lot of people don't realize it, but simply restarting your XP computer 3 times in succession is a form of "registry cleaning". It's always surprising people that a machine can fix itself; but the 3 Restarts is one way to speed up that process. There is more than registry work going on, but it's interesting none the less. If you want to see something intresting, try this search phrase at Google: xp +"restart three times" Enter it exactly as it is typed, including the + and quotes. I was going to grab a reference URL but then I saw all that - close enough for gvt work<g>; I didn't feel like hunting thru more pages for what I wanted. Twayne
Guest Twayne Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners > Sammy Castagna wrote: >> Are registry cleaners a good idea or bad? I have done some reading >> and some say they are bad and some say they are bad. > > > A registry cleaner - even a safe one, should such ever be > developed - is an exercise in, at best, futility. Several exist now. There is no real > need for registry cleaners, other than to provide a profit to their > manufacturers. On rare occasions, registry cleaners can be, in the > hands of a skilled technician, useful, time-saving diagnostic tools. > Otherwise, they're nothing but snake oil. Untrue. What are your reasons for saying that, and citeable evidence that it's true? > > Remember, the registry is an *indexed* database. The OS doesn't have > scan through each and every registry entry to find the one that it's > looking for. To use an imperfect analogy, try thinking of the > registry as a book with a very detailed table of contents. Once the > OS knows to which "page" it must turn to find the information needed, > the OS goes *directly* (much more so than you or I could do with a > physical book) to the pertinent data. The number of intervening > "pages, paragraphs, and words" is utterly irrelevant. Well, I think that's called an Index in most books, not a TOC, and it's only partially true. You don't just look at an index and know immeidately where to go. The "registry" is not just one "thing" in the computer. It's comprised of many, many files spread out in mostly one folder, but not completely. You have to GET the index name/location, then go through the index to LOCATE it so you'll know its memory location, assuming it is in memory at that time and doesn't need to be paged in, then you have to go TO that location, read it, and from there execute possibly another five or six hundred more accesses to get the information that goes WITH that first index, so the OS knows whether you have permission to access it, what format it's in, how to present it to you, put together what needs to be drawn on the screen from another several hundred points within the registry, and finally display it and see what you want to do next with it. Now, some forms of errors in the reigstry are going to take twenty seconds to time out, so for every one of those you come acruss, usually during boot, add twenty seconds for each one. And all that's happened so far, under the right circumstances, is displayed something on the screen or picked up some further instructions that need to be processed all over again in much the same way. registries are multi-megabit collections of data spread out amongst several files, all extensionless files with the exception of ntuser.dat, and the amount of data and manipulation is happening constantly in the background. If you'd like a quick look at what goes on inside your "registry", there is a free file called Regmon you can download from: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896652.aspx that will show you most of what's happening. Caveat: Don't let it run too long. It will create a hormongously large file unless you turn on some filters or limit it. <quote>RegMon is a Registry monitoring utility that will show you which applications are accessing your Registry, which keys they are accessing, and the Registry data that they are reading and writing - all in real-time. This advanced utility takes you one step beyond what static Registry tools can do, to let you see and understand exactly how programs use the Registry. With static tools you might be able to see what Registry values and keys changed. With Regmon you'll see how the values and keys changed.. RegMon works on Windows NT/2000/XP/2003, Windows 95/98/Me and Windows 64-bit for x64. <end quote> There are better applications for this purpose, but Regmon makes the point I want. And keep in mind it's not showing ALL of the registry activity - only that of your applications, but it's all of their activity w/r to the registry. So, the "directly" comment is pretty much a moot point. Directly several thousands or hundreds of thousands of times is more like it. > > The only time the sheer number of registry entries matters, and > can possibly affect performance, is when one is doing something that > requires a full entry-by-entry scan of the registry. .... THAT is a load of BS; you either know that or are a lot more ignorant than I gave you credit for. I would not be so adamant with your phony claims if you ever had the decency to ever provide ANY verifiable or even empirical evidence of your claims. You asked me for mine and I gave them to you long ago; I finally came across them the other day in my archives when I was looking for some thing else. You chose to be a black hole. You remain that black hole to this day. You are either a huge narcissist with a fragile ego or intentionally ignorant. You were scared off by the proposal I made to you to work this out, along with my promise of having an open mind about your inputs. But you apparently feared the results and thus black-holed again. That offer no longer stands - you are a bona-fide bum and that's all there can be to it. Twayne -- Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities -- Voltaire > >> Has any one here had any >> experience with them good or bad. Or are they even necessary looks >> like Microsoft would build it into the operating system if it were >> needed. Sammy Castagna >> >> > > > > 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. > > > Why I don't use registry cleaners > http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=643 > > AumHa Forums • View topic - AUMHA Discussion: Should I Use a Registry > Cleaner? > http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099
Guest C.Joseph Drayton Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners Sammy Castagna wrote: > Are registry cleaners a good idea or bad? I have done some reading and some > say they are bad and some say they are bad. Has any one here had any > experience with them good or bad. Or are they even necessary looks like > Microsoft would build it into the operating system if it were needed. > > Sammy Castagna > > Hello Sammy, I would like to start by apologizing in the event that you find this answer offensive. Registry cleaners within themselves are a good idea. The problem is that a lot of people either don't know how to use a registry cleaner or they want one that does everything 'automatically'. Defragmenting and compacting and removing unused entries in your registry will in fact make your machine run more efficiently. The problem is that if you delete an important entry it can cause problems with your system. When certain 'experts' tell you that registry cleaners are snake-oil, what they are really saying is "The average user is too stupid or lazy to verify entries before deleting them and most registry cleaners that work 'automatically' can stupidly delete important entries because they don't recognize what they are referring to." I think that it is insulting that experts prefer to say to the user "you are stupid or lazy so just play it safe." I think 'experts' should take the time to answer questions and help people learn how to properly maintain their computer. Sincerely, C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T CSD Computer Services Web site: http://csdcs.site90.net/ E-mail: cjoseph@csdcs.site90.net
Guest David H. Lipman Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners From: "Bruce Chambers" <bchambers@cable0ne.n3t> | Gerry wrote: >> Bruce >> Sadly Microsoft do include a Registry Cleaner as a component of Windows >> Live OneCare. | I'm aware of that. >> This is not bundled with the operating system so in that >> respect you are right. | Exactly, and the troll was lying. >> Windows Live OneCare is, however, being marketted >> strongly by Microsoft. I doubt that many of us here think it is a good >> piece of software to have installed; certainly not software to be >> recommended to others. | Agreed. I've never thought of Live OneCare, or any other web-based | subscription service as a good idea. But now that Microsoft has decided | to milk people's superstitious "desire" for a registry cleaner, it's an | even worse deal. Instead of being something that one simlpy doesn't | recommend, Live OneCare is now something whose use competent and | conscientious technicians will have to actively recommend against. | -- | Bruce Chambers Roger that Bruce ! -- Dave http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html Multi-AV - http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp
Guest David H. Lipman Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 Re: registry cleaners From: "Unknown" <unknown@unknown.kom> | Why on earth do you insist on making an ass of yourself? Please explain. | Week after week it's the same. It's because of the brain injury he suffered when the NASA JPL commuter van fell down a 200 foot ravine and he had to be air lifted to the hospital. The guy is sick in the head and he's lost comprehension of right and wrong. It is all very sad.... -- Dave http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html Multi-AV - http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp
Recommended Posts