Registry cleaner - opinions please

[vavaseur]

I received an e-mail today, purporting to be from Mcafee, for this registry cleaner:

 

Registry Power Cleaner

 

Top Features: [TABLE=width: 100%]

[TR]

[TD]https://secureimages.mcafee.com/email/mcafee/16008/bullet.gif

[/TD]

[TD]Boost Computer Speed and Performance by removing invalid entries and orphaned files

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]https://secureimages.mcafee.com/email/mcafee/16008/bullet.gif

[/TD]

[TD]Scan & Fix Many Computer Errors

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]https://secureimages.mcafee.com/email/mcafee/16008/bullet.gif

[/TD]

[TD]16 Powerful Deep Scans to locate hard to find system errors

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]https://secureimages.mcafee.com/email/mcafee/16008/bullet.gif

[/TD]

[TD]Find & Safely Repair Harmful Registry Errors that make your computer unstable

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]https://secureimages.mcafee.com/email/mcafee/16008/bullet.gif

[/TD]

[TD]Clean Your Registry of Invalid Entries that slow down your computer

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]https://secureimages.mcafee.com/email/mcafee/16008/bullet.gif

[/TD]

[TD]Fix Broken Program Shortcuts that cause error messages

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]https://secureimages.mcafee.com/email/mcafee/16008/bullet.gif

[/TD]

[TD]Edit and Remove Bothersome Start-Up Programs that slow down your computer

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]https://secureimages.mcafee.com/email/mcafee/16008/bullet.gif

[/TD]

[TD]Speed up Your Email by creating smaller email attachments (up to 5 times)

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]https://secureimages.mcafee.com/email/mcafee/16008/bullet.gif

[/TD]

[TD]Minimizes Computer Clutter - minimizes and compresses computer clutter which will drastically free up disk space and speed up your computer

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]https://secureimages.mcafee.com/email/mcafee/16008/bullet.gif

[/TD]

[TD]Advanced Photo Compression Tool allows you to create smaller photos and email photos faster

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

 

Can someone advise if this is a worthwhile purchase (it's A$44.95) and if it is really likely to do all it says it will do. I have heard conflicting reports about registry cleaners.

 

Thanks in anticipation,

vavaseur

[RandyL]

DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!

 

This is a phishing scam. At that price you can get the full Mcafee Suite which includes a lot of things.

 

Yes Mcafee suites will come bundled with QuickClean which includes a registry cleaner but this is definitely not QuickClean.

 

Not only is this a scam we never advise using registry cleaners as they can be very destructive and offer no real value. Most are nothing more then scams or ripoffs. Even reputable ones can cripple programs or even Windows itself unless you have a lot of knowledge. As a matter of fact I don't even see the very old legit ones offered these days because reg cleaners are almost always either worthless, dangerous or outright scams.

 

You were wise to be suspicious.

[KenB]

Just to add my support of what Randy has said already .....

 

The Registry is the heart of your operating system.

Everything you add to your computer - be it a new mouse ....new software ....webcam .....everything .....has an entry in the registry.

The system will not work without it.

I would not trust a piece of software to scan my registry and decide what was needed and what wasn't.

 

Some suggest that running a registry scan will speed up your system.

This is not true ...you would see no change at all.

 

Stay away from registry cleaners ....they do more harm than good.

[Starbuck]

Stay away from registry cleaners ....they do more harm than good.

Couldn't agree more.

Plus a lot of registry cleaners don't run a backup before removing things.

So if anything goes wrong you have nothing to fall back on.

[vavaseur]

Thank you all for your helpful responses. I will avoid it like the plague and will also refrain from using the registry cleaner that comes with CCleaner.

 

Regards,

vavaseur

[KenB]

also refrain from using the registry cleaner that comes with CCleaner.

Good point.

I can't recall the number of times I have said this :)