The Reg. "To clean or not to clean"

[FrankSG]

Jabarnutcase started a thread about a problem he was having with XP's System Information tool. If you want to look at the thread it's called "Someone with XP". It was discovered that a lot of other's, including my self, have the same problem. Some of us were wondering if the problem stemmed from cleaning the registry. It was suggested that a thread be started getting opinions about using Registry Cleaners. The question being: Is it a good idea to use Registry Cleaners? Or can it sometimes cause more problems that it solves? Even though I use RegClean, EasyCleaner and RegCleaner, I have mixed feelings about whether it's a good idea to clean the registry. Would like some opinions on that. Thanks.
~Frank~

[Mark Miller]

I was waiting for you to start this thread, so here is what I have done.
I use Norton utilities only for 1 reason, Windoctor. which is their form of registry cleaner. I let it fix whatever automatically and have never had a problem going back to Win 95.
I have also asked that with XP is it really important to be so worried about the registry since it is supposed to be fairly protected from people like us screwing it up:D
I have also started thinking that some of the "free" programs cause more trouble than they're worth. I am sure this is because they do not have the resources to be completely tested.
Mark:) I understand XP very well but still have not messed with the registry because as long as it works [like a car] that's fine for me

[Vic 970]

a lot must depend on how you use your pc. if you do a lot of installing uninstalling etc.

I use reg clean, reg cleaner and the like. the only one I had probs with was first aid, which cost me £25 it got rid of all the problems it found (or rather, things it found and decided they were problems) by deleting the program altogether !!!!!

ideally, set up the pc with everything you want, find (if you can) a decent reliable backup program, backup, and forget about it until something goes wrong, then just restore.




If only it was that simply. :D

[Sylvander]

I spent quite a lot of time studying the registry.
[That's a bit like trying to study every street in every city in the USA, but it's better than nothing.]

I would love to be able to clean everything up and put everything in order BUT:
I think it's a practical impossibility.
I think what would be needed to do an effective cleanup is a very powerful, all knowing and very intelligent program.
I don't think such a thing exists.

Only those settings in the Registry that are complete and functional and link to installed programs are capable of usefulness.
Those that link to nothing are just useless trash, and they slow down accesses, but:
If you try to remove them and are less than perfect, you may create a gap in one of the useful settings.
So you can have loads of trash and the system will work, but one single wrong removal and something possibly vital no longer works.

Having said that:
Imagine chaos everywhere and city streets filled with trash.
To clear the easy stuff is usually pretty safe and the early work produces good returns for minimal effort, so it's worth doing.
The more perfect you try to make it, the less effective are your efforts, the greater the work input and the smaller the return, and the greater the likelihood of removing something vital.

[sleddog]

Agreed Sylvander.

I install and uninstall software practically on a daily basis, and never, ever use a registry cleaner. The return you might get by removing a few, even a few hundred, unused entries is practically nil. It's not going to make your machine start any faster, it's not going to make applications start or run any faster. It's not even going to make the registry any smaller unless you really go at it. The registry is a database. Like most databases, deleting data doesn't make the database any smaller. To do that you have to 'compact', or re-write it (I remember doing this by exporting and importing on Win95). And you have to remove a lot of data from the registry to decrease it's size to a degree that it loads appreciably faster.

Of course, if there are entries in the registry that are causing errors, that's another story.

[jabarnutcase]

Some good points- (Just subscribed to this thread so I could keep my eye on it) :p

I think you're right- It's a HUGE data base that registry cleaners just nibble away at....And hopefully they "nibble the right entries".

I think in many cases, (Including myself subconsciously), using a registry cleaner gives the user more of a "Ahhhh- Everything's nice and clean" feeling more than it is really helping a whole lot.

Unless, as sleddog mentioned, an unwanted entry is truly causing some problems. (For example, there are times when the actual fix to a "bug" in a program is just a registry tweak that you are instructed to do via their Knowledge base or Support Page.

My thoughts may be changing on these fancy looking "cleaners" though....As I mentioned in the "msinfo thread", funny how they all have a disclaimer: "Warning! Use at your own risk"! (And for good reason).
I'll be watching this thread with interest. ;)

[Mitch Hatfield]

IMHO:

If you have specific registry problem - and you know what you are doing, ok.

If you have old program "bits" to clean out - and you know what you are doing, ok.

Then a registry cleaner will probably help, although it probably won't deal with anything that using your built-in "regedit" couldn't handle.

Otherwise, a sensible, normal user would well advised to leave both the registry and registry cleaners well alone.

As someone has already pointed out, any potential speed gains which MIGHT come from using registry cleaners is quite simply not worth the risks involved in their casual use.

Whilst some registry cleaners have inbuilt back-up capabilities, there are also some with the power to render your system unusable! :) :)

[jabarnutcase]

It's funny Mitch-
The "Back-up capabilities" you mentioned have often crossed my mind when I've clicked on "select all" and "remove".

In the back of my mind, I think I've always been waiting for the whole screen to go black and have my Computer sitting there dead in the water so to speak.

Could take quite a while after that, to get to the point where you could make use of those precious back-ups that were supposedly made just before everything was "removed" huh? :p

[Mark Miller]

Hey guys,
Is there a regedit in XP? If there is where is it?
Mark:confused:

[jabarnutcase]

Start, Run, type regedit! (One way to get there!)

But remember Mark....still have not messed with the registry because as long as it works [like a car] that's fine for me ;)

[1966]

Just my two cents;) but I still run with Win98SE and Nortons Utilities
2001 has been very good on correcting problems with the registry that it finds and lets me know about. It has helped keep my unit running pretty fine.You do need to know your system and what Nortons suggest to
keep out of too much trouble. The only time Nortons screwed up was because I kept turning the screw:D

[ErnieK]

I stopped using reg cleaners after having mysterious and unexplainable crashes. After reinserting an image of that same setup and not running a reg cleaner the system stayed stable.

Now when I uninstall something I do a manual search for the program in the registry afterwards.

Admittidly I do not get all the detrious out but my computer runs much more stable since starting this routine. Every so often when searching for something else I will come accross a stray entry which I then export/save and delete from the registry.

Also as has been mentioned I keep a couple of of ghost images of my system for restoration purposes if required (leapfrogging the last one with a newer image every week or 10 days). This way if things do go belly up all I lose is about a weeks info.

[pave_spectre]

I run reg cleaners fairly irregularly, and always make sure I have to confirm before deleting stuff.
Takes a while but I havent encountered any problems that could be linked to registry errors.

[Mark Miller]

Thanks Jab,
I knew that about regedit, I think I was looking for a reg cleaner that used to be on the "old" win 9x os.
Beleive me I am not smart enough to fool around with the registry.
Thanks anyway.
Mark:)
I agree with 1966, Norton's works fine even with XP, as I said I think from the old utilities package the only thing you really need from it anymore is the windocter app.:p

[PrntRhd]

Registry cleaner thread, good one.
I personally messed my OS up when trying to do registry cleaning with Norton Utilities on 98 and 98SE when newbie. I was too agressive, and I did not understand the standard warning to back up everything before starting to tinker with the registry.
:rolleyes:


If you want to get me going we could start a thread about removing "unneeded" DLLs, LOL

[FrankSG]

I understand XP very well but still have not messed with the registry because as long as it works [like a car] that's fine for me
Well--after reading these posts, that's what I'm going to go by. As they say, "If your car ain't broke, don't fix it." I'm just not going to use the registry cleaners anymore--unless there's a problem where cleaning the registry might help.

[jeeza]

A very informative thread. Thanks people, for all that great info.
I have changed my viewpoint too about registry cleaning.

[malcore]

The sad truth is there are some programs which require a little cleaning up after uninstalling. Programs that really entrench themselves in the registry, like AV software, firewall software and drivers. It's unfortunate that users need to do this.

If only the producers of these programs spent a bit more time perfecting the uninstallers. But they don't want you to uninstall and use a competitor's program. Look at all the garbage left behind by programs like Norton's or Zone Alarm that has to be sought out by the user AFTER uninstalling.

The key is knowing what you are doing or what a reg cleaner is doing.

I think jabar is right when he says a lot of it is about peace of mind, that feeling that everything is clean. But jumping in and trying to remove EVERYTHING that's not needed, trying to remove things that aren't really necessary to remove increases your chances of making an error.

I say if you use a reg cleaner, use only one, not three or four (like some nutcases ;) ). Know what it is doing, and remove only what is absolutely necessary to remove to avoid future conflicts.

[1966]

I agree with Malcore, if you use one fine. Be careful and understand what you are doing but use just one!:)

[Steve]

I used Norton Utilities with good result when my main OS was W98. When I started using W2k as my main OS, I maintained the registry manually, with some success and some...ummm...lack of success. :rolleyes:

Now that I'm using XP for my main OS I don't even bother maintaining the registry. I do various registry tweaks if I find them beneficial... not much else... with good results. I haven't noticed any lack of speed or performance with any of the three approaches.

[Mark Miller]

This leads to another question about the registry, Old drivers.
In another forum one of the moderaters said that since there are so many drivers in Windows to begin with that removeing old ones really does not help. It came up about a vid card, when someone was getting rid of a nvidia for something else. The sugesstion was made just to remove the nvidia card thru add/remove in device manager and not worry about the old drivers left behind.
Does that sound right?
Mark:confused:

[Vic 970]

one thing I haven't noticed mentioned, back up the registry beforehand.
it's easy and only takes a few seconds.
I always keep a copy of the registry on my desktop, (so that I notice) and update it when I think on. (about once a month or so) this is bkp against anything corrupting the registry, whether I play around or not.

[jabarnutcase]

I say if you use a reg cleaner, use only one, not three or four (like some nutcases ;) ). Know what it is doing, and remove only what is absolutely necessary to remove to avoid future conflicts.

Yes! My Nephew malcore speaks the truth! I only used two and now I'll either use one, or none! (But rather do some specific manual cleaning, if I deem it necessary).

Are you "nutcases" listening out there???? Huh???? :D :p

As I mentioned above though, and some others brought up, "Cleaning" the registry is one thing.
There are times where I have had to make changes or minor additions to the registry for specific program problems....(Usually suggested as a fix by the program vendor itself), So the registry editor is certainly a useful tool to at least know some basic things about.

And back to the "cleaners", I have generally looked over each entry selected as "safe to delete", but I must admit there were times when I said "what the heck" with some "mystery entry" and zapped it.
I think I'll stop that ritual now. ;)



Still, I'll never know what caused the "msinfo32.exe" problem for sure. :(
(Especially since one of the Computers never had a registry cleaner used on it, and it appears from the other thread that Spybot, Adaware, and maybe even M$ updates are not the cause either. (Although I'm leaning towards an update as the cause) Rats!!!! Mystery remains unsolved.

Woops- Sorry, back to the Registry cleaning thread....Please continue! :p ;)