Are Registry Cleaners safe?

Lisandro · 2007-10-04T20:15:05.000Z

CCleaner is safe. But not that deepest.
A safe (that makes a backup/restore of everything) is Wise Registry Cleaner (http://www.wisecleaner.com/). Works on Vista.

Edited: prudence recommends reading Bob and David’s advices ;D

DavidR · 2007-10-04T20:43:48.000Z

A lot depends on:
a. the power of the cleaner, how deep it looks.
b. how user friendly it is, e.g. do you need to understand the workings of the registry and does it provide a help file, etc.
c. does it classify the results in a form of say, safe to fix/remove, should be OK or you could get burned if you touch this, etc.

The one I use is quite powerful, doesn’t have a help file, not particularly user friendly, but it does present the results so that you can select by traffic light colour, Green = safe, Amber = care, Red = Don’t touch unless you really know what you are doing. But I like it, it is called RegSeeker, however, I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who doesn’t know there way around the registry.

bob3160 · 2007-10-04T21:18:33.000Z

All registry cleaners can be dangerous if put into the wrong hands.
As David said “I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who doesn’t know their way around the registry”
That statement goes for all registry cleaners including the built in Reg cleaner.
The gains arrived when cleaning the registry in most cases aren’t worth the risk.
The wrong deletion in your registry could leave you with a crippled computer.
If you decide to clean your registry, back everything up first and then proceed with extreme caution.

system · 2007-10-05T00:15:17.000Z

DavidR post:3:

Green = safe, Amber = care, Red = Don’t touch unless you really know what you are doing. But I like it, it is called RegSeeker, however, I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who doesn’t know there way around the registry.

Hi David,

I’ve used RegSeeker for a long time now, and while I certainly don’t know my way around the registry awfully well (although I’m not completely stupid (there’s no need to comment!)), I’ve never had a problem with it, and find that it’s a great program. The option to back-up every change means that I feel pretty safe in going along with what it says is ‘iffy’, knowing that I can always use the back-ups if something goes wrong. Mine only seems to offer red or green, however. Have you got a later version than mine (Version 1.45, build 0505), and if so, do you have a link to it please?

EDIT: Sorry, forget the link, I’ve just googled it and found a June '07 newer version. Thanks!!

DavidR · 2007-10-05T00:39:22.000Z

My version is 1.55 build 3807, I was incorrect in the traffic light colours, it is only red and green for normal registry scans.

However, there is an Experimental option in there (and that has a traffic light style colour, it is Brown), Invalid Services which I had a look at once to see what it might turn up, but I have left it unchecked since.

http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

system · 2007-10-05T01:54:07.000Z

David,

Thanks very much for drawing my attention to the updated version - it doesn’t seem to be a widely advertised program.

I see what you mean about the 3 ‘traffic light’ style options - there were only two in my older version. I swear by this program. I use CCleaner as well, but find that RegSeeker is a far deeper cleaner, finding many things that CCleaner doesn’t.

Thanks again,

Graham.

Lisandro · 2007-10-05T02:17:28.000Z

GrahamE post:7:

but find that RegSeeker is a far deeper cleaner, finding many things that CCleaner doesn’t.

The deeper, the unsafer, Graham.
This is the rule of Registry cleaners… risk!

system · 2007-10-05T03:00:43.000Z

After a good cleaning, a couple good apps to use would be Erunt and PageDefrag, both described here, http://wiki.castlecops.com/User:PCBruiser/Registry_Maintenance . Back-ups are automatic and can be used to restore the registry when Windows won’t boot, besides compacting and all.

system · 2007-10-05T06:11:31.000Z

I downloaded CCleaner the other day and I wanted to ask anyone who have used these programs if there is a serious risk of using them. I still have CCleaner but haven’t used it yet. I know a little about using regedit and frankly, I think it’s more safer to use regedit " if " someone who knows what they are doing. I count on Tech’s advise "This is the rule of Registry cleaners… risk!
P.S. I’m uninstalling CCleaner when I finish with this reply.

system · 2007-10-05T07:27:47.000Z

As a temp-file cleaner, CC does a good job, and it prompts to back-up all reg.deletions. But I guess I use “regedit” too, so…

system · 2007-10-05T10:37:43.000Z

Tech post:8:

This is the rule of Registry cleaners… risk!

Living life to the full, and on the edge, that’s me! ;D

Lisandro · 2007-10-05T17:36:31.000Z

GrahamE post:12:

Living life to the full, and on the edge, that’s me! ;D

Living dangerously is mine ;D

system · 2007-10-07T12:25:59.000Z

flygirl post:10:

I downloaded CCleaner the other day and I wanted to ask anyone who have used these programs if there is a serious risk of using them. I still have CCleaner but haven’t used it yet. I know a little about using regedit and frankly, I think it’s more safer to use regedit " if " someone who knows what they are doing. I count on Tech’s advise "This is the rule of Registry cleaners… risk!
P.S. I’m uninstalling CCleaner when I finish with this reply.

I use CCleaner and it hasn’t harm me so far.

Lisandro · 2007-10-07T12:53:41.000Z

Sorry to hijack the thread, but speaking about CCleaner, does anybody use the ‘Hotfix Uninstallers’ option with Vista?

system · 2007-10-07T14:49:03.000Z

[quote author=flygirl link=topic=30800.msg25510gistry4#msg255104 date=1191564691]
I downloaded CCleaner the other day and I wanted to ask anyone who have used these programs if there is a serious risk of using them. I still have CCleaner but haven’t used it yet. I know a little about using regedit and frankly, I think it’s more safer to use regedit " if " someone who knows what they are doing. I count on Tech’s advise "This is the rule of Registry cleaners… risk!
P.S. I’m uninstalling CCleaner when I finish with this reply.

http://ask-leo.com/whats_the_best_registry_cleaner.html

system · 2007-10-07T14:57:57.000Z

Sorry I made a hash of my last post,I was trying to post a link about registry cleaners from Leo Notenboom.I will try again http://ask-leo.com/whats_the_best_registry_cleaner.html

bob3160 · 2007-10-07T15:26:02.000Z

His quote:

My fundamental belief is that the best registry cleaner is no registry cleaner at all.

As I've mentioned before, the slight improvement derived from cleaning your registry just isn't worth the risk. :)

system · 2007-10-07T15:43:39.000Z

My fundamental belief is that the best registry cleaner is no registry cleaner at all.

also agree-used to use the registry function of ccleaner and pctools registry mechanic and tuneup utilities all on the same computer and would clean the registry with all on a regular basic-"no more" after couple of blue screens and boot up problems and etc-as a saying from bob who always tells me-if it ain't broke-why fix it ::) ;)

What’s the best registry cleaner?-------NONE!!!

Lisandro · 2007-10-07T15:48:25.000Z

Well, you’re always seem to be starting with a prejudice… not all the things on Registry are ok. Missed drivers, autostart programs, links, etc. could delay the boot, mess new installations…
Sometimes a good registry cleaner is a must have.
I have never been a trouble with Wise Registry Cleaner (deeper, free, make backups…).

DavidR · 2007-10-07T16:33:37.000Z

For me if you are going to use a registry cleaner, use one that is only a registry cleaner and not some jack of all trades that just happens to include a registry cleaner, use a specialist tool for a specialist task.

If you are regularly trialling software (like many on this topic ;D), you ‘hope’ that they clean up after themselves unfortunately that isn’t the case for many, so you just trust to luck that what they leave behind might not have an impact on your system (like certain AVs which shall remain nameless), personally I think not.

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