jv16 PowerTools and RegScrubXP

Hi all!

Yesterday, I typed a comment to a thread but when I submitted, the server was off-line and I lost it. Now I can´t find the thread which prompts this new one.

I´ve installed jv16 PowerTools and RegScrubXP. I´ve noticed that what has been said previously on here, that both should be used, is true. jv16 RegCleaner finds stuff that RegScrubXP misses and the other way around.

Concerning jv16 RegCleaner (the one included in jv16 PowerTools, not the stand-alone), I have only deleted the "green" entries which are deemed safe to remove.

In that other thread mflynn adviced to "delete all it finds ".
The context was removing an application that have no uninstall option.

Do I understand it right, that this advice was for this particular situation and that all entries pertaining to this application should be removed?

Do I understand it right, if I under normal useage only delete the "green" entries and leave the "red" entries?

Thanks for Your time,
Christer

 

Mike,
I´ve been searching for that thread again but to no avail. Either I had a bad dream last night ...... ...... or the thread has disappeared.

To make clear which applications You refer to:

Do You by RegScrub refer to
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2048

There are so many Regcleaners, do You refer to
http://www.webmasterfree.com/regcleaner.html

or to
http://www.webattack.com/get/regcleaner.shtml

or to
http://www.verkkotieto.fi/jv16/shtml/regcleaner.shtml

If it´s the latter one, then I´m ...... ...... since it´s the one included in jv16 PowerTools

Brett,
You might have a point there, if it works - don´t fix it.

Some people say that a few stray regentries do no harm but a **** load of them can slow the system down.

I don´t know ...... I´m still learning!

 

I have noticed that #2 and #3 refer to the same regcleaner from jv16. Possibly #1 too but it´s not the same download site.
This RegCleaner is included in jv16 PowerTools.

In Your first reply You adviced against the use of the jv16 RegCleaner by less experienced people. You recommended that I stick with Regcleaner.

Maybe I´m thick but You´ve lost me. Which regcleaner do You mean I can handle and which regcleaner should I stay away from?

Thanks,
Christer

 

Mike,
thanks for the clarification!

However, I quote from this webpage
http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/regcleaner.shtml

That´s the cause of my confusion. I was under the impression that they were the same. I have checked out both and I saw no difference apart from RegCleaner no longer being developed and the one included in jv16 PowerTools being continued.

Regards,
Christer

 

Hi reboot,
thanks for Your comments!

I´ll have a look at ToniArts EasyCleaner.

In the meantime I have run these three applications with the noted results:

RegScrubXP:

8 problems to fix, no values or subkeys

0 exclusions

Standalone RegCleaner - do them all:

1 invalid entry to remove, this entry shows up as ignored (red) when "jv16 PowerTools - Registry Tool - Registry Cleaner" is run

10 ignored entries

jv16 PowerTools - Registry Tool - Registry Cleaner:

15 entries safe (green) to remove, 8 file does not exist / 2 useless file extension / 5 useless empty key

71 entries not safe (red) to remove

It seems to me like this is a very wide grey zone, two applications find different things to be useless and safe to remove.
One entry is deemed safe by one application but deemed not safe by another, both applications from the same developer ......

I have used Nortons "Windows Registry Scan" for two years and I think that I´ll stick to that one for regular maintenance.

Should I uninstall an application, then I might run one of the others to clean leftovers.

(On my "trial-and-error" LapTop, I have used all of them including jv16 in which i removed all green enties. So far so good ......)

Christer

 

I have an addendum to my "research ".

EasyCleaner found 78 entries to remove, the one that was red - not safe in jv16 was on the list to be removed.

Seems more and more like a lottery to me. I was more or less prepared to take the green ones of jv16 as actually safe and the red ones as actually not safe. I certainly didn´t expect EasyCleaner to come up with 78 entries to remove.
I haven´t compared the jv16 list with the EasyCleaner list but if the jv16 reds really are red, then EasyCleaner is way off, or ...... the other way around.

I´ll install NSW on that computer too to se what idea Norton has of the situation.

About removed keys being put back, I´ve noticed that behaviour in RegScrubXP too.

 

Well, I can probably vouch for that.
When Norton System Works was installed I run "One Button Checkup" which returned 25 errors. 2 invalid file extensions and 23 invalid ActiveX/COM Entries.

After this installation the registry has changed so, I´ll have to run the other ones again to get the picture.

 

Hi again!

I´ve been "playing" with these four registry cleaning tools and have made a few observations. To give them something to look for, I uninstalled Norton System Works and removed all left-over folders from the system partition. In each case I only run the search but didn´t take any action to clean.

Well, I´ve been a good lad for a long time so, I thought it was time to be naughty. I run the jv16 PowerTools RegCleaner (referred to as jv16 to avoid confusion), as well as RegCleaner to compare those two.
My finding is that jv16 finds twice as many green items as RegCleaner finds invalid entries, 90 compared to 45. In addition to that, it finds 183 red items compared to 10 ignored entries found by RegCleaner.

RegScrubXP found 64 problems and EasyCleaner found 109 invalid references.

When I started actually cleaning the registry, I always did one run in this sequence, RegScrubXP - EasyCleaner - RegCleaner - jv16. I found out that the first round of cleaning, released a bunch of new invalid entries. After a few runs this was left:

RegScrubXP - 2 problems (which returned each and every time, recreated?)
EasyCleaner - 0 invalid references
RegCleaner - 0 invalid entries, 9 ignored entries
jv16 - 0 green, 51 red

This means that RegScrubXP and EasyCleaner removed 132 entries which jv16 deemed not safe to remove.
Is jv16 overly cautious?

Among the 51 reds are 28 referring to Norton or Symantec. I wonder if those would be safe to remove since the application has been uninstalled?

When I deleted a number of files, *.txt and *.doc, RegscrubXP and EasyCleaner found nothing whereas RegCleaner and jv16 found quite a few invalied entries. Again, jv16 found twice as many as RegCleaner.
Could it be that jv16 lists the same key twice if it is in two sections of the registry but RegCleaner only cares to mention it once?

I have not (yet) used or studied any of the other functions of jv16 PowerTools!

Regards,
Christer