Opinions About Reg Cleaners

Okay everyone. I love the thought of a clean registry but am not near savvy enough to do it myself.

Can all of you (maybe better just some) please post to me what you think is the best one? Also need whys and why nots.

I've done a lot of research and saw RegClean, RegHealer or whatever, and more. Somehow, I'm drawn toward a product called "Perfect Companion ". I don't know why. What should I use?
Need an easy interface, just above idiot-proof, program.

Now discuss while I read and No Fighting!

Thanks,
Randy

 

I personally prefer a program called Regcleaner which is freeware.

Why, is because it doesn't automatically tell you what to delete, it lets you check a list of all programs registered to the Registry and decide which one you no longer have. They may then be tagged for deletion but it will allow you to make a backup copy in case you do something untoward.

I have used several other programs, most of which profess to be cleaning the Registry and I have found all of them to be little more than worthless. The files they select for deletion are usually recreated as soon as you run some programs. They never seem to find any orphan program like Regcleaner does. Granted, it does take some interaction but all good programs do. It's hard to make something idiot proof, given the ingenuity of some idiots.

It also has several other areas it can report on and edit, so you'll just have to get it and take a squint.

Let the games begin!!!

 

I use Reg Cleaner regularly. It has never OVERCLEANED my registry!

 

I use EasyCleaner for much the same reasons as stated above.

I've found that it does a slightly more thorough jub than RegCleaner, without "overcleaning "!!!

 

I use both of the cleaners mentioned here. Regardless of which one I run first the other will usually find something. I also use an excellent batch file you can find here

 

That batch file linked above isn't displaying properly on the site page and all the backslashes are missing. It appears that some of the spaces are not displayed either. I suppose anyone smart enough to use it would be able to make repairs but perhaps reboot will read this and take action as well.

Personally, I wouldn't advise editing it and trying to run it since any minor faux pas could cause your system to be unbootable. I'm sure it's perfectly safe when properly scripted but.........

 

Just more Friend to Friend hints to maybe keep you out of ( or help get you out of ) trouble.

If you are running Win98. And especially if you are not accoustomed to editing the reg and are not quite sure what is going to happen from editing it.

Before messing with ANY Regcleaner run Scanregw and make sure you have a copy of the latest rb00x.cab file in the Windows/sysbckup folder.

Go look for yourself and make sure it is there BEFORE running the Regcleaner ( or any other editing of the registry ) and be sure you know how to do a scanreg /restore from DOS if the need arises.

Do not leave everything up to Windows and the software. Both have been known to fail in their duties. Make sure you have a way to recover if something should ( and on occassion does ) go wrong.

Also scanregw backs up all four files. System.ini, Win.ini, System.dat and User.dat.

What I am doing ( or at least trying to and hope to accomplish ) is to keep someone else from getting burned the way I did due to the fact I trusted Windows which FAILED me.

I do not use any RegCleaner myself. But I have made an error or two when doing a manual edit. And there is where I said " Thank you Mr. BillyBob for making the backup and MS for providing Scanreg /restore to bail my Butt out of trouble. "

Scanregw and scanreg /restore can be life raft of a sinking ship.

BillyBob

 

Gee, what can I say, folks?

Thanks a heap!

I've tried brett's EasyCleaner and loved what it does. Have to fool with the others soon and see what's up.

BB!,

You mean to say that a person should be able to back things up with these here things? They don't just magically do everything for you...........after the price I paid?

Gotcha, buddy! No, I am not familiar with the whole backup registry thing. I export it manually but I guess that's not good enough or what?

Maybe one of you would be so kind as to providing me with some links as to how it's done? Please keep it simple for me.

Thanks, everyone!

Randy

 

Yes, we should know how to back these things up BEFORE we get into trouble.

The so called Magic that is supposed to happen may not always happen as planned. Would be nice if it did but it don't.

Hopefully we don't find out too late that it didn't.

 

Just as an FYI re: ShopVac above.

Shopvac is not a Registry Cleaner. It is a Registry Compaction batch file. When items are deleted from the registry, they are not really deleted, they are just "marked" as not being there. (but they still consume space). The batch file does an unload/reload, resulting in the new registry being smaller. Even though the site "implies" that it removes "invalid keys" or "junk ", it does not.

The file is useful to run on a Windows95 system, but on a Windows 98 and higher system, the Scanreg that runs at boot time, will perform the same function (/OPT if the unused space is greater than 500K).
You can also force the compaction by restarting to DOS and running
SCANREG /OPT
or
SCANREG /FIX

 

Thumbs up to RegCleaner

Although we all know that there is nothing out there that is completely idiot-proof, RegCleaner comes close. The living proof is sitting right here in front of my computer.

I used EasyCleaner for a while and changed to RegCleaner several months ago. Right now I'm trying RC's big brother jv16 Power Tools. Personally, I like RC's interface better but. . .

At any rate, all three are freeware and if you have your registry backed-up before you play, where's the harm in playing?

HTH, Randy.


Mike