Resolved Cleaning the registry

I just bought a brand new HP Spectre x 360 laptop. I usually use CCleaner to remove unwanted material. I took a look at the Regisrty option and found that there must be hundreds of 'issues' listed there. I'm aware that one must take care when cleaning the registry because it could create problems, but, should I have that many "issues" on a brand new machine? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

First, an "issue" does not suggest a "problem". So with that worry out of the way, it is not uncommon at all for there to be several hundred "issues" with a brand new computer - especially one that comes from a big computer maker. They use a common "image" file on many of their computers to install the operating system and all the extra junk... err... programs they want to foist on you... err... include with their systems. So this image is designed to support many different hardware and software configurations, most of which do not apply your specific hardware configuration. When you first fire up the computer, the configuration for your system is set in Windows, and the remaining possible settings are left dangling, or as "orphaned" settings in the registry.

FTR, CCleaner's registry cleaner is the only registry cleaner I use or recommend. And that is because it a very conservative cleaner, it always prompts to backup the registry before making changes, and their restore from backup works. If you had used a different cleaner, it might have found 1000s of "issues". That would scare me.

You will see many condemn CCleaner just because it includes a registry cleaner as they lump all registry cleaners together as evil. That is just not true, or fair. While there is some controversy over how beneficial they are, some truly have shown to be evil and sadly have given the whole category of software programs a bad rap. But CCleaner has been around for well over 10 years and has been used by 100s of millions of users countless number of times without causing problems. And it has received great reviews from many very reputable sources.

But while I like CCleaner, IMO, a registry cleaner should NEVER be used to "fix" a broken Windows. I only use it as regular maintenance tool to keep Windows working smoothly.

So if this were me, I would make sure you have CCleaner fully updated, then I would run the cleaner (backing up the registry when prompted). And note it often takes 2 or 3 runs of the registry cleaner for there to be no more issues. This is because fixing one broken link or orphaned entry reveals a new one on the next scan. So I typically run the registry cleaner until it says no issues found. And I only bother with backing up the registry the scan of the session. But that's just me being lazy. I have never, not once, had to recover from a CCleaner registry cleaning.

I always run this registry cleaner on new installs, and after major upgrades. For example, after installing a OS major service patch or when swapping out a major component like the graphics card. Or if I change anti-malware solutions. I then run it every couple months just to keep things running smoothly.

Do note that over use of CCleaner (mainly the Disk Cleaner portion) can actually slow down your computer. This is because it cleans out caches, prefetch entries, MRUs, cookies and other temporary files that are actually put there by Windows to speed up performance. So I might run it once a month or so.

 

Thank you so much!! These replies are very informative and helpful.