Frontline Registry Cleaner

[airtj]

Just wanted to give a heads up about this registry cleaner, do not get it!. It deletes important files and makes programs unusable. I've already had to re-install Microsoft Security Essentials and my photo editing software and my scanner software.

[falcon409]

Just wanted to give a heads up about this registry cleaner, do not get it! It deletes important files and makes programs unusable. I've already had to re-install Microsoft Security Essentials and my photo editing software and my scanner software.
Yea, the problem I've found with most cleaners is that they either delete necessary items without giving you the option to undelete or they give you the option to look at the files it plans to delete but most people wouldn't know whether they were needed files or not just by looking at a file name. They end up doing more harm than good, pretty useless really.

[bkeske]

Agree that most do more harm than good, but, I do use them (one) regularly,; the TweakNow PowerPack, the best I've found thus far.

[kilo delta]

Ccleaner for me

[Scratch]

Ccleaner for me also. I've cleaned out the registry many times with it without one single problem.

[JIMJAM]

Like alot I had to learn the hard way not to fool with the registry. Run these mysterious programs that list out a whole page of errors and potiential problems. They gotta be bad right? They use words and desriptions like bloated,lost,orphaned. Some people like me just cannot live knowing that I have bloated and orphaned files so I must buy a program to do something I really do not understand. So you take a leap of faith and hit REMOVE! Nothing happens so you breath a sigh of relief. That is until like a lightening bolt out of the blue somthing crashes the system or refuses to run.
I learned though that its extremely rare that anything done with the registry effects spped and performance. However, remove a file or entry and I can guarantee you that if not today,next week or a year something WILL act up,refuse to run,crash....
So betreen the 2 I decided to leave it alone.Having a bloated registry is good imo. I would rather have a ton of entries that go unused and have it than it be removed and later need it.
My computer guru friend told me long long ago that of all the things not to much with, the registry was the one biggie. These programs that only need you to simply press the mouse button are justa bad idea all around.

[almccoyjr]

It's best to backup the registry before doing any "cleaning" with any program. In W7, either create a system restore point or export the registry to a folder on the hd. If something is broken after the "cleaning" you'll have options to restore through system restore or by importing the backed up .reg file and over writing the corrupted registry.

I use Registrar Registry Mechanic to monitor what a program writes to the registry when it's installed. Helps to track all the tidbits that are left when a program is uninstalled. I also use CCleaner for general file, cache, etc, but not for the registry.

plug_nickel

[n4gix]

On the other hand, one of the most frustrating things about all Windows versions since Vista is that they write entries into the Registry, then fail to remove them when they are no longer needed. Most of these entries point to "temp" folders/files that're automatically writen to the Registry whenever you -say- click on a .zip file to examine the contents, visit a website or forum with an embedded video...

...basically any action you take that requires the computer to download, decompress and display a file, play a song, watch a video clip, et cetera.

These useless entries will eventually accumulate and so bloat the size of the Registry that your computer will slow to a crawl! :stop:

That's where some judicious cleaning is required. I rarely reboot my development machine, but when I do and it takes up to ten minutes to complete the boot process, it's well past time to clean the Registry!!!!

[Gdavis101]

Ccleaner for me, its free and it works as advertised.. There are so many rouge registry cleaners out there and it is best to just stay away from them.. If you paid for it make to watch you credit card for strange charges..

[Bjoern]

That's where some judicious cleaning is required. I rarely reboot my development machine, but when I do and it takes up to ten minutes to complete the boot process, it's well past time to clean the Registry!!!!

...and autostart programs. And go for a defrag; if only the windows folder.

Ten minutes is inacceptible; regardless of how old the machine may be.