Registry cleaners

[InBloom]

People say to leave the registry alone. Anyone use them?

[velvetmeds]

Of course, CCleaner user here.

[wakeless0]

CCleaner.

[notavirus.exe]

In moderation.

I've seen people over use them and not back up the registry, causing some mediocre damage to the system. It's not typical, but it is possible.

I only use the registry cleaner portion of ccleaner after I delete or install a butt load of things.

[A Noobcake]

CCleaner all the way, it's a great tool.

[InBloom]

The thing with Ccleaner is you have to run it a couple of times to get everything in my experience.

[Tannekr]

I use the CCleaner registry cleaner whenever I decide to clean up my computer.

I always make back-ups when I use it, but I have yet to actually restore one.

The thing with Ccleaner is you have to run it a couple of times to get everything in my experience.

This is true.

[Ghostbreed]

The thing with Ccleaner is you have to run it a couple of times to get everything in my experience.

This is true.
yeah, so? it doesn't take that long :p

[real4xor]

Nope, I clean the registry manually, or with Micro$oft`s own kit, so I can blame them if stuff goes terribly wrong.

[Tannekr]

yeah, so? it doesn't take that long :p

Just letting people know.

^_^

[Crab]

I keep hearing advice that it really doesn't matter to use them.

I used CCleaner until I suspected it of erasing some of my file associations.

[devilsrefugee]

ccleaner here.

[marie pavie]

People say to leave the registry alone. Anyone use them?
I think they're good for learning stuff, but I don't think they do much good over all. It's easy to make perfectly valid assumptions that are just wrong.

[iBMe]

Another nomination for CCleaner here.

TuneUp Utilities is worth looking at aswell.

[iBMe]

The thing with Ccleaner is you have to run it a couple of times to get everything in my experience.

Yes you do but I see that as a good thing as it's unearthing new problems.

[Heavy Weapons]

I use Spybot S&D, which apprises me of malware files and folders, and tells me what registry keys represent/support them. If Spybot hangs while attempting to remove the malware (ie, because the malware recopies itself upon detecting a file delete in progress), I relaunch it, redo the scan, then use Registrar Lite to go in, hunt down the reg values indicated, and delete them.

It's not as fully-automatic as CC-cleaner or others, but in some ways that's a good thing. For instance, I don't have to sit and wonder if the reg cleaner is actually doing what it was advertised to, or loading my registry up with even more crap.

(Mildly paranoid control-freak personality, likes to have hands-on process whenever feasible.)

[sudomakesanwich]

CCleaner. Most useful tool there is.

[evoleo24]

I use Spybot S&D, which apprises me of malware files and folders, and tells me what registry keys represent/support them. If Spybot hangs while attempting to remove the malware (ie, because the malware recopies itself upon detecting a file delete in progress), I relaunch it, redo the scan, then use Registrar Lite to go in, hunt down the reg values indicated, and delete them.

It's not as fully-automatic as CC-cleaner or others, but in some ways that's a good thing. For instance, I don't have to sit and wonder if the reg cleaner is actually doing what it was advertised to, or loading my registry up with even more crap.

(Mildly paranoid control-freak personality, likes to have hands-on process whenever feasible.)

So, you're doing the same exact thing, probably doing more damage than the program would, taking ten times longer to do it.. for no reason? 0.o

[Shadoww0lf]

Fyi, restore points revert registry damage.

Thus, you don't really have to make any registry backups.. just be sure you have a restore point before you screw around.

[Heavy Weapons]

It's not as fully-automatic as CC-cleaner or others, but in some ways that's a good thing. For instance, I don't have to sit and wonder if the reg cleaner is actually doing what it was advertised to, or loading my registry up with even more crap.

(Mildly paranoid control-freak personality, likes to have hands-on process whenever feasible.)

So, you're doing the same exact thing, probably doing more damage than the program would, taking ten times longer to do it...for no reason? 0.o

You may disagree with my reasons. But that does not make them cease to exist. I have been through this mill a number of times, and getting crunched by its gears is a sobering experience.

After your trust is destroyed by a well-touted but badly-written utility that incorrectly ID's half the files in your operating system as "threatware" and automatically eliminates them, there is no going back. Once burned and all like that. You develop a need to be able to check and verify each candidate for deletion to be absolutely sure it's not a false positive, before any action is taken. ('Hijack THIS' has also proven helpful to me.)

Okay, it's a slower process. It's more work. But the extra work makes it educational. And I don't need to reformat my hard drive and reinstall my operating system as often as I did just trusting the fully-automatic threat-elimination utilities not to mess me up.

[Dirtman73]

I've been using CCleaner for over four years, and I've never had a problem with it. Of course, it helps if you're a computer genius like myself. That way you can go over each registry item listed before CCleaner deletes them.

[Heavy Weapons]

We should all be so fortunate to be as smart and well-educated as you.

[Seroph4x]

I've been using CCleaner for over four years, and I've never had a problem with it. Of course, it helps if you're a computer genius like myself. That way you can go over each registry item listed before CCleaner deletes them.

Lmao, I bet your a 13 year old kid with pimples that will grow up to be a cleaner. Not a registry cleaner, but a toilet cleaner.

[Dirtman73]

Wow, are you guys so thick that you can't take a little humor? Grow up.

[lucid enigma]

Fyi, restore points revert registry damage.

Thus, you don't really have to make any registry backups.. just be sure you have a restore point before you screw around.

Unless you're my brother in law.
After I reformatted and reinstalled everything for him he proceeded to remove all restore points 'to save space' only to merge a full registry backup from before the format.

♥♥♥♥! If you don't know what it does, don't do it! :mad: