Registry Cleaners Need to Die

[Michael McAllister]

All too often, I see people recommending these programs.  Two such examples are below:

 

 

Brandon and Carey are incredibly smart, so I find their casual approach to these programs odd.  I have used both Norton's cleaner and Revo Uninstaller.  In the case of Norton, I've had it falsely identify Windows Live Messenger (before the merger) entries as uneeded leftover entries.  Verified by using the WLM repair tool.  After using Revo on my mom's previous system a few times, she started getting DLL errors at start up.  Her computer didn't speed up; if anything, it became slower.  Defragging the registry (I've not tried it) should help speed things up.  Nothing is being deleted, just orginized better.

 

TL;DR:  The registry is very complex.  False positives are a thing.  There is no magic fix button.

 

http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?30113-Registry-Cleaners-not-recommended

[AlwaysFSX]

This is why you backup your registry and look through what the fixes will be before you change your registry. For one though, Norton kills any file that it's "community" deems bad even if it's because of problems such as crashing. I'm perfectly fine with registry cleaners honestly.

[Grave]

This is why you backup your registry and look through what the fixes will be before you change your registry. For one though, Norton kills any file that it's "community" deems bad even if it's because of problems such as crashing. I'm perfectly fine with registry cleaners honestly.

CCleaner provides backups for registry changes.. Easy to reapply if anything goes wrong.

 

I've had a ton of excess registry crap stuck on my pc, and although I'm not sure if it helped performance, it made sure that certain programs or add-ons I don't use anymore weren't affecting anything strangely for sure after cleaning everything else out. If you know what you're looking for/doing, it's not hard to prevent problems when removing stuff like that.

[Michael McAllister]

This is why you backup your registry and look through what the fixes will be before you change your registry. For one though, Norton kills any file that it's "community" deems bad even if it's because of problems such as crashing. I'm perfectly fine with registry cleaners honestly.

 

In Carey's video, Revo concluded that there were over 700 entries related to VLC.  Are you going to comb through every one?  Ain't nobody got time for that.

[Michael McAllister]

CCleaner provides backups for registry changes.. Easy to reapply if anything goes wrong.

 

I've had a ton of excess registry crap stuck on my pc, and although I'm not sure if it helped performance, it made sure that certain programs or add-ons I don't use anymore weren't affecting anything strangely for sure after cleaning everything else out. If you know what you're looking for/doing, it's not hard to prevent problems when removing stuff like that.

 

Okay, considering how many things people uninstall and install, how are you going to know it's a registry issue or something else?  A registry cleanup from several months ago might cause unepected issues.

[AlwaysFSX]

In Carey's video, Revo concluded that there were over 700 entries related to VLC.  Are you going to comb through every one?  Ain't nobody got time for that.

Yeah I would actually, I try to do my best to make sure I'm not going to break my computer with my actions. That's also one of the reasons I don't use VLC.

[Michael McAllister]

Hopefully, Linus and Slick could do some peformance testing because I was a huge proponent of registry cleaners.  The amount of false positives I've run into defeats the purpose of them.

[Lyons]

Am I allowed to use Ccleaner's registry cleaner?

[LAwLz]

There is so much misinformation about the registry out there it's not even funny.
I got a link somewhere (will post later) of a guy that benchmarked his registry, let it bloat up to like 5 times the size and then benchmarked it again, and it actually performed better.
Not getting any errors? Then leave your registry alone. You are most likely doing more harm than good messing with it.

 

Edit: and I am back with the benchmark I was talking about before: Registry bloat - a test balloon.

Cleaning your registry makes no difference except it might free up 1MB of storage, and possibly create a lot of issues in the future. Again, leave it alone unless something is actually wrong with it, and if something is wrong then make 100% sure you know what you are doing.

[Colombini]

Hi peeps

 

I use CCleaner for years now, and i had never any problems with it!

I agree that there are a lot of reg cleaners that are crap, so i stick with what i know.

I also use Tuneup 2014, it work fine, it only has sometimes problems with defragmenting harddriver but this was only the case with the 2013/ 2013 version of the program.

So i disabled that function, for the rest it does it's job.

[ChillKyle]

I also think driver update programs need to die in a fire as well.

[Michael McAllister]

Am I allowed to use Ccleaner's registry cleaner?

 

It's your computer.  I'm just saying the preceived benefit may be bullshit.

[Lyons]

It's your computer.  I'm just saying the preceived benefit may be bullshit.

 

Well Windows is a messy, poorly constructed piece of shit, so I do the most I can to keep it clean

[thedigitalmilk]

It's your computer.  I'm just saying the preceived benefit may be bullshit.

That made me laugh a little

[Anagram]

Anyone use iobit uninstaller? It removes any program and the registries associated with it.

[LAwLz]

Well Windows is a messy, poorly constructed piece of shit, so I do the most I can to keep it clean

I disagree. The registry has a lot of benefits compared to for example ini files, and even in GNU/Linux you get dependency hell situations. The problem is third party developers creating the mess.

[Akolyte]

Anyone use iobit uninstaller? It removes any program and the registries associated with it.

If you use good programs the uninstallers should remove all the crap, and if not most good companies provide a removal tool to remove EVERYTHING.  Ccleaner is a good reg cleaner I must say.  But I love AVG and even their tuneup program makes me sick. 

[Lyons]

I disagree. The registry has a lot of benefits compared to for example ini files, and even in GNU/Linux you get dependency hell situations. The problem is third party developers creating the mess.

 

By proxy then, Windows still sucks in comparison to OSX/Linux/UNIX based OS's when it comes to data management; It's why I avoid using it for everything except occasional gaming.

[Anagram]

If you use good programs the uninstallers should remove all the crap, and if not most good companies provide a removal tool to remove EVERYTHING.  Ccleaner is a good reg cleaner I must say.  But I love AVG and even their tuneup program makes me sick. 

A lot of the games I uninstall still keep the registries like smite, league, etc. =/

[Akolyte]

A lot of the games I uninstall still keep the registries like smite, league, etc. =/

well, are there allot of them?  do they interfere with anything?  if not then you should be fine.  I would advise checking out forums (like this) and check the game website for tools to remove the game.  Allot of companies include removal tools for applications though people don't realise it and look.  Some removal tools do almost nothing but allot of removal tools remove the traces.  I would much more advice Ccleaner than Iobit remover.  Iobit is one of those companies that sells junk to people, I mean look at thier antivirus.  99% of all reviews say its absolutely horrible.  The Ccleaner reg cleaner lets you see ALL the bad keys (all should be safe to remove) and I would advise removing the ones you feel comfortable and make a backup of the registry.  Ccleaner reg cleaner is pretty easy to use and actually is probably the most mild registry cleaner out there as it hasn't caused me any errors.  

[Anagram]

well, are there allot of them?  do they interfere with anything?  if not then you should be fine.  I would advise checking out forums (like this) and check the game website for tools to remove the game.  Allot of companies include removal tools for applications though people don't realise it and look.  Some removal tools do almost nothing but allot of removal tools remove the traces.  I would much more advice Ccleaner than Iobit remover.  Iobit is one of those companies that sells junk to people, I mean look at thier antivirus.  99% of all reviews say its absolutely horrible.  The Ccleaner reg cleaner lets you see ALL the bad keys (all should be safe to remove) and I would advise removing the ones you feel comfortable and make a backup of the registry.  Ccleaner reg cleaner is pretty easy to use and actually is probably the most mild registry cleaner out there as it hasn't caused me any errors.  

Nothing bothering about the registries except for smite, I had to use iobit to get rid of everything for me to even be able to reinstall that game. I guess Ccleaner gave me a bad taste back when I had XP, made my computer have a lot of problems.

[Akolyte]

All too often, I see people recommending these programs.  Two such examples are below:

 

 

Brandon and Carey are incredibly smart, so I find their casual approach to these programs odd.  I have used both Norton's cleaner and Revo Uninstaller.  In the case of Norton, I've had it falsely identify Windows Live Messenger (before the merger) entries as uneeded leftover entries.  Verified by using the WLM repair tool.  After using Revo on my mom's previous system a few times, she started getting DLL errors at start up.  Her computer didn't speed up; if anything, it became slower.  Defragging the registry (I've not tried it) should help speed things up.  Nothing is being deleted, just orginized better.

 

TL;DR:  The registry is very complex.  False positives are a thing.  There is no magic fix button.

 

http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?30113-Registry-Cleaners-not-recommended

Ccleaner dude... Ccleaner.  Ccleaner hasn't changed much in the past 3 or 4 years.  That shows you something, I rarely see bad stuff about Ccleaner.  I say Ccleaner is safe to use IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING!  Some of the computers I work on have reg clean pro on them.  Not some... MOST.  Reg clean pro is one of the many reg cleaners, tuneup programs out there that removes unsafe to remove keys and sells you junk.  I think its bad to say reg cleaners should die, I don't agree with that at all.  But I think reg cleaners should become a professional tool, like in Microsoft Sysinternals.  Not as a consumer product.  Registry cleaners are indeed dangerous and can cause major problems.  But when used right can fix allot of errors.  

[Akolyte]

Nothing bothering about the registries except for smite, I had to use iobit to get rid of everything for me to even be able to reinstall that game. I guess Ccleaner gave me a bad taste back when I had XP, made my computer have a lot of problems.

Ccleaner is better now...  I dare you to try it out, everything in ccleaner has a checkbox, so it allows you to uncheck anything you aren't comfortable with. 

[Anagram]

Ccleaner is better now...  I dare you to try it out, everything in ccleaner has a checkbox, so it allows you to uncheck anything you aren't comfortable with. 

I'll give it a shot.

[GoodBytes]

Registry is a database. If it's fill with junk... it doesn't mater.

You don't see Hotmail/Outlook taking ages to load with the billion of unused accounts. Why? Because that's the power of the registry.

It can access anything in a flash, no mater how filled or empty it is.

 

In addition, the advantage of the database (beside reduce redundancy) is that in the case of corruption, it will only affects the items the corruption is at, and not the the rest of the database, as one would expect to occur on a text file, where everything after the corruption is unreadable, despite not being corrupted.

 

So that is why the registry is powerful, and cleaning it creates more problem.

A lot of people don't see problem until a Service Pack or doing a Windows update... and then wonders why it failed. -> Don't use a registry cleaner.

 

You are better off with left over entries from a program (which provide 0 disadvantage, beside looking ugly), then to try to clean things, and delete important things.