Registry Cleaner App?

kelper said:

I've used ccleaner in aggessive mode for over a decade and it has never caused any problems. To say they do no good is not my experience. They can improve boot times. If your system is very fast, you may not see this.

Click to expand...

I even buy the professional ver. and have never had any issues with it for many years, regardless of what I run on it.

Install the app again and uninstall it using the uninstaller of your choice.
I use both, the uninstaller and disk/reg cleaner to get rid of the remnants.

allan said:

Removing registry entries will not speed your boot time any more than a placebo will cure your ills

Click to expand...

MS removed empty reg entries to fix issues with windows updates, people using reg cleaners, did not have this issue.

People saying not to use reg cleaners are people, who never actually use them, it is like asking a librarian, how to plant plants.

I’d be curious to see the results of someone’s, or anyone’s really, cleanup tool of choice, and comparing before & after with, e.g., Windows Assessment Toolkit.

bobkn said:

Has your Windows ever been harmed by a Registry cleaner?

Click to expand...

Yes, before I swore off them completely I used to run CCleaner -- until every time I ran it, I would reboot to a dead Windows installation. It ended up removing too much from the Registry that it caused the system to reboot into Repair Mode that it could not recover from. After that, I read up on what it does and how it works and found out very quickly how useless and damaging they can be.

Again do NOT clean the registry, unless you enjoy reformatting and reinstalling everything.......

Taliseian said:

Yes, before I swore off them completely I used to run CCleaner -- until every time I ran it, I would reboot to a dead Windows installation. It ended up removing too much from the Registry that it caused the system to reboot into Repair Mode that it could not recover from. After that, I read up on what it does and how it works and found out very quickly how useless and damaging they can be.

Again do NOT clean the registry, unless you enjoy reformatting and reinstalling everything.......

Click to expand...

It never once happened to me. I can't explain the difference.

Just my opinion but I believe the best registry cleaner is the proper uninstalling of software you remove. Using Revo Uninstaller Free and scanning for leftovers is one way.
Other than that, leaving the registry well alone is a fantastic idea.

Ed McCauley said:

I still have an uncountable number of photoshop references in the Registry

Click to expand...

They are orphaned entries, they will not affect your PC's performance.
Once the program(s) have been uninstalled, there is no reason for the orphaned entries to be called upon.
The Windows Registry is, for lack of a better term, just a guest list, once installed programs have registered themselves, or Registry edits have been made, the work is done.
The only thing slow about a bloated Registry is, searching within itself.

I think it depends on which registry cleaner one uses. I've had no problems with the Norton Scan and I've used that since 1995 as it basically cleans and finishes on it's own. jv16 powertools registry cleaner was the one you had to select what to remove after it does it's scanning, never had a problem with that either. The registry is like a database so I am sure it will use more resources when reading or writing to it similar to a gmail mailbox with 1M emails.

i use revo uninstaller free then use CCleaner reg cleaner afterwards, i can honestly say, i have never yet had a problem.

best of luck, Steve ..

The key problem here is people recommend all sorts of tools to clean up leftover junk saying they have never had issues but that DOES NOT prove you will not get issues.

The only way you can prove a tool will work FOR YOU is by using it, then it might be too late.

Also, it is pretty overwhelmingly true that you get no performance benefit by using a cleaner.

If you decide to use one (imo largely an OCD exercise really), make sure you have made an image backup (you should do that anyway).

So ask yourself - why bother. The oldest adage applies 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

allan said:

Removing registry entries will not speed your boot time any more than a placebo will cure your ills - unless you think it will. But removing registry entries CAN cause your system not to boot at all. And saying it's never caused any problems isn't a ringing endorsement. There are lots of things in life that won't cause you any problems - nor will they provide any benefit. But hey, it's your system - so do as you wish.

I simply suggest you don't post on a forum that others follow suit.

Click to expand...

As with many other subjects - there's 2 opposite extremes - even when it comes to registry cleaners:

1) People who are sure - registry cleaners can clean and maintain their Windows (and there's some truth in that).

2) People who are sure - cleaning the registry brings 0 improvements, if anything - it can do only harm (and there's some truth in that as well).

Can a registry cleaner improve the Windows Boot time? Short answer, no. But that's simply because "it proved to be highly unproductive (or dangerous - if you will)" - to program an app to clean windows registry at that level - taking into account the multitude of apps and their difference in functionality (while using registry variables). I say prove - because that was implemented before (such as jv16 PowerTools - in its early days) , and.... Windows definitely started booting faster. The only problem with that.... booting is all it could do at that point (stuck in an endless boot loop).

And thus, learning from that - so they wouldn't shoot themselves in the foot (the same way) - most devs programing this registry cleaners - avoided all registry entries - which proved to be dangerous to mess with automatically. That being said, many registry cleaners - did turn-up to have more of a placebo effect - simply because they're to cautious (so not really doing their job).

On the other hand "Uninstallers" - which were constantly improved in this regard (for more than a decade - while Windows didn't change that much at a registry level) - DO, MAKE A DIFFERENCE (when it comes to cleaning a registry - for an app which can cause conflicts - while leaving some entries behind). For example: Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) - which proved to be enough to properly clean the Display Driver entries - while the only other alternative to solve that issue - was reinstalling Windows. The (huge) amount of time saved by this simple cleaner - is far from being a placebo. That being said - apps that can properly target registry entries - can make a huge difference (sometimes saving even more than just time).

Apps like CCleaner on the other hand and their registry cleaners - are more like using a broom around the house - cleaning some bread crumbs from the carpet - while there's still lots of dust underneath. Still, besides the registry cleaner - they also come with other tools (like and advanced start-up manager) - which does touch the registry to disable said entries and that "can (obviously)" improve boot time. Tho, personally, not a fun of CCleaner (still has some shady ways of doing things - such as inserting itself in the scheduled start-up entries - despite of being disabled time after time).

I strongly suggest REVO Uninstaller as it effectively removes all leftover files and it cleans the registry without breaking anything. The same cannot be said for other similar softwares, in my experience.

I believe it's human nature that most want to think for themselves. Thanks to google and numerous forums where there are so many differing opinions, and of course some from experience, it's really hard to blame someone that want to try these things. If you're really concerned about it, just go to the Regedit and export your reg.

"but same issue with installing Photoshop remains..."

If Adobe supplies an App for uninstallation try that, it will be safer than the mentioned products.
You can also be very, very careful and do it manually.

Ccleaner - Fell in to disuse many years ago as it became more intrusive. It is more than a Registry "cleaner".
Misleading language "Fix issues" when none exist.
There are other means for some features, most parts are pointless nonsense.
Other Registry cleaners were tried and similarly discarded.

Revo - Damaged links in to Windows, preventing installation of a product until Windows was re-installed, will never use it again.

DDU - never used. I test all Graphics drivers be it Integrated(Intel) or Nvidia which uses all features.
Only had one problem and that was the Nvidia uninstaller stripping a whole branch of the Registry related to Right Click menu function. Had to manually re-create the branch.

This is over a period of roughly 23 years.

The only extra uninstallers/cleaners used have been from the manufacturers - McAfee, MS Office etc.

As an old dude, that just surfs the web, I don't have many additional apps on my PC, MS Office and 3 different browsers, Revo and CCleaner, and I have many of my regs. exported as backups, from day one in a special folder, and on a flash drive, and especially before I install anything. Am I safe? maybe not totally, but it does give me some peace just in case.

allan said:

I've been staffing support forums since the very early 2000's and I can tell you with 100% certainty that Registry Cleaners can cause harm. Over the years I've helped users who had their systems significantly harmed by the use of registry cleaners - and some were damaged beyond simple repair and had to go through the process of a clean Windows re-installation. Is it possible that there are some registry cleaners that are relatively benign and won't cause much, if any, harm these days? Sure. But none of them - NONE OF THEM - do one iota of good. Registry cleaners serve absolutely no purpose and may very well cause major headaches. If you want to use one, you do so at your own risk (and without the possibility of any potential benefit).

Click to expand...

Interesting. I designed, fabricated, built, installed and used my first computer in 1975. My first PC in 1985 or thereabouts. I've worked in all positions, helpdesk, manager, database creation and support, network and internetwork design, etc., etc. I've never felt the need to prove that a registry cleaner is worthwhile; it either increases performance or it does not. Yet I have to wonder . . . a registry that is, say 1.2 Gb, with numerous unneeded and dead items, must take a little longer to load, parse, and run than a registry that's only 760Kb. Can anyone point to research that proves or disproves this conjecture?

RD Mercer said:

As an old dude, that just surfs the web, I don't have many additional apps on my PC, MS Office and 3 different browsers, Revo and CCleaner, and I have many of my regs. exported as backups, from day one in a special folder, and on a flash drive, and especially before I install anything. Am I safe? maybe not totally, but it does give me some peace just in case.

Click to expand...

Why backup just the registry? A good disk-imaging program can back up everything in minutes. If Windows gerts borked you can restore the image in minutes.

Taliseian said:

For removing unwanted programs, there are several good uninstallers including REVO Uninstaller, Geek Uninstaller, Bulk Crap Uninstaller, and more.

As for registry cleaners, I highly recommend you do NOT "clean the registry". It does nothing to enhance performance nor remove uninstalled programs. There are far more reports of issues with Windows after running then than there is reports of improved performance. Unless you know the ins and outs of the registry and exactly which hives need to be cleaned, it is best to leave it alone.

Click to expand...

Please note that one of the things Revo and Geek uninstallers do is clean the registry as part of an uninstall.

Anyone remember Microsoft's very own built-in Disk Cleanup? Which has now been retired and replaced with Storage Sense?

I've used CleanMgr+ to good effect when migrating to a newer Windows. Cleanmgr+ is a modern take of Microsoft Disk Cleanup and comes with all the features that the original Cleanmgr.exe offers plus several extra ones. It uses identical technical terms and descriptions and does exactly the same thing that the classic Windows Disk Clean-up utility does.

Another cleaner not mentioned is Privazer. It has a Basic User and an Advanced User interface. Works well, but read through the choices carefully.