There are so many of these progs around. I have tried a couple - currently have System Cleaner installed, and CCcleaner in the past. Several before that. I am running Japanese XP Pro and when I used the registry cleaner with Ccleaner I had all sorts of problems. I ended up having to do a restore from Acrosis.

I am wondering whether any of the specialists amongst you could suggest a prog that is very, very good for cleaning my registry?

Thanks.

Registry cleaners are a real minefield, with lots of potential to screw up your system, as you already found out with your Ccleaner experience.

Personally, I don`t recommend you use a reg cleaner at all. Any so called benefits are far out weighed by the potential damage to your system.

But, if you absolutely have to, then only delete regkeys that you know for a fact are safe to do so. In other words, don`t let the programme decide for you, which regkeys it deletes. Also, always make a backup of your registry before any cleaning is done. Creating a new system restore point is also advisable.

Regards Howard

I totally agree on the use of Registry Cleaners. They should not be used "routinely". Many who do use them don't know how to deal with decisions they must make. The potential for system disaster is great if misused.

One free reg "cleaner" is "Eusing" registry cleaner. I found one that I really like for free the other day. If you go to P.C.World web page and go to their top 10 downloads you will find Glarys reg. repair. It works very well. Can't believe it's free.

I don't use System Restore at all. It is turned off... I agree that novice computer users should be wary of Registry cleaners. One that I use and that I supply to home users is RegscrubXP. It is relatively safe. One problem I noticed was that after a scan and clean, Adobe Flash player would no longer function. I had to uninstall it and reinstall every time I ran the registry cleaner. Exceptions can be applied to not delete certain files.

The Glarysoft free registry cleaner is good too. I really like all their software utilities

Tmagic, why have you turned off System Restore? It can be an invaluable function when some update, download or install goes wrong. The comment about System Restore actually had nothing to do with using the Registry Cleaner itself- just a precaution for a download.

First off, as an experienced computer user/technician, I am fully aware of what I install and do on my system. I also know that the system restore takes up valuable hard drive space and it can harbor and protect Viruses and malware from being deleted permanently. I perform full current backups so System Restore is not necessary for me at all.

For the novice user it can be a blessing

I have never had an issue with CCleaner. Just use it in it's default mode. I have also used free glarysoft registry repair with no issues.

As Tedster said, I have not had any issues with CCleaner either. It has been a valuable utility on occasion for me over the years. I've always used it in default mode as well though.

Hi All, Have You Tried Registry Mechanic? I Find It Pretty Good, Also Advance Window Care, Which Is Free. I Like Tmagics Idea About System Restore,

Many thanks for all your opinions. Im not an experienced tech but I have had my problems in the past using a register cleaner so I guess I will just leave it alone. I do delete uninstalled keys using regedit from time to time. I have also seen viruses, trojans etc left behind in restore points so occassionally delete them as well. Im not sure whether I made my point about Ccleaner. I use the prog all the time. The problem that I have had is under "registry". I have no problems with the default function.

So I do humbly thank you all. My question has well been answered.