A good registry cleaner?

[Tedster]

I use systemworks 2003 on a rare occasion. I wouldn't recommend any editions after 2004. I haven't had any issues, and I have only installed the registry repair and goback portions. I use it on both my laptop and home computer.
For everyday use, I use crap cleaner. I use systemworks so rarely now, I am about to remove it off my system completely. Still, its disc repair and windows repair tools are quite useful to me.

I haven't seen crap cleaner become commericalized yet. Selling open-source software is a common thing though. Heck, I've seen FREE open-office being sold on ebay (the fools that buy it are morons).

For the average person, they should just use the auto-repair features. Manual tinkering can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[raybay]

Nothing is ever free. We now have a log of 34 different registry editors of which nearly all were free at one time. Nearly all eventually become pricey, or sold. My greatest disappointment was Juono Viourni, the writer of Tweak Now, and RegClean who now charges $29 for the once free program.
I don't know of any good registry cleaner that didn't eventually get through enough of our quality control to become sold.
The current version of CCleaner's download site reports that it is "Polite" to donate if you are going to use the program. There are now three CCleaner Donate blocks for US Dollars, UK pounds, and Euros. They offer to allow you to place it on your web site.
Each of the 34 released versions have edged closer to requiring payment.
As soon as we have completed performing quality control on CCleaner, you can expect it will become a paid program.
Some of the most evil ones became evil after they were sold. For them, you can buy programs to fix the problems caused by other programs they sell.
I agree that it is the tinkering that causes most trouble, but the warnings are simply not sufficient for the frustrated user who cannot get his system to working. Its like the people who decide that if a little bit of medicine is good, more must be better... or soap, when a little bit cleans, a lot of soap cleans more or faster or better. It is a very human trait that way too many cannot resist.

 

[Turkman]

Need a good Reg Cleaner.

Hi All:
I need a good reg cleaner. We have over the last 3 & 5 years on my 2 Dell XP machines. We have installed and Un-installed lots different kinds of games and other software on both machines. I have read that when you uninstall software it sometimes leaves keys behind depending on the the method of the un-install and the Un-installer program. needless to say I know my daughters have just ripped out some programs just because. So I know there are keys left behind.

I have McAfee installed but I don't think it takes care of the registry. I think I read somewhere that sometimes wher you clean the registry that you need to be careful about what keys you remove for McAFee. it supose to cause the program to scan and scan? Not sure.
Formating and reinstalling XP sp3 right now to clean them up makes me a little worried and I'm not prepared to do that right now.
I have formated win 98 and win2K machines but have not done a XP machine. I have read that sometimes Microsoft wont reconize the serial number after you reinstall.
I also looking to Dell for information on how to do a Format and a Restore from the partition on the HD for reference later, just incase.
Sorry I'm just going on and on

For now I would like just to clean up the Registry files.
I read through the forums and see that Tweaknow reg cleaner is preferred over CCleaner. I have downloaded tweaknow reg cleaner ver4.1 But I need someone to guide me on how to use this program or a different one.

Thanks in advance
Turkman

 

[captaincranky]

I have yet to see "Tweak now" make a mistake. The program is self explanatory, if it's not sure of it's own result, it will activate a "deep scan" button, run that to make sure. If the program says something is "safe to delete", it always seems to be. So, just run the .exe file, it installs just like any other program.

The newest version of "Spybot SD" incorporates a temp file remover, so it actually does that function of CCleaner.

I'm looking forward to being shouted down about this, but I used CCleaner once, and once was quite enough, thank you very much.

I use both of these programs (Spybot & Tweaknow), they've treated me very well, never screwed up my machine, and I'm sticking with them. (I am running XP on all my machines, so I can't speak to Vista, just so you know).

BTW, in the "tools" section of Spybot, there's a startup program manager. Once you get the hang of that, you really never have to use "msconfg". It also incorporates entries that tell you exactly what each detected startup program does, and whether you ned it or not. The "Teatimer" in Spybot prevents changes to the registry, unless you approve them. I always click "deny", at least until I can verify what's trying to make changes and why.

Also, I have an older version of Tweaknow installed, (2.9). It works fine, I haven't seen a need or reason update.