Registry Cleaners - Are they necessary? Are they safe?

[Zigen]

I was having a discussion with a friend over the need for Registry cleaners. He claims they have no value and are dangerous. A google search does indeed show quite a few people saying that registry cleaners are a waste of time & money and they do nothing much and are potentially dangerous with the ability to crash your system.

I personally have been using Registry cleaners like PC Tools, Yamisoft Manager XP/7/8 and have never had an issue. I do a backup every time though. There are a lot of other Registry cleaners out there that I haven't tried like ccleaner, netgate etc

My question is, are they really useful or just a waste of time as many on the internet claim?

[majithia23]

I'm no expert, but if i'd were to say from my experience -

Registry cleaners are useful and not useful !

Why....

>> I have used systems with absolutely no cleaning of registry and with no drop in performance !

>> I even used a system with extensive registry cleaning with multiple scanners in advanced mode, like JV16 and others in advanced mode when even the program alerts you to slow down and go mild in cleaning or else, but still nothing happens to the system.

>> And then i have used a system when a simple scan with an innocent seeming scanner *ucked up the system to the extent where it failed to start .

>> Many times a mild registry scanner like the CCleaner or even a more elaborate scanner have helped solved some issues with the PC .

For me its like that flavor of ice cream which you neither like nor hate, but will give a lick because its an ice cream and then on the flip can even let go off it because you dont like the flavor ! ......

[Journey]

I was having a discussion with a friend over the need for Registry cleaners. He claims they have no value and are dangerous. A Google search does indeed show quite a few people saying that registry cleaners are a waste of time & money and they do nothing much and are potentially dangerous with the ability to crash your system.

I personally have been using Registry cleaners like PC Tools, Yamisoft Manager XP/7/8 and have never had an issue. I do a backup every time though. There are a lot of other Registry cleaners out there that I haven't tried like ccleaner, netgate etc

My question is, are they really useful or just a waste of time as many on the internet claim?

Your friend would be ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. Heed his advise, is what I would say. Reg cleaners give you a false sense of system stability when they are first used. If you use them often, expect bad things to start happening. I can't tell you how many times I have had to either reinstall or go to a system backup to undo what registry cleaners supposedly do that killed my OS. Each developer uses his/her own algorithm to find bad registry keys so you will always get different results. The ones that find a lot of bad keys are the ones you want stay away from altogether. Since I've stopped using reg cleaners, I've never ever had an issue and I do a lot of installing and uninstalling of software. If you do want to use one, I can only recommend one and one only and that would be CCleaners Registry cleaner. It's very passive and generally safe to use. Hope my feedback helps.

[SnakeMasteR]

Well, you can do almost everything that registry cleaners do by yourself, by hand. Microsoft develops and maintains Windows for ages, they NEVER released or shipped built-in ones within Windows, so the answer, if they are really needed is no, you can find so many system utils within Windows, automatic defragmentation, firewall protection, encryption, anti-spyware and even antivirus with Windows 8, no reg cleaner there anywhere. Microsoft RegClean ( :P) was a good example of how such a cleaner should not work, that is why it is unsupported since '98 and M$ dropped that idea. If you really use registry cleaners, leave those alone that advertise themself as "giving you a performance boost", there is no such thing and there never will be, it's just false advertising (when not pure lying) so creators have a reason to sell those utils to someone.

I think there is a big difference between repairing and cleaning, cleaning means cleaning (deleting/removing entries) and there is no performance benefit from it, if you do it, the only thing you achieve with that are holes/empty lines. And this is where registry defrag/rebuild might give some minor (pretty much marginal/nothing) improvement, on XP maybe, where you might recognize it after full registry defrag/rebuild, on newer OS' you will feel almost nothing.

repairing/maintaining -> defrag/rebuild, changing/restoring standard/default values or backups etc.

cleaning -> deleting/removing entries

Since Vista, you can make your computer perform better, if you just upgrade important hardware like CPU, RAM, HDD etc. and not one single tool or util will achieve that boost in performance. :lol:

Edited August 28, 2013 by n0_risk!

[Alanon]

Yes and no - a thing that advertises as a cleaner these days is often much more than that. Avoiding those "miraculous one-click solutions", you can sometimes make the PC a little snappier. If you use a cleaner that cleans out the temp files, browser history, etc, all in one swipe (Like CCleaner or Privazer, a better alternative, IMHO), then I say it can't hurt, because they are rarely so aggressive to cause harm to the PC. At least in my case, but YMMV.

[mlauzon]

The only registry cleaner that I know actually worked like it was supposed to was Norton's WinDoctor from the late '90s into the early 2Ks when they discontinued it. I hear you can clean the registry with CCleaner, I've never used the app in my life, so I don't know if it can or not.

[ande]

Registry cleaners are like pointers in C, there is always possibility that pointer will access OS memory

and either program will be terminated by system or it will crush OS and might cause data corruption.

In theory yes, there is use of cleaning registry junk, but that use is infinitesimal.

Registry cleaners and similar are ours quirks, therefore if it makes you feel better use them. :)

Peace.

[funkyy]

I've been using MISPBO reg cleaner for years. It hasn't caused me any problems (touch wood) and I use it once a week. It was interesting to read the opinions here, in fact it was an eye-opener for me because I always believed the publicity that you NEED to clean your registry or suffer a deterioration in the performance of your computer...I guess I fell for the sales pitch. I'm gonna think about this a bit more before I decide to keep it or uninstall it. Thanks for all your input.

[Journey]

I've been using MISPBO reg cleaner for years. It hasn't caused me any problems (touch wood) and I use it once a week. It was interesting to read the opinions here, in fact it was an eye-opener for me because I always believed the publicity that you NEED to clean your registry or suffer a deterioration in the performance of your computer...I guess I fell for the sales pitch. I'm gonna think about this a bit more before I decide to keep it or uninstall it. Thanks for all your input.

Unfortunately, you did. If Microsoft doesn't endorse them then why would the makers of reg cleaners do? For money and that's it. Cleaning your registry once-a-week is a no-no, IMO. In post #4, n0_risk! makes a perfect point, if your going to clean the registry, do it by hand but first you must know a whole lot of info about the registry starting with registry hives and what they mean. For example:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

HKEY_CURRENT_USER

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

HKEY_USERS

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

I learned on my own over a period of many years and read some very useful tips on what areas to delete and not delete.Google is your friend here. Let me tell you, it's not easy stuff to learn and I don't think even the most proficient person knows enough about the registry, as a whole but to know a moderate amount is enough, I think.

Generally, people who use registry cleaners do so because their system seems to run slow or buggy because you are sold by the makers of registry cleaners that your registry keeps getting cluttered and, or, larger in size and that's what slows down your computer... NOT TRUE at all. There are system optimizers like jv16 powertools, CCleaner, MS's Disk Clean Up and Disk Defragmenter, an Anti Malware program, Anti Virus program and an anti Spyware program (pick your favorite), to name a few, that will definitely improve OS performance. That has been my experience.

Sticking with this theme, software uninstallers also delete registry keys, which can also cause headaches, so be careful with that. Always choose the safe method of deleting registry entries after deleting software on your machine. I always read each key it wants to delete before I allow it. So a heads up on uninstallers people.

Sorry for the edit but I found this Microsoft Community post to be very informative on registry cleaners. You might want to bookmark it:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-security/who-are-speedy-pc-pro-and-are-they-safe-to-use/62629332-a670-4166-b418-e2a5a876daa1

Edited August 28, 2013 by Journey

[sirri]

what possible performance gain/benefit can you get from cleaning un-needed registry entry ?? Nothing

Edited August 29, 2013 by sirri

[TuFaS]

what possible performance gain/benefit can you get from cleaning un-needed registry entry ??

the most important is a faster boot.

[unknownasphyxiated]

the most important is a faster boot.

i don't think i ever experienced that

junk cleaner, yes

[dac]

CCleaner is a safe and very useful tool.

[avmad]

CCleaner is a safe and very useful tool.

This is just untrue. No reg cleaner is safe.

The answer to the questions are

No

No

Doesn't mean I don't use them though :lol: I like to clean up old software entries so I can instal the same program from scratch. No previous entries getting mixed up with the new install.

If I didn't use medicated programs I would avoid reg cleaning altogether.

[STEEL]

Crapcleaner With Ext. for me & P/Eraser to round of the little Bits :lol:

[DKT27]

For overall registry cleaning, CCleaner is fine. For deep registry cleaning, jv16 is good enough.

However, if you ask me, the registry defragging / compacting probably gives more performance than registry cleaning.

[Airstream_Bill]

I like everyone else mess around with Registry Cleaners. I do not know why but I do. After awhile I use Acronis and put my machine back to the way it was before ever using a Registry Cleaner. It always seems to run better after the full backup of my system is restored. I then wait for something else to come along and repeat the above. Ha ha ha. I believe that one is better off NOT using a Registry Cleaner. Just my Opinion.

[Zigen]

Hmmm ok it seems everyone here has some different opinions about registry cleaners. I see quite a few posts about ccleaner being ok. Some others also recommend other cleaners but some will not use any at all.

Should i edit the first post to list "acceptable" registry cleaners? It seems some are more safe and better than others.

Anyone who has a bad experience with any registry cleaner can you please list the product? Thanks

[sirri]

what possible performance gain/benefit can you get from cleaning un-needed registry entry ??

the most important is a faster boot.

Mine,fast boot but without running registry cleaner :P . Show me what registry entries related and need to be cleaned to boost your boot time ??

[TuFaS]

what possible performance gain/benefit can you get from cleaning un-needed registry entry ??

the most important is a faster boot.

Mine,fast boot but without running registry cleaner :P . Show me what registry entries related and need to be cleaned to boost your boot time ??

well, I use CCleaner & Wise Registry Cleaner, don't do it by hand, it's a BIG waste of time.

Edited August 29, 2013 by TuFaS

[135246]

PC Tools Registry Mechanic is very useful and safe, in my opinion.

[vatog]

JetClean is the best

[Alwiz]

Reg cleaners most of the time do worse than they help.

I used them some time ago, and many times certain OS behaviors/functions changed in a negative way.

If you use a reg cleaner, then I would certainly advise to go trough the list which is dispayed as scan result and check each result.

Because reg scan results often contain nonsens.

And there is no speed advantage only good is to delete values of unused or old Programs.

Edited August 31, 2013 by Alwiz