Is there a point in file and registry cleaners, tweakers

[T0nyB]

So I have a problem. Every time my big brother visits me, he laughts at the fact that I use file and registry cleaners to keep my computers maintained and use tweaking programs to optimize them.

I use CCleaner, jv16 Power Tools and TuneUp Utilities. (Plus Advanced System Care in my PC)

So here's a question for the community: Is there a point in using them or are they just a waste of disk space and resourses? (Would appriciate a poll done too, stating if you use them or not)

EDIT: The potential speed gain is what, only about 10%?

[HX1]

Okay I support it.. there is a point... File and registry cleaners help keep your system free of files which can build up over time.. some are designed to improve the response times by creating caches that are local versus online.. while other do other things.. over time these files can become defunct and actually caused undesired response and/or operation...

Registry cleaner help clean out dead entries.. and holes in your registry.. when the registry is read it is linear so defragging it also helps.. Your system response time ( even boot time - the second one after ) and program response time can be improved as well as possibly even finding areas which are not as efficient as they should be .. even help in finding operational issues... The areas which are covered range from Font files to program files.. to ActiveX.. many areas which need to be tidied-up so to speak.. There can also be concerns with this area when it comes to an infection which may or may not be completely removed which can slow a system down.. even if the infection is no longer actively at work...

If you ever download files and move them.. your registry can be filled with entries that indicate the file is still there.. There are services which are supposed to track these changes .. but in the effort of optimizing your system you may want to close these services and rely on hard entries which are true and correct.. Some program actually rely on these hard entries as well... and in some cases when using file shredders and deleting files these entries may also remain.. But you have to be careful just the same as some of these entries must be kept to operate correctly.. This can leave a hole of course as well as uninstalls.. mods.. and other actions in the file system..

Defragging your registry will take and compact your registry to be more solid.. similar to reading a fragmented file.. when the registry comes across a whole or invalid entry, it will have response time to pick up where it left off before it was broken in reading.. or searching and verifying the file was there and then possibly logging the entry.. Also keeps the size of the registry down so you have faster access on that point as well..

I may not use the same exact tools to do this.. but I do believe in the process.. WinASO, Windows 7 Manager, Disk Cleanup... all good..

I would simply state that his laughter may come fro a lack of proper perspective or knowledge about how it works and what it effects.. ( though he could be laughing because of the problems that can come from say older programs when they were first introduced.. they were not so ' spot-on '... - NIGHTMARE..) some people actually think that there safety and privacy is an issue as well.. which used to be a point made.. a selling point.. To some extent this is true because of entries of file access.. and MRU file entries per program.. even entries for network usage which I have found in the past... but not to the point that you pull a freak-out registry clean every time you watch something.. LOL.. or go online.. but some people do like to keep it all clean and as true and correct as possible..

There is a point about doing it too often.. in some cases when you first start to learn about it .. it would be best to keep a scan regularly until you understand the rate of the issues.. and what is causing it.. you can change the way you use a system and also be aware of your regular use..when it may need it.. After that its simply a scan and quick look over it.. and move on...

[T0nyB]

Thanks for the detailed and fast reply, Heath, :). I really enjoyed reading it and it was educational, you should be a tech column writer, :P. As for my brother, well, I think you are right and he really does lack the knownleadge and perspective about these kind of programs and what they do.

In an other matter, what are the hard entries you were talking about?

[LeetPirate]

So I have a problem. Every time my big brother visits me, he laughts at the fact that I use file and registry cleaners to keep my computers maintained and use tweaking programs to optimize them.

I use CCleaner, jv16 Power Tools and TuneUp Utilities. (Plus Advanced System Care in my PC)

So here's a question for the community: Is there a point in using them or are they just a waste of disk space and resourses? (Would appriciate a poll done too, stating if you use them or not)

EDIT: The potential speed gain is what, only about 10%?

I support the use of these programs but you have to know that their effects are only for psychological performance gains and not for actual performance gains. I disagree with my friend heath on this one. :P What he said is true but those are theoretical truths, practical gains in performance from these things are not even measurable. Potential speed gains are any amount you want to believe you obtained, actual speed gains = 0% and this has yet to be scientifically disproved in a controlled experiment. What I'm saying is this, when you use these utilities it makes you feel better, it makes you believe your computer is well maintained and should work good, (as with cars and other devices), and there is nothing wrong with this. It's a behaviour characteristic of humans that we take care and maintain things we like, it can be analogous to the one who keeps his room clean as opposed to the one who lets his laundry pile on the floor, sometimes keeping things cleaned like that makes us as human beings feel more productive. You and I are like people who don't like to work at a dirty office station if you want to think about it that way.

I use them for the psychological effects as well, I feel nice after I click "clean and fix my computer" in jv16 power tools. :rolleyes:

In reality there are no measurable performance gains from tweaking or cleaning your registry, clearing out temp files, or disabling services from windows startup. I didn't want to burst anyone's bubble but since you asked... ^_^ anyway it should not really affect the use of these utilities because as I said they are characteristics of human behaviour and the people who use them are not going to change unless they experience some other real life behavioural change that triggers it. Look at me, I know they do nothing and yet I keep using them for years, lol. Human factor is very important, and how you feel is very important because it affects your work and your life.

I didn't mention defrag in the above because I believe defragging actually does something because of the design of the mechanical hard drive there must certainly be something gained from defragging, no use in defragging an SSD though because the file access time is flat across the board, no drive head moving or platters spinning. Any performance gains from registry defragging will most likely be experienced at next boot because I think windows caches core registry items somewhere that aren't affected until you reboot and the registry files get reloaded.

[T0nyB]

So I have a problem. Every time my big brother visits me, he laughts at the fact that I use file and registry cleaners to keep my computers maintained and use tweaking programs to optimize them.

I use CCleaner, jv16 Power Tools and TuneUp Utilities. (Plus Advanced System Care in my PC)

So here's a question for the community: Is there a point in using them or are they just a waste of disk space and resourses? (Would appriciate a poll done too, stating if you use them or not)

EDIT: The potential speed gain is what, only about 10%?

I support the use of these programs but you have to know that their effects are only for psychological performance gains and not for actual performance gains. I disagree with my friend heath on this one. :P What he said is true but those are theoretical truths, practical gains in performance from these things are not even measurable. Potential speed gains are any amount you want to believe you obtained, actual speed gains = 0% and this has yet to be scientifically disproved in a controlled experiment. What I'm saying is this, when you use these utilities it makes you feel better, it makes you believe your computer is well maintained and should work good, (as with cars and other devices), and there is nothing wrong with this. It's a behaviour characteristic of humans that we take care and maintain things we like, it can be analogous to the one who keeps his room clean as opposed to the one who lets his laundry pile on the floor, sometimes keeping things cleaned like that makes us as human beings feel more productive. You and I are like people who don't like to work at a dirty office station if you want to think about it that way.

I use them for the psychological effects as well, I feel nice after I click "clean and fix my computer" in jv16 power tools. :rolleyes:

In reality there are no measurable performance gains from tweaking or cleaning your registry, clearing out temp files, or disabling services from windows startup. I didn't want to burst anyone's bubble but since you asked... ^_^ anyway it should not really affect the use of these utilities because as I said they are characteristics of human behaviour and the people who use them are not going to change unless they experience some other real life behavioural change that triggers it. Look at me, I know they do nothing and yet I keep using them for years, lol. Human factor is very important, and how you feel is very important because it affects your work and your life.

I'd have to disagree with you at the startup programs disabling and file/registry cleaning part, I myself have tested these programs for months now and every time I use them, I see, that my computer is faster afterwards. I also use them when I've just deleted or unistalled something from my computer to perminately delete all trace leftovers of the them. As for tweaker, they DO speed up systems. Take TuneUp Utilities for example, I choose the options I like, and the suite does what ever tweak needed for me and saves me time, as a bonus, I get a faster computer to works with.

The same goes with registry and file cleaners...

[LeetPirate]

Startup programs yes, sorry for not disambiguating before, windows services are what I was referring to not startup programs. Your computer can boot up faster by disabling startup programs but disabling windows services don't do anything measurable. I don't see any increased speeds from those utilities though, my windows registry hive is about 2 times the size of when I newly installed windows and still it boots in the same time as it always did. Sometimes programs load faster after a good defrag but that's all I notice, I don't notice anything from the tweaking utilities.

[HX1]

Not for sure on your specs Leet.. and this is sweet confusion but.. I agree with the disagreement yet agree again on the side that they do something..( Like Yin and Yang ) In some systems.. given certain actions are taken.. and certain hardware numbers.. I would say that some of these things don't make themselves as prevalent as per normal.. And psychologically your right... in some ways for some this could/can be that for sure.. and I now exactly what you mean.. It is almost a point of confidence..

Startup Programs.. definitely can help.. After market installations which require services.. most After Windows 7 have small to no effect.. Other I have noticed quite the problem on startup.. NOW if you optimize these areas.. Your system can use less RAM.. and have more free.. for those who have it.. It also can prevent other events from being triggered and changes the configuration for the system.. so it runs in a different way.. Like the difference from Running Windows Media Player Sharing Service with a large library on Boot as a Service versus turning it off... BUT this is not just limited to these areas.. My system seems to run lighter and more responsive.. than say someone who hasn't done these things.. and has twice the hardware.. It may not be much in some places but it helps my system a little to be more than what would be if I hadn't which would eventually be in the trash.. as I wait on it..

Some of these things can be down to the individual systems themselves... is my point.. while one may see something better.. or a slight almost missed point improved another may not be able to see a thing changed.. but if you imagine how the code is being processed in the background.. true to form.. I think would be the point.. and yet these items could be small.. but crisper.. Like for instance the spinning Aero Cursor on boot.. less or more time? .. ( and yes right about the RegDefrag.. I always like the second Boot after .. :D )

Too tired to get technical into it... but it makes sense to me.. and in reality I can see the effect on both sides of the argument.... My system always slowed down after doing everything to it.. after the finalizing it was fast if not faster than a clean install.. with nothing.. I dunno.. Like housekeeping... instead of tripping over the clothes.. .. :P

The BIG thing.. I always remember is when I cleaned a friends Desktop once.. I had the admin account for maintenance.. and left them in LUA.. Long story but they had tried to install several things.. where having malfunctions right and left with programs crashing on them and system taking long to respond... I thought w/e.. and there really was quite a bit degradation.. So I scanned with WinASO.. Cleaned about 8,000 or so entries... the most I have ever seen in my life.. RegDefragged.. You definitely could tell the difference then..Like knew when I got done.. Time may have had something to do with it too.. LOL ( and ignorance of what was going on and such... ) In each month may have like 30 or so entries.. if i do upgrades and installs more.. but not big numbers.. and the better programs have been written in recent versions.. The less this tends to happen... Seemed to be a bigger issue in XP.. but do think time passed and amount of use and activity has something to do with it.. Each resources and each item has a different set of variables that can play a role..

tuning utilities such as in windows 7 manager have to be per system and per use.. so its an area to be careful of.. and even with proper sense in doing it you still have to do trial and error..

BUT anyway I truly think everyone has point here.. LOL

[henz]

So I have a problem. Every time my big brother visits me, he laughts at the fact that I use file and registry cleaners to keep my computers maintained and use tweaking programs to optimize them.

I use CCleaner, jv16 Power Tools and TuneUp Utilities. (Plus Advanced System Care in my PC)

i think he is laughing with you installed too much.

just like installed multiple av on one pc :rolleyes:(- sense)

[LeetPirate]

I think most of those performance related problems are compounded by hard drive bottle neck and physical limitations of mechanical hdd. If the registry for instance grows to a massive size it will take longer to cache the entries that windows is looking for because of the largeness of the file and the way it is stored physically on the platters. So the large registry is not the problem but just emphasizes the pre-existing limitations of the hdd. Looking at the big picture I can see that you are correct here, the overall effect should result in some performance gain. It also suggests that defragmenting hdd gives the largest performance gain over the rest of things.

I should mention that free ram is really wasted ram, unless the system has too little ram to begin with. I don't really want to explain this, I already did in an eset topic somewhere, I feel lazy. :P At the same time caching things you never plan to use is a waste but for everything else it is better to cache as many things as possible.

[henz]

I should mention that free ram is really wasted ram, unless the system has too little ram to begin with. I don't really want to explain this, I already did in an eset topic somewhere, I feel lazy. :P At the same time caching things you never plan to use is a waste but for everything else it is better to cache as many things as possible.

that i read on forum

somebody complain about xxx use too much memory, a reply says like

: when your system have enough memory, your os do some optimization with by put something more on memory, memory faster than hdd right ?

: that means your system will have more performance right ?

: when your program need memory, os release previous located, you have more ram to use.

: so you got the point ?

hehe

sory for my bad english.

[DKT27]

@henz: That's correct. Especially for Windows 7. The system uses all the memory left, for caching. Nothing more than 10-20MB would be left free. And than frees it when needed. Though I'm not quite sure about what it caches, like Leet said, it may cache something you never plan to use, but atleast it would cache something useful.

Yes, RAM's faster than HDD.

[OhMyGod]

So I have a problem. Every time my big brother visits me, he laughts at the fact that I use file and registry cleaners to keep my computers maintained and use tweaking programs to optimize them.

I use CCleaner, jv16 Power Tools and TuneUp Utilities. (Plus Advanced System Care in my PC)

So here's a question for the community: Is there a point in using them or are they just a waste of disk space and resourses? (Would appriciate a poll done too, stating if you use them or not)

EDIT: The potential speed gain is what, only about 10%?

If you want the facts from a professional Windows expert they will say:

Using tweaking tools does very little performance gain on your system, Windows OS usually runs best at default settings.

Some system might benefit a little from a few tweaks, but most tweaking tools actually make Windows OS run worse because they disable needed functions.

Using registry cleaners usually does more harm than good for your system because most tend to delete important valid entries actually causing errors.

Cleaning your registry has no proven facts that it increases Windows performance, however sometimes cleaning your registry can fix application or installation errors.

Cleaning your registry doesn't fix system related errors as many registry cleaners claim. System errors only can be fixed by using System Restore, Microsoft Fix It or your Windows disk.

Registry cleaners also can not fix hardware related errors as many claim they do, hardware related errors only can be fixed by replacing the defective hardware components or installing the correct drivers.

Defragging or compacting your registry however has been proven to increase Windows performance. Also defragging your hard drive also can make Windows run much better.

Cleaning junk and temp files from your system can also make it run better because your hard disk can be defraged much easier also saves disk space.

However cleaning temp files can make your browser run slower to launch pages because it has to load them from scratch instead of using the temp files in the cache.

Removing system startup entries can also make Windows boot up much faster, many OEM Windows are loaded with unnecessary startup entries. Even some default Microsoft entries are not necessary and can be removed safely.

Just make sure that you don't remove something that Windows needs. Disabling some of Windows default services also can make Windows run lighter, of coarse don't disable something that you or your system might need.

CCleaner is one of the most safe programs to clean up your system and delete registry entries. I've used CCleaner for many years and it has never deleted valid registry keys like other registry cleans have.

Of coarse it is not good to run it every day, I only run it about once a week.

Most tweaking programs that have Auto Optimizers usually make Windows performance worse. I only manually run selected tools from each.

Defrag disk, clean junk and temp files, defrag registry, manual tweaking, etc.

I hope this is helpful.

Good day.:)

[HX1]

For Windows and most MS products themselves I would say what is said is mostly true.. but in regard to the many programs out there and there sources.. I would say that possibly maybe not so true...AND that technically the statement above can only be made about those MS Products.. Inside the box itself as the terms goes.. usage methods so on and so forth.. I would say yes.. but other variables change that equation some..

[RadioActive]

To put it simply: yes, there is a point as long as you're using the right tool and most importantly know exactly what you're doing.

[Bizarre™]

Different computers means different specs. The default settings of an OS could only be applied to majority of computers, but it wouldn't always yield satisfactory performance.

You still have to undergo trial and error with every setting to achieve optimum calibration. Not all tweaks advertised on the internet can always be applied to everyone.