Any opinions on registry cleaners?

[bjt133]

Hello, I'm a relative newbie to these fora. If this has been discussed at length, any links provided here will be helpful and accepted with thanks.

I've never used a registry cleaner on my laptop primarily because I keep reading that if you don't know what you're doing, it's not a good idea.

Any thoughts on this? If you do use one, is there one you'd recommend that's good for those of us who are not pros? And if you don't, why do you not use one?

Thanks. Happy first full day of summer to all.

[Guest victimized]

I use Glarysoft's Registry Repair (It is free) to delete empty reg data or reg data left from deleted items. I am careful with it, so I like it.

[mountaintree16]

@ bjt:

Honestly I wouldn't recommend it. They don't really speed up your computer at all, at least not noticeably It's a common myth that Registry cleaners "improve performance and make your computer faster..." blah blah. Of course I found that out AFTER I had already used one... And if you don't know what you are doing, you can mess up your computer. I used one and had some Windows Installer issues. It was really annoying, but I ended up fixing it with the Windows Installer Cleanup tool & I don't think I caused any permanent damage. I will never do anything with my registry again unless under the guidance of someone who knows what they are doing, because I certainly don't.

[bjt133]

Thanks for your replies. As we can see, there's a divided opinion on the need and usefulness of the little buggers.

[mountaintree16]

@ BJT:

You are very welcome!

My online friend "G" advised me not to use them (he is an IT person) and Exile also advised me not to use registry cleaners.

Basically my understanding from what they told me is that they are pretty much unnecessary, and unless you totally and completely know what you are doing, they could do more harm than good. Also there is little to no noticeable impact on performance and speed of the computer - you will hardly notice a difference in speed, if you notice one at all. Thankfully in my case I don't think I damaged anything, but I did have that annoying windows installer thing that I mentioned.

[AdvancedSetup]

Here is a larger discussion on another site about them.

http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?p=158436&am...1e3883e#p158436

[d4rkn1ght]

Here are my two cents...

Registry cleaners... don't speed up your PC. They speed up your PC as much as removing tracking cookies does. A fat junk-filled registry in an XP or Vista system will not slow down a system any more... however, removing junk registry entries may help to fix some errors (I repeat, some) and gives you a good feeling at the end of the day. (At least it gives me a good feeling! )

Best Regards

[bjt133]

Thanks for all the additional input, everyone. I've not used reg cleaners before and really didn't know for sure if it was something I should have been doing that I did not. Wouldn't be the first time...

However, if there's really no discernible difference in performance and the inherent risks seem high for the results, probably it's a good idea to pass.

*sigh of relief, crossing off one more item on TO DO list*

[mountaintree16]

@ bjt

I agree, it would probably be a good idea for you to just pass on this one. I wish I had! Ah well, lesson learned