Registry Cleaners

[silkmx10]

I've used a few registry cleaners before (RegCure, Registry Mechanic) and ended up sticking with one called RegTool because it has more features. Recently I ran a scan with MalwareBytes and it detected RegTool as a rogue so I had it removed, and just installed Registry Mechanic to use for now.

I was just wondering, what's the difference between Registry Mechanic and RegTool that causes one to be a rogue?

I also did a search in the database and didn't see RegCure listed as a rogue either?

Does RegTool install spyware or something?

Thanks.

[srtools1980y]

Hi

When I Googled www.regtool.com/ WOT shows a red circle .

I will probe further & let you know.

Regards.

[Firefox]

when I try to go to www.regtool.com it gets blocked by Malwarebytes IP protection @ 174.133.196.162 so there is something fishy on that site or where its hosted.

Strange too, after going to that site, I ran a scan with malwarebytes and it found 21 Trojan.Agent on my computer.

[mountaintree16]

@ silkmx10

Welcome to the forums!

It is generally recommended that you do not use registry editors or registry cleaners unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Additionally, they do very, very little, if anything, to speed up computer performance, boot-up time, etc...

I wouldn't use RegCure, either. I made a post about it a while back, and while I was told it was not rogue, it is not a recommended software to use, either.

As for RegTool, if MBAM reported it as rogue, it more likely than not is rogue. If you aren't sure, you are welcome to report it to the False Positives forum, to have a staff member check on it to see if it is indeed rogue or not.

I've used RegistryMechanic before, and it is legitimate, but again, unless you know what you are doing (and I did not know what I was doing, and I wish I had known sooner that I shouldn't mess with the registry!) it is not recommended that you use any registry cleaners or editors.

Also, just as a side note, when replying on the forum, please erase what the person before you wrote, or just hit "add reply" at the bottom of the page, as this makes the forum easier to read.

[mountaintree16]

@ Firefox

Are you at the most updated version of MBAM? I was reading a FP thread in the FP forum, and there was an issue that many users were having, about a Trojan.Agent issue. Update, remove anything that was just found from quarantine (for now), rescan, and see if they still come up.

Also, take a look at the thread I was talking about in the FP forum: http://www.malwarebytes.org/forums/index.p...=26416&st=0

[silkmx10]

Thanks, it just seemed to be like they all did the same main thing (cleane the registry), but RegTool had more features so I used that one. So I was just wondering why 1 is a rogue and the other 2 weren't. Is the company behind RegTool known for spyware or something?

[mountaintree16]

@ silkmx10

You're welcome

Registry cleaners are also mostly unnecessary, there's really no need to use them. I found out this the hard way, after I used RegistryMechanic or something from PC Tools with a registry cleaner (it claimed to speed up performance... yeahhh right) and then a bunch of "windows installer" boxes came up, staying I needed to reinstall several programs, so I ended up uninstalling them (since I didn't have the installation CD's), and it kept happening with more programs every restart. I was so fed up! I ended up downloading the Windows Installer Clean-Up tool, and that seemed to have taken care of the problem.

As for what a rogue is, a rogue is generally described as a program that does one or more of the following (if anyone has anything else to add or correct me on, please feel free to jump in here)!:

* Produce false positives/lots of entries that don't need attention in order to get the user to think that there is something wrong with their system

* Prompt the user to purchase the software before removing any detections (note: not all programs that do this are rogues, but when a program asks you to purchase it before removing anything, generally that's a red flag. For example, Spyware Doctor from PC Tools is legitimate, but it asks you to buy it before removing any detections, which isn't a good thing, why put sensitive personal information into a potentially compromised system)?

* Program pops up on the screen after surfing the web, or randomly, without any user interaction (user didn't install the program, didn't know it was on his or her computer... etc)

* Lots of annoying pop ups telling user to purchase program or remain infected, telling user that their system isn't clean, etc...

As for the company behind RegTool, I am not sure. Maybe one of our staff members or experts will know the answer to that

[srtools1980y]

@ Firefox:

Is it 21 Trojan.Agent or 21.exe Trojan.Agent, because in SAS page there is a ref. about 21.exe Trojan.Agent

As i am not having sandboxie in this system, I am not able to execute & test it thoroughly.

[Firefox]

@ mountaintree16

Thanks for the info, I checked on that post and restored the items and re-ran the scan, all clean now.

@ srtools1980y

Thanks, looks like they got it sorted out.

[mountaintree16]

@ Firefox

You're welcome!

Glad you're all clean now