Ace Utilites

[eldergeek]

I have been using Ace Utilitiesto clean my clients systems for a number of years now and have had good success. It has not caused any problems or damage and seems to work quite well. I have used CCleaner at times too. I run AU on a regular basis and after I have cleaned a system of malware.

What are yor opinions on this software? Are there others that work better? Please explain in detail.

Thanks!

Edited May 20, 2011 by AdvancedSetup
removed external links

[goldhound]

Do you feel comfortable allowing a program to modify or "clean up" the registry? Most convention wisdom indicates it is either usually not necessary or of little value.

[eldergeek]

Ace does list what will be removed for review/approval and does allow for recovery. Which I only have had to do once in 8yrs on an AutoCAD box. So to answer your qustion I would say, yes I am, with my approval before final changes are made. I have read the arguements for not cleaning the registry, but it seems to be a Chevy/Ford debate.

It also does more then just registry cleaning which does have value. If I may ask, do you manually clean the system of temp, empty & junk files and all the other items Ace or other cleaners do? If not, what do you use?

[goldhound]

I tend to take an "if it ain't broke don't fix it" attitude about the registry. I have two laptops, both nearly three years old, neither has ever had a "registry cleaning", lots of miles and both are as fast to boot and run as new with no problems. I do use Ccleaner for temp files and cookies and use Auslogics as my defrag program.

I would be mostly concerned about less skilled users messing with the registry, but to each their own.

[AdvancedSetup]

I have read the arguements for not cleaning the registry, but it seems to be a Chevy/Ford debate.

I disagree. Removal of some registry values can alter or prevent special features of applications from working.

I've personally seen where software on an older Compaq computer would not install the modem driver because someone had used a registry cleaner which had removed what it thought was an unused - unneeded value. That took a LONG time to find out what really happened and when I put the value in manually the driver installed just fine and worked. Now someone with less experience would never have found that issue and simply probably resort to a different modem or rebuilding the OS.

I have also seen where "features" of an application would not show or work because a registry cleaner removed values that it thought were not needed. A full reinstall of the application in those cases did fix it so it was easy to fix but had the cleaner not been used then a repair install for the application would not have been needed.

There are MILLIONS of keys and values and there is NO person or group in the World that knows every single one and if it is or should not be there. Someone with a lot of experience can probably determine on many keys and values if they're good or bad but an automated method certainly cannot.

A cleaner should be used because you KNOW there is some conflict or issue in the registry but you can't put your finger on it. A cleaner might point you to it where you can review it further to see if it might be the cause.

Another item to think about is that most (not all) of these registry cleaners are often programmed by a single programmer that is not an expert with the registry and windows computing support either. Do you want to trust YOUR computer to someone next door trying to make a dime on something that is debatable at best that it's even needed?

A few recommended articles to read on registry cleaners:

1. An often posted and quoted article, Ed Bott's Why I don't use registry cleaners
   
2. Older article quoting two MVPS's, but relevant still is Do I need a Registry Cleaner?
   
3. AUMHA Discussion: Should I Use a Registry Cleaner?

[mountaintree16]

Yep, I agree with Goldhound and AdvancedSetup.

Not needed.

I had a really long frustrating afternoon one day after I used a registry cleaner... thankfully I did not break anything vital or really important... but it was a pain in the butt nonetheless...

And thank you Ron for the excellent information & resources

[eldergeek]

Interesting. I guess that means either I have been lucky all these years and hundreds of systems using Ace, and/or I have enough experience to know what not to remove.

I see everyones point. I will review the links provided for further info.

Thanks everyone!

[eldergeek]

I think maybe Ed Bott hit it on the head with this statement as to why I started using them back in the day, (pre '95).

"The size and integrity of the registry were indeed an issue in the Windows 9X days, when system resources were limited, memory was relatively scarce, and a badly written app could hose the whole OS. In fact, Microsoft published its own Registry Cleaner utility made specifically for Windows 98 and Windows Me, and there was a registry backup feature built into the OS."

Now I have another question. Reading the above links it was suggested to run a registry backup at startup. Which Registry backup app do you guys suggest? They didn't seem to like the backup or export in Regedit.

[1PW]

I think maybe Ed Bott hit it on the head with this statement as to why I started using them back in the day, (pre '95).

"The size and integrity of the registry were indeed an issue in the Windows 9X days, when system resources were limited, memory was relatively scarce, and a badly written app could hose the whole OS. In fact, Microsoft published its own Registry Cleaner utility made specifically for Windows 98 and Windows Me, and there was a registry backup feature built into the OS."

Now I have another question. Reading the above links it was suggested to run a registry backup at startup. Which Registry backup app do you guys suggest? They didn't seem to like the backup or export in Regedit.

Hello eldergeek:

Perhaps the oldest known remaining registry backup/restore utility is Lars Hederer's ERUNT.

Provisionally, it is even compatible with Vista and Windows 7 64-bit.

HTH

[eldergeek]

I looked back into my old download library and found I had it in there. The program icon rang a bell when I seen it. Sucked down the latest and greatest and am playing with it now.

[AdvancedSetup]

General canned message used on the board. Please note though that over time using an automated backup which it will place in the startup group if allowed, will consume a lot of disk space.

Backup the Registry:

Modifying the Registry can create unforeseen problems, so it always wise to create a backup before doing so.

• Please download ERUNT from here
  
• ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT) is a free program that allows you to keep a complete backup of your registry and restore it when needed.
  
• Double click on erunt-setup.exe to Install ERUNT by following the prompts.
  
• Use the default install settings but say NO to the portion that asks you to add ERUNT to the Start-Up folder. You can enable this option later if you wish.
  
• Start ERUNT either by double clicking on the desktop icon or choosing to start the program at the end of the setup process.
  
• Choose a location for the backup.
  
  • Note: the default location is C:\Windows\ERDNT which is acceptable.
    

  [*]Make sure that at least the first two check boxes are selected.

  [*]Click on OK

  [*]Then click on YES to create the folder.

Note: if it is necessary to restore the registry, open the backup folder and start ERDNT.exe