Windows 7: I used a Registry Cleaner

Interesting is that the MS onecare center is now providing a registry cleaner with one of the options.

Now one needs ask themself: "Why would MS provide such if the world was going to come to an end by using a safe registry cleaner"?

You might want to run the "Full Service Scan".

Please see and investigate the following:
Windows Live OneCare safety scanner: Free online tool for PC health and safety

The key is that MS is providing it; they know how the Win 7 registry works. I have used it several times; it seems to be very safe. I can't see that it does much more than remove obsolete keys from uninstalled software and left over entries from updates.

Re recommending Registry Cleaners....

Generally the people who seek advice are the ones with limited knowledge.
We have a duty of care with the advice that we give.
Often a generic answer may be the best.
We should also stress the importance of back up .


BTW karlsnooks your link is not available where I am here.

Thanks for the info. I've heard the expression the "outback" but I didn't realize that MS also felt that way.

If you happen to run across an ms link that's valid for your great country, please let me know.

I use the MS Onecare registry cleaner too and I never had any problems. And it also makes you a restore point. But whenever, I do a scan, it always skips 4 items and I don't know why. These 4 items look strange and they get skipped everytime I try to clean them with the scanner. Does anybody know why???

This is the only blind registry cleaner I would use.

IF you know what you are doing, then CCleaners Reg Cleaner can come in handy at times, but you should not run it blind. Make your selections knowing what you are selecting and have it make back ups just in case.

Every Single Reg Cleaner on the market that advertises itself as a benefit to speed and clutter should be considered SCAMWare and avoided. Especially those that run a Blind Clean. (you can't see what it is cleaning or doing. Or give you so many lines to go through that it is virtually impossible to know what it is really doing and most people give up and run it on all lines.

No, ALL Reg Cleaners are bad in the wrong hands. And the wrong Hands are the hands of those who have no idea what they are even looking at.

If you don't know and you have to ask if it is going to damage your system? You are better off not using it.

I took a moment to look at Ace Utilities and I have to tell you straight.

You got took.

Everything they charge for and put in a pretty little package can be accomplished with a few well known, well established free tools.

CCleaner
ATF-Cleaner
MRU-Blaster
Defraggler

These 4 programs alone will do more for you in the long run and are far far far more safe than some
$30 dollar piece of Eye Candy Wrapper Ware.

Another $30 piece of garbage that is touted as "Recommended by Industry Experts"?
Registry Mechanic.

Who exactly are these experts, and what exactly are they experts of?

"I'm an expert in clicking on desktop icons that appear out of nowhere when I visit risqué sites" WOO HOO.

Last Edit... The only other point I wanted to make was that you have to realize that almost all of these sites that advertise these kinds of tools are actually getting paid for their reviews. Not all, but the largest majority of the big commercial sites like Cnet do get paid for their recommendations. Again, maybe not all, but I bet it's a large majority.

I have tried a strategy for a while now that seems to work. I don't mess with the registry unless it is absolutely needed and I am pretty certain I know what I am doing. Then whenever I uninstall software I don't want, I use the free version of revo uninstaller. It seems to do a really great job of uninstalling cleanly and it shows you all the leftover files and gives you the option of deleting all of them. Seems to work way better than the standard windows utility.

So far I don't use any registry cleaners. Time will tell though.

Why not leave all that's well alone. I stopped using these "Cleaners" back in Windows XP.

Thanks Tepid.....But I use Ace Utilities for more than just it's Registry Cleaner. It has other functionality. I wasn't aware of these other utilities, so I may have shelled out $30 for nothing.

Just for the record, I have never had a problem using CCleaner, and have used it since it's inception. As was posted above, and what's true for me, I have a backup of everything, so if things get real messed up from Ace Utilities' Registry Cleaner, I'll just re-format. By this time, I think I could do that in my sleep.

But seriously, I have experienced no problems so for using Ace Utilities. But I respect everyones opinions on the subject.