Windows 7: I used a Registry Cleaner

I'm running Win 7 64 bit. I researched and then purchased Ace Utilities, which Cnet gave 5 stars to. I used it, and also used it's Registry Cleaner. I don't notice that the cleaner did any harm.



What do you think of Ace Utilities' Registry Cleaner, or Registry Cleaners in general for Win 7?

I've never felt with Windows 7 that a registry cleaner is even necessary. After you ran your cleaner....did you notice any improvement?

I may notice a little increase in performance, however, I can't really tell. It may just seem that way.

I have had a bad experience with CCleaner. It conflicted with some devices and I had to remove it. I tend to stay away from registry cleaners now. I believe Win 7 has so many built in features, it will take care of everything.

I am a hard and heavy user of CCleaner. I have never had any problems caused by CCleaner, which incidentally is on the MS "approved" list.

To have problems is not unusual and many are the machinations of many users, but if you seriously believe that your problems came from CCleaner, then by all means contact them. They will be more that glad to hear from you.

I use CCleaner, not to "clean" the registry but to let me know what some programs have tried to implant into my registry. I've detected malware simply by running CCleaner and Auslogic's registry cleaner.

When I remove a program, then I expect the program's uninstall feature to clean up behind itself. Most don't with Microsoft being one of the very worst offenders.

lordpuffer,

You will get quite a few opinions in answer to your query.....

IMO - there is no reliable way for a third party program to know whether any particular key is invalid, redundant or neither.
Some registry cleaners may not know for sure whether a key is still being used by Windows or what detrimental effects removing it may have.
This has led to examples of registry cleaners causing loss of functionality and/or system instability.

Over the years I have used five different Operating Systems on five new laptops. Thus far I have never used a registry cleaner... & don't intend to start doing so.

This an interesting statement! I'm wondering why your evaluation of a product is based on whether or not it screws the system rather than if it provides a benefit...

I had system mechanic pro for 3 years & some of the pitfalls were, changed the default programs that file extensions use to open files to .txt format if sys mech thought it was a dangerous file type association & you agreed, Deleted perfectly good registry key used by Windowsimagebackup because it thought it was an empty key & causing a major Windowsimagebackup malfuntion (Had to google solution for that one)

However CCleaner comes highly recommended by many members and is safe if used properly (if you're unsure back up registry first and only delete files that you think are safe to be deleted)

What people experience after the use of registry cleaners are random. I do use registry cleaners but in a very controlled manner. I remove those things that I know are from the programs that I know are gone but those that are really weird, I tend to leave them alone.

You are really lucky if you don't get any problems, get performance gain and remove malware remnants after the use of registry cleaners. But those that have bad experiences with them will stay away from them. I say, reserve a backup, a restore point or a complete registry backup using Erunt.

Th authors of many registry cleaners would do anything in their power to make their software looks so good and superior to others in their websites so you'll be tempted to buy them and give them money. Those brands are not designed for inexperienced users. Its business, basically.

The makers or CCleaner are however, in the humble pack. At least they don't brag about these falsified software reviews and all of their products are free. CCleaner is also not an aggressive one, unlike others that can cause a lot of harm by removing too much. I love CCleaner.

Threads like this tend to create more and more debates about the efficiency of registry cleaners. That happened dozens and dozens of time on this forum. But opinions will remain split.

From:
Microsoft Live OneCare Safety Scanner > about the Vista/7 edition of the scanner > what is the registry/why should I clean it?

What's new - Windows Live OneCare safety scanner for Windows Vista and Windows 7#

As others have said, using a registry cleaner is a personal choice. Microsoft recommends it and provides its own FREE cleaner. As with everything else computer related, if you're going to clean/edit/modify/change/erase/delete/alter/etc anything on your machine, it's not all that hard to backup or image the PC before tinkering around.