Registry Cleaners in 2014

I've never had a problem with a registry cleaner. I've been using one since the old days when I used to use the wonderful 'Clean Sweep' software . Now I use 'Your Uninstaller! whenever I try out and then remove software, or simply want to remove an app because it also deletes the associated registry entries that the software does not. I use CCleaner at least once a week. I use the TuneUp Registry cleaner once a month just before I am due to create an Acronis image of the system.

Whenever I install an OS, whether it be on my or anyone else's machine, and after I have installed all software required, done all settings and configurations, and in my case changed icons and associations I run the TuneUp registry Defrag. When I got my current computer I did this and it reduced the registry size by 28%.

Like I said, I have a four computer license for TuneUp, myself, my nephew and two friends run it regularly and none have ever had an issue. I like having these things and using them, it gives me peace of mind that I have my system optimized and unnecessary bulk removed. Having never had an issue in over 20 years with these things may have coloured my view and given me a false sense of security - but I don't think so.

There is an argument for making the image first but as I trust the registry cleaners I use there's no real point, for me at least as I have never had an issue. Of course it doesn't mean I never have an issue but that's what the images are for.

I don;t know hopw much of the partition I saved, but that was not the reason I did it. I did it in the expectation of Windows starting up faster and accessing things in is a lot faster. Whether it works in this way or not is another matter. My computer now starts from button-push to usable in about 11 seconds, I know it wasn't all to do with the cleaning but all the same, it was not that quick when I first installed everything.

Not sure about the placebo - it definitely cleans the registry, it definitely causes no problems.

mt12345 said:

In windows 7, it has maintenance checks and performance checks that run every 2 weeks and attempts to improve performance.

where can I read more about that?

Optimize Windows for better performance - Windows Help

System Maintenance Troubleshooter - Turn On or Off

By default, windows 7 & 8 always does maintenance automatically every week around 1am.
To manually perform the troubleshooting, do the following:

Click then type maintenance and under the results choose "Perform recommend maintenance tasks automatically."

Running the troubleshooter will initiate the maintenance once you click next. If you click advanced on the start of the troubleshooter, you can uncheck apply repairs automatically. This way running the troubleshooter you can decide if you want to "fix it".

These are the things it checks for:

-Broken shortcuts
-Troubleshooting history taking up to much disk space
-System time incorrectly set
-Unused desktop icons
-disk volume errors
-Error reports are taking up to much disk space

No problem mt12345. We have some awesome tutorials here. Windows 7 is a great OS, when the best steps are followed. Unfortunately most people experience windows that comes preinstalled bloated with all kinds of crap, and then people get the idea thinking windows sucks.

Its kind of like how it is with android. Android is a great OS when you get the nexus devices, as it is just android and google and the manufacture hardware. No bloat.

Windows clean install tuts here are what should be done on every pc, not just the ones that are built yourself. And people need to stop adding cleaning utilities and disk defrag programs and all the crap. Windows 7 can take good care of itself.

ccleaner is the only one I will use, but that is because the maker of the software has a deep understanding of windows. I don't really use the registry cleaner though, unless a messed up install takes place. But even then I would rather go through manually and get rid of it.

What is your fav linux os?

My fav is zorin and elementary at the moment. (ubuntu is good for my family pc right now, my mom is running it with no issues.)

mt12345 said:

My old android phone is 'rooted' so I installed pure android OS then removed all google stuff, weather, news, backup, updates, live wallpapers etc.
(no google account no market no googlemaps! - that's bloat for me! )
Amazing how this tiny single-core 600MHz device is snappy now.

Android is good example of placebo:
Users install 'ram booster' apps on android phones not realizing that freeing memory is not needed and it actually slows down launching/switching apps. Memory is meant tu be full!

So true. Although I disagree on the google apps

mt12345 said:

By the way, how is W7 managing memory resources? I remember using FreeRam on 256MB XP machine.

Linux? 10 years of debian, sometimes ubuntu (live-USB) but few months ago I 'discovered' OpenSUSE and Im not going back. You may want to try LXLE - that's the best ubuntu variant in my opinion or MX-14 (debian based).

Windows 7 manages ram very well. The resource monitor does a great job in detail showing how it manages it. XP days of windows tweaking and all of that crap are behind us imho.
I will look into it, thank you!