Solved Registry Cleaners in 2014

[mt12345]

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?

 

[Fejinwales]

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.

 

[mt12345]

I use the TuneUp Registry cleaner once a month just before I am due to create an Acronis image of the system.

I would rather create image just BEFORE messing with registry.

When I got my current computer I did this and it reduced the registry size by 28%.

so how much % of system partition did you save?

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.

Placebo.
The bestseller.

 

[Fejinwales]

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.

 

[andrew129260]

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

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/165701-system-maintenance-troubleshooter-turn-off.html

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

Click rb: 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

 

[mt12345]

@Fejinwales

glad your system is working fine.

many friends of mine are using windows with glary, tuneup etc and complain about blue screens, they reinstall system every 3 months.

Im regular linux user, but recently bought laptop with windows7. I don't work at the moment so I have time and opportunity to learn and (try to) understand how it works. I hope I will be able to help my friends one day, thanks to this fantastic forum and people sharing their experience.

@andrew129260

many thanks, bookmarked.
I was browsing tutorials but too many pages to go through.
windows pages look interesting too.

 

[andrew129260]

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]

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!

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).

 

[andrew129260]

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

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!

 

[mt12345]

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!

Im not so sure.
Im gonna run W7 on VM with - let's say - 320MB RAM and turn off page file (swap).
Then let's see what happens when memory usage hits 100%

 

[andrew129260]

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!

Im not so sure.
Im gonna run W7 on VM with - let's say - 320MB RAM and turn off page file (swap).
Then let's see what happens when memory usage hits 100%

Won't work:

Windows 7 system requirements - Windows Help

 

[mt12345]

Won't work:

Windows 7 system requirements - Windows Help

Im gonna install with 1GB then run with 320.

I think install DVD 32bit requires 512MB RAM.
Few years ago I installed W7 on 384MB Pentium III laptop but I dont remember whether install DVD was customized (memory check removed) or I installed it in VM connecting hard drive to linux machine.

 

[gregrocker]

Registry cleaner scamware and Optimizer suites are death to Win7 which is already a feather-light OS which neither requires such nonsense or will tolerate it. These may have been needed in XP and Vista to lean down the OS enough it wouldn't bog or hang, but Win7 changed all that with "fast triggers" that start Services which can then mostly be set to Manual.

Win7 only needs a perfect install on adequate, tested hardware. The tutorial http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164 compiles everything that works best for Win7 based on tens of thousands of installs we've helped with here since beta. I'd also want at least 4gb RAM (installing 32 bit for 4gb or less) and at least a Dual Core processor for multi-tasking.

 

[mt12345]

'fast triggers'?

 

[Imrankhan]

Whats SF users' opinion about System Mechanic. Currently using Auslogics which doesnt seem to improve my PC performance anyway.

 

[Layback Bear]

I wouldn't have it on my computers.

 

[Fejinwales]

Registry cleaner scamware and Optimizer suites are death to Win7 which is already a feather-light OS which neither requires such nonsense or will tolerate it.

You may be right of course, I assume you've had problems with these things in the past to be so positive about their uselessness, but like I said, in my experience with my computer, and three others who have a shared license, we have never had an issue. Neither have all the friends who have installed TuneUp at my prompting. It cleans up, optimizes and customizes as well without having to do anything manually or editing in the registry, services or any other such thing. All these Windows 7 systems in both 64bit and 32bit have tolerated it perfectly and without any issues, ever, and have required it as far as the people using them are concerned. I've never had a crash, bsod or any other issue apart from the ones Windows came with and which this site sorted out for me - (crappy start menu, no outlook express etc) and I am pretty sure none of the others have as well as it is me they would call if they did.

And this is the point of the debate. It comes down to personal choice, I would advise people who are looking for a way to optimize, clean and whatever their installation do use a well-known application, but at the same time caution them to make a back up before they make changes. In the end it is up to the individual to choose, others can only advise on their experiences to help them.

Of course there will be those who detest this sort of stuff, and those who swear by it, all opinions are valid but those with positive or negative opinions should at least give some history as to why they feel what they do. I can only speak for TuneUp and CCleaner (another one that is on every computer I know of) as I use no other software of the type.

As for Memory managers I completely agree that there's no need for them in Windows 7 at all.

 

[mt12345]

And this is the point of the debate. It comes down to personal choice...

But the question is : 'are registry cleaners needed?'

I see it this way:

Windows7 is complete operating system, it has everything you need, from notepad to calculator to internet browser to media player to firewall.
But the quality of these apps/tools are questionable so we replace iexplorer with firefox, wmp with vlc, firewall with commodo, disk clean up with ccleaner etc (that's where 'personal choice' comes up).

But there is NO registry cleaner to replace.

There was registry cleaner included in windows 98, removed in next versions.

...Is it a viable maintenance procedure these days, or does win 7 & 8 render them obsolete?

Looks like obsolete since Windows NT

 

[gregrocker]

Whats SF users' opinion about System Mechanic. Currently using Auslogics which doesnt seem to improve my PC performance anyway.

Again, not needed. I once used AUslogics defraggers and optimizer suite but the defraggers are superceded by better boot-time choices like Puran and the optimizer is not needed in a feather-light OS that always runs perfectly with a perfect install and adequate hardware.

I think some consumers may mistake issues resolved by http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/220165-troubleshooting-steps-windows-7-a.html with performance sluggishness that can be fixed with cleaners and optimizers. Better to work through the troubleshooting steps to find the problem and resolve it, plus learn some useful limited optimizing that works well with Win7.

Windows7 is complete operating system, it has everything you need, from notepad to calculator to internet browser to media player to firewall.
But the quality of these apps/tools are questionable so we replace iexplorer with firefox, wmp with vlc, firewall with commodo, disk clean up with ccleaner etc (that's where 'personal choice' comes up).

But there is NO registry cleaner to replace.

All of those Win7 components are perfectly fine and just as good as the alternatives you mention which comes down to user choice and needs.

The Win7 Firewall is superior to any of the problematic alternatives which show up here regularly causing problems, while we never see any problems at all with 7's Firewall.

There is no need for a Registry Cleaner, especially for an OS as resilient as Win7. But since CCleaner is so good, a genius tool and perhaps the most popular tool in tech history, most of us here use it from what I've seen. There is no risk with its registry cleaner, not a single documented case of it causing problems, yet still some don't want to risk that mainly because there is no real need for a Registry Cleaner with Win7.

These are XP era discussions about XP-era tools not needed with Win7. It reminds me of the struggle for five years here to stop users from trying to force a whole list of drivers on the first driver-complete OS. Not a day passes where this isn't disputed. Meanwhile there is no user participation with drivers in Windows 8 based on improvements developed in Win7. What are these users going to do there, use a crowbar?

 

[mt12345]

Windows7 is complete operating system, it has everything you need, from notepad to calculator to internet browser to media player to firewall.
But the quality of these apps/tools are questionable so we replace iexplorer with firefox, wmp with vlc, firewall with commodo, disk clean up with ccleaner etc (that's where 'personal choice' comes up).

But there is NO registry cleaner to replace.

All of those Win7 components are perfectly fine and just as good as the alternatives you mention which comes down to user choice and needs.

The Win7 Firewall is superior to any of the problematic alternatives which show up here regularly causing problems, while we never see any problems at all with 7's Firewall.

There is no need for a Registry Cleaner, especially for an OS as resilient as Win7. But since CCleaner is so good, a genius tool and perhaps the most popular tool in tech history, most of us here use it from what I've seen. There is no risk with its registry cleaner, not a single documented case of it causing problems, yet still some don't want to risk that mainly because there is no real need for a Registry Cleaner with Win7.

Well it's not about 'quality' but rather 'features' (lack of).
Personally I DO use windows firewall and disk cleanup. By writing 'we replace' I had all/average windows 7 user(s) in mind.

If registry cleaner was needed it would be implemented by microsoft.