Need Registry Cleaner/Defragger

[juanantoniod]

Hello everyone,

I know this has been discussed here before, but I do not think there was ever a solid resolution as to what was the BEST Registry Cleaner/Defragger for Win7. I tried using RegistryPatrol, as is suggested by the guy who writes the long paper on optimizing your system. However it did not seem to write to my screen properly, so I did not think it would be good enough to be a Windows 7 registry cleaner. (I mean, do you really want a program that cannot even do a simple screen write fooling around with your computer's "brain"?)

Then I read a review here recommending Windows 7 Manager. Sure enough, it does have every feature imaginable. Although it did freeze up on the duplicate file deletion portion of the software. Also, the registry cleaner/fixer had registry entries which it said were invalid, but were for files I recognized, like the .PST file that Outlook uses. Not good. Furthermore, it gave no explanation of the reason it had chosen these entries for deletion. I opted out of that and am now searching for a good registry fixer. I do not want one that will catch thousands of errors because I do not have that many.

What I DO want is one that, in addition to listing the entries it wants to eliminate, gives the reason why it is eliminating them. Does anything like this exist? Oh, I would also like one that tells me which programs are setting themselves up to run in the background for auto updating, so that I can disable them.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Juan :shock:

 

[FZ21Z]

Used by many people here - CCleaner

 

[juanantoniod]

Thanks, I will give that a try. I was actually leaning toward that one until I read a negative review here. But with your blessing, I will check it out.

Best wishes,

Juan

 

[FZ21Z]

No harm in trying it, plus it's a bonus that it's actually quite a good free program.

 

[richc46]

I know the answer to your defrag question, but I am not going to give it. I will give you something much better, our tutorial of free software. If you search through the list, you will see many more free procucts that you may like. I will give you a hint, look under D, for the best defragger. Use Ccleaner or the defragger, depending on your needs. The save the list for future use. Take care

http://www.sevenforums.com/software/92-free-great-programs-windows-7-a.html

 

[Frostmourne]

You don't need extra software to break Windows 7. Use CCleaner if you must and nothing else.

 

[Victek]

Hello everyone,

I know this has been discussed here before, but I do not think there was ever a solid resolution as to what was the BEST Registry Cleaner/Defragger for Win7.

Juan :shock:

.
Well, no doubt some will disagree but there is virtually no benefit in "cleaning" the registry. There are occasions when directly editing the registry to fix specific problems is necessary, but just removing unused keys involves a lot of risk with no benefit. On the other hand defragging the registry occasionally has at least the perceivable value of reducing it's size a little. Perhaps it even improves efficiency, though I don't know how that could be measured. What is it you really want to achieve? There are many other things that can be done to improve/maintain good performance.

 

[Frostmourne]

Hello everyone,

I know this has been discussed here before, but I do not think there was ever a solid resolution as to what was the BEST Registry Cleaner/Defragger for Win7.

Juan :shock:

.
Well, no doubt some will disagree but there is virtually no benefit in "cleaning" the registry. There are occasions when directly editing the registry to fix specific problems is necessary, but just removing unused keys involves a lot of risk with no benefit. On the other hand defragging the registry occasionally has at least the perceivable value of reducing it's size a little. Perhaps it even improves efficiency, though I don't know how that could be measured. What is it you really want to achieve? There are many other things that can be done to improve/maintain good performance.

I'd agree, although CCleaner cleaned out 300mb of Opera's internet cache, so it is useful. As for the registry, cleaners have no effect.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Several suggestions

I use several different programs, Advanced SystemCare3, CCleaner and Glary Utilities (each one complains about different things, so I use all of them).

I amost always run CCleaner when I shut down my browser (It only takes a few seconds to clean up the accumulated Internet junk). You can set the cleaner to run automatically, but I think that you have to manually clean the Registry.
It is supposed to be able to kill Flash cookies.
You Deleted Your Cookies? Think Again | Epicenter | Wired.com

I run Glary Utilities fairly regularly (after installs and before HDD images). It includes a Registry Defragmenter, as well as other useful tools.

I only run ASC3 occasionally. It always claims that it can improve my PCs performance, if I buy the retail version (a 200% improvement sounds like garbage to me). It seems to clean OK though. It has a driver backup tool (although I am not sure how you restore the backups).

Always remember to do Registry backups and/or set System Restore points, just in case.

 

[reni2040]

you can give a try to Auslogics Disk Defrag and Registry cleaner.

Download Disk Defrag : Download Auslogics Disk Defrag for free
Download Registry cleaner : Download Auslogics Registry Cleaner for free

 

[mpcrsc562]

and...
though i have no knowledge of any other registry cleaner/wiper other than ccleaner, with ccleaner you can save a backup of all of the cleaned/wiped registy keys so that if cleaning/wiping them causes any problems, simply restore the backup.

 

[juanantoniod]

Thank you to all who replied to help me. It sounds like CCleaner is a popular favorite. So, I will definitely check that out. What I was also talking about, however, was a program that not only cleaned out the Registry, but also the WIN.INI, other.INI files, and other such places. When Windows first came out, I could clean the SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI files manually. However, I now believe that they are too complicated to do that with. Does CCleaner work on these as well, or is there something else that does?

Registry Patol ended up making my system unstable. So, it became easier to just reinstall Windows 7, and the software I use. The hard part is customizing everything over. Is there any way to save settings such as Windows login customizations, desktop configuration, and Internet Explorer setup? It would be a great help if I knew how to do this!

Thanks again,

-Juan

 

[lehnerus2000]

Disc Imager

You could set-up everything the way you want, get all the latest Windows updates and then make a disc image.
Windows 7 has a built-in imager (I haven't tried it though).

I use Macrium Reflect (Free Edition) to make my disc images.
It takes about 2 minutes/GB to image a partition (on my PC).
It takes a similar amount of time to restore an image (much faster than re-installing).
It also allows you to create a rescue CD, so that you can re-image your System partition if required.
Remember to store your backup images on a different drive (preferably an external one), so that if your HDD dies, you can put your image on a new HDD.
Macrium converted my Windows 7 Ultimate x86 initial install (plus updates and drivers, no programs) to a 3.2 GB image which is small enough to put on a DVD (or USB stick).

Your Desktop theme is stored here:
C:\Users\[YOUR ACCOUNT NAME]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes

I copy this file to my backup files (on another partition) and then copy it back to the location above (if required).
Once it has been copied back, I open "Personalise" and choose it from the available themes.

I don't know about IE8 (I use Firefox). It should get saved with your System image though.

 

[gamepoint]

Ccleaner is sufficient for me..

 

[McSeven]

Registry Crawler

Driver Sweeper

 

[Frostmourne]

Registry programs do nothing - absolutely nothing. 7 doesn't search the registry in a way that would make cleaning or defragging it worthwhile. Paying for these apps is senseless.

 

[Uber Philf]

I hear a resounding CCleaner.

That is all.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Disc Imager pt2

I should have made it clear, that if you make a disc/partition image, you don't need to make a separate backup of your theme.

The programs I mentioned are all free, although they have "pay for" versions as well (except CCleaner).

 

[juanantoniod]

Thanks for the info on disc imaging. I love that idea, as I almost have my system to back the way I like it. Is there an imager which can create images to DVD, and span them over multiple DVDs if necessary?

Thank you for any advice!

Juan

 

[lehnerus2000]

Disc Imager pt3

Thanks for the info on disc imaging. I love that idea, as I almost have my system to back the way I like it. Is there an imager which can create images to DVD, and span them over multiple DVDs if necessary?

Thank you for any advice!

Juan

No Problems. Re-imaging sure beats reinstalling.

Sorry, I am not sure if Macrium Reflect Free Edition (or Windows 7 Backup) allow you to store your image split across multiple DVDs.

I have 2 HDD in my PC and an external HDD and I use them to store my backups (also I have some copies on my friend's PC, via our network connection). Currently my Windows XP & 7 images are small enough to burn onto a single DVD (single layer).

As a rough guide (using Macrium with compression set to Medium (recommended)):
The Macrium System image is about 50% of the size of the actual System partition on my PC.
Images of Music, Picture and Video partitions are about 80% of the size of the originals (ie they don't compress as much).

Here is a link to the Sevenforums tutorial about Windows 7 Backup:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html?filter[2]=Backup%20Restore

Here is a link to a page, with links to free programs (including CCleaner & Macrium Reflect):
http://www.sevenforums.com/software/92-free-great-programs-windows-7-a.html

Someone else might be able to supply the answer to your question.