Any thoughts on Registry cleaners?

I personally have a different take on this ....

If you have no definite issues then leave it alone!

If you have issues with registry entries and you are confident that you can remove the offending items manually then by all means use something like Ccleaner to save time in locating the rouge entries and delete them
Always use the backup option in Ccleaner to protect yourself, in case you do not know as much as you think you do.

If you are nor sure of whether to remove an entry, Don't remove it

This is my take from my own, (sometimes bitter), experience

Well said Nigel. This registry matters is all about either you know about it,or you don't. If you know your problems,the root of the cause,you find the reason then you can remove it . However if you have a doubt of what are you doing, you better leave it alone.Even if you use CCleaner,if you have a doubt that CCleaner might harm your registry stop it.Unless you know what you are doing, then you can do it. If you don't? never try
Better stay safe than sorry

To sum up an entire thread:

   Note

IF YOU ARE UNSURE OF WHAT IT DOES - DON'T USE IT. EVEN IF YOU ARE CERTAIN OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING - BACK UP THE BLOODY REGISTRY FIRST IN CASE YOU DISCOVER YOU DIDN'T KNOW WHAT YOU WERE DOING

smarteyeball said:

To sum up an entire thread:

   Note

IF YOU ARE UNSURE OF WHAT IT DOES - DON'T USE IT. EVEN IF YOU ARE CERTAIN OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING - BACK UP THE BLOODY REGISTRY FIRST IN CASE YOU DISCOVER YOU DIDN'T KNOW WHAT YOU WERE DOING

+1

drugo said:

i uninstalled photoshop cs4 and it left lots of key linked to photoshop cs4
association too

what should i do?

To uninstall complex programs such as Photoshop, I use Revo uninstaller. It gets the bits and pieces. YOu can run Ccleaner's registry cleaner and only delete the keys you know for certain are Photoshop related. Before you delete the first key, let Ccleaner back up the registry.

Regarding the file associations, check these tutorials:

Default Programs - Associate a File Type or Protocol

Default File Type Associations - Restore

I support the use of Ccleaner for the registry if -
1. you back up the registry first;
2. you know exactly what your are doing and delete only keys your 100% sure you don't need such as keys left over from software you have uninstalled.

I just finished a BSOD analysis that blamed the registry. The OP had used a registry cleaner and had no registry backup. The solution was a reinstall of Win 7.

Tews said:

As a rule, I stay away from registry cleaners ... IMO they end up doing more harm than good... If my system performance starts to suffer, I would rather do a restore from a backup image then start messing around with the registry ....

CarlTR6 said:

Windows is a closed source system. Developers of registry cleaners do not have the core code of Win 7 and are not working on definitive information, but rather they are going on past knowledge and experience. Automatic cleaners will usually have to do some guesswork.
Modifying registry keys incorrectly can cause Windows instability, or make Windows unbootable. No registry cleaner is completely safe and the potential is ever present to cause more problems than they claim to fix.

My advice for the average computer user is DO NOT use a registry cleaner. If you do not have knowledge of the registry, then you are far better off leaving it alone, and definitely not placing blind trust in a program to do the job for you.
Registry cleaners cannot distinguish between good and bad. If you run a registry cleaner, it will delete all those keys which are obsolete and sitting idle; but in reality, those keys may well be needed by some programs or windows at a later time.

Registry defragger programs are a myth, too. They might trim the registry size by 8-12MB; but will not improve operating system performance. In fact, your programs’ performance will decrease.
Win 7 does not need a registry cleaner. Forget all the "wisdom" you learned about XP. Win 7 is not XP and does not manage the registry the same as XP.

Win 7 is much more efficient at managing the registry than previous Windows versions. If you are very knowledgeable of the registry, you can use Ccleaner to delete keys left over when uninstalling programs. However, these few keys will not make 1 millisecond's difference in performance. If you run Ccleaner or any other registry cleaner and do not know precisely what you are doing, you will have problems down the road. There are no gains to be had from using a registry cleaner and the risk is great.

Nothing more to add, after reading these two posts.

Kari