ccleaner and registry fixes

[ssteve]

I did a registry scan with ccleaner and it found a bunch of missing/broken items. I'm just wondering if its safe to delete these or "fix" them?
I'm always hesitant to mess around with the registry in case I delete something thats needed for another program.
thanks.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Different people have different opinions, but I would say it is probably safe to delete them. Just be sure to select Yes when it asks if you want to back up changes.

 

[swarfega]

Id echo what Jonathan said. Ive had no problems so far. Its the only program I trust with my registry.

 

[whs]

In principle No, but CCleaner is pretty safe. If you absolutely want to play around with the registry, go ahead. But it will buy you zippo.

 

[Jonathan_King]

I'd say feel free to mess with your registry, as long as you understand the risks and backup first.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

The problem with these tools is that you get lulled into a sense of complacency.

You use it for a year and it works fine. You don't understand all the entries, but it works fine. So you continue to use it.

You get careless and don't back up the registry before using it.

You continue to use it, not entirely understanding the changes it is making.

At some point, you develop problems of some kind and have no way of knowing whether or not the changes you made in the registry may have been responsible.

I say leave them alone. If we were still using the processors of 10 years ago, there might be a slight case for them, but the fact is that even a semi-modern CPU can process the registry in no time at all--so what do you gain by fiddling?

Can you legitimately measure any improvement?

It's like obsessing over defragmentation.

 

[Jonathan_King]

I agree about the performance thing. I do not see why you need to get careless, though. I have been using CCleaner for over a year now, and I still review the results before I apply changes.

 

[ssteve]

Appreciate all the insight from everyone. I'm not very computer literate so I don't know what all these missing dll's and what not are for. I use ccleaner all the time and found it a great program and reliable. I'll back up and delete and see what happens.
thanks and repped.

 

[sup3rsprt]

My philosophy has become; leave the registry cleaners alone unless something is wrong with the computer. If something is already wrong, I don't have much to lose by messing with the registry. If nothing is wrong, I could potentially create problems.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Jonathan:

Yes, you should clearly back up before using it.

But consider this possibility:

It's November 3, 2009

You back up the registry, run the application, and make some changes in the registry according to your best judgment at the time.

Let's say you do that once a week for a month.

It's now Dec 3. You start an application you haven't used since October. It's haywire and doesn't act like it used to.

Which of the 4 intervening registry changes may have caused the problem? None of them? The one on Nov 3?? The one on Nov 10?? Do you have access to all 4 of your backups? Which, if any, do you try to restore?

I just don't want to have to deal with that uncertainty. There is enough other things to consider when things go bad without deliberately adding more.

But I will say I used a similar program for probably 3 years before I became suspicious enough to give it up.

 

[Jonathan_King]

The chances of that happening are very low. Seriously, can you name me one incident of that actually happening? That's not to say it doesn't ever happen, but with a reputable registry cleaner, I'd say the chances are pretty low. But it is unfair to condemn all registry cleaners just because they can be misused. I mean, it would be ridiculous to assert that regedit.exe should not be included with Windows, but still, you can damage your system if you are not careful. In the same way, blindly deleting everything a registry cleaner turns up is foolish. IMO, as long as you review everything you are about to delete, you should be okay.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

The chances may be low, but how would you ever know if the action of the registry cleaner didn't cause any particular problem?

I just don't see a return on the investment. Taking a slight risk with no demonstrable gain.

The problem isn't with the applications and I am not condemning them. The problem is with users.

That's you and me. I won't speak for you, but I do know that I am not and will never be an expert on the nuances of the registry.

But, I do use regedit on rare occasions.

We can agree to disagree, that's cool.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Okay, I can respect that.
Case closed