[pchelpers] Re: free registry cleaner? win xp

Hi Cyril,

Thursday, October 16, 2008, 8:33:41 PM, you wrote:

CH> Microsoft has a free Reg Cleaner, you can download it from

CH> http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads15.html

CH> Just scroll down till you find it, about three scrolls.

As far as I know, the only registry cleaner from Microsoft is
RegClean, and it's not supported on Vista, and I'm not sure that they
support it on XP either.  In any event, I didn't see anything
"Microsoft" on that page.

I both agree and disagree with Ray. If a registry cleaner claims that
it can cure the common cold in only a week (instead of waiting 7 long
days), it's snake oil and should be avoided like the flu. If you get
one that wants money to do anything, it's probably not worthwhile. I
use CCleaner (which has been mentioned here several times), which
primarily advertises the ability to remove privacy stuff, such as
which files you opened recently and so forth. It also fixes various
discrepancies; on occasion, this will fix certain problems. Some of
these discrepancies are deliberate, so it gives you the option to make
a backup. If you get a cleaner that does not give the option to make a
backup. it should be avoided. The discrepancy-fixing and so forth can
make the system tun faster, but again, it's unlikely to make a huge
difference.

I typically run CCleaner as part of a cleanup when I look at a
computer; keep in mind that I typically look at a particular computer
no more often than about once a year, and in that time, people have
installed enough drivel and crapola and junk that there are likely to
be plenty of discrepancies and weird behavior that *might* be fixed by
it.

In short, I don't know why people pay for registry cleaners. You get
to a point of diminishing returns, and the returns aren't all that
great in the first place anyway.  Many of the pay ones are junkware,
created solely to alarm you into paying money to fix that HIGHLY
DANGEROUS MALWARE bellybutton lint -- much like many anti-spyware
programs.

-- 
Scott.



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