[accesscomp] Fw: Why Using a Registry Cleaner Won't Speed Up Your PC or Fix Crashes, Dan's tip for Oct. 3 2013
- From: "Bob Acosta" <boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "tektalk discussion" <tektalkdiscussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "access comp" <accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2013 06:43:27 -0700
----- Original Message -----
From: dan Thompson
To: dan Thompson
Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 5:22 AM
Subject: Why Using a Registry Cleaner Won't Speed Up Your PC or Fix Crashes,
Dan's tip for Oct. 3 2013
Why Using a Registry Cleaner Won't Speed Up Your PC or Fix Crashes
By How-to-geek
http://www.howtogeek.com/171633/why-using-a-registry-cleaner-wont-speed-up-your-pc-or-fix-crashes/
We've said it again and again: Registry cleaners don't speed up your PC. At
best, they're a waste of time and often money. At worst, they can cause
problems by removing registry entries they shouldn't.
We recently covered why PC cleaning software was a scam, (found at the link
below), , noting that a big part of the cleaning process , the registry
cleaning , wouldn't help speed up your PC. We'll now look at what that is.
PC Cleaning Apps are a Scam: Here's Why (and How to Speed Up Your PC)
Registry Cleaners Demystified
PC cleaning apps are digital snake oil. The web is full of ads for applications
that want to "clean your computer. Registry cleaners aren't a magic button
you can click to speed up your PC, as scammy PC-cleaning software developers
would like you to believe.
The Windows registry is a huge database of settings , both for Windows itself
and for programs you install. For example, if you install a program, there's a
good chance that program would save its settings to the registry. Windows
would also save pointers to that program. For example, if the program were
registered as the default program for a certain file type, Windows would save a
registry entry so it can remember that's the default program.
If you uninstalled the program, there's a good chance it would leave all its
registry entries behind. They'd stay in your registry until you reinstalled
Windows, refreshed your PC, "cleaned" them with a registry cleaner, or deleted
them manually.
All a registry cleaner does is scan your registry for entries that appear
outdated and remove them. Registry cleaner companies want you to believe that
this would result in big performance improvements so you'll buy their software.
The Promises
Here are some promises that registry cleaner tools often make:
Registry cleaners fix "registry errors" that can cause system crashes and even
blue-screens.
Your registry is full of junk that is "clogging" it and slowing down your PC.
Registry cleaners also eliminate "corrupted" and "damaged" entries.
The following passage from Uniblue's Registry Booster product page is a good
example of the typical promises you'll see:
"Have you noticed that the longer you have your computer, the slower it runs
and the more it crashes? Often this is because whenever you install or
uninstall software, adjust hardware or change settings, the Windows registry
is updated. Over time the registry starts losing shape, accumulating obsolete,
corrupt and harmful files. Left unchecked, your system can become increasingly
unstable, run more slowly and crash more frequently." (Source, Wise Registry
Cleaner)
Wise Registry Cleaner which is thankfully at least free, says it can also "get
your PC running. more safely."
If your Windows PC is crashing or blue-screening , you shouldn't worry about
"registry errors." "Corrupted" and "damaged" registry entries also aren't
wreaking havoc on your computer, despite what the snake oil peddlers might want
you to believe.
If your registry is indeed corrupted, you have bigger problems and a registry
cleaner isn't going to fix it, you'd need to use System Restore , at least.
There's nothing "unsafe" about not using a registry cleaner. The leftover
registry entries that accumulate naturally aren't harmful.
The Reality
In reality, registry entries aren't a drag on your computer's performance. The
registry is a massive database containing hundreds of thousands of entries
and individual registry entries are fairly tiny. Even removing a few thousand
entries won't make an appreciable dent in the size of your registry.
Now, if our computers only had a tiny amount of memory or an extremely slow
hard disk , there could be some value to shrinking the registry a bit. But this
will be completely unnoticeable on computers in use today. We don't live in
the days of Windows 95 anymore. The Windows registry has also become more
robust as Windows itself evolved from Windows 95 to Windows 7 and 8.
Windows just isn't getting confused and slowing down because you have a folder
(known as a "key" in registry parlance) dedicated to an uninstalled program in
your registry. It also isn't getting confused because certain entries point to
an outdated program.
Below are the results of comments from readers regarding experiences with
registery cleaners. The complete article can be found at:
What You Said: Have Registry Cleaners Helped Your Computer. Ever?
http://www.howtogeek.com/57637/what-you-saidhave-registry-cleaners-helped-your-computer-ever/
What You Said: Have Registry Cleaners Helped Your Computer. Ever?
Earlier this week we asked you to share your experiences with Windows registry
cleaning applications. You responded with hundreds of... [Read Article
referred to above.]
No legitimate benchmarks showing a performance increase as a result of a
registry cleaner have ever been released. If a registry cleaner offered
boosted performance, we would have some benchmarks by now. It's anecdotal
evidence, but the majority of our readers didn't find that registry cleaners
helped improve their performance on modern computers, either.
In Some Rare Cases.
Now, it's theoretically possible that a registry cleaner could help in some
rare cases. For example, if a program left behind an invalid context menu
entry in your registry, it's possible that your context menu would take
noticeably longer to appear in Windows Explorer when you right-clicked on
something. It's also possible that a registry cleaner would notice and remove
this entry for you, solving the problem.
In another case, you might have a ten-year-old computer with a very small
amount of RAM and a Windows installation that's seen thousands of programs
installed and uninstalled over the case of a decade. A registry cleaner might
theoretically help shrink the size of the registry enough to make the computer
perform faster.
Such situations are bound to be extremely rare. There's no point in running a
registry cleaner constantly. Many registry cleaner companies recommend
running their cleaner once a week. Such problems would be better dealt with by
solving them when you encounter them. It's likely that the average registry
cleaner would cause many more problems than it fixes if it were run on a
regular basis. And even if it's completely harmless, it's a waste of your time.
So If a Registry Cleaner Won't Speed Things Up, What Will?
We've already covered why PCs slow down over time and shown you how to
prevent this from happening. (Notice the article posted Wednesday October 2nd,
in Dan's Tips.) Rather than run a registry cleaner, you should just be
careful about what you install in the first place. Even if you need to
uninstall something later, a few registry entries , or even a lot of registry
entries - won't cause a slow down. If your computer is hideously slow or
crashing frequently, you likely have more problems than a full registry and
you're probably better off reinstalling Windows or refreshing your PC.
RELATED ARTICLES
HTG Explains: Do You Really Need to Regularly Reinstall Windows?
http://www.howtogeek.com/168528/htg-explains-do-you-really-need-to-regularly-reinstall-windows/
For many people, Windows seems to slow down over time. Quite a few people fix
this by regularly reinstalling Windows.... [Read Article]
Beginner Geek: How to Reinstall Windows on Your Computer
http://www.howtogeek.com/133254/beginner-geek-how-to-reinstall-windows-on-your-computer/
Reinstalling Windows is one of the easiest ways to fix software problems on
your computer, whether it's running slow or... [Read Article]
We didn't dwell on this part too much, but registry cleaners can also cause
damage. There are so many different registry entries that could be present
from so many different software programs that the average registry cleaner put
together by a less-than-reputable software company can't possibly account for
them all. If a registry cleaner tried to be too aggressive so it could clean up
as many "errors" as possible, it could easily remove errors that were
necessary for an installed program, causing problems.
In summary, forget about registry cleaners and get on with your life. As long
as you take basic care of your Windows computer, you don't have to worry about
your registry.
You are invited to a time of praise and prayer from 5:00 to 6:00 every Tuesday
held in the lounge at First Presbyterian Church 870 W. College Jacksonville,
Il. Come in the double glass doors by day care off of West Minister. Turn
right at the first set of double doors across from the coat closets. Go up
these stairs and turn left at the top.
The lounge door will be opened and welcoming you in to God's open house of
praise and prayer!
Verse and Thought of the day
Faith is the Key
Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near
to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
(ESV)
This chapter, Hebrews 11, is often called the Hall of Faith. In it we read of
all the great men of faith recorded in the Scriptures. Here we learn that faith
is the key to pleasing God.
First, we need faith to come to God, to believe he exists and then trust him
for our salvation. Then, our continued abiding faith, the kind that causes us
to seek him daily, offers the promise of a dynamic, rewarding walk with the
Lord.
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