Tip-Of-The-Week

March 2, 2007

From the Free Computer Consultant

http://www.FreeComputerConsultant.com

Registry Cleaner - To Use Or Not To Use?

If you want to a bunch of people jumping down your back, join the various Windows Internet newsgroups and recommend people use a registry cleaner.

Various experts and self-proclaimed experts will start telling you that registry cleaners are nothing more than snake oil, and some will say they are harmful. Certainly they can be, just like any other poorly written software can be harmful.

And since some of these people really are experts, Microsoft MVP's among them, they bear listening to. But experts disagree, none is always right, and sometimes the right answer depends on the circumstances.

But my ego was bolstered today when I saw a high profile Windows expert espouse the same advice I have given for quite some time. So at the risk of repeating myself, here I go again.

Registry Cleaners fall into circumstances category

• Only after you have used one or more backup registry methods.
• If your Windows installation is a couple of years old, and either sluggish (that's almost a given) or at times exhibiting strange behavior that research indicates might point to a registry problem.
• You, like me, have a tendency to try out a lot of software; then find out you have no use for it or it doesn't live up to expectations, and uninstall it. Especially if some of those uninstalls do not complete successfully (quite common).

Which Registry Cleaner do I use?

I have written before about CCleaner, but that program really does better with cleaning up the hard drive than it does the registry.

If you're willing to shell out a couple bucks for a good product, jv16 PowerTools 2006 gets the nod from several experts as being the best "Paid" product out there. But you can use a full feature trial version for 30 days.

For the more frugal among us, EasyCleaner, although not as good as jv16 PowerTools, is recognized as being at the top of the heap for free Registry Cleaners.

And like so many other programs in this category, both products do more than just clean the registry but that's what I'm highlighting here.

WAIT! Don't use it yet!

Remember the first qualification, backup your registry first? I hope to have a new page on my website on how to do this posted by the end of the weekend. You can find it here.

Cleaning the registry isn't something you do as often as you might dust your home or wash your car, but I believe it does have a place in your Windows maintenance regimen as long as you follow the above guidelines.

Hope this information is of use to you, that's it for this week.

When was the last time you backed up YOUR PC?

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The Free Computer Consultant