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FREE registry cleaner-upper?

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Ex-Bay

SNAFU master
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Anyone know of a good FREE registry cleaner please?

A pal of mine used my second machine and it's now running like a dog.
All the so-called 'free' cleaners so far seen have a (very) late entry like "how do you want to pay for it?".

Thanks
XB
:PDT_Xtremez_09:
 
I get most of my free stuff from here it splits it all down in to nice easy categories.

Hope you find what you are looking for.
Sos
 
So at the risk of being classed (Yet again) as a complete computer biff, what does a registry cleaner do and is it a good thing to do regular like or a is it a fix a broken computer thing?

Jimps
 
If you read the computer forums or just generally peruse for comments about registry cleaners/defrag software most say they make no difference and can be dangerous if used by the less than competant computer user. Yet these same experts sing the praises of disc cleaners/defrag software as it speeds up the drives, well hello if it does this for disc drives then why not the registry.

My opinion is Ccleaner is very good and I also use Auslogics registry defrag + I got a special deal on Ashampoo Winoptimiser 5 that includes a whole range of utilities, I get bored sometimes so try these programmes out, though I now have the ones I will keep now.

They have managed to fix problems caused by the registry in the past and I have not had one problem to date using any of them, I think it is a case of if you think you have a problem try them, but do not forget to make sure you have a back up before any new software of this ilk is used (just in case). Mind you I have no qualms about delving manually into the registry and deleting stuff even most of these programmes won't, but then I allways have a back up so no worries really.
 
Jim_P_Pulfrew said:
So at the risk of being classed (Yet again) as a complete computer biff, what does a registry cleaner do and is it a good thing to do regular like or a is it a fix a broken computer thing?

Jimps
Click to expand...

Now this is on the basis that I understand it:-

When XP want to do something, like run a programme file, there are bits of that file's requirements all over the hard drive. All the adresses (and other stuff) of those bits are located in what's called "the registry". The snag with it is, that when you want to change or (God forbid), remove something, it's a bit tricky because all these bits are spread about.

The 'removal wizard' does it's best but does NOT clean the Registry on exit, so after a while, the Registry is full of pointers to non-existent files or information as well as other bits of loose stuff.

Naturally, Windows takes time to look up something every time the programme is run and a lot of useless entries just wastes search time.

A Registry cleaner simply does all that - and closes off the open entries.

Naturally, this is not the same as anti-virus software. . . . . . . .


:PDT_Xtremez_28:


PS. Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I now have Cc
 
Ex-Bay said:
Now this is on the basis that I understand it:-

When XP want to do something, like run a programme file, there are bits of that file's requirements all over the hard drive. All the adresses (and other stuff) of those bits are located in what's called "the registry". The snag with it is, that when you want to change or (God forbid), remove something, it's a bit tricky because all these bits are spread about.

The 'removal wizard' does it's best but does NOT clean the Registry on exit, so after a while, the Registry is full of pointers to non-existent files or information as well as other bits of loose stuff.

Naturally, Windows takes time to look up something every time the programme is run and a lot of useless entries just wastes search time.

A Registry cleaner simply does all that - and closes off the open entries.

Naturally, this is not the same as anti-virus software. . . . . . . .


:PDT_Xtremez_28:


PS. Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I now have Cc
Click to expand...

Close but no cigar EB. In addition to all software initialisation parameters, the registry also keeps a record of all hardware wired into the system, user profiles and system preferences. Basically, think of the registry as an index for all of the PCs initialisation files. When the registry becomes cluttered with out of date or broken links to files that have been moved or changed, the PC will have to search through these redundant entries to find what it needs, thus slowing your PC down. All a registry cleaner does is repair/remove these links as required to speed up the index searching and make things happen more quickly.

As an aside, I find most regular PC users can go months, if not years without needing a defrag or registry clean and suffering no discernible drop in performance.
 
Ex-Bay said:
Anyone know of a good FREE registry cleaner please?

A pal of mine used my second machine and it's now running like a dog.
All the so-called 'free' cleaners so far seen have a (very) late entry like "how do you want to pay for it?".

Thanks
XB
:PDT_Xtremez_09:
Click to expand...

Make sure you clean out your temporary folders XB, and for gods sake remove that piece of crap Norton if you have it installed! :PDT_Xtremez_30:
 
MP you are quite correct; most people who do not install/uninstall lots of trial software, games, constantly update existing software (and in some cases this applies to hardware and drivers), spend lots of time surfing the internet/downloading stuff, would not require to do anything for an awfull long time (except with regards to cleaning out their internet cache/temp folders as you mentioned).

As you and EB said these programmes do remove all the things stated and do help keep the registry in a reasonable state for those that do do all the above constantly.
 
Its true that you can go for quite a while without a defrag certainly, but I find that people who have been regularly defragging their drives (once every couple of months or so) tend to also be the ones who ensure they have up to date virus and spyware scanners, do more regular back ups and generally look after their systems better, therefore making the whole business a lot less painful.

A defrag by a user that as a lot of files (mp3s or photos for instance) and moves them about for editing or general day to day use will notice a difference in some cases. However todays systems can overcome XP's sloppy file system with raw processing power more often than not.

Alternatively you could use an OS that has a file system that doesn't treat your hard drive like an adolescent's bedroom, scattering files here there and everywhere and never have to defrag again!
Forget about Viruses and Spyware and enjoy a safer and more secure online experience.
Linux, you know it makes sense. :PDT_Xtremez_30:
 
I generally flatten and reinstall every six months. Keeps it all running sweet.
 
Cc cleaner

Cc cleaner

It's installed and as far as I can see, running well (it cleared over 250 items the first time on machine B), so thanks chaps for the suggestion.

On the subject of cleaning in general, I find that if I don't clean my A machine up almost daily, it starts running dog-like very soon. This despite regular sweeps with Anti-virus and so on.

But I did get the additional anti-thing for Spy Sweeper (Webroot) and it has clear even more cr*p from the A machine.

If only there was one reliable bit of software that can clean the lot; Ads, Cookies, Trojans, Viruses and all the other 'mal-ware'.

:PDT_Xtremez_41:
 
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