Registry Cleaners

[Octane]

Hello all,

Should/ ought they be used? Do they work or should they be avoided?

Cheers

Octane

[Foniac]

Sure they can be used but you have to be careful what you use.. a high percentage of applications posing as registry cleaners and computer speed-increasers are full of adware and malware... not what you want on your computer

[mixture]

The best registry cleaner is a rebuild.

[stewmath]

I work in I.T and i maintain an office of over 50 computers, I use a free cleaner called CCleaner. Drop me a pm if you want and ill link you

[vulcanised]

I occasionally use the Tweaknow registry cleaner from Free Registry Cleaner and Optimizer for Windows 7, Vista, and XP

It does a good job quite rapidly.

[green granite]

I think most of us on here use CCleaner. both for registry and clearing out the accumulated rubbish on the hard drive

[oldbeefer]

CCleaner is the only one I'll use on clients (and my) computers. It not only cleans out the dross, but the other tools included are useful.

[Cornish Jack]

Re. suggested d/l of Ccleaner ... DON'T!!!!!!!! ... unless you want an unasked for and invasive installation of Google Chrome and some email/browser device calling itself Incredimail or somesuch rubbish. I foolishly assumed that a download and installation from Cnet would be fine - not so. This takeover of my computer was carried out WITHOUT any warnings or advisory info and has taken over half an hour and a GREAT DEAL of irritation to rectify matters via System restore - and I STILL CAN'T GET RID OF GOOGLE CHROME
To say that I'm unimpressed is a vast understatement.
I'm surprised that GG should have approved this idea - his previous inputs have been unfailingly helpful.

[green granite]

Oh dear Cornish Jack never had that problem, but I do tend to very carefully read what the ticked boxes are for. But I would suggest it's downloaded from: CCleaner - Download

Try this for getting rid of chrome: Manually uninstall Google Chrome in Windows : Troubleshooting - Google Chrome Help

[stewmath]

Ive never had that problem with ccleaner installing google chrome etc. Are you sure you installed a legit version, one that wasnt binded to other rubish. Also reading all the checkboxes on install is vitally important. I maintain a call center and i would never install a program that i knew installed rubbish, and i use ccleaner for every machine.

[vulcanised]

That's a good point about the checkboxes.

There's a lot of software now that never used to have this feature, but does today, and if you're not careful you will get some unwanted baggage with your download.

[Cornish Jack]

Thank you GG - will give the manual uninstall route a go , once my temper has subsided. Re. the tick boxes ... THERE WERE NONE.- I ALWAYS look out for such things and the only option offered in the install process was the EULA and I'm certainly never going to read that. What surprised me was that the download file was the same whether it was from Cnet or the program originators. Piriform. Just been back and checked on Piriform's site and the only difference is that it is now version 3.10 instead of 3.09 - which I used. Additiionally irritating was that, even after the restore, my browser settings were changed and had to be manually restored.
I suppose I should know better - there REALLY is no such thing as a free lunch - or 'free' software.

[Cornish Jack]

And, again. thank you GG. The link worked - eventually ... like most things Microsoft it's not entirely intuitive!! Didn't remove the shortcuts, but that was simple.

[M.Mouse]

I use ccleaner regularly. I have just downloaded ver. 3.10 from Piriform and installed it. There is a screen asking if you want to load Google Chrome with the checkboxes ticked by default.

CCleaner is one of the few FREE pieces of software which doesn't insist on either loading unwanted 'extras' nor altering any of your settings.

Not sure where you got your copy from Cornish Jack but if you didn't get the option NOT to install Chrome then it was a bastardised version of the real McCoy.

Chrome is, in my opinion, a damn good browser anyway!

[green granite]

Chrome is, in my opinion, a damn good browser anyway!

Providing you avoid the google version then yes, I use it for webcams a lot.

[Lancelot37]

Can't remember which, but one of this months Computer Magazines tested several registry cleaners and other programs for speeding up your computer.

They tested them on an old computer, a not so old computer and a new one. Very few of them did anything other than very marginally increase speed. The increase was only measurable using lab techniques and it would not be noticeable to most people.

Keep your money in your pocket. Admittedly I still use the free Ccleaner.

[mustpost]

CJ - always used ccleaner (all versions) for lots of folks - never had any unwanted add-ons..agree with gg

not be noticeable to most people.

Well with a modest Acer laptop the difference is noticeable after 6 months..