Is there a Microsoft licensed registry cleaner? I have heard horror stories about the unlicensed products available out there.

Anonymous

My computer freezes sometimes and it is not as fast as it once was.

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Anonymous

On Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:18:07 +0000, sublimus wrote:

ok, but what about a registry cleaner?

Stay away from them all!

Registry cleaning programs are all snake oil. Cleaning of the

registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the registry alone and

don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many people think, and

what vendors of registry cleaning software try to convince you of,

having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously

removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit

it may have.

Read http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html

And also

http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2005/10/02/registry-junk-a-windows-fact-of-life.aspx

Let me point out that neither I nor anyone else who warns against the

use of registry cleaners has ever said that they always cause

problems. If they always caused problems, they would disappear from

the market almost immediately. Many people have used a registry

cleaner and never had a problem with it.

Rather, the problem with a registry cleaner is that it carries with it

the substantial risk of having a problem. And since there is no

benefit to using a registry cleaner, running that risk is a very bad

bargain.

Ken Blake

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Anonymous

The following link is Microsoft recommendations regarding registry cleaners which holds true for all versions of Windows:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Are-registry-cleaners-necessary

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Anonymous

Look to running a check for malware and avoid the use of registry cleaners..

Microsoft Security Essentials

SuperAntispyware - http://download.cnet.com/SuperAntiSpyware-Free-Edition/3000-8022_4-10523889.html

Windows Defender - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=435BFCE7-DA2B-4A6A-AFA4-F7F14E605A0D&displaylang=en

Malwarebytes - www.malwarebytes.org

WinPatrol.. This utility will warn if something is trying to sneak into start-up without you knowing. It will also allow you to manage start-up items much better than you can with MSCONFIG..

www.winpatrol.com

Mike Hall MVP - Windows Desktop Experience http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

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53 additional answers

Anonymous

2011-12-30T19:15:57+00:00

I HAVE SYSTEM MECHANIC, DO I REALLY NEED IT TO DEFRAG MY SYSTEM MEMORY AND CLEAN MY REGISTRY?

I have the same product in Version 10.7 and have recently experienced a major OS crash loosing even the second partition of the main hard drive equating to a loss of over 1TB of saved data. I had been using the registry cleaner very frequently and it seemed to always come up with more to repair-delete and near the end it did a massive cleaning just prior to my Windows XP Pro non-bootable demise. An old Ghost back up image got me going again but did not include my data drive partition. I have 41 years experience in computers and electronics. I had used registry cleaners for many years but it is my opinion to side with those that consider them dangerous to use as Windows and application software have evolved so much that the risk of loosing correct functionality is just plain not worth it. At this point there does seem to be some kind of automated registry clean up going on in the Norton 360 V5 task scheduler but so far my system is stable and I have determined to discontinue using much of System Mechanics features and especially never use this registry cleaner ever again.

I agree that occasionally a complete repartition and reformat is the best way to establish the best performance. Keeping your data on a separate physical hard drive is also a lesson I have learned the hard way. I suggest you keep software installation archives and install keys stored on this second hard drive as well making it easier to start over when catastrophe happens.

If you really want to see a faster machine install a Solid State Drive for your OS. Now then a bloated registry will still load so fast you won't think it is bloated.

Jim H.
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Anonymous

2012-01-05T00:28:22+00:00

anyone who reccomends a novice like myself or anyone in a similar situation to use a registry cleaner is out of order. to be competent enough to safely use one requires a certain amount of knowledge of the way the registry works and to be able to identify files. if you have this knowledge then you dont need the help of a registry cleaner. more harm than good can be done by them, i talk from experience , bad ones at that. and i know that the answer to this will be " well you dont know what you are doing",,,,precisely, and thats why you should not advise their use. the registry cleaners dont know what they are doing either, otherwise they would not delete important files,,,,, fact !,,,,
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