Hi, I would like to scan & clean my WinXp Pro registry from all the garbage which will have undoubtfully gathered over the past 2 years! So, which do you guys recommend? A free one preferably... Thanks in advance.
I recommend CCleaner It has always done well for me and is FREE! DDP , turned me on to this great gem, Many many moons ago!!!! Good luck Jizmak http://www.ccleaner.com/
Yes I agree, CCleaner is a good one. Also you can try BoostSpeed - it's not free, but with a trial period. Also it's much more than a registry cleaner. Works well for me.
True, true it is also a good program, but not JUST a registry cleaner more of an overall tune up application I also use Auslogics Disk Defrag (free) to defrag my drive
CCleaner also and I run it after logging off internet w/o fail each time. Gets rid of the nasty cookies. Never had a problem with the registry part of the program. And best of all it's free and updated fairly regularly!
I agree. Crap Cleaner is the best freeware out there in my opinion. The only thing I don't like about that is if you have it IE setup to remember passwords. Put you can add cookies for CCleaner to ingore. MPenney
Hi retroborg Sorry to change the mood... here are a few websites about why not to use a registry cleaner. http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=643 http://ask-leo.com/whats_the_best_registry_cleaner.html Best Regards
From edbott.com "I do like the free CCleaner. I’ve cleaned out 1 GB or more of junk on friends computers and it does make the system a little more responsive. You don’t get as many unexplained pauses. This is a problem with the lack of multithreading in Windows Explorer most of the time when it times out on dead resources like a detached network drive. I thought I remember reading something on the Vista features that fixes this by supporting multiple threads. Other than that, I’ve made sure that I don’t have any dead links the system is trying to access on the desktop that are sure to cause a 30 second lockup even if I drag an icon across the dead link icon. Ccleaner also does a nice job removing a lot of that junk. The combination of MSCONFIG and Ccleaner works wonders. OK, I’ll give it a try." The other site: "CCleaner and Argente Registry Cleaner are the only free registry cleaners which are safe to use, however on occasion the deletion of empty software keys can cause problems and a restore will be needed." So what is wrong with CCleaner? I've never had a single issue with the program
Try to do a clean reinstall or upgrade of Nero, Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or any number of large security suite software apps and you just might find a good reason to consider a safe effective registry cleaner (like the one in CCleaner). Or try Revo Uninstaller which basically does the same thing. At any rate backup your registry first and you're good to go. Or better yet, backup your entire harddisk to an external drive with Acronis True Image, somewhat extreme for most users, but failsafe (my method).
I like Advanced Windowscare for its Security Defense, System Optimization, and Spyware Scan features, which many other maintenance programs lack. The System Optimization feature has helped to speed up my pc (just a little bit, though). I consider the Security Defense feature, along with Spybot, Spyware Blaster, and Premium Booster's ActiveX immunization, all to serve as an impeccable defense against malware when surfing the internet. However, if you're actually looking for a speed increase in Advanced Windowscare and CCleaner's registry cleaners, you'll be disappointed. Sure, it cleans out junk, and I use them both, but it doesn't really speed up my pc. Cheers
