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Registry cleaning software debunked...

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tslim:
Ah! and congratulation to Stephen66515, you have found a good crap!

KynloStephen66515:
Ah! and congratulation to Stephen66515, you have found a good crap!
-tslim (March 30, 2013, 02:58 AM)
--- End quote ---

Wasn't my work, just found this on Imgur.com during my daily browse there, and decided it would be worth a post :)

pilgrim:
I use registry cleaners regularly, because of that most of what they pick up is related to temp files.

Just recently MS updated Silverlight, when I ran a registry cleaner on Windows 7 afterwards it picked up well over 700 items, nearly all of which were related to the previous version of Silverlight. The files had been removed (or updated) but not the registry keys. XP was nearly as bad.

f0dder:
Just recently MS updated Silverlight, when I ran a registry cleaner on Windows 7 afterwards it picked up well over 700 items, nearly all of which were related to the previous version of Silverlight. The files had been removed (or updated) but not the registry keys. XP was nearly as bad.-pilgrim-online (March 30, 2013, 07:05 AM)
--- End quote ---
How much disk space did you save by removing those 700 entries? Even if we assumed each entry occupied 1k in the registry hive file (which I doubt it would), you've saved a whopping 700kb. How much lookup time have you saved? Given the binary-search done on keys and the caching on top of that, I doubt you'd be able to measure a difference.

I understand that it feels wrong having garbage left behind. But the practical implications of this? ::)

pilgrim:
Disk space has never been an issue to me in relation to the registry and I do not know what you consider to be the 'practical implications'.

You are right when you refer to how it 'feels', I know a lot of people are very much against registry cleaners and I would not try to change their minds.
I also know that you can do a lot of damage with them, some more than others.

My personal view is that provided you make backups, I use ERUNT, and get to learn what you can and cannot do with a particular program you should not have any problems.

Do they actually make a difference?
On XP my answer would be yes, especially over a period of time.
On 7?
Certainly not as much but then again on the computer I have 7 installed on it would probably take quite a lot to slow it down compared to those I have XP on.

I also defrag the registries once a month, on XP that makes a very noticeable difference (on XP Mode as well), again not noticeably on 7.

I have followed this practice for years, using the same programs for most of that time, and never had a problem because of it.
Would I advise others to do the same?
Not unless they knew what they were doing and were prepared to take the time that I did to test whatever program they chose to use, as well as taking adequate precautions against the possibility of problems.

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