News and Reviews > Mini-Reviews by Members
Registry Cleaning Software
mouser:
bottom line:
treat a registry cleaner like working with dynamite, be very very very careful with what you delete, and don't let it delete anything that you aren't convinced is really junk. when in doubt, LEAVE IT in your registry.
i would go with the registry cleaner that is most conservative and least aggressive, and most able to explain what it intends on deleting and why and makes it easiest to decide whether something is safe to remove.
again getting back to carol's problem, a registry tool backing up your settings is not quite as helpful as it might sound at first.
because once you start installing new programs, you can't simply "roll back" your registry without breaking stuff you've done since the backup.
a good idea might be to run a full system backup (drive image),
then do your registry cleaning
then make a real effort to test your computer and make sure there are no issues.
and again, be conservative in cleaning your registry!
ps.
i've yet to see a single real quantitative report about the "gains" of having a "cleaner" registry.
having a clean registry brings peace of mind to those who like to "know" that their registry doens't have so much junk it in.
can anyone show me something concretely showing any real benefit from it though?
if not, then good advice is to treat your registry like that closet filled with spiders in the basement, just don't go in there. let the spiders live in peace.
brotherS:
again getting back to carol's problem, a registry tool backing up your settings is not quite as helpful as it might sound at first.
because once you start installing new programs, you can't simply "roll back" your registry without breaking stuff you've done since the backup.
-mouser (October 12, 2005, 09:29 PM)
--- End quote ---
Well, the above mentioned RegSeeker does instead backup only the things you remove, so you can easily restored *those*, even if you installed new programs after the cleaning process.
ps.
i've yet to see a single real quantitative report about the "gains" of having a "cleaner" registry.
having a clean registry brings peace of mind to those who like to "know" that their registry doens't have so much junk it in.
can anyone show me something concretely showing any real benefit from it though?
--- End quote ---
Yeah, sure. It makes your system faster and I was able to fix Windows problems I had by using Regseeker, since it deleled entries that confused Windows and one program stopped crashing after cleaning the registry. :up:
if not, then good advice is to treat your registry like that closet filled with spiders in the basement, just don't go in there. let the spiders live in peace.
--- End quote ---
Carol Haynes:
OK to prove a point I have been doing some experimenting.
I did a full system backup (using Acronis TrueImage 9) and also a full registry backup so that I can do an instant restore of all registry settings if things go reall pear shaped, I also added a system restore point.
I now ran jv16Power Tools 2005 registry cleaner. I used aggressive mode (simply because the only difference between the normal mode and aggressive is it looks at ActiveX controls).
As I said it found over 1400 High risk errors and quite a few of lower priority. This reflects the amount of installing and uninstalling I think more than anything else.
Deep breath - hit FIX and wait for a bout 10 minutes while it chunters about.
Reboot - and run jv16 PowerTools again - no further errors (which was impressive).
Everything at first sight appears to work fine and maybe marginally quick boot up.
I now ran a registry defragmenter (included in Resplendent Registrar). This reduces the size of the registry by removing space previously used by now deleted entries and does a bit of reorganisation to make the registry access more efficient.
Reboot again - definitely an increase in boot speed, and system seems a bit ore responsive. In particular an annoying glitch where Windows Explorer would occasionally go into dormant mode for a few seconds seems to have disappeared.
I have now been running the system for a couple of days and have been quite impressed that there have been no crashes. And I have been very good and not installed anything much new.
Now any gotchas .....
Surprisingly few, but so far these are problems I have found ...
* I could not link to websites from within OutlookXP any longer. annoying but not life threatening. I ran Office Detect and Repair and that got things working again
* I couldn't change my default browser to Internet Explorer or Firefox ... hmmm
* ACDSee PowerPack 7 started behaving oddly (I noticed there were lots of entries in the faults list). A repair install (from Add/Remove programs) fixed the problems.
* I have a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Pro soundcard setup. The sound still works OK but the remote control no longer works and some of the controls on the external module are behaving oddly. Also links to my Creative Zen Micro MP3 player have become unstable. Fixed by running the webupdate for my creative hardware at their website. This involved over 140Mb of download and about an hour of clicking installation boxes as 19 packages were reinstalled from scratch.
* All extra keyboard buttons ceased to function (I have an MS Internet Keyboard with a row of extra function specific buttons)
* Various things have gone missing from my add/remove programs applet ... notably Microsoft IntelliType and IntelliPoint software which won't reinstall until it has first been removed - which I can't do. Luckily I wasn't running the latest versions so I simply installed the latest version which overwrote the current drivers and reinstall the missing applet entries
* Yahoo Messenger keeps crashing on startup - I have reinstalled it but it is still behaving badly, not sure how to fix this yet.
I haven't noticed anything else yet (but it is early days).
So far what I have experienced have been little more than minor niggles but if some drivers (keyboard/mouse) have been visibly affected what might be going on in the background?
Should I restore my backup to mitigate against future problems. I'm not too sure at the moment ... I am going to give it a while.
Any further cleaning related problems I will report back.
brotherS:
Wow, nice test! Let me make some suggestions, which you'll maybe just ignore, but anyway ;)
ACDSee PowerPack 7 started behaving oddly (I noticed there were lots of entries in the faults list). A repair install (from Add/Remove programs) fixed the problems.
-CarolHaynes (October 13, 2005, 02:57 AM)
--- End quote ---
Take a look at the free FastStone Image Viewer here: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/1106292852/1 It has LOTS of great options, including easy image editing. WOW! It's better than ACDSee IMHO... just install it and move the mouse cursor to all 4 desktop borders in fullscreen mode! I love that! :eusa_dance:
I have a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Pro soundcard setup. The sound still works OK but the remote control no longer works and some of the controls on the external module are behaving oddly. Also links to my Creative Zen Micro MP3 player have become unstable. Fixed by running the webupdate for my creative hardware at their website. This involved over 140Mb of download and about an hour of clicking installation boxes as 19 packages were reinstalled from scratch.
--- End quote ---
I don't know if remote controls are supported too but everyone with a Creative soundcard should know about http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/intro.php - way better drivers with way better options.
Yahoo Messenger keeps crashing on startup - I have reinstalled it but it is still behaving badly, not sure how to fix this yet.
--- End quote ---
If you don't need those 'kiddy features' you may want to try Miranda for Yahoo, IRC and stuff - see my signature
:feedback:
Carol Haynes:
Take a look at the free FastStone Image Viewer here: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/1106292852/1 It has LOTS of great options, including easy image editing. WOW! It's better than ACDSee IMHO... just install it and move the mouse cursor to all 4 desktop borders in fullscreen mode! I love that! :eusa_dance:
-brotherS (October 13, 2005, 03:21 AM)
--- End quote ---
I don't really use ACDSee that often these days. I find their Canon RAW handling sucks (colours even with colour management are awful). Trouble is I have so many different viewers installed that I really don't want/need any more ... I'll take a look though.
I don't know if remote controls are supported too but everyone with a Creative soundcard should know about http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/intro.php - way better drivers with way better options.
--- End quote ---
I have tried kxproject a number of times on various cards and keep coming back to Creative's own drivers (even though they are a bloat fest and usually full of bugs). KX never seems to support all the options of these cards - there is always a long list of things still to be implemented.
Now that I have various devices which link into the same software suite I am reluctant to try different drivers (esp. as digital rights management is an issue).
If you don't need those 'kiddy features' you may want to try Miranda for Yahoo, IRC and stuff - see my signature
--- End quote ---
Trouble is I have few friends who only use Yahoo (and won't swap). Plus my ISP (BT Broadband) allows free phone calls via a plugin for Yahoo Messenger called BTCommunicator.
Actually I suspect it is that plugin that is causing all the hassle!
Cheers
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