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Registry cleaning software debunked...

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tslim:
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.
-pilgrim-online (March 30, 2013, 09:51 AM)
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I suppose, many don't buy into it because the performance/space gain by registry cleaning/defrag does not justify the cost in doing so.

For me, I rather upgrade my hardware, uninstall programs that I really don't need or plan a better HDD partitioning scheme (assuming you don't use a SSD).

Tinman57:
Tinman57: I'd agree with that back in the Win9x days - not so for NT. I honestly can't recall a "registry cleanup" having effect on speed ever since I moved to Win2k, and with a (granted, somewhat superficial) idea of the on-disk and in-memory data structures used for the registry hives, as well as caching optimizations done, I can't see why it would, either.

Now, there might be some specific situations that can be fixed which could cause slowdowns (references to network shares, system startup items that can be removed, et cetera) - but for a normal system, I'd be surprised to see any quantifiable performance effect just by removing "unused" registry keys/values. And some of the "clean up" too much for their own good.

-f0dder (March 29, 2013, 10:31 PM)
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  I'm on an XP puter, and I can tell a big difference.  As far as why removing unused reg keys would make a difference, the registry is constantly being accessed by the system and running apps where most all preferences are stored, the difference between scanning a registry that's 60 or 80 MB to scanning one that's been cleaned down to 47 MB AND optimized (defragmentation) makes a whole lot of difference, the CPU don't have to work as hard.

Tinman57:
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.-pilgrim-online (March 30, 2013, 09:51 AM)
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  Yep, I use ERUNT before AND after a registry cleaning and/or optimizing.  Best little reg backup on the market....

pilgrim:
plan a better HDD partitioning scheme (assuming you don't use a SSD).
-tslim (March 30, 2013, 10:52 AM)
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I've been trying to work out the last part of the comment, why do you make a distinction for SSD's?

I have an SSD in my newest PC plus 2 HDD's, 2 HDD's in my old PC, 1 HDD in my Netbook, all are partitioned as are 2 of the 3 external drives that I own.

The SSD was formatted and partitioned before I installed the OS to prevent it creating a hidden partition, which I did not want.

tslim:
plan a better HDD partitioning scheme (assuming you don't use a SSD).
-tslim (March 30, 2013, 10:52 AM)
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I've been trying to work out the last part of the comment, why do you make a distinction for SSD's?
-pilgrim-online (April 01, 2013, 04:49 AM)
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Because:
1. SSD has negligible seek time.
2. You can not defrag a SSD.

Btw, I have 2 SSD, 2 (permanent) + 1 (optional plug/unplug by HDD drawer) HDDs running on my PC.
I own a license of PerfectDisk, but have given up regular storage defragmentation since long time ago.

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