marcjessa™
the ones i posted on the first page of this thread are good free ones and work with vista
and the tuneup utilities paid version is excellent which i used to use
if you want to clean your registry
Windows Registry Cleaning: To Clean Or Not To Clean
There are a lot of people who claim that cleaning your registry will not improve your systems performance . They say its ok to use a registry cleaner as part of a removal process of a program (e.g. when you uninstall a software and want to clean the entries from the registry). But most users use registry cleaners as part of a system cleaning routine.
So why not use a registry cleaner? Because most registry cleaners delete some dll files which are important files for some programs to run. Most registry cleaners will offer a choice of selecting which files to delete but an inexperienced user could easily choose to delete important files that are not to be deleted. Are you ready to risk that the registry cleaner deletes something you really need, causing a program or a feature to fail?
The windows registry is a really huge database with thousands of entries. If you run a registry cleaner on a typical machine you will get only a small number of errors compared to the size of the registry. If you search for performance tests that somehow prove that registry cleaners are important and should be used you wont find any real evidence that registry cleaners are important, apart from tests performed by software companies. So is this registry cleaning process just for the sake of "cleaning"?
There are people and registry cleaner software companies stating that registry cleaners are important and should be used at a timely basis. The cleaners will free some space from your computers RAM and will make your system more responsive. If youre encountering unexplained errors or your computer crashes or freezes often then you need to repair your registry. There are a lot of corrupt files, paths, registry keys that need to be cleaned in order for your registry and your system to perform well. There are certain DLL files that need to be repaired.
If you want to avoid runtime errors, windows startup errors and especially windows explorer errors then you have to make sure that your registry is clean and stable. That is what the software companies developing registry cleaners claim.
So what is the truth? Do you really need a registry cleaner? Should you spend your time and your money and invest on a registry cleaning software? The answer is Yes mostly.
In my opinion you should use a registry cleaner to optimize your systems performance only if you know what the registry is and how it works. Furthermore you should know what a registry cleaner is and how it works. You must be aware of the importance of the registry for your system. Remember, the registry is a database where all your systems information is stored. It is so important that Windows system has built in registry tools working on the background to make sure your registry performs well and protect your systems integrity.
The fact is that because your computers registry is so massive, problems can occur as time goes by. These problems can cause strange behaviors, could freeze up your system or cause unwanted errors. Not to mention the frustration from the end users point of view. If your registry is clean then you dont need to worry. but if you notice your computer is becoming unstable then you need to make sure your systems registry is clean and optimized.
In my opinion its a good practice to scan and optimize your registry every now and then but make sure you know what youre doing when making changes or when deleting files, especially dll files. Remember that a single dll file can be important part of more than one application or program. Do not delete anything, unless you are 100% sure you dont need that file. Also, always perform a registry backup before proceeding to a registry cleaning or optimizing. Most registry cleaners offer this option of taking a backup of your registry before making any changes. If anything goes wrong you can restore the backup.
Do not just clean your registry just because a lot of people are talking about registry cleaners these days. Know what youre doing when messing with this really important systems database. And always choose wisely when buying any registry cleaning software. There are registry cleaners that are sophisticated and powerful and can optimize your registry without the need to worry about deleting any needed files. And there are registry cleaners that are not so safe and cannot be trusted. The choice is yours.
i just leave my registry alone anymore after a few mistakes of the past and everything is running just fine and no problems-i just follow that quote in my signature below most of the time
++End Of Short Book++
quote from my forum friend bob3160-- if you don't know exactly what your doing, then do the best thing which in the case of the registry is NOTHING
