Are Registry Cleaners Worth It?

by Jason Faulkner on Dec 30, 2009 | 22 comments

One of the Windows components that optimization programs target is the registry which is essentially the “brain” of Windows. Because of the danger associated with this, I very seldom touch my registry and I never run registry cleaners.

I know there are claims that cleaning your registry will improve your system performance but I don’t really see this. To me, the benefit of potentially gaining a few blinks of an eye in speed is not worth the risk of potentially hosing your entire installation. I am not the only one who thinks this, Bill Pytlovany (the guy who develops WinPatrol) has some thoughts on this as well.

CCleaner is popular among a lot of our readers and I know it offers a registry cleaner. Do you use a registry cleaner and if so can you really tell a difference?

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Rob
I use CCleaner because of past problems and it was recommended on this site. I now use it on a regular basis when I delete temp files as preventative maintenance. Because I use it with the cleaner part of CCleaner, I can’t say that I notice a difference. I will need to rethink if this is a good policy. I am interested to hear what others will say.
http://smilingcarcass.blogspot.com/ Smiling Carcass
I’ve used a registry cleaner for years. Maybe twice in all that time it has caused me problems, and even then I cannot say categorically it was the registry cleaner.
It seems to me that professional techs don’t like them. Once it was advised to keep the registry clean. Maybe it’s because of the monster the registry has now become that techs now advise against tackling them. But my reason for using cleaners (and I use three, each catching something the other missed) is simple. Way back in Win 98 or maybe 95 I had a home built machine (I’ve never bought a desktop yet!) which had become sluggish and slow, despite defragging, disk cleaning etc. I even took the cover off and cleaned the dust from the inside in case it was a cooling issue. Nothing worked, so on the verge of a complete format and reinstall, I downloaded and ran the (then) free jv16 powertools. And the sluggishness had gone. It was almost like a new machine. I’ve kept my registry mean and lean ever since.
Dave
I have tried various cleaners over the years but what worries me is that some seem to be extremely aggressive, finding several hundred discrepancies (Eusing Free Cleaner, for instance), compared to the tens of items from others like EasyCleaner. I always create a system restore point before running anything fresh and, in the case of registry cleaners, a complete registry back-up as well! So far, I seem to have come out of the experiments on top with nothing broken and I get the impression the machine seems a tad perkier afterwards.
LM
Good to know, thanks!
Jumala
Scotty is good enough for me… no need to clean it if the “bad” stuff never gets in there in the first place…
Dianna
I like CCleaner alot. You can attach it to your trash bin and easily right click the trash bin to get to it. it’s always helped my system a lot! Yes, I have noticed a very big difference. Sometimes when my system hangs, hesitates or won’t load…if I run CCleaner it stops the hangs, hesitations and allows the pages to load that wouldn’t before I ran it. It gets rid of invalid files and clears up the unused and broken links. And it’s FREE. I make sure I uncheck the “yahoo” options for a seach bar when I install it though because I prefer Google search bar. I’ve used it for over a year now.
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Detrieux
I absolutely use registry cleaners on a regular basis and can tell a major difference in stability and speed – depending on the state of the particular system and often the operating system.
I run RCs once every couple of weeks: once a week with Vista Systems. By the way, I have upgraded three systems to Windows 7 and by far this system is the best windows OS. It even beats XP if you can believe it. I have done numerous installs including both upgrades and fresh installs. Win7 not only has great features, is stable, faster than similarly configured hardware profiles, but is a wonderful exodus from Vista. MS hit a home run with Win7.
http://www.bobspcworkshop.com Bob Plumer
Like the author I’m very leery of optimization software that messes with the registry. I’ve never fooled with manually. The only exception is when I use CCleaner due to the excellent reputation they have and from personal use. Even then I always do a registry backup(CCleaner prompts you before this operation) especially if I’m doing it for someone else. I only use it because it’s part of the program otherwise I don’t mess with the registry. Too much can happen while fooling around in there. It’s not worth saving a few milliseconds of computer speed.
Ray Smith
I use ccleaner and glary utilites and have never had a problem. Improvments? All I can say is I use vista on one of my computers and have never had a problem with it, but I do regular maintance on it.
Dorian
Without doubt, from years of assessment and experimentation, a good registry cleaner is not only useful, but essential for windows (I currently use XP).
An essential tip:
Use CCleaner (v good) but also combine, say, Glary (v good), P C Pitstop (v good) & TweakNow (v good) occasionally into the cleaning mix every so often, as each cleaner has their own idea of what to manipulate & clean. In total, the full use of these cleaners covers more or less the total cleaning needs.
Do this registry cleanup once a week — every two weeks minimum.
Further, and critical, once a month, do a defrag of the Registry — an essential task.
Carrying out the above will provide huge benefits to the speed, effectiveness and efficiency of Windows. It’s a no-brainer, truly.
A good N Y everyone,
Dorian
Jase
I solely use ccleaner, and very rarely, (once a month, or whenever an issue crops up, whichevers first) any other registry cleaning tool is overkill
Alexander
I use CCleaner and i just love it.
Indrajit
I disagree. I have been using registry cleaners for the last 8-9 years and they are really helpful. I have used, CCleaner, Registry Mechanic & RegCleaner in the past and really speed up your system especially if you are using Office 2003. There are hundreds of registry cleaner out there and some of them are really over hyped and some are really dangerous so one needs to be careful before choosing one.
David Kennedy
I’m surprised at some of the responses to this post.
I’ve never used one, and don’t see where there could be a big value. And yes, as mentioned, it could do a lot more harm than good.
The only way your registry gets messed up is from uninstalls that don’t completely remove their registry entries. And I have had that happen, and usually I clean it manually (not recommended for the uninitiated). But unless you’re installing/uninstalling all the time, It can’t be of much help.
richtea
There goes another surprise – yes, a registry cleaner can well be useful. In particular, CCleaner as generally agreed not just here but everywhere, is extremely good value since it is FREE. Suppose it did nothing at all (which is not the case) at that price except for making the user feel good: Would that be nice? Yes. Anything else it may do over and above this threshold is an incremental benefit. Just as many others, I am happy with it not only because it does the “cleaning” but because it provides other functional facilities as well. I have not had to defragment my XP in years, and I firmly believe it is precisely due to my using cleaners, thus keeping the system in good nick. Come to think of it, if cleaning the registry carried hardly any benefit, why would MS have offered exactly that as part of the Windows OneLive Care maintenance process? So off the high perch, you prejudiced naysayers, and take a look at the evidence. By the way and if you bother to look, Bill Pytlovany’s column set off a discussion with results very similar to those presented here.

David Kennedy
It may help, I don’t know. What I do know is no registry cleaner is going to have any impact on fragmentation. That’s apples and oranges, there.

bigjohn63901
I use one and I make sure it is set to do a complete reg backup before it does anything else and so far I haven’ had any problems. Can’t say for sure about the speedup because I never let mine get that sluggish.
John Sergeant
I’ve used several registry cleaners including the one I now use( regdefense). I’ve had very good luck with several of the products.
http://mind-body-spirit-central.com marc
Most application uninstallers leave a lot of traces lying around in the registry and program files folders. A registry cleaner can be very helpful with the former but doesn’t help with the latter.
A good solution for cleaning out both is Revo Uninstaller. It uses the app uninstaller, then finds leftover folders and registry keys and lets you decide whether or not to delete them.
http://www.sylogique.com Philippe
hum..
apparently a complex question!
many things comes in consideration and most of all you must define what kind of user you are and what kind of usage of your machine you do.
Really, I don’t understand those people performing scans and optimizations of all sorts on a weekly basics. WHAT DO THEY DO WITH THEIR COMPUTER??!! Install/uninstall 50 programs a week? My father is a bit like that mostly because is main use of his computer is it’s maintenance… yet once in a while he calls me because doing so, he broke something he can’t fix. heh!
My general advice is use them if you notice a drop of performance and you have done all your regular maintenance. It’s not something you want to use for nothing.
best practice is to know about the TYPES OF ISSUES found, then you can more easily judge if the fix is likely to brake something or improve performance.
I still dont’ know about how Windows 7 ages, so let’s see.
peace.
http://www.reg-cleaner.org Reg cleaner
I think it's worth it, I have been using reg cleaners for over 5 years, and they worked great for me.
http://www.best-registrycleaner.net registrycleaner
I absolutely use registry cleaners on a regular basis and can tell a major difference in stability and speed – depending on the state of the particular system and often the operating system.