Ever wondered how many errors your computer has? Does your system’s registry need cleaning? Well you no longer need to guess!
Click here to download RegistryBooster
This free registry scan will give you a complete diagnosis of your Windows registry, identifying errors and conflicts.
Most computer users, with the exception of optimization junkies and advanced tweakers, never dare to tinker with their Windows Registry. As a matter of fact, most users are clueless when it comes to knowing what exactly the registry does, and amazingly, some are even unaware that the Windows Registry even exists. For the most part, computer users are never required to access or modify the Windows Registry manually, however whenever one changes their computer settings, updates their drivers, or alters an application, they are simultaneously making changes in the registry.
Throughout the week, I’ve been fortunate enough to review Uniblue’s Registry Booster, a dynamic registry scanning, defragmenting, and repairing utility. In the following article, I will detail the features and abilities of this program, test whether or not the Registry Booster improves system performance and stability, and express my personal thoughts toward Uniblue’s Registry Booster.
This review was written in 2006 and we gave this program positive marks (as you will see as you read on). Since then, we have seen a lot of user comments with negative feedback regarding the “free scan” not properly uninstalling from the computer. We specifically asked the company about this issue in an interview with Uniblue. They said the problem has been fixed, and they gave an explanation why it was occurring. Also, we independently checked the free scan here at PCMech since the interview and we have had no issues removing it from our systems.
In my experience, those people who are claiming that Registry Booster is malware and will not uninstall are not that computer literate themselves. In our tests, it DOES remove easily and causes no harm to our test computers. There are differing opinions out there on how effective the software is, but I am confident (at this point) that there is nothing dangerous about their free scan. People need to realize that ANY program that affects the Windows registry has the possibility of messing something up. That is why it is SO important to back up your registry before running any scanning software, whether it be Registry Booster or something else.
With that, I will leave you to read the rest of Ryan’s review…
Acting as a dynamic database that stores both settings and system information, the Windows Registry is an essential part of the Windows operating system. Information on hardware, software, and user preferences are stored in the Windows Registry, and the functionality and stability of one’s system relies heavily on the integrity of the registry. While much more could be said about the ins and outs of the registry, the one thing that I feel readers should know before continuing on with the article is that the Windows Registry isn’t perfect. Over time, unneeded registry entries accumulate and it is quite possible that registry errors will develop. Accumulating unneeded and invalid registry entries can hinder performance, and various registry errors can affect the stability of your applications.
Uniblue’s Registry Booster comes packaged with a boat-load of features designed to not only identify and repair registry errors, but to also help enhance system performance and stability at the same time. Some of these features include:
Unlike much of today’s software, Uniblue’s Registry Booster installs and functions properly on older computer systems very well. The recommended minimum system requirements are as follows:
Installation
Thanks to a wonderfully designed installer, the installation of Uniblue’s Registry Booster was fairly simple and effortless. So simple, in fact, that even the most novice computer user would find Uniblue’s Registry Booster easy to install compared to most other software. Additionally, as the Registry Booster is less than 10MB is size, the installation was extremely fast. Users are permitted to choose where they would like to install the Registry Booster, and whether or not they would like to have desktop and quick launch icons created.
Overall, I was quite impressed with the sleek and intuitive design of Uniblue’s Registry Booster. Using a unique tab-like system, everything was well laid out and easy to find. Having never used this product before, I am happy to say that I was neither confused nor perplexed by the arrangement of features within the Registry Booster’s colorful user interface. As the novelty of the Registry Booster’s interface began to set in, I decided it was time to see how effective Uniblue’s software really was.
Scanning: Uniblue’s Registry Booster comes packaged with a highly sophisticated scanning engine that peruses one’s registry in both a thorough and quick manner. I was surprised at how quickly the utility scanned my entire registry, and shocked to see that it had reported a total of 165 registry errors. While most of the errors were linked to missing paths and unneeded entries caused from adding and removing applications, I was completely unaware that my registry contained a total of 165 errors.
Backing Up: Like most performance enhancing programs these days, Uniblue’s Registry Booster comes with a registry back-up utility, just in case something goes awry. Before allowing the Registry Booster to make any changes to the registry, the software will prompt the user to back-up before proceeding. I found the back-up utility to be a little on the slow side, however I’d rather wait a few seconds longer and allow the program to create a fully restorable image of my Windows Registry. Don’t be excessively bold by not making a backup–you might regret it one day.
Repairing: Uniblue’s Registry Booster repairs the errors it finds, and does so in a timely manner. Furthermore, when an error is repaired, it is repaired for good and doesn’t reappear on subsequent registry scans.
Defragmenting: Until this review, I was completely unaware that my registry could even become “fragmented”. However, when I sat down to think about it, it actually made a lot of sense; hard drives become fragmented even after relatively moderate usage, and since we constantly are making changes to the registry, it can develop fragments over time as well. The defragmenting process was also very quick, and according to Uniblue, defragging one’s registry will improve boot times (read on for more). After running the defragmenting utility, the Registry Booster will prompt you to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
Determined to evaluate the effectiveness of Uniblue’s Registry Booster, I decided to benchmark my test computer both before and after running the Registry Booster’s scanning and defragging utilities.
At this point, I would like to point out that I am only testing the effectiveness of the Registry Booster from within Windows XP. Therefore, I can only assume that similar changes in system performance will occur within other operating systems.
Before testing my machine, I rigorously installed and uninstalled various freeware applications. In doing so, I hoped to create a relatively “messy” registry with various errors, fragments, and missing / unneeded entries. Likewise, after running Uniblue’s Registry Booster it detected a plethora of errors related to the many applications I added and then removed from my system. Most of the errors found were of the missing, orphaned, and unneeded variety. The results of the following tests demonstrate how repairing registry errors (that are associated with adding and removing programs) can affect system performance.
I have developed three unique tests to observe how Uniblue’s Registry Booster affects the performance of Windows XP.
Boot and Start-Up times: How long it takes from pushing the power button to when the Windows XP Desktop loads
Restart Times: How long it takes to restart Windows XP
Add/Remove Program List: How long it takes to load the Windows Add / Remove Program list
Before
| Start Up | Restart | Add/Remove Program List | |
| Trial One | 46 Seconds | 63 Seconds | 10 Seconds |
| Trial Two | 45 Seconds | 61 Seconds | 11 Seconds |
After
| Start Up | Restart | Add/Remove Program List | |
| Trial One | 43 Seconds | 58 Seconds | 10 Seconds |
| Trial Two | 44 Seconds | 57 Seconds | 9 Seconds |
As you can see, both start up and restart times were reduced significantly after using the Registry Booster’s scanning, repairing, and defragmenting utilities. However, there was only a one second average increase in loading the Add / Remove program list. From my tests, I feel confident in the performance enhancing capabilities of Uniblue’s Registry Booster. Being an avid computer enthusiast, even the tiniest improvements in system performance make me ecstatic.
Overall, I was very impressed with Uniblue’s Registry Booster. The software’s appearance, design, and performance enhancing capabilities exceeded my expectations. The scanning, repairing, and defragmenting utilities did exactly what they were supposed to and there was a definite boost in system performance. For a mere $30 download of their software, or $40 if you wish to buy the disk and packaging, I recommend Uniblue’s Registry Booster to all computer users. From what I’ve seen of the software so far, I can imagine that the Registry Booster will help stabilize and improve system performance on even the most erratically-behaving machines.
I give Uniblue’s Registry Booster a 9.5/10.
Ever wondered how many errors your computer has? Does your system’s registry need cleaning? Well you no longer need to guess!
Click here to download RegistryBooster
This free registry scan will give you a complete diagnosis of your Windows registry, identifying errors and conflicts.
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I ran this the Registry Booster and it found 1,200 errors. Should that really concern me and should I proceed with cleaning all of them? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
For a first run that’s not an excessive number. It would only be a worry if you repeatedly get numbers like that with a relatively short interval between scans — like every couple of days.
I’ve been using RegistryBooster approximately weekly for several months, as have a number of my clients. None of us have had a problem.
However, intrusive utilities like Registry cleaners can reveal problems you didn’t know you had, which will usually become evident after you’ve run the fix. The program allows you to do a pre-scan backup of the Registry for a very good reason.
Reboot your computer before you run a scan, and again after a fix has completed.
Best regards,
- Bill Hely
- Author: “The Hacker’s Nightmare”
- “How to keep hackers, worms & other germs out of your PC”
- BLOG: http://ComputerAndOnlineSecurity.com
Heh, I had 1775 registry errors. I’m still not sure if it’s worth the money, though.
I downloaded Uniblue registry booster (free trial), and it wanted me to purchase before any removal. Why purchase a program that you really don’t know if your going to like or not? No registries were removed, I closed the program, then went to uninstall it, and as soon as I clicked remove, it came up with the INSTALL program to install it. I do not trust this. And any time a software pulls up a 100 different things to be removed, then wants me to purchase, sends up a red flag. I will never buy any software that say FREE scan, THEN say purchase to remove. How do I not know it is giving a bunch of false positives. This is bad business practices.
> Why purchase a program that you really don’t know if
> your going to like or not?
You might ask the same question of practically every major commercial software developer. When was the last time Microsoft gave you a free copy of Office to see if you liked it? As has been pointed out by others in previous messages, developers who want to stay in business don’t spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on software development just to give it away for free. There’s plenty of free crap around, help yourself, and be prepared for the consequences.
As for the rest of your message, your reasoning is illogical.
Firstly, why did you even bother to download a registry cleaner if you’re not going to believe the results because, in your own words: “How do I not know it is giving a bunch of false positives.”
Secondly, what would you have done if RegistryBooster was completely free? You would have run the cleanup. In other words, you would trust a free program, but not one you have to pay for. Sounds like the definition of STUPID to me.
And finally, please point to the location on the Uniblue website where it says that a complete repair process is free. What it actually says is that the SCAN is free, and it is. You’re another one of those people who see what they want to see instead of what’s actually written in plain language. If you don’t understand the difference between SCAN and REPAIR refer to a dictionary. Because you can scan the horizon doesn’t mean you can alter it.
If you were seriously interested in determining the value of this product you would have read at least most of the earlier messages on this topic. It’s not hard to identify the people who obviously know what they’re talking about, as opposed to the ignorant/misinformed novices.
Many of us use RegistryBooster on a regular basis without a problem.
Jason,
It seems to me that you are a Microsoft employee with the culture of perpetual updates and monopolistic practices, take a look at all the good Open Source software, is it free? yes, do people trust on it? yes. In case you don’t know about what Open Source is, Firefox and OpenOffice may sound familiar to you.
I think that registry booster business model is too aggressive, take a look at skype, or even logmein which I’ve used for years and they are not bugging me to upgrade to their other products (which BTW are pretty good) every time I log into my account and try to do something.
Armado, I believe you have jumped to an unjustified conclusion regarding Jason’s employment. By doing a search for his name through previous messages here I came across this statement from him: “I support 200+ mixed Windows platforms in a small manufacturing company”. Even quite apart from that, I can see no inference in his response that he is a Microsoft employee.
And I have to admit that Jason’s response makes perfect sense to me also.
> I think that registry booster business model is too aggressive
Neither you nor I are in a position to know what Uniblue’s “business model” is. What you’re referring to is their apparent advertising & marketing policy, and if you had any business experience you would know that, unless you like failure or mediocrity, you can never be too aggressive in your marketing.
Advertising is all about testing testing testing, and marketing policies are based on the results. The free scan + limited free fix is widely used in the marketing of many software products, it’s quite upfront, it’s a legitimate tactic, and its very successful from a sales perspective (or it wouldn’t continued to be used).
While many open source software products are excellent, they are vastly outnumbered by the faulty crap. But the biggest problem of all with open source software, as far as business and professional people are concerned, is the “no fault” situation. If a commercial application causes a problem, say on a network of dozens of computers, requiring thousands of dollars worth of man-hours to fix, the business has some recourse to compensation. But who do you sue in the case of most open source software? Some open source software from major corporations is an exception to that observation, but not many.
Such considerations are also partly (but only partly) the reason that Linux has never taken off as a desktop operating system in the business environment.
In the case of an invasive tool such as a registry cleaner, I would certainly want to know that there is professional development and a responsible company behind it before I would let it scour through my Registry.
Of course, as an individual you are free to use or ignore anything you like. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that your particular situation will be applicable to everyone.
- Bill Hely
- Author: “The Hacker’s Nightmare”
- “How to keep hackers, worms & other germs out of your PC”
- BLOG: http://ComputerAndOnlineSecurity.com
Bill,
I am realizing that I don’t want to engage in a conversation that will not be positive at all, because I suspect that you have no idea of what open source is (I wonder if you even use Firefox). So perhaps I was not positive I admit, and I apologize to Jason, to you and all readers of this blog post and comments.
All I want to say at this point, in hope that it benefits how people use comments on a blog (including me) is this: let’s try to bring value to readers, and talk to each other as friends of a community. The fact that I disagree to something or that you have a website where you have an affiliate link to Registry Booster and if people talk negatively you will make less money, does not mean that we have to be rude to each other.
I will not comment any more here, because I don’t feel right engaging in this type of dynamic, so peace!
Thanks
-Armando
-No affiliate link
Armado, it’s easy to make disparaging comments and then say that you’re not going to comment further. That doesn’t discourage me from responding in order to clarify the situation for others who may be misled by your claims and suppositions.
Firstly, Firefox is my preferred browser. I also use Internet Explorer and Google Chrome for certain purposes, and several other browsers and versions on occasion, mainly to test websites. I will also make the bold statement that Internet Explorer can be used quite safely by those who know what they’re doing — but very few average PC users are in that position.
And after 20+ years in IT I think I’ve got a reasonable idea of what open source is all about. I have probably used, tested and been involved with the development of more open source applications than you have heard of. Just a guess, but not an unreasonable one!
> you have a website where you have an
> affiliate link to Registry Booster
Very true, but much more important than the fact that I promote RegistryBooster is the REASON that I promote it and the sequence of events that led to the decision.
As readers of my book “The Hacker’s Nightmare” know, I used to recommend a different registry cleaner. But I’m always testing new products and when something comes up that is a worthy replacement for a previous recommendation, I move to the better option. There is a notice inside the members area of The Hacker’s Nightmare website that members who are using my previous recommendation shouldn’t feel compelled to change, as it is still a good product that does the job.
However I determined RegistryBooster to be a solid product with an excellent user interface that did a thorough job with much less fuss and user intervention than most of its competitors.
Like any ethical consultant I only promote/recommend products that I would use myself — and preferably that I have been able to personally test. While not all of my readers use all of my recommendations all of the time, in the five years since the first version of The Hacker’s Nightmare I have never had a single reader call me out for recommending a product that wasn’t up to scratch. You can read my own recent article on registry cleaners here:
http://computerandonlinesecurity.com/hints-tips/choosing-a-registry-cleaner/
That article and my own adoption of RegistryBooster followed a period of personal testing, and only then did I decide that the product was worthy of promotion.
> does not mean that we have to be rude to each other.
No it doesn’t, but misinformation deserves a firm response, and if you choose to view a stern correction as rudeness then I can only suggest that your sensitivity control needs an adjustment. There was nothing rude about my previous response, and it’s a cheap shot for you to try and take that way out.
In discussion arenas such as this I try to provide factual information free of charge, based on my long and varied experience in this industry. Only a fool would claim to have all the answers, and I don’t have anywhere near all of them — but I think I can reasonably claim that I probably have more answers than the average computer user. It doesn’t affect me in the slightest if people choose to ignore what I have to say. And if anyone wishes to disagree by presenting a sensible argument, I’m always happy to listen, learn and debate.
Of course there is an obvious benefit to me in giving free help and advice to people; it gives me a chance to demonstrate that there might be some benefit to taking a look at my books. That’s just commonsense marketing.
- Bill Hely
- Author: “The Hacker’s Nightmare”
- “How to keep hackers, worms & other germs out of your PC”
You might want to check your facts before you make random statements. Microsoft does indeed offer you “free” trials on their software, you get to use Windows Vista for 30 days with full functionality, Office System 2007 for 60 days, if you can be bothere you can even get to check out Windows 7 for close to a year.
Yes, they do this with the intent that you purchase their product after you have had the chance to evaluate it.
So your statement that no company offers a free trial with full functionality is at best inaccurate. And if that still isn’t good enough for you, as Armando said, go Open Source.
Microsoft DO NOT provide free copies of Office to anyone who wants it. They allow you to trial the commercial version, and that’s not free, it’s just delayed payment. OK, maybe I could have worded it better, but you’re the only one to object so it seems everyone else understood exactly what I meant. Commercial developers who want to stay in business don’t give their stuff away for free.
Software developers have many different ways of enticing people to buy their products: Time-limited trial of a complete product - Trial version may be limited or crippled in some way - Trial version may produce watermarked output, like some of the PDF printers, and so on.
The nature of the trial will be at least partly dictated by the nature of the software, and each publisher has every right to determine the most appropriate way to place limits on their trials.
Windows 7 is a completely different situation. It’s available for free because it’s not a finished product, hence the name “Release Candidate”. Making this time-limited version available is a marketing and research exercise. The official blurb is that you can use it for free until June 1 next year, but in reality it will be unusable after March 1, as it will automatically shut down every two hours after that date.
Bill Hely described registry cleaners as “invasive” software and that’s an appropriate description. If I took an open source registry cleaner into my company and it trashed some of our servers or any of our over 200 workstations, the company would have no one to turn to for recovery costs and I’d be out of a job for running such a risk. That’s a completely different situation to running something like Open Office, which I’d be quite comfortable with.
I was not trying to promote the Registry Cleaner, my point simply was that you can get trial versions of software from pretty much any company, where the only limitation is the time its usable.
In my opinion Uniblue Registry Cleaner is just another application that does more harm than it fixes, and I base that on the experience I have had with the machines I have removed it from.
I agree with you that companies only provide trial software to entice the consumer to buy it, but I will still stick by my claim that it is possible to get trial versions of their software.
Jason is right to a degree. Quite common that a free trial teases you otherwise no one would buy. However the ability to completely uninstall shouldn’t be a problem and if RegistryBooster is making that difficult I would hesitate downloading. I use another product that is very good - registrymedic and they do the same thing with their trial version … only so many entries will be cleaned for free. Give that a shot because I know it uninstalls completely.
As I have personally proven many times (and reported on here quite a few times as well), there are no uninstall problems with RegistryBooster unless there is a problem with the host computer, and that can happen with any software installation. There are certain system problems that will prevent any application from uninstalling properly.
Here’s the root cause of many complaints…
What you have to understand is that *ANY* registry cleaner is an invasive tool, in that it makes changes to a vital system component. It’s not at all uncommon for a registry-related problem to exist but to go unnoticed until an attempt is made to rectify the problem, for example by the running of a registry cleaner.
99.9% of the time the uninformed user will immediately leap to the (usually erroneous) conclusion that the registry cleaner is at fault.
Fortunately, well-designed registry cleaners like RegistryBooster almost force you to take a pre-cleanup backup, so in the worst-case scenario you can simply restore the backup, effectively undoing the repair actions of the registry cleaner.
Another related complaint is that RegistryBooster doesn’t appear in the “Add or Remove Programs” applet. This too can happen with any application. Why? Well…
It can help to understand just how installed applications get included in the “Add or Remove Programs” list in the first place. That’s a topic I addressed in this article:
http://computerandonlinesecurity.com/hints-tips/understanding-troubleshooting-the-add-or-remove-programs-applet/
Anyone with questions about the contents of that article can use the Comment box under the article and be assured of a prompt reply.
Best regards,
- Bill Hely
- Author: “The Hacker’s Nightmare”
- “How to keep hackers, worms & other germs out of your PC”
Bill,
I have the Uniblue program in my computer, my husband thought it was free. We tried to uninstall it several times and it will not. It tells us that the installation is incomplete. We can not get it off of our computer. It comes on at start up. Any ideas on how to remove it?
Billie:
Try this article, and read the comments below it as well:
http://computerandonlinesecurity.com/hints-tips/understanding-troubleshooting-the-add-or-remove-programs-applet
Best regards,
- Bill Hely
- Author: “The Hacker’s Nightmare”
- “How to keep hackers, worms & other germs out of your PC”
When I attempted to purchase Uniblue Registry Booster, the site never came up. When I attempted to call them on the number provided 1 866 221 3456, I got a verizon conferencing message. I tried the 952 908 4027 number and I was place on hold for a long time (pretty music though). After five minutes of pretty music, I finally gave up. It makes me wonder if this software is a scam.
Alan, I and many of my clients have been using RegistryBooster for quite some time now, and I can assure you it’s not a scam. It’s an above-average example of its type of product. Of course there is no reason you should take my word for that, but just a little bit of research would reveal that quite a large number of respected reviewers have tested and praised the product.
Your experience in trying to contact Uniblue has been unfortunate to say the least, but not typical. In my experience getting a response from them has never been a problem. However “stuff” does happen, so…
Hilary Rogers from Uniblue has posted her direct e-mail address here in previous messages quite a few times, so I’m sure it will be OK for me to repeat it for you: hilaryr@uniblue.net
- Bill Hely
- Author: “The Hacker’s Nightmare”
- “How to keep hackers, worms & other germs out of your PC”
- BLOG: http://ComputerAndOnlineSecurity.com
i don’t know what all the hype is about, i bought it and like so many other things it appears to be just a hoax. it “cleaned” all the errors it claimed i had, but i still get my .dll warning windows at start up. seems like i’ve been duped again.
Mikal, if you knew how silly and inappropriate that comment is you’d cringe with embarrassment for saying it in public.
If you want help with something RELATING TO REGISTRYBOOSTER then provide some useful details here or, better still, contact Uniblue support via their website.
If you want help sorting out a “DLL problem”, WHICH HAS A 99% PROBABILITY OF HAVING NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR WINDOWS REGISTRY, seek out a forum where such things are discussed. In fact, more often than not such questions can be resolved by carefully considering the keywords that best associate with the problem, then doing a Google search with them.
No single software tool is going to be the right answer for every problem that may beset your PC. You first need to determine exactly what the problem is, then find the right tool for the job — if a tool is even necessary.
- Bill Hely
- Author: “The Hacker’s Nightmare”
- “How to keep hackers, worms & other germs out of your PC”
- BLOG: http://ComputerAndOnlineSecurity.com
I’ve been reading through… what… three pages of comments and replies? I’ve lost count, as I have also been linking, cross linking, google search/researching, and making a general waste of my morning.
*/-aside: I need to quantify that I originally downloaded, ran and thought about full purchase, then realized that I purchased a new laptop not two hours ago and intend on wiping this one when it gets here in the post… sometime in the next couple of days… so yeah, just an exercise in random learning?-
While I have read Bill’s posts with the trepidation of your average truly cynical/pessimistic internet/windows user, I find everything he has said to be very forward and factual. I’ll point out that I actually surfed Bill’s blog for a little while as well.
I was content with reading and preparing to “fav” the blog for later perusal when I came across a little tet-a-tet that ended with this little jewel:
>I think it’s widely accepted that we become less accommodating as we get older. We also care a lot less
>about criticism, but it’s a personal foible of mine that I’m as passionate as ever about seeing that people
>who are interested in learning aren’t fed crap — intentionally or accidentally.
Bravo… seriously! I just had to commend you for that, Bill. I’m tempted to purchase your book, and the Power Suite here just to solidify my stand behind that last bit of honesty and genius. Thank you, Bill, for giving me a lift… I’ll definitely favorite your blog… likely buy your book… and give some of your recommendations a good researching, in the least. Now I just have to remember what service I was going to use for my online bookmarks before I wipe my drive
….and it appears I may have double posted… once with the wrong email address.
Excuse me … but according to my eyes,
Uniblue offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
I think that means you can try Registry Booster
for 30 days, and if you don’t like it, you can get
all your money back.
So … what’s there to complain about?
I was ready to try this software but after reading the review and comments I’ve decided against it. The performance improvements don’t sound significant and the potential for problems does. In addition I can tell you that I have issues with the software industry squeezing a living out of people by rendering their product obsolete every year or two. Microsoft is the most salient and egregious example of this. I use open source and other freeware. AVG, Zonealrm and Mailwasher to name 3 off the top. They all work beautifully and they have never failed to update, been rendered obsolete, or tried squeeze a cent out of me. I can’t remember the last time I actually paid for software. My impression is that the industry is bent on putting out crappy software so that customer will have to buy the new and improved versions and so on. They are not in the business of providing good value. As to having someone to complain to if you have bought and paid for crappy software - try it.
Again I have to apologize in advance for the length of one of my posts, but it’s too important a topic to allow serious misconceptions to go uncorrected. I think this blog has a limit on the length of comments so I’ll split my response into two parts.
PART ONE
> I was ready to try this software but after reading
> the review and comments I’ve decided against it.
On the one hand you have a number of people whose message comments alone provide a fair indication that they are very inexperienced at best, and in many cases just plain ignorant/stupid/biased. Sorry to have to say it, but that’s the only reasonable conclusion that can be reached considering the content of many messages in this topic. And no, I’m not casting aspersions on everybody who has lodged a complaint.
On the other hand you have a plethora of reviews Written by IT journalists and practitioners. Obviously I haven’t read every review on the product, but I have read quite a few, and I’ve yet to see one that was in any way disparaging. In fact I can’t recall seeing one that wasn’t a glowing recommendation.
While many people may not think highly of the opinion of journalists, those who write in the IT sphere are invariably a few tiers above the average computer user in knowledge and experience, and are often IT professionals or ex-professionals themselves.
So who’s opinion would you prefer to be guided by?
> The performance improvements don’t sound significant
As I’ve attempted to explain here several times, with a registry cleaner performance isn’t the issue. The prime purpose of a registry cleaner is to maintain a clean and stable base for your installation of Windows and of the applications installed within it. That base being the Windows Registry, without which everything falls apart.
The next thing that the skeptic invariably comes up with is something like: “Well Joe Expert says registry cleaners are a waste of time”. In response to that position let me quote from one of my previous contributions to this topic:
1. The efficacy of registry cleaners has been debated ad nauseam for years, and even experts inside and outside of Microsoft can’t agree.
2. Mark Russinovich has been one of the planet’s most respected experts on the Windows architecture for well over a decade. In 2006 Microsoft bought his companies Sysinternals and Winternals so they could get hold of his range of utility products and him, appointing him a Technical Fellow in their Platform and Services Division.
3. Russinovich has publicly supported the use of Registry Cleaners: “So it seems that Registry junk is a Windows fact of life and that Registry cleaners will continue to have a place in the anal-sysadmin’s tool chest, at least until we’re all running .NET applications that store their per-user settings in XML files – and then of course we’ll need XML cleaners”. In my opinion such a claim from someone of Russinovich’s standing outweighs anything to the contrary from some unidentified “respected Microsoft employee”.
4. Although Registry Defragging and Registry Cleaning are slightly different, there is enough of an association to mention that Microsoft still distributes the PageDefrag utility originally developed by Mark Russinovich, thus implicitly giving their blessing to Registry Defragging.
5. Microsoft’s Windows Live OneCare includes a REGISTRY CLEANER to (in their words) “help remove invalid or obsolete registry items on your computer”.
Cleaning up an out-of-shape Registry will often result in performance improvements, which can range from imperceptible to significant. The degree of improvement depends entirely on individual circumstances and there is no way that you can gauge your potential results from those of others. The suggestion of performance improvements, while attractive from a sales perspective, should be regarded as a bonus only.
PART TWO
> …and the potential for problems does.
So long as the registry cleaner software is a quality product, it would be more correct to say that there is a potential for quiescent problems to be bought out into the open. It is extremely unlikely that a quality registry cleaner will *cause* problems. However the user must recognise that, by its very nature, a registry cleaner is an intrusive software tool, and a poorly designed cleaner could cause registry corruption. Of course the elementary precaution of taking a registry backup would allow recovery even in that case.
The nub of that warning is to be guided in your choice of a registry cleaner by knowledgeable people, and give no credence to the rantings of the uninformed.
Also, be careful about confusing “free” and “open source”. Open source software is that for which the source code is published and made publicly available. Many commercial publishers offer a free version of their product, but they certainly don’t publish the source code.
And as I’ve made quite clear in other posts, in my opinion the words “free” and “registry cleaner” don’t belong together. For anything so important I want a proven commercial product backed by a publisher who will be responsible for its performance.
Finally, in the interests of those readers looking for good solutions, I feel compelled to comment on two of your anti-malware choices.
Grisoft is one of my favourite publishers in the anti-malware field and for a long time I did recommend the free version of AVG to my readers and subscribers. However that changed with v8, and I issued an amended recommendation to our members, which reads in part:
“With the recent release of AVG v.8 we no longer view the free version as offering suitable protection. There is a comparison table on the Grisoft website that clearly illustrates there is now too much missing from the free version to make it a viable option. Rootkit detection alone makes the retail version worth every bit of the small cost.”
Zone alarm was another of my recommendations a few years ago, but sadly their developers have followed in the footsteps of so many others and allowed the product to balloon into a bloated monster. Anyone searching for a top-quality software firewall should take a look at Comodo or, my personal favorite, Online Armor from Tall Emu Software.
Best regards,
- Bill Hely
- Author: “The Hacker’s Nightmare”
- “How to keep hackers, worms & other germs out of your PC”
- BLOG: ComputerAndOnlineSecurity.com
Bill I think you missed the point of some of the replies on this subject. I would think by now its a well known fact that Windblows is notoriously horrible at keeping the reg.db in a somewhat clean and ordered state, and there is a necessity for 3rd party programs to correct that.
But as you probably know the list of programs that promises to deliver that functionality is extremely long, and most of the products destroys more than they fix. My view on the Uniblue Registry Booster is that the behaviour of the product is not in line with how a product of this type should behave, and when a company decides to make something as simple as an uninstall a messy task, they put themselves in a really poor light.
I personally would never recommend this product to anyone, and I do work in the IT industry.
Even the greatest of experts can be wrong.
At my workplace we have used RegistryBooster extensively for almost a year.
Since I have the experience with the product to be able to have an informed opinion, I’m going to ask you to justify your statement “In my opinion Uniblue Registry Cleaner is just another application that does more harm than it fixes”.
We both know it was just a throwaway condemnation that you can’t justify, but I’d like to hear you try. Or, more likely, not try.
James R Grant (real name)
IT Support (real job)
40+ XP & Vista PCs & Laptops (real inventory)
Hey all, this forum has been a pretty interesting read. It is obvious there are very conflicting opinions about this product.
For the record I found out about Uniblue Registry Booster via http://www.speedtest.net which has a banner proudly stating “Automatically boosts PC performance”. I did not see a reference to a trial version or associated costs.
I clicked and it took me to http://www.liutilities.com/products/campaigns/adv/rb/speedtest/sky/au/, which proudly states: “Fix Your PC’s Errors”, “Boost Your PC’s Speed”, “Increase Your PC’s Performance”, “Prevent Crashes & Freezes”, “Clean Your System”, and a download link to the .exe file. Again no mention of costs/trial/freeware. I’m getting suspicious, so I Google and (1) find this forum and (2) find http://www.uniblue.com (the official website).
The official website diverts me to http://www1.uniblue.com/products/campaigns/ppc/ub/google/us/index.html and under Registry Booster 2009 states: “94% of computers have corrupt, unused, and possibly harmful files. Clean, repair, and optimize your system with the leading and award-winning Registry Booster from Uniblue.”
At least here it states I can download a trial or buy it. There is no indication on how long the trial will be or what the limitations of the trial are. As a matter fact, there is no information about the product beyond the above statement. Am I missing something? Where’s the product description? The details on the product and its capabilities?
Based on the experience so far, I would have closed the browser and gone elsewhere, but the forum has fed my curiosity to find out what all the jazz is about. Against my better judgment, I downloaded RegistryBooster and installed it. Half expecting to see the popup to tell me this is a trail version being installed and functionality is limited, but not overly surprised when it didn’t.
Launching the application after install immediately launched the scan (I didn’t like that!). I cancelled and it had already found some “errors” (I notice the “unregistered” highlight, but can only guess its meaning). Clicking repair says only 15 can be repaired, unless I buy the full version.
Now I can identify some of the haters of this software:
1) No info on the product (even on the official site)
2) No warning of the limitations until after installation, scan, and request to clean.
3) Immediately running the process upon launch, without warning or notice.
4) Only requesting purchase for software after setting me up to think it was going to help me.
If I had not read the forum before-hand, I’d probably go around telling people not to download this software at the risk of it being spyware/malware. However, I am confident from what I’ve read that it is not.
Based on the handlig of Uniblue to push it’s software without information or proper warning, disclaimer, etc. has caused me to lose confidense in the software as a whole. Despite Bill Hely’s and other people’s testimony and strong stand behind the software, i’m not convinced that this software will be very likeable if Uniblue continue to market in this way.
I have had no issue with uninstalling it, which is a relief.
If I have in someway erred, please correct as applicable.
(I’m only 30 years old :P)
Daniel, that saga makes it sound like this is your first foray onto the World Wide Web. What’s unusual about having to follow a few links from a banner ad on another site? What’s unusual about a company having more than one website? Many companies, including my own employer, own and use multiple domain names.
You admit zero experience with RegistryBooster so you’re not in a position to comment on its usability or otherwise. However, most of the information you claim is not available is indeed available. But unfortunately for you, you are apparently one of those adventurous folk who ignore user guides and plunge right in.
From the RegistryBooster 2009 Manual: “RegistryBooster offers a free registry scan which allows you to defrag your Windows registry and fix 15 entries.”
As for the program immediately launching into a scan “without warning or notice”, that also is incorrect. Didn’t you notice the little checkbox with the prompt that read: “Run Uniblue RegistryBooster 2009 now.”? You can leave it checked or you can uncheck it, the option is yours.
Daniel, you have based your final decision on a series of false premises. If you keep your self-inflicted misadventure to yourself and just move on you are the only one affected. But when you report your false observations as facts, you harm others who don’t deserve it.
James R Grant (real name)
IT Support (real job)
40+ XP & Vista PCs & Laptops (real inventory)
Well this has been an interesting read.
I would like to report a rather dramatic increase in performance on cold boot. I no longer have time to make a cup of tea. The only thing that seems to have “gone wrong” was the internet home page was turned to a blank page but I do not know what caused that to happen.
But is does beg the question “why does windows need third party program to keep running?”. For a number of years I have always installed the operating system in it’s own partition and kept all down loads and new stuff in another so the mess that was being created was being done by windows alone. This helps a little and makes defragging the operating system a simple task. But is does confirm there are some fundamental “internal management” deficiencies in windows. And before you ask I started with DOS 3, numerous versions of windows and now XP.
So far I am happy with Uniblue. Alex
Unlike the various “informed” commentors above, I represent the user who just wants to get stuff done and probably represent the average user who’s been scarred into buying various products to keep me, my finances and my computer “safe” from various outside nare-do-wells who want to rip me and my bank accounts off. In this process, I now find myself spending more and more time performing system maintenance and checking out articles such as these, when there’s so much better things to do with the time. Considering the enormous vested interests of the IT and software industries, it’s no wonder that there’s always another “problem” to fix. The whole IT industry is stupid. It’s similar to the UK motor bike industry in the sixties / seventies when you had to know how to set the points, replace cylinder head gaskets and be able to trace headlamp electrical faults on your Norton or Triumph. And then came along the Japanese with their “press to start and ride for thrills until done” approach. The rest is history. Geeks can stick to geekiness. My guess is that “computers” are becoming more and more daunting to currently non-users, fuelled by scare stories…………exacerbated exponentially now by cybercrime etc. This is potentially stunting sales and growth. For the aforementioned “stupid”, read manipulative. The dominance of Microsoft may now mean that a normal users “white Knight” may never come along to provide the nirvana of “press and go” and in the mean-time I actually invite nare-do-wells (generically) into my computer by buying their software as an almost complete act of faith; and even if I can return to previous settings I’ve donated US$ 30 (on average) to someones Ferrari fund. I like Glenn’s comment (29 May), “that the behaviour of the product is not in line with how a product of this type should behave”. No matter how “geeky” brilliant the product is, it deserves to struggle if it fails to initially instill confidence from the outset with users such as myself and, what-ever business model the IT industry chooses to pursue, companies cannot hope to maintain sustainability if their products don’t satisfy customers expectations. Back to the drawing board for Uniblue’s marketing Dept?
After reading the post I have to say the only person that sounded reasonable was Daniel. The only thing Bill Hely did for me was prove that he wasn’t a very nice person by telling people they sound silly, that they are inappropriate and they are ignorant/stupid/biased. I don’t consider my self ignorant/stupid/or biased but I was still offended by the statement and concidered it immature. It seem to me that if you didn’t rave about the product you got put down by Bill and JasonP. Everybody has there opinion no need to call them ignorant and such because they don’t agree with you. Even if they put you down it is better to ignore most of it than stoop to there level. It’s called being professional and it is necessary if you want to sell a product. At any rate I am totally turned off by the whole commentary section so I will go else where for the very same type of product. God know there are tons out there that are just as good and don’t have a whole page full of petty bickering
Indeed… This blog’s comments had been hijacked from the beginning by Bill.
Peace out to Craig, Armado, Mikal, Glenn, Malcolm, Daniel, you (Lynda), and the rest; except Casey, Everett, Jason; and of course; Bill.
And now Linda, to add to your misery, here I am!
What are you, a little kid? If information isn’t fed to you gently with sugar and cuddles you’re going to sulk? Grow up. Amongst all the stupidity there has been some first-class information provided here. Mature people will be grateful and learning from it.
And anyway, like so many others have done throughout this blog, you’re grossly misquoting. I went back and found the comments you were referring to and it’s quite clear to anyone with half a brain that Bill wasn’t “telling people they sound silly, that they are inappropriate and they are ignorant/stupid/biased” (all your words).
You conveniently ignore the part where he said: “Sorry to have to say it, but that’s the only reasonable conclusion that can be reached considering the content of many messages in this topic. And no, I’m not casting aspersions on everybody who has lodged a complaint.”
Having now read every message in this blog topic since the beginning I’ll go further and say that many of the comments made have been so brain-dead that they would have to have been made by complete morons. Either that or by people with a sinister agenda of their own, and I’m fairly sure there’s a few of them. And like Bill, I’m not including people who have just been misled or lack experience. But I am including people like yourself whose aim is clearly to disrupt and misinform. But your biggest offense is to belittle people who go out of their way to help and inform others.
James R Grant (real name)
IT Support (real job)
40+ XP & Vista PCs & Laptops (real inventory)
100% agree with Daniel and Lynda. In debate theory, most of what Jason and Bill stated in their rebutalls make absolutely no logical sense (hence, IMO, fallacious). They strike me as prideful and arrogant (yes, this sounds like a personal attack which is the “ad hominem attack fallacy” but those statements are merely an expression of an opinion. Examples: Jason and Bill completely miss the point that not clearly stating that whatever the trial version finds will not be fixed is flat out deception. It’s legal, but it’s deception nevertheless. And it’s an indefensible business practice. And for Jason and Bill to not acknowledge that is sad indeed. Instead, they use the straw man fallacy to change the topic to Windows not being free (which properly got rebutted that many of their key products are fully functional for 30 to 60 days (Office, etc.). And the second straw man was about open source — it too is fully functional and absolutely free.
Another weak point is to mention Russinovich and his supporting Registry cleaners *without* giving a citation. Not good and don’t tell me I can Google it. In a debate, the judges will take points away and tell you “no sopup for you!”. nd by the way, many of us here could write the same tools Russinovich wrote if we immersed ourselves in the user and kernel APIs, learned to writeand debug drivers, etc., etc. Mark is no brighter no better than most of us. What I would say about him proudly is that he took the risk of carving out a chunk of his life to do what at first was poorly paid-for work (in my opinion) but soon developed a snowballing reputation by admins and other bright technical folks who sorely needed (and understood) the value of his tools and were thankful he and Bryce took the time to write them. And now they deservedly reap the rewards for their effort. But all of that does not mean they support registry cleaners. What it means is that they support a registry cleaner(if that statement is indeed true) that is well designed and marketed properly. And there are none out there. Period, plain and simple. It’s always the lesser of many evils when it comes to such a tool. Which one has the least worst phone support, which one is the least intrusive, which one is the least likely to throw eggs in it’s own face in areas such as uninstalls, etc., etc. The only registry manipulation I trust is that which removes certifiably known entries corresponding to viruses. That’s what some anti-virus/malware products do and that is very convenient (vs. manually doing them or copying and pasting what the threat report says into a registry-update-script).
BTW, I installed this product, was hugely disappointed when it wouldn’t fix everything like I tjhought it would, and did indeed immediately uninstall it without a problem. I was very angry about assuming the trial version would allow removal immediately. I wholheartedly **DO NOT** recommend for the above and several other undisclosed reasons I will be glad to post if requested by three or more people.
One more comment. I found this blog most interesting. It grabbed my attention when Mr. Passey showed the tables of comparision for Before and After cleaner — and so if i do nothing but Restart my computer and go into Add/Remove programs I will reduce the startup time and restart times from 46 and 63 to 43 and 58 seconds. This is a 6.5% and 7.9% speedup. And yet Mr. Passey said:
As you can see, both start up and restart times were reduced *****significantly*****
The asterisks are mine. This is known as the fallacy of hyperbole (or exaggeration). I have now gone to the trouble to show the audience ****millions****
:-) of examples and by the this time you get my point :-).
Anyway, along the chuckling side of things, my reaction to this use of the word “significantly” was akin to Jim Mora’s classical “playoffs? playoffs?” reaction to reporters after an embarrassing comeback defeat against his Indianapolis Colts when he was there head coach… “Significantly? Significantly?…”
My point is this: what the heck kind of a boost is all that? And how about the notion that I spend 10 hours = 600 minutes on my computer *AFTER* I restart it and gain that 5 second improvement in the first of those 600 minutes? Mr. Passey, what will registry booster do for me in the next 599 minutes? I appreciate your being ecstatic over such a “tiny” (your words) improvement but it doesn’t do much for me — you need to measure it during the course of a day by coming up with a well designed benchmark that simulates a variety of applications. Defrag s/w is a different story and I won’t argue there but it would be foolish for anyone to buy anything other than the best and trust me, it’s not Uniblue (IMO).
Regards, H.
I’ll get back to you in due course Harry, as your previous message deserves attention, but right now I have work to do. However just before I go, a couple of questions:
“it would be foolish for anyone to buy anything other than the best”
Agreed, of course. So would you care to share your wisdom and tell us what product that is? Or perhaps if you could just explain how we determine that for ourselves.
“trust me, it’s not Uniblue (IMO).”
And tell me Harry, exactly why should we trust you on that point? All I’ve seen from you so far is broad generalizations, unsubstantiated claims and a lot of pompous waffle. Perhaps you could provide something a bit more substantial to give us faith in your professional opinion on this subject.
James R Grant (real name)
IT Support (real job)
40+ XP & Vista PCs & Laptops (real inventory)
“Update from David Risley on 12/7/07
This review was written in 2006…”
Registry Booster 2009 … reviewed in 2006!
Enough said! When is the review for Registry Booster 2012 due to be published? Oh it’s being reviewed by the editor for release next week, alongside it’s release!
I had to delete my long post due to reading Harry’s….
I agree to a certian extent with some of the comments… from all posters. This is trapware… they trick you into downloading and installing, then tell you it’s only a trial, or to actually work you have to buy. A plan to get a bill to stop companies like this keep being held up or constantly killed. Lobbiest and currupt politicians are making a profit as are these companies…
Call you local represenative and ask them what are they doing to protect you from these companies!
DO NOT install this unless you plan to BUY it. No TRIAL version!
http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/null/3472
The Above article will help those who are undecided and wonder if they need it or not.
Those who think they need it… I use CCleaner (Free to use, try, update) And they do not harrass you to donate, warning Yahoo toolbar is pre-checked comes as part of the CCleaner toolbar… just uncheck it if you do not want it. Allows you to do much more then fix the registry, will even remove stubburn add/remove programs from registry. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ccleaner
Here is the artile I was searching for, forgot where it was… enjoy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registry_cleaner