Looking for a HDD and Registry cleaner that doesn't screw up your system?

[jacatone]

I'm running WinXP HE and I've been trying several of these HDD and Registry cleaners since I seem to try out a lot of software. I've tried System Mechanic and a number of others and they all seem to remove more than they should and make my system buggy. Does anyone know of a program that is truly safe to use.

[Panama Red]

I've been using Registry Healer for a few months now. Have it on two desk top pc's and one laptop, all with XP Home. It's the full version that I bought for about $20 online. You can download the trial version from PCWorld magazine or CNet, but it's pretty much too restrictive. I've had no conflicts or problems with this software at all and it does a great job of keeping the registy clean and organized.

[RayH]

Easy Cleaner by Toni Arts. It works pretty good. Doesn't over kill. Free.

[Harry]

What about the Dos one that was put out put out by someone on this board, I think Reboot. It was called "shop vac."

[reboot]

Shopvac is only for Win9x based systems.
EasyCleaner as RayH mentioned is good, I prefer RegScrubXP from Lexun freeware.
Everyone seems to rave about jv16's powertools, but it's mostly too complicated, redundant, easy to screw up your system with, and now it's not free any more.

[Prew]

The Toni Arts site has this caveat when using Easy Cleaner with Win XP:

Q1. Is EasyCleaner compatible with Windows versions....?
A1. EasyCleaner does NOT cause any problems on following operating systems: Windows 95/98/2000/NT 4 (or newer). There is a known problem in Windows ME & XP, that is when the registry scan is ran and all the items are deleted, Windows help system doesn't work anymore. The workaround to this problem is just to ADD the word help to the skip-list. Even if you DO delete some important info, there is certainly NO NEED TO RE-install Windows. BECAUSE EasyCleaner always creates backups (with default options) which can be restored easily. I also offer a fix file with these 4 entries listed ready to be imported back to the registry, see the download center. See help for more information!

Also, does anyone know whats going on with regscrubxp? Its been taken off the download list of several sites and the Lewun site doesn't appear to be active anymore.

[reboot]

It's hosted on a guys roadrunner account, and is dead slow at the best of times.
Maybe he's trying to get some money for it, or it breaks some copyright law....who knows?
I just know it's a great piece of software.
It may be available here: ftp://comp-solve.com/pub/RegScrubXP_3.1.exe

[Prew]

Thanks- its also on MajorGeeks.com