Help with registry

[stigslim]

Hi folks not sure what to do so i figured i would post.Now as PC's go mine runs not too bad at all.I keep it pretty clean from nasties and stuff i don't want, but.Up until now i have pretty much left the registry alone and the only reason for this is that i am never sure what to get rid of.Anyway after many months i figured i would have a clean out and would like to try the registry too as i figure its probably seriously bogged down with stuff that does'nt need to be there, so.Can anyone point me in the direction of a tutorial on whats what or tell me what i should definetly not touch.I have a Ccleaner installed for the job but if anyone knows of something better/easier i would be very greatfull.Thanx in advance

[shadowpr]

I usually just let ccleaner do it's thing.

Not worth the risk of messing up your system, at least not to me.

[stigslim]

what do you check under the registry tool ? everything.If so what if it drops a B*!!*! and i can't start my PC does it make a backup which you can restore if it goes wobbly?.

Yes, before you run the cleaner, it ask you if you want to do a back-up. CCleaner hits the basic areas that are fairly safe. I, as others here, have been using it for several years with no problems. I check all the boxes except under advance, there I only check, Old Prefetch data, IIS Log Files, Custom Files and Folders.

[stigslim]

That all sounds a bit drastic but i will take your word for it and give it a go.If you hear a loud KABOOM and see a large mushroom cloud its probably me.I will come back and let you know how it goes. Lets just double check that, every option in the registry cleaner right?

[shadowpr]

Originally Posted by stigslim Lets just double check that, every option in the registry cleaner right?

Whatever the defaults are. That's what I use for the registry cleaner.

I also only make a back up for the first time I use it. If I get no problems from that one, then I never make a backup again, cause it usually only finds things after that when you uninstal programs.

[glc]

I don't even make backups. If worse comes to worse, you can start it in safe mode and do a system restore. I have yet to find this necessary with CCleaner, but in the past I've had different registry cleaners make a mess.

[juppy]

Originally Posted by glc I don't even make backups.

Same here. I did when I first started using it, just to be safe, but after the first two or three times of nothing bad happening, I just started running it with no backups beforehand. As for what to check, I just usually leave it on the defaults and the only additional thing I check is the Old Prefetch Data under the Advanced heading. Believe me, stigslim, no offence to you, but Ccleaner will do a better job than you could ever do manually and in a fraction of the time. The registry is just too big and too complex to try and manually sort through the crap.