Free registry cleaner

[kit]

Morning all Does anyone know of a good free registry cleaner? Think its about time i gave the laptop a clean out!

Cheers

Kit

[gac]

CCleaner from Piriform is what I use, works pretty well.

[skomaz]

I used to use CCleaner but stopped when I found it wiped some info from a work laptop that it shouldn't have...

Now I only use Wise Registry Cleaner Free. Seems to do the trick nicely.

[Salut]

Kit, I have used CCleaner for many years and can recommend it. Never have I had anything deleted that should not have been. Unless you are experienced in computers, use only the default setting, that is, do not change any setting once the software has been installed. If you want further advise and confirmation of how well received CCleaner is have a rummage in this forum http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/1/helproom/. If you use the search parameter 'CCleaner' you will get a number of responses.

[fabdavrav]

CCleaner...is the best........and Skomaz......WTF??? did you muck around with!!!!

[Phosphoric]

CCleaner...is the best........and Skomaz......WTF??? did you muck around with!!!!

+1 for CCleaner.

[op210]

+1 for CCleaner - wise registry cleaner deleted system files it shouldn't have!

[kit]

Cheers all for the advice...looks like it will be CCleaner then

K:)

[Aspman]

+1 for CCleaner - wise registry cleaner deleted system files it shouldn't have!

+2

Have also used Comodo's system cleaner but it's much more resource hungry.

[Guest George512]

Registry cleaners aren't needed per se or have little affect, some can actually be more dangerous than anything. If you want to do a simple little clean up just use CCleaner as already mentioned

[skomaz]

CCleaner...is the best........and Skomaz......WTF??? did you muck around with!!!!

he he - Nothing Honest! :yes:

Standard install and default settings - and afterwads whenever it was rebooted and logged onto our network our in-house security checks flagged that I was missing a vital patch of some sort... Could never find out what was missing though and fortunately (for me ) my hard disk died sometime later so it was fixed.

I've since used Wise with no issues whatsoever!

[Deneo]

Registry cleaners aren't needed per se or have little affect, some can actually be more dangerous than anything. If you want to do a simple little clean up just use CCleaner as already mentioned

I have to agree with you there George. If you're not too up on computers, maybe stay well away from the registry. As George says, you don't gain much from cleaning the registry. Unless you have a program you can't install, due to old entries for the same program that wiped off somehow.

All I can say is be very careful when playing with the registry, and make sure you have a backup of the registry first or even create a restore point.

Good luck with your endevors

[mannyo]

I never used a registry cleaner before dumping windows in favour of Mac OSX.

You really must be careful as they can remove entries in the registry which appear to have no effect whilst in reality as Skomaz found out they can remove business related info. For example, if your company runs software from network drives via UNC paths or drive letters, and you then run CCleaner whilst at home remote from the network the cleaner could and does sometimes flag these entries as orphaned applications and then remove key entries that relate to the software functioning. The same can apply at home with NAS drives, so be very careful and backup before cleaning.

[Deneo]

It amazes me how many companies allow access to the registry for a domain user.Never give local access rights, it's the bible!

Edited 24 November, 2011 by Deneo

[Guest George512]

It amazes me how many companies allow access to the registry for a domain user.Never give local access rights, it's the bible!

I used to say stuff like this, until I started managing the network for a transport/distribution company. I set up a typical domain with decent group policies, no non-admin users with local admin rights, the usual... but some of the industry software is soooo legacy you wouldn't believe it. One company, arguably the worst parcel distribution network in the country (I won't mention their name because I know enough about them to probably cause serious business problems for them), categorically require users to have full local admin access just to print some labels with their stupid legacy Visual FoxPro system which is still updated from a 3.5 inch floppy...

Whilst your post is completely correct, unfortunately it doesn't always work like that. Couple that with the distribution sector which is utilising the field of IT to about 1% of it's usefulness, and you have a recipe for disaster.

[Deneo]

I used to say stuff like this, until I started managing the network for a transport/distribution company. I set up a typical domain with decent group policies, no non-admin users with local admin rights, the usual... but some of the industry software is soooo legacy you wouldn't believe it. One company, arguably the worst parcel distribution network in the country (I won't mention their name because I know enough about them to probably cause serious business problems for them), categorically require users to have full local admin access just to print some labels with their stupid legacy Visual FoxPro system which is still updated from a 3.5 inch floppy...

Whilst your post is completely correct, unfortunately it doesn't always work like that. Couple that with the distribution sector which is utilising the field of IT to about 1% of it's usefulness, and you have a recipe for disaster.

It wouldn't print even if giving access rights to the spool folder and the program folder? That does sound like some bad software! Wasn't the Home Delivery Network was it, hehehe

[Guest George512]

It wouldn't print even if giving access rights to the spool folder and the program folder? That does sound like some bad software! Wasn't the Home Delivery Network was it, hehehe

Nope, and it wasn't HDNL. HDNL/DHL/Yodel are good in comparison!