# Registry Cleaners



## Bill P (Jan 12, 2003)

What is the best registry cleaner. I'm looking for a good balance of efficiency and safety. What do you think?


----------



## Moby (Mar 19, 2002)

I've been using Toniarts Easy cleaner for a while now. It's just been updated too. 
Does the job nicely.
http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm


----------



## MFDnNC (Sep 7, 2004)

I'll second Moby's rec for EasyCleaner


----------



## polak (Oct 12, 2003)

Have had good luck without any ill effects after removing invalid entries found by RegSeeker and RegSupreme. Use both as often RegSeeker finds invalid entries RegSupreme misses and vice versa. Some have reported experiencing problems after cleaning with RegSeeker but I have not experienced any problems.

Always wise to backup the registry prior to using a registry cleaner to add a measure of safety. Both RegSeeker and RegSupreme create backups before removing invalid entries they have found.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2579

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4001.html


----------



## ljcullen (Oct 6, 2004)

I have always used JV Regcleaner and like the product alot. All of a sudden it has started to 'hang' after looking at the first 292 entries and will go no further. 

Has anyone ever had that problem and what is the solution -- I bet there is a registry entry for JV that has been corrupted. 

I have have tried uninstalling and then re-installing the product but alas same problem occurs -- 

any help is appreciated


----------



## TOGG (Apr 2, 2002)

Subject to the proviso that many people believe that Registry cleaning is, at best, unnecessary and, at worst, dangerous, I use RegSupreme.

This is the commercial version of the cleaner that was in jv16 Power Tools when it was free. I understand that, although you may still be able to get copies of the free version of jv16, it will not have been updated for some time and so may be more risky to use.


----------



## Bill P (Jan 12, 2003)

I presently have Regscrubxp. I trust it to not mess me up. Today at work I downloaded Regscruxp on one of the companies computers. I also downloaded Regseeker. I ran Regseeker and it found over 700 things. I didn.t remove anything. Than I ran Regscrubxp. . It found 177 which I removed. Regseeker kind of worries me. I do like the ability to search the registry.


----------



## TommyBazball (Jul 17, 2004)

Bill P said:


> I presently have Regscrubxp. I trust it to not mess me up. Today at work I downloaded Regscruxp on one of the companies computers. I also downloaded Regseeker. I ran Regseeker and it found over 700 things. I didn.t remove anything. Than I ran Regscrubxp. . It found 177 which I removed. Regseeker kind of worries me. I do like the ability to search the registry.


I use RegSeeker, myself. Have not had a problem so far. Plus, it gives you the option to backup anything you delete.


----------



## Bill P (Jan 12, 2003)

I haven't run Regseeker on this machine. When I ran it on the machine at work and it found about 800 I was afraid to remove them. Do you think that it is safe?


----------



## Bill P (Jan 12, 2003)

Tommy the counter at the bottom right . Does it indicate the number that it has looked at or the number that it wants to remove?


----------



## Skivvywaver (Mar 18, 2001)

I use registry first aid. It works well but it isn't free.


----------



## TommyBazball (Jul 17, 2004)

That's the number that RegSeeker has deemed as candidates for deletion. You can either remove individual entries by one-click highlighting, then right-clicking or let RS delete all 800.


----------



## dai (Mar 7, 2003)

i still use the free version of jv16 never found anything to equal it for simplicity and reliability


----------



## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

And to go along with the jv16 recommendation, there is the old, reliable, and still free (some places) RegCleaner by Jouni Vuorio. It has always been popular, safe, and until recently, free. It is the same basic code as the one that accompanies the jv16 Power Tools. Free here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download460.html


----------



## Bill P (Jan 12, 2003)

I have a lot of entries that I recognize the exe as good but it says [unused open with entry] What sould be done with these?


----------



## Telstar (Jun 20, 2003)

Hi all,
Re: *RegSeeker 1.35*
(If I had seen this Thread I would have posted here first)

If anyone wants to take the time to read my other Posts here at TSG,
here they are....
http://forums.techguy.org/t282872.html
http://forums.techguy.org/t267309.html

In a nutshell....I downloaded RegSeeker and it found 1,415 items as candidates for deletion (red and green items).
After deleting them my Norton Auto-Protect would not activate(big red 'X' over the NAV System Tray Icon) (Enable Auto-Protect was checked and my Computer Management>Services>NAV Auto-Protect was set to Automatic. After rebooting, still did not activate Auto-Protect. (I'm repeating the posts so perhaps better if you read them).
I had created a System Restore Point prior to downloading RegSeeker and used it after I could not resolve the Auto-Protect problem.

This was my first attempt at doing any Registry maintenance (WinXP Home) on my 2 1/2 year old computer (Dell Dimension 4400).

Thanks for any advice,

Telstar


----------



## dai (Mar 7, 2003)

red always means danger,i have never used that cleaner but the ones i have used you only delete the green
with jv16 you can set it to only display what it is safe to remove


----------



## Telstar (Jun 20, 2003)

dai said:


> red always means danger,i have never used that cleaner but the ones i have used you only delete the green
> with jv16 you can set it to only display what it is safe to remove


Hi *dai*, thanks for your reply.
That's the second time jv16 has been recommended.
I'll Google it and see what I can find, including a download site.

Any (dumbdowned) advice on using it (WinXP Home)?

Thanks much,
Telstar


----------



## dai (Mar 7, 2003)

www.jv16.org
i beleive the free one is still available but don't have a link to it

registry tool here tick anything you know you have uninstalled
then click on tools tab at the top and choose registry cleaner and run it
remember only clean entries with the green dot on the left


----------



## mach9 (Jan 26, 2004)

Telstar:
Read your links. Just yesterday the Registry Healer I've been using for 6 months took out some part of NAV 2004 Liveupdate. Had to go to the site and download the repair. No problems. I have several, including Reg Seeker, RegScrubXP. Been very careful using them, but inevitably one time or another.... Think I'll let the reg cleaners take a vacation for a while.


----------



## Telstar (Jun 20, 2003)

mach9 said:


> Telstar:
> Read your links. Just yesterday the Registry Healer I've been using for 6 months took out some part of NAV 2004 Liveupdate. Had to go to the site and download the repair. No problems. I have several, including Reg Seeker, RegScrubXP. Been very careful using them, but inevitably one time or another.... Think I'll let the reg cleaners take a vacation for a while.


Thanks for your input *mach9*.
Yep, I'm going to take it easy using Registry cleaners.
Could be a dangerous tool in the wrong hands (like mine..lol).

I might take a look at *jv16* that *dai* and *Elvandil* recommend.
If it's safe to "only clean entries with the green dot on the left" then I
might keep myself out of trouble if that's all I do.

OR,
I'll leave Registry Cleaners to the *experts* who know their way 
around the Registry and just concentrate on other tweaks.

I'm showing no ill effects with any Programs I've opened.
Thankfully I had made a Restore Point before using RegSeeker and
as far as I can tell everything has been recovered.
However, as I indicated, I'd like to go after those other 1400 items
so, if I use jv16 it will be interesting to see how many "green dots"
if finds for me.

(Thanks to all of you for your replies and suggestions. :up:  )

Telstar


----------



## smeegle (Jan 18, 2004)

This is a blast from the past http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?t=257386
I still haven't tried to use one yet.


----------



## Telstar (Jun 20, 2003)

smeegle said:


> This is a blast from the past http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?t=257386
> I still haven't tried to use one yet.


I read the thread. 
We all, of course, want to keep our computers running as optimal as possible....
scanning for viruses, spywares, trojans, hijackers, etc.
This includes the tweaking we may do to reduce or eliminate unneeded
junk files and dead links....anything to regain back lost
and usable space on our computer so it will run "smoother and faster".

For myself, reading so much about "cleaning" the Registry and eliminating
unused Registry items led me down that path.

But, it's comments like this....


> *"Click the Registry button, let it scan for invalid registry entries, then delete the entire list that it displays."*


 that may have some throwing caution to the wind, and ending up deleting items which, it might turn out, are actually required and should not have been deleted.
The user finds out the hard way, when a Program fails to start after "cleaning" his/her Registry.

Aside from my unfortunate but easily recoverable experience I"ll avoid Registry cleaners for the time being, to stay on the safe side.

Actually, I've had more success in recovering valuable Free Space by recently using....Find Junk Files 1.31
I actually recovered 1.07GB of Free Space using this Program.
(The only caution I suggest is to be sure you have
your *M$ Small Business* disk handy).
After running Find Junk Files and attempting to open a Word Document,
I was prompted for the disk.
Except for that, everything has been fine and actually it was after that
that I started looking at Registry Cleaners, thus prompting my post when
I had the problem with RegSeeker.

Also, have had good success using....*CleanUp!*....(practically on a daily basis now).

Another lesson I've learned....before setting out to use any tool that you
may not have 100% confidence or proficiency in using....
*be sure you have a System Restore Point to fall back on*....just in case!

Telstar


----------



## GRudger (Nov 18, 2002)

Regseeker also deletes reg keys that are needed for the translation and speech recognition software in MS Office to work if you just hit the clean registry button and delete everything it finds.


----------



## tj416 (Nov 18, 2004)

I recommend Reg Cleaner(Old version of JV16 power tools) and Registry Mechanic.


----------



## aarhus2004 (Jan 10, 2004)

*jv16pt Ver.1.3.0.195*:http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=jv16 but choose the OLD version lower down the page. The one you want is jv16pt version 1.3.0.195 (to see if you have the correct one - click on the GUI 'Registry tool' and on the next page click on 'Help | About. *Freeware*.

*RegSeeker*:http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm *Do Not* accept the offered download 'Install on Demand'. Click 'Cancel' and the correct page will appear. *Freeware*.

These two will do as much as an averagely knowledgeable user requires.

Hoverdesk (RegSeeker) also offer that, oh so useful, *HoverSnap* utility 'Hoversnap' ( a scroll-down) from RegSeeker. *Freeware*.

An unbeatable trio of freeware. :up:


----------



## aarhus2004 (Jan 10, 2004)

And have a look at the 'Tweaks' on RegSeeker too. Wow.


----------



## Guille (Oct 23, 2004)

Anyone have any experience with Registry Repair Pro, Registry Mechanic, or the Registry Fix from System Mechanic 5 ???


----------



## dai (Mar 7, 2003)

system mechanic is not for a beginer


----------



## Guille (Oct 23, 2004)

Hi Dai:

Thanks, but I think I'm closer to advanced user. What I want is one robust program, instead of running 5 different programs to clean my registry (which is what I do now), but that won't delete useful data (like some folks found with RegSeeker).


----------



## dai (Mar 7, 2003)

jv16 the link is in item 26
it's a set of registry tools still the safest and most reliable around whether novice or ghuru


----------



## tj416 (Nov 18, 2004)

You can also try Registy Mechanic.


----------



## Guille (Oct 23, 2004)

Thanks Dai. I found the page, and I saw they have RegSupreme.


----------



## golddwt (Feb 2, 2005)

use jv16 found under cnet free downloads
this medium will not allow url........

30 day trial
old days it was free
any problems
instant message me: 'golddwt' on yahoo.com instant message
retired
extra:use spybot to clean
super extra: buy evidence eliminator $150.00 give or take for life


----------



## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Welcome to TSG golddwt 

look here for old versions.

http://www.oldversion.com/

They have jv16 PowerTools 1.3 but I don't know if it is the older free version or not.

http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=jv16


----------



## TOGG (Apr 2, 2002)

If I remember correctly (a big if!), JV of jv16 was issuing warnings about using the older versions of his registry cleaners well before he went commercial, (as he was completely entitled to). This was something to do with the fact that he had stopped developing/updating it some time before?

As for Evidence Eliminator, (unless the authors of this page are just jealous business rivals) it doesn't work;http://www.radsoft.net/resources/software/reviews/ee/ There are free programs like CCleaner that do seem to work and loads of commercial ones, like Webroot's Window Washer, that do work.


----------



## jillian2 (Sep 11, 2004)

How about CCleaner ? I have this tool and have never had any problems . It is safe.

Jillian


----------



## dai (Mar 7, 2003)

it's nickname is the crap cleaner,would not recommend it for the inexpierenced user


----------

