I have used a number of cleaner programs over the last few years the question arises whether they are as good as claimed. I found Regvac the best of the lot but it will not run on Vista, the program stops working.The point arises are they needed for Vista?

Any TV members views appreciated.

Rationally speaking, you don't need any registry cleaner at all. Don't try to fix what ain't broke. But this is a fervent religious issue with the unwashed, so expect to hear a variety of recommended cleaners that give that satisfying feeling of "doing something" even though there's no objectively measurable difference afterwards--and maybe some harm has been done. But the placebo effect!

Ken Blake, MSVP, says it best:

"The best registry cleaner is *no* registry cleaner.

I strongly recommend *against* the routine use of registry cleaners. Routine

cleaning of the registry isn't needed and

is dangerous. Leave the registry alone and don't use a registry cleaner.

Despite what many people think, and

what vendors of registry cleaning software try to convince you of, having

unused registry entries doesn't really hurt you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously

removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit it may

have."

--

Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User

A number of cleaners offer an "undo" feature but if you can't boot your Windows, then you can't undo. Besides, you don't know what to undo except everything, but which time?

There's absolutely no problem having a lot of unused stuff in the registry because access to needed keys is so fast anyway and space taken is miniscule. If your registry has a problem, then, as Kelly says in Kelly's Korner, edit the registry manually and fix the problem, when you know what you're doing.

CCleaner works for me and Vista Besides the discussion above that reg cleaners aren't needed (by a Microsoft employee - well they would say that wouldn't they?) this lovely free bit of software tidies up all the other crap Windows cannot do.

Edited April 1, 200818 yr by Digitalbanana

Uniblue Registry Booster version 2...you`ll find this and Tune Up Utilities about the most stable i find, they are both available via torrents along with s/n`s and or cracks.

Never failed me..for a long time

CCleaner works for me and Vista Besides the discussion above that reg cleaners aren't needed (by a Microsoft employee - well they would say that wouldn't they?) this lovely free bit of software tidies up all the other crap Windows cannot do.

Sigh. An MVP most definitely isn't a Microsoft employee. I've already verified for myself the information I originally gave for the benefit of the OP, which makes logical and rational sense anyway, but additionally gave a bit of reassurance from the annointed gurus for the OP's comfort.

Shows how much you know already, Digitalbanana. Suggest you do some in reading in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general and microsoft.public.windows.visa on Usenet, if you know what is Usenet. You can use Google for reading them, as you don't yet have a Usenet reader, though you can get one. But do you know of Google? It will also help you find out what an MVP is.

But I'm leaving this thread now to you and your ilk to blow the usual hot air around as you please.

Another religious issue, born of Win98, is that of partioning. I'm not wasting any further time on that one again, either.