After a night of serious exploits, a hacker in a daze of coffee, pizza and Jolt Cola had a sudden burst of inspiration. In a storm of furious programming he created his masterwork, the Windows Registry. We've all been haunted by it ever since.
On a more serious note, the Registry is the nerve center of the Windows operating system and it is a very complicated database that touches on every aspect of the Windows system. Making adjustments to it is not for the faint of heart. Errors in the registry whether by system problems or by poor registry fix programming can be crippling to a computer's operation.
Since this is the case, it pays to know when to use registry repair programs and which programs to avoid.
What can go wrong?
A number of things can be a problem:
- bad registry cleaners can remove essential information from the registry causing programs to fail and major parts of Windows not to work properly
- they may not fix a real problem
- they may not completely remove portions of old programs preventing new programs from being installed
- spyware or viruses may be loaded by really malicious programs
- support may be weak or lacking altogether
- some vendors may use shoddy business practices
Does registry clean up really help?
Some experts say that it keeps their system in tip top shape and they run it frequently to keep the registry tuned.
Others say that it really doesn't do much. Mark Russinovich, a well known windows expert and the author of the well known Windows process explorer doesn't believe that they are very useful. They used to be necessary when there weren't good install programs but now they are much less of an issue.
There are times when one experiences unusual problems that don't seem to be easily fixed. Strange freezes and crashes may occur which get in the way of smooth, normal operation. In this situation, the right registry repair tool is indispensable.
Computer registry repair horror stories
Whenever you read reviews of products on the web you will generally find that there are at least a few that are very critical of the product being reviewed. If the vast majority of reviews are favorable, you can generally discount the unfavorable ones. However, if there are a large number of bad reviews or the types of issues raised are very serious, then caution is in order.
Another thing to consider is that most of the favorable reviews of a product may be coming from those that are profiting from the sale of the item. You need to find a review that is unbiased and preferably from someone who has your best interests at heart.
Most of the products discussed here may be successfully used by a large number of people. However, it is important to know about some of the issues that have been discovered. I did a search on the web for user experiences and the results are what follows.
Regcure is a popular registry repair utility. However, a user reported trying it on Vista and after running it and discovering a huge number of "errors", his system went back in time to Windows 2000 performance and many features didn't function properly.
Even salesmen of the product are not immune from problems. Someone who sold it for years actually posted a web page suggesting that he would not recommend it.
Another user tried it and his programs stopped running. When he tried to get on the internet to get some relief, he found that he couldn't. Requests for support or refund went unanswered.
Although many are happy with Regcure, these reports are worrisome.
When I reviewed Registrysmart, I found some concern about spyware and viruses.
McAfee antivirus dedicated a report to RegistrySmart and associated adware and spyware. Spybot also reported it as spyware.
Registry mechanic is another popular registry fix program.
Some user ratings of this program indicated concerns about payment processing not working and inflated error reports with no way to fix the problem except for an immediate purchase.
Summary
Caveat emptor, buyer beware, is the rule for registry cleaners. In my reviews and discussions with experts, at least 2 came up clean. They are TuneUp Utilities and RegSupreme Pro. I have tried them myself and my experience indicates that you can use them in confidence.
David Freitag
The Computer Doc
To get more detailed information about registry cleaner reviews, visit
http://www.ask-the-computer-doc.com/registry-clean-up.html where you can find detailed information about the problems that were found and what to use.
For TuneUp Utilities details including specific product reviews and videos, please visit
http://www.ask-the-computer-doc.com/tuneup-utilities.html
To learn exactly how I help users get the most out of their computers and solve their problems visit
http://www.ask-the-computer-doc.com
