Does anyone have a registry cleaning program that they absolutley trust. All the ones that I have been able to find are like by about half the people at best which really doesn't make me feel comfortable with them. Thanks

 

I use Registry Mechanic and Ccleaner's registry cleaning systems on the Windows machines I still have.

Just remember to back up when it asks you to. I haven't ever needed to restore anything, but it'd suck if you were left without them.

 

Ccleaner is the one I use. I never have had problems with it. Go Here to download it.

 

Er yeah this is much more than you asked for, though it is posted more for anyone that does not already know about such things...

Other than the ones previously mentioned I do not have any recommendations that are not free/opensource. Best advice be sure to backup your registry (and critical system files) on a regular basis and have a good bootable live cd/dvd, so you can fix whatever in the event something goes wrong.

Also I advise you not to clean the registry too often, even for those of us that do a very large amount of installing and uninstalling software, no more than once every several months should be needed. For those with far less degree of activity no more than 6 months to a year if not longer.

Between such heavy cleanings, using applications such as adaware, spybot search and destroy, plus a good virus scanner should keep a system running smoothly. Well those and using disk defragmentators as often as the registry cleaners.

 

Personally, I wouldn't advise such a plan. They're often useless, and have potential to mess up your system (and that, depending on your skills, could just be a nuisance, or a gut-clenching moment-of-doom).

Instead, use:
1. Common sense. Is the site trusted? Does that e-mail look suspicious? Is the filename or file size or file extension wrong? These things should be blatantly obvious with experience.

2. Ad-aware/Spybot/HijackThis for adware and spyware should deal with most problems, unless it's one of those nasty Chinese-based spyware. Then you've got problems (voice of experience speaking).

3. Re-format if you can't fix it. I've never used BartPE before, but it IS a tool which fixes problems. Google it.

It's mostly preparation and discipline, if you want a well-running system. Even reformatting shouldn't take you THAT long if you've got your drivers handy.

Side note: Do not defragment. It is useless on any operating system made after Windows 2000, by any major OS distributor. It does not make your system noticeably faster, and will serve only to hasten the death of your hard drive. Hard drive deaths are miserable events.

 

Why bump for that?

Registry cleaners which are trusted work extremely well in removing old registry entries and such. How on earth would they ruin a system without the user input being incorrect in the first place?

Common sense and precautions = well protected PC.

And your little comment on defragging, completely incorrect. Get a real defragging program other than the inbuilt system tool and you will see the major impact defragging has on a hard drive and it will increase it's life as less reading is required to find the parts of the file if they are not scattered all over the place, hence fragmentation.

Windows has never had a good defraggmentation utility, period.

I'd hate to see you trying to fix a clients mistreated and abused PC. A format isn't always an option. It may cure everything, but it is not always the most appropriate solution, client drivers take a lot of time to get together plus the time it takes to backup their data and settings.

 

Regarding defragging. Which defrag programs are people here using for WinXP systems?

I've been trying IOBit's SmartDefrag Beta 4.03. It handles defragging multiple drives one at a time (which is still worlds better than the default Windows defragger), but it is noticeably a beta. And it has an annoying interface which tries to be slick but just gets in the way.

What do the rest of you use?

 

I used Perfectdisk back then. Worked well enough I guess.

 

Really? I've always understood that WinXP, OS X, and other such OSs did it themselves. That 4096 KB file, if it was in multiple sectors, would eventually get defragged if the OS thought it was necessary to do so. That's the basis of my no-defragging rule.

 

Feel free to test out your theory that WinXP and other Operating Systems defragment themselves. Vista is the only OS I know of that defragments automatically, and that is by scheduled running of Vista's defrag program.

Try installing a shitload of programs, move a lot of data around, delete a lot of stuff, and repeat until you get a healthy level of fragmentation. If your comp isn't as slow as the peak hour rush after all that, sure, I'll think about your no-defragment rule.