Registry Repair Tool

Is there a reliable registry repair tool for Vista??? How about Registry
Mechanic by PC Tools? Thanks.

Hi Steve,

Reliable? No. Registry tools should be used sparingly, if at all. On the
whole, they are mostly unnecessary as Vista, like XP, does not suffer from
registry bloat and issues associated with dead entries as did earlier
versions of Windows. The only registry cleaner that I would recommend is one
that is program specific, IE: one that is designed by a company solely to
remove entries associated with software they created and distributed. Beyond
that, general cleaners often have a nasty habit of removing needed entries,
often causing problems for the user that are worse then those they were
trying to resolve.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Steve " <sstarker@teleport.com> wrote in message
news:OeBiHs44HHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Is there a reliable registry repair tool for Vista??? How about Registry
> Mechanic by PC Tools? Thanks.

Steve wrote:
> Is there a reliable registry repair tool for Vista??? How about
> Registry Mechanic by PC Tools? Thanks.


Why do you think you need to repair your registry? What specific
*problems* are you actually experiencing (not some program's bogus
listing of imaginary problems) that you think can be fixed by using a
registry "repair" tool?

If you do have a problem that is rooted in the registry, it would
be far better to simply edit (after backing up, of course) only the
specific key(s) and/or value(s) that are causing the problem. After
all, why use a chainsaw when a scalpel will do the job? Additionally,
the manually changing of one or two registry entries is far less likely
to have the dire consequences of allowing an automated product to make
multiple changes simultaneously. The only thing needed to safely clean
your registry is knowledge and Regedit.exe.

The registry contains all of the operating system's "knowledge" of
the computer's hardware devices, installed software, the location of the
device drivers, and the computer's configuration. A misstep in the
registry can have severe consequences. One should not even turning
loose a poorly understood automated "cleaner," unless he is fully
confident that he knows *exactly* what is going to happen as a result of
each and every change.

Having repeatedly seen the results of inexperienced people using
automated registry "cleaners," I can only advise all but the most
experienced computer technicians (and/or hobbyists) to avoid them all.
Experience has shown me that such tools simply are not safe in the hands
of the inexperienced user. If you lack the knowledge and experience to
maintain your registry by yourself, then you also lack the knowledge and
experience to safely configure and use any automated registry cleaner,
no matter how safe they claim to be.

More importantly, no one has ever demonstrated that the use of an
automated registry cleaner, particularly by an untrained, inexperienced
computer user, does any real good, whatsoever. There's certainly been
no empirical evidence offered to demonstrate that the use of such
products to "clean" WinXP's registry improves a computer's performance
or stability. Given the potential for harm, it's just not worth the risk.

Granted, registry "cleaners" usually won't cause problems each and
every time they're used, but the potential for harm is always there.
And, since no registry "cleaner" has ever been demonstrated to do any
good (think of them like treating the flu with chicken soup - there's no
real medicinal value, but it sometimes provides a warming placebo
effect), I always tell people that the risks far out-weigh the
non-existent benefits.

I will concede that a good registry *scanning* tool, in the hands of
an experienced and knowledgeable technician or hobbyist can be a useful
time-saving diagnostic tool, as long as it's not allowed to make any
changes automatically. But I really don't think that there are any
registry cleaners that are truly safe for the general public to use.
Experience has proven just the opposite: such tools simply are not safe
in the hands of the inexperienced user.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

I recommend two,,, the trick to successful use is to NOT blindly
accept their recommendations. For each entry do a google search
and DECIDE whether it is safe to remove a entry or not. Be
proactive, NOT a dummy.

http://www.wisecleaner.com/

http://www.ccleaner.com/

Both of those are FREE and work well for me HOWEVER heed the
advice and check the entries B4 any removal and do backups!

"Steve " <sstarker@teleport.com> wrote in message news:OeBiHs44HHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Is there a reliable registry repair tool for Vista??? How about Registry
> Mechanic by PC Tools? Thanks.
>

ccleaner is hax, one of the best registry programs out there by far. All the
other programs out there pick up a bunch of stuff that can really mess up
your computer, I haven't had an issue with it yet.

Sephyx wrote:
> ccleaner is hax, one of the best registry programs out there by far. All the
> other programs out there pick up a bunch of stuff that can really mess up
> your computer, I haven't had an issue with it yet.


On the contrary, CCleaner is virtually useless as a registry tool. In
my testing, though, most of the reported "issues" won't be issues, at
all. I tried the latest version on a brand-new OS installation with no
additional applications installed, and certainly none installed and then
uninstalled, and CCleaner still managed to "find" over a hundred
allegedly orphaned registry entries and dozens of purportedly
"suspicious" files.

CCleaner's main strength, and the only reason I use it, lies in its
usefulness for cleaning up unused temporary files from the hard drive;
as a registry "cleaner," it's not significantly better or worse than any
other snake oil product of the same type.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

Yes, but for the average consumer it does what needs to get done, anything
that dives into the registry anymore, like Hijackthis or other programs you
usually need to have people look at it for a bit to see if theres actually
anything wrong.

As far as cleaning it does a fantastic job, which I understated in my last
post. Typically it will clean out more than what others do and puts the
windows disk cleaner to shame and is more efficient than loading up each
program and doing it manually.

My interest in a Registry repair tool is as follows: I loaded a very old
program into Vista. It actually ran fine, but later when I rebooted I found
a problem. I uninstalled the program, but the problem remained. When Vista
starts up, it goes looking for something that it cannot find, and it takes
some 20 seconds doing it. Once it gives up, it proceeds to load but gives
me a message to remove reference to " " from the registry. Using regedit, I
searched for any such empty notation, or for any reference to the
uninstalled software, but found none.

Maybe my next step should be to try the built-in "startup repair."

"Bruce Chambers" <bchambers@cable0ne.n3t> wrote in message
news:%23rsdaW54HHA.1212@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Steve wrote:
>> Is there a reliable registry repair tool for Vista??? How about Registry
>> Mechanic by PC Tools? Thanks.
>
>
> Why do you think you need to repair your registry? What specific
> *problems* are you actually experiencing (not some program's bogus listing
> of imaginary problems) that you think can be fixed by using a registry
> "repair" tool?
>
> If you do have a problem that is rooted in the registry, it would be
> far better to simply edit (after backing up, of course) only the specific
> key(s) and/or value(s) that are causing the problem. After all, why use a
> chainsaw when a scalpel will do the job? Additionally, the manually
> changing of one or two registry entries is far less likely to have the
> dire consequences of allowing an automated product to make multiple
> changes simultaneously. The only thing needed to safely clean your
> registry is knowledge and Regedit.exe.
>
> The registry contains all of the operating system's "knowledge" of the
> computer's hardware devices, installed software, the location of the
> device drivers, and the computer's configuration. A misstep in the
> registry can have severe consequences. One should not even turning loose
> a poorly understood automated "cleaner," unless he is fully confident that
> he knows *exactly* what is going to happen as a result of each and every
> change.
>
> Having repeatedly seen the results of inexperienced people using
> automated registry "cleaners," I can only advise all but the most
> experienced computer technicians (and/or hobbyists) to avoid them all.
> Experience has shown me that such tools simply are not safe in the hands
> of the inexperienced user. If you lack the knowledge and experience to
> maintain your registry by yourself, then you also lack the knowledge and
> experience to safely configure and use any automated registry cleaner, no
> matter how safe they claim to be.
>
> More importantly, no one has ever demonstrated that the use of an
> automated registry cleaner, particularly by an untrained, inexperienced
> computer user, does any real good, whatsoever. There's certainly been no
> empirical evidence offered to demonstrate that the use of such products to
> "clean" WinXP's registry improves a computer's performance or stability.
> Given the potential for harm, it's just not worth the risk.
>
> Granted, registry "cleaners" usually won't cause problems each and
> every time they're used, but the potential for harm is always there. And,
> since no registry "cleaner" has ever been demonstrated to do any good
> (think of them like treating the flu with chicken soup - there's no real
> medicinal value, but it sometimes provides a warming placebo effect), I
> always tell people that the risks far out-weigh the non-existent benefits.
>
> I will concede that a good registry *scanning* tool, in the hands of
> an experienced and knowledgeable technician or hobbyist can be a useful
> time-saving diagnostic tool, as long as it's not allowed to make any
> changes automatically. But I really don't think that there are any
> registry cleaners that are truly safe for the general public to use.
> Experience has proven just the opposite: such tools simply are not safe in
> the hands of the inexperienced user.
>
>
> --
>
> Bruce Chambers
>
> Help us help you:
> http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
> They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
>
> Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand
> Russell

freeware : ccleaner
shareware : tune-up utilities

--
http://www.WinVistaClub.com
Microsoft MVP 2007 Awardee.

Hi,

You can check the run keys in the registry for the null entry (check both
HKLM and HKCU entries), but if you want to make matters simple, this is what
System Restore is for. It would revert the system to the pre-install state.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Steve " <sstarker@teleport.com> wrote in message
news:uxrXfu64HHA.5212@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> My interest in a Registry repair tool is as follows: I loaded a very old
> program into Vista. It actually ran fine, but later when I rebooted I
> found a problem. I uninstalled the program, but the problem remained.
> When Vista starts up, it goes looking for something that it cannot find,
> and it takes some 20 seconds doing it. Once it gives up, it proceeds to
> load but gives me a message to remove reference to " " from the registry.
> Using regedit, I searched for any such empty notation, or for any
> reference to the uninstalled software, but found none.
>
> Maybe my next step should be to try the built-in "startup repair."
>
> "Bruce Chambers" <bchambers@cable0ne.n3t> wrote in message
> news:%23rsdaW54HHA.1212@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> Steve wrote:
>>> Is there a reliable registry repair tool for Vista??? How about
>>> Registry Mechanic by PC Tools? Thanks.
>>
>>
>> Why do you think you need to repair your registry? What specific
>> *problems* are you actually experiencing (not some program's bogus
>> listing of imaginary problems) that you think can be fixed by using a
>> registry "repair" tool?
>>
>> If you do have a problem that is rooted in the registry, it would be
>> far better to simply edit (after backing up, of course) only the specific
>> key(s) and/or value(s) that are causing the problem. After all, why use
>> a chainsaw when a scalpel will do the job? Additionally, the manually
>> changing of one or two registry entries is far less likely to have the
>> dire consequences of allowing an automated product to make multiple
>> changes simultaneously. The only thing needed to safely clean your
>> registry is knowledge and Regedit.exe.
>>
>> The registry contains all of the operating system's "knowledge" of
>> the computer's hardware devices, installed software, the location of the
>> device drivers, and the computer's configuration. A misstep in the
>> registry can have severe consequences. One should not even turning loose
>> a poorly understood automated "cleaner," unless he is fully confident
>> that he knows *exactly* what is going to happen as a result of each and
>> every change.
>>
>> Having repeatedly seen the results of inexperienced people using
>> automated registry "cleaners," I can only advise all but the most
>> experienced computer technicians (and/or hobbyists) to avoid them all.
>> Experience has shown me that such tools simply are not safe in the hands
>> of the inexperienced user. If you lack the knowledge and experience to
>> maintain your registry by yourself, then you also lack the knowledge and
>> experience to safely configure and use any automated registry cleaner, no
>> matter how safe they claim to be.
>>
>> More importantly, no one has ever demonstrated that the use of an
>> automated registry cleaner, particularly by an untrained, inexperienced
>> computer user, does any real good, whatsoever. There's certainly been no
>> empirical evidence offered to demonstrate that the use of such products
>> to "clean" WinXP's registry improves a computer's performance or
>> stability. Given the potential for harm, it's just not worth the risk.
>>
>> Granted, registry "cleaners" usually won't cause problems each and
>> every time they're used, but the potential for harm is always there. And,
>> since no registry "cleaner" has ever been demonstrated to do any good
>> (think of them like treating the flu with chicken soup - there's no real
>> medicinal value, but it sometimes provides a warming placebo effect), I
>> always tell people that the risks far out-weigh the non-existent
>> benefits.
>>
>> I will concede that a good registry *scanning* tool, in the hands of
>> an experienced and knowledgeable technician or hobbyist can be a useful
>> time-saving diagnostic tool, as long as it's not allowed to make any
>> changes automatically. But I really don't think that there are any
>> registry cleaners that are truly safe for the general public to use.
>> Experience has proven just the opposite: such tools simply are not safe
>> in the hands of the inexperienced user.
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Bruce Chambers
>>
>> Help us help you:
>> http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
>> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>>
>> They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
>> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
>>
>> Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand
>> Russell
>