Registry files not cleaned by CCleaner

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I was just checking to see if there were any registry entries for a scheduled task (that I didn’t want) and found that there were tons of registry files pointing to old locations like “DownloadsTemp-Installers for this round”. A folder I deleted over a year ago (when I first installed Win7).

As I just mentioned this is a Win7 machine though I’m going to presume that this would be an issue on most, if not all Windows Computers. Also as my title suggest I run CCleaner on a regular basis and I know it’s pretty good about deleting old data.

Is this a known issue/is there a program that scans for and deletes these obviously useless entries?

P.S. I also run Advanced System Care from time to time and once tried PCMedik (though I hated it because it didn’t show me what it was doing, didn’t improve anything, and apparently changed some of my custom settings that may at times slow me down but, usually speed me up like my index which scans Program Files (I’m always messing around with a few programs therin)).

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jv16 PowerTools 2009 is a far more potent registry cleaner, but be very carefull how you use it.
I would only go after very specific registry entries, if at all, and have an up to date drive image on hand.

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What are some of the registry keys? Ccleaner has a reputation for being fairly conservative in its registry cleaning.

Unless your system is broken, why are you bothering with registry cleaning anyway? See Should I use a registry cleaner & Why I don’t use registry cleaners[/url].

Joe

--Joe

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…….
Unless your system is broken, why are you bothering with registry cleaning anyway? See Should I use a registry cleaner & Why I don’t use registry cleaners[/url].
….

Excellent advice from JoeP. The links provide insight by some reputable people.

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Excellent advice from JoeP. The links provide insight by some reputable people.

TIm,
Hello… Yes they are correct ( the sites) in what they are saying for the everyday user but…… Lets say that for the moment that your like me ( ) and decide, as i have at times to remove totally from your OS the following things…..(just for example)
Windows Explorer, Windows Mail, Windows Defender, Windows “Blah, Blah” on some of my OS’s i have ,,,,and you know what ?… There will be “thousands” of no longer usable registry entries….. This bothers me ( some mental deficiency ) so unless you want to remove them each and every one by hand (would take a lifetime) you would need to use a REGISTRY CLEANER ! End of rant, Regards Fred

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Hello… Yes they are correct ( the sites) in what they are saying for the everyday user but…… Lets say that for the moment that your like me and decide, as i have at times to remove totally from your OS the following things…..(just for example)
Windows Explorer, Windows Mail, Windows Defender, Windows “Blah, Blah” on some of my OS’s i have ,,,,and you know what ?… There will be “thousands” of no longer usable registry entries….. This bothers me ( some mental deficiency ) so unless you want to remove them each and every one by hand (would take a lifetime) you would need to use a REGISTRY CLEANER !

Unless you specifically know that your system is not working correctly the registry cleaning is useless. Even then you would be better off trying to figure out what the problem is and fixing it rather than a general blunt instrument approach of removing everything that may appear to be useless. As explained in one of the articles, many registry settings are “per user”. So, your user context may not see everything in the registry that is valid for all users.

Joe

--Joe

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Unless you specifically know that your system is not working correctly the registry cleaning is useless. Even then you would be better off trying to figure out what the problem is and fixing it rather than a general blunt instrument approach of removing everything that may appear to be useless. As explained in one of the articles, many registry settings are “per user”. So, your user context may not see everything in the registry that is valid for all users.

Joe

Joe,
Hello,….I never said that i “clean the registry” because something is not working, and completely agree that it won’t make any difference in perceivable OS performance. However being the “poster child” for “OCD” (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) when it comes to removing things off of my several OS’s. I hate having things not “tidy”…. and orphaned registry entries are always in my “sights” especially after having removed something substantial….. like some “Windows Blah Blah .something” . It annoys me to no end knowing that they are there ( sometimes thousands ) So basically… i just like to have my PC “Ship Shape” and as far as what others say or do is of no consequence to me…. but if asked i will always recommend “jv-16 to “get-er-done” (southern lingo) Regards Fred

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Joe,
Hello,….I never said that i “clean the registry” because something is not working, and completely agree that it won’t make any difference in perceivable OS performance. However being the “poster child” for “OCD” (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) when it comes to removing things off of my several OS’s. I hate having things not “tidy”…. and orphaned registry entries are always in my “sights” especially after having removed something substantial….. like some “Windows Blah Blah .something” . It annoys me to no end knowing that they are there ( sometimes thousands ) So basically… i just like to have my PC “Ship Shape” and as far as what others say or do is of no consequence to me…. but if asked i will always recommend “jv-16 to “get-er-done” (southern lingo) Regards Fred

I can’t say there are any problems stemming from registry issues but, I hate having extra items in my registry. For one, though it may not always be perceivable, there is an effect on performance. The more entries Windows has to search through the slower a search will take. This is also true if I’m meddling with the registry (which I do from time to time). In this case I was able to say for certain that a large group of entries were orphaned but, I’m not always sure and I don’t want to search through absolute garbage.

Here’s another good reason to clean the registry: Both myself and friends have manually removed viruses before when I do I pretty much rely on my registry cleaner to make sure that I didn’t miss any entries that might allow it to come back. Another reason yet is something that acts like a virus and that’s a simple bug that can occur when an application relies on the registry. If the registry tells a program somethings there and it isn’t then it could be problematic. I’m guessing that most programs wouldn’t have such issues but, I’m the paranoid type when it comes to performance and will only sacrifice performance for good background function (for instance windows aero which takes a bit from my performance[crappy graphics card] but, makes it so much easier for me to check individual windows).

Mostly though it’s really just like you said, I want my computer to be in the best shape-no unneeded files. Which reminds me: I’ve noticed that some temp files don’t get deleted by CCleaner either, the ones I’ve noticed seem to be in use at all times but, don’t come up with any virus scans (meaning they are probably not virus’). A few such files had stopped mbam from working on my system for a while, something about them caused it to crash.

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I run CCleaner on a regular basis and I know it’s pretty good about deleting old data.

Is this a known issue/is there a program that scans for and deletes these obviously useless entries?

Gregory,
Hello… You might want to check out this forum (about jv-16 power tools) http://www.macecraft.com/phpBB3/index.php . I use the 2010 version and have had no problems letting “jv” do it’s thing, It has settings from mild to very aggressive scanning (your choice) and will remove most of CCleaner leaves behind (depending on setting ) CCleaner even will find some that “JV” doesn’t ….so i use both …usually before a backup image Regards Fred

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Gregory,
Hello… You might want to check out this forum (about jv-16 power tools) http://www.macecraft.com/phpBB3/index.php . I use the 2010 version and have had no problems letting “jv” do it’s thing, It has settings from mild to very aggressive scanning (your choice) and will remove most of CCleaner leaves behind (depending on setting ) CCleaner even will find some that “JV” doesn’t ….so i use both …usually before a backup image Regards Fred

It looks good but, I’m not sure about paying for more software(I just bought a lot of new stuff out of necessity and the accounts looking a little thin). Is there a free version (I thought I saw something about a lite version but, no link).

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It looks good but, I’m not sure about paying for more software(I just bought a lot of new stuff out of necessity and the accounts looking a little thin). Is there a free version (I thought I saw something about a lite version but, no link).

Gregory,
Hello… I do not know of any “free” jv-16…. did a brief search and did not come up with anything ..other than a free trial. This is one program that i would not be without, as i am always “deleting things” ( mostly what i shouldn’t) leaving behind sometimes hundreds of orphaned registry entries. Until you are familiar with the program ….do a backup before you run Jv -16…. Actually you can “backup” registry changes with “JV”, and don’t actually have to do a complete image. Whatever the price…. its a tool that is a must have in your “bag of tricks” ( if your at all like me )
Regards Fred

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Gregory,
Hello… I do not know of any “free” jv-16…. did a brief search and did not come up with anything ..other than a free trial. This is one program that i would not be without, as i am always “deleting things” ( mostly what i shouldn’t) leaving behind sometimes hundreds of orphaned registry entries. Until you are familiar with the program ….do a backup before you run Jv -16…. Actually you can “backup” registry changes with “JV”, and don’t actually have to do a complete image. Whatever the price…. its a tool that is a must have in your “bag of tricks” ( if your at all like me )
Regards Fred

Thanks for the info, I’ve bookmarked it so maybe I can buy it at a later time. For now I’ll just live without it (I’m thinking of switching to 64 bit anyway so that would automatically remove a lot of junk).

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You and Fred are going to believe what you want to believe. But show me empirical proof that you get improved performance by registry cleaning. That may have been possilbe in the Windows 9x day but now you can’t because there isn’t any. Don’t you think that if one of the many registry cleaner vendors had reproducable proof positive that it would be trumpeted from the highest mountain?

I’ve said before there may be a use for a registry cleaner if you know your system is compromised. Even then cleanup should be restricted to those keys directly involved with the issue at hand.

If you read about the registry, how it constructed and how it is processed in normal usage you’d know that cleaning will not improve performance. In fact, the more general the cleaning the more likely you are going to remove a key that you need. The reward is not worth the risk.

Joe

--Joe

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It seems a re-read of my thread “Is all of this really necessary?” may be in order!!!

Find it here

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I won’t mention any names, but there are forums where you are virtually forbidden to discuss registry cleaning.
It’s a forbidden subject. And maybe it should be, because the greatest number of programs that can destroy your OS are so-called registry cleaners.

Some years ago, a young prodigy in Finland, named Toni Helenius, wrote a program called “Easy Cleaner”.
Since I first found Easy Cleaner, many years ago now, I’ve used it to remove junk files and clean the registry on my own PC and on literally hundreds of my customer’s PC’s. If the program is going to err, then it errs on the side of caution, maybe leaving some registry entry that could possibly be removed.
But never in all these years and the hundreds of times I’ve used the program, has it ever caused the first problem on any PC.

Adversely, I’ve downloaded and installed CCleaner twice over a period of several years and in both cases it’s trashed my PC and I’ve had to do a full drive restore to get working again. So it’s earned a prominent spot on my own “Never, Ever, Again” list.

For the uninitiated, I’ll go along with the poster who said, (I paraphrase) ” if you’re not having any problems, why mess with your registry? “.
It’s a real good place for a novice to royally screw up his/her PC.

To find out more about Toni, just Google his name, “Toni Helenius”.

Cheers Mates and Happy Computing!
The Doctor

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I won’t mention any names, but there are forums where you are virtually forbidden to discuss registry cleaning.
It’s a forbidden subject. And maybe it should be, because the greatest number of programs that can destroy your OS are so-called registry cleaners.

Some years ago, a young prodigy in Finland, named Toni Helenius, wrote a program called “Easy Cleaner”.
Since I first found Easy Cleaner, many years ago now, I’ve used it to remove junk files and clean the registry on my own PC and on literally hundreds of my customer’s PC’s. If the program is going to err, then it errs on the side of caution, maybe leaving some registry entry that could possibly be removed.
But never in all these years and the hundreds of times I’ve used the program, has it ever caused the first problem on any PC.

Adversely, I’ve downloaded and installed CCleaner twice over a period of several years and in both cases it’s trashed my PC and I’ve had to do a full drive restore to get working again. So it’s earned a prominent spot on my own “Never, Ever, Again” list.

For the uninitiated, I’ll go along with the poster who said, (I paraphrase) ” if you’re not having any problems, why mess with your registry? “.
It’s a real good place for a novice to royally screw up his/her PC.

To find out more about Toni, just Google his name, “Toni Helenius”.

Cheers Mates and Happy Computing!
The Doctor

I’m absolutely amazed that CCleaner screwed up your system as I’ve personally been using it for probably at least 4 years and my friends have used it for longer than that. I let CCleaner clean almost everything. The only things it doesn’t clean are things like my Jumpbar list (As I use those for quick and easy navigation) and I usually leave the white space cleaner off unless I’m trying to make sure I’ve erased all signs of a file that wasn’t erased by CCleaner already (such as a virus that somehow comes back just because windows permanent delete hasn’t permanently deleted it yet or a bank related file that I deleted from something other than explorer and didn’t send it to the recycling bin). Chances are if CCleaner screwed up your system there’s something non-standard about your system. I’ve heard Sony is one company particularly well known for changing things in Windows (for instance a friend of mine had Win7 installed on a laptop from Sony and that Win7 didn’t have Secpol or msconfig which are core pieces of Windows own management system.

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I agree with “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, but I frequently double the start-up speed on my customer’s computers by cleaning out the junk, removing unnecessary things from start-up, and cleaning/compacting the registry. Having said that though, I have 20 years experience repairing computers and an engineering degree. The vast majority of users should not mess with the registry except for a run with Ccleaner. Manual manipulation of the registry should only be done by pros who have done a full backup first. Removing entries that stop windows updates and stop MBAM from loading or updating is very tricky business. Before doing that, I much prefer running a bootable anti-virus tool from Avira, Avast, AVG, Kaspersky, or one of the other top vendors. check their websites and get a fresh version before running the scan. Of course you will have to use a different computer to download the iso image and burn it, but it is much safer than manually tweaking the registry. Actually, I love all the flaky registry tools out there, they keep me in business repairing the damage they cause. A big DITTO on JV16 power tools. I paid for it, can use it on 5 machines with my license, and I have it on all 5 of my machines. By the way, the free version is called ptlite and can be found at http://www.macecraft.com/ptlite/

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I agree with “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, but I frequently double the start-up speed on my customer’s computers by cleaning out the junk, removing unnecessary things from start-up, and cleaning/compacting the registry. Having said that though, I have 20 years experience repairing computers and an engineering degree. The vast majority of users should not mess with the registry except for a run with Ccleaner. Manual manipulation of the registry should only be done by pros who have done a full backup first. Removing entries that stop windows updates and stop MBAM from loading or updating is very tricky business. Before doing that, I much prefer running a bootable anti-virus tool from Avira, Avast, AVG, Kaspersky, or one of the other top vendors. check their websites and get a fresh version before running the scan. Of course you will have to use a different computer to download the iso image and burn it, but it is much safer than manually tweaking the registry. Actually, I love all the flaky registry tools out there, they keep me in business repairing the damage they cause. A big DITTO on JV16 power tools. I paid for it, can use it on 5 machines with my license, and I have it on all 5 of my machines. By the way, the free version is called ptlite and can be found at http://www.macecraft.com/ptlite/

I only use programs that have been rated well by others I trust (or just enough people to know it’s probably safe). The programs I currently use are CCleaner and occasionally Advanced System Care (mostly for it’s utilities and rarely for it’s cleaning ability’s). I’m trying the ptlite as I type this. I’m not trying to stop Windows Update or MBAM or anything nearly that tricky. I was just trying make sure something I disabled otherwise wasn’t still there (I can’t remember at this point what it was as it turned out to be fine). I think it was something like adobe (or another such proprietary program) that seemed like it might be starting with the system despite having been disabled by CCleaner and not showing up in Windows Task Scheduler (or whatever it’s called now).

As you mentioned cleaning/compacting the registry does help speed things up and with all the programs I have on my computer running at any given time I need all the boost I can get. I also know that if I’m not careful I’ll end up like the people I help with 30GB of useless junk data (one of the reasons I don’t use IE). Rather than a bootable Anti-virus I tried putting one in my Ubuntu system before to scan Windows (and parts of itself) while Windows is offline.

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I only use programs that have been rated well by others I trust (or just enough people to know it’s probably safe). The programs I currently use are CCleaner and occasionally Advanced System Care (mostly for it’s utilities and rarely for it’s cleaning ability’s). I’m trying the ptlite as I type this. I’m not trying to stop Windows Update or MBAM or anything nearly that tricky. I was just trying make sure something I disabled otherwise wasn’t still there (I can’t remember at this point what it was as it turned out to be fine). I think it was something like adobe (or another such proprietary program) that seemed like it might be starting with the system despite having been disabled by CCleaner and not showing up in Windows Task Scheduler (or whatever it’s called now).

As you mentioned cleaning/compacting the registry does help speed things up and with all the programs I have on my computer running at any given time I need all the boost I can get. I also know that if I’m not careful I’ll end up like the people I help with 30GB of useless junk data (one of the reasons I don’t use IE). Rather than a bootable Anti-virus I tried putting one in my Ubuntu system before to scan Windows (and parts of itself) while Windows is offline.

I’ve now tried PTlite. At first it didn’t say there was anything wrong (with the quick scan) but, I decided to try the scan and clean option and set it to the slightly more aggressive mode. It deleted about 63 MB between Temp files and registry settings (I did of course do a backup of my registry). I’ve not noticed any errors caused by this cleaning and I really do think my computers running just a little bit faster now, not to mention a bit more stable. I really think I had a few ghost in my machine from all the old files.

I was going to make a brief statement here about my computing history since I think that’s an important thing for people to know (you can learn a little about why I think like I do) but, it turned into a fairly large bio type thing so I moved it to my about me page. Not sure if it will work or not but, the link is below.

http://lounge.windowssecrets.com/index.php?app=core&module=usercp&tab=members&area=aboutme&do=show&saved=1&_r=1286995633

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I guess I’m in the group that has never had a problem with CCleaner. I use it regularly on our 3 PCs and use it on my families PCs whenever I visit. It has never let me down. I have included a shot of all the files/folders I clean. As stated regularly (at least 2 to 3 times per week) with NEVER a single problem!

As can be seen, I agressively clean, and again without a single problem. I suspect those that have problems have some other conflicts that cause these problems, but who knows.

To answer JoeP, I do not have any empirical proof that my system was speeded up by this cleaning, but as others have said I feel more comfortable without this leftover junk in my registry and on my PC. I also use CCleaner to help elliminate the junk in my temp. folders etc as well. I attempt to keep my PC lean and mean so to speak, and seem to have fewer problems that others I have read about in these forums. I also advocate up to date images and actively follow my own advice in case something unexpected happens during my cleaning, but so far have not had to use an image after a cleaning, although this is not the case on my “playing” with the system.

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Please allow me to hop onto this thread and ask a question about CCleaner.
I’ve just begun to explore its capabilities, but I have a question about the item “Unused File Extensions” under Registry Integrity.
When I click the Analyze button, it comes up with a bunch (more than one page) of extensions that are theoretically unused, but in fact, many of the extensions shown ARE used. Being conservative, I have not allowed CC to to “clean” these extensions from the registry. Can you (anyone) explain why extensions that are used on my system show up as unused file extensions? What would be the impact of allowing CC to clean these extensions?
Thanks.

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Please allow me to hop onto this thread and ask a question about CCleaner.
I’ve just begun to explore its capabilities, but I have a question about the item “Unused File Extensions” under Registry Integrity.
When I click the Analyze button, it comes up with a bunch (more than one page) of extensions that are theoretically unused, but in fact, many of the extensions shown ARE used. Being conservative, I have not allowed CC to to “clean” these extensions from the registry. Can you (anyone) explain why extensions that are used on my system show up as unused file extensions? What would be the impact of allowing CC to clean these extensions?
Thanks.

The short answer is that “registry cleaners” are not very good, and that “cleaning” these file extensions would put you in another forum asking for help on a system that is not working correctly, if at all.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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In its use of the registry, Windows utilizes a sophisticated binary search algorithm. What this boils down to in simple terms is that in order to add just one more single step in that search routine, you would have to at least double the size of the registry. The other issue of significance is that a registry entry that references a missing dll will not be examined by Windows. There can be literally thousands of deadends in the registry, and they will not slow the ordinary operation of the registy for the simple reason that they are not examined by Windows. You would have to have at least as many deadends in the registry as there are legitimate entries just to add one single step to Windows’ search.

To put this in a context noticable to the user, try this simple experiment: using Windows Explorer, go to the Program Files folder, find the biggest program you have installed, find the dll file that carries the name of the program (such as photoshop.dll for Adobe Photoshop) and rename it temporarily to “nameoftheprogram.dllold” (using whatever the name of the program happens to be). Save the rename, exit Windows Explorer, and try to start that program. You will get an error popup immediately–quicker than you normally see the splash screen of the program when it loads normally. That is what happens when a needed dll is missing. (You can go back and correct the name now.)

In the above example, Windows does not continue searching the registry trying to find the missing (renamed in our case, but missing as far as Windows is concerned) dll file. The needed named file is not where the registry says it is; case closed, popup an error message.

Nothing happens when an unneeded dll is missing because Windows is not looking for it and does not examine its reference in the registry. There is no slow down. There is no noticable effect on the “Windows Experience”.

Using another analogy, if I want the sports section of today’s newspaper, I already know that today’s newspaper is on the front lawn. I already know that the sports section is the third section of the paper. There is no need for me to search the entire house and the storage building out back and look through all the old newspapers that may have accumulated since the last time I made a trip to the recycling bin at the public library in order to retrieve today’s sports section. Having a house and storage building filled with things I’m not looking for does not impede my search for what I am looking for, today’s sports section. I just go to the front lawn, pick up the newspaper, pull out the third section.

It has been my observation (and no offense intended toward anyone whatsoever) that most of those who advocate the use of “registry cleaners” simply do not understand how Windows uses the registry.

I am unswayed by anecdotal accounts of “effectiveness”. A couple of years ago I did some extensive testing. I did a fresh installation of XP Pro on a second physical hard drive (the PC had two identical hard drives) in parallel with an existing installation of XP Pro that had been upgraded over Win2KPro which had been upgraded of Windows 98 which had been upgraded over Windows 95 OSR2, and had had only my routine maintenance regimen performed on it over the years. Both installations were fully patched and updated. The older XP’s registry had a few hundred thousand more entries than the new XP’s registry. Preliminary scans with a couple of different “registry cleaners” (no cleaning, just scanning) showed the older XP’s registry to have thousands upon thousands of errors; deadend entries and other errors of all descriptions.

I ran several benchmarks with these two installations of XP. There was no difference in performance on any level. These were not comparisons made on identical machines; these were comparisons made on the same actual equipment, the same physical machine. Even PC Pitstop could not uncover any difference between the bloated registry and the fresh registry.

I do, however, highly recommend Revo Uninstaller (the free version). It will safely remove all traces of any program that you wish to uninstall from your system, including the registry entries specific to that one chosen program.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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In its use of the registry, Windows utilizes a sophisticated binary search algorithm. What this boils down to in simple terms is that in order to add just one more single step in that search routine, you would have to at least double the size of the registry. The other issue of significance is that a registry entry that references a missing dll will not be examined by Windows. There can be literally thousands of deadends in the registry, and they will not slow the ordinary operation of the registy for the simple reason that they are not examined by Windows. You would have to have at least as many deadends in the registry as there are legitimate entries just to add one single step to Windows’ search. …

Thanks for this detailed explanation. I believe registry cleaners to be akin to snake oil.

Joe

--Joe

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bbearen, thank you for your replies.
Your dissertation on the functioning of the registry was very informative. I disagree, however, with your comment about Revo Uninstaller. I have used it and found it to be competent, but it does not clean all references to the uninstalled program from the registry. I have empirically proven this to my satisfaction. In my own experience (obviously not as comprehensive as yours), I’ve found CCleaner’s uninstall function to be more effective.
As for the issue of unused file extensions, which I started another thread about when I received no responses on this thread (until now), I agree with your comments, and have decided to leave these alone.
Thank you again.

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bbearen, thank you for your replies.
Your dissertation on the functioning of the registry was very informative. I disagree, however, with your comment about Revo Uninstaller. I have used it and found it to be competent, but it does not clean all references to the uninstalled program from the registry. I have empirically proven this to my satisfaction. In my own experience (obviously not as comprehensive as yours), I’ve found CCleaner’s uninstall function to be more effective.
As for the issue of unused file extensions, which I started another thread about when I received no responses on this thread (until now), I agree with your comments, and have decided to leave these alone.
Thank you again.

After having done the registry part of many uninstallations by hand for years (one simply could not install a new hp printer unless all traces of the old hp printer were removed from the registry; the installation would invariably hangup a little over half-way through), I’ve found that Revo Uninstaller, used correctly, does indeed remove all traces.

On the other hand, I just ran a simple head-to-head between the two, and Regedit shows CCleaner to be quite lacking. After CCleaner’s uninstall of EasyBCD 2.0, I found

After reinstalling EasyBCD 2.0 and then using Revo Uninstaller, Revo offered to take that registry entry out.

And that was a simple uninstall. I’d hate to see the comparison using an hp Printer, or a Symantec product, or an nVidia or ATI graphics suite.

I think I’ll stick with Revo Uninstaller.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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bbearren,
Hello…Excellent explanation… for some like me, for example.. just like to have things “ship shape” on our OS’s. Mostly from removing things that i don’t use and it bothers me knowing that there are now “orphaned” registry entries hanging about …nothing to do with any increase in OS performance. Just my obsessive compulsive behavior coming to the surface. Thanks again Regards Fred

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bbearren,
Hello…Excellent explanation… for some like me, for example.. just like to have things “ship shape” on our OS’s. Mostly from removing things that i don’t use and it bothers me knowing that there are now “orphaned” registry entries hanging about …nothing to do with any increase in OS performance. Just my obsessive compulsive behavior coming to the surface. Thanks again Regards Fred

And you’re welcome.

I’d bet you’d have a fit if you could see your other orphans, all the files that are still on your hard drive(s) with only the headers and EOF’s of the fragments removed! I know a couple of utilities that can show them to you, but they’re rather pricey. (The “writing all zero’s in free space” trick doesn’t really work all that well.)

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

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Wise Registry Cleaner: http://www.wisecleaner.com/wiseregistrycleanerfree.html

Auslogics Registry Cleaner: http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/registry-cleaner/download/

Both are free, and I run them in addition to CCleaner. No problems on XP SP3. YMMV. Each one finds stuff the others do not.

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Each one finds stuff the others do not.

Which is reason enough to stay away from all of them.

Dead ends and orphaned entries etc. mean absolutely nothing to the registry or to system performance. Nothing.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

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bbearen,
Here’s my experience.
Every time I attempted to start the Sonic DVD writer program, I would get a popup dialog to the effect that Windows was attempting to load another program (sorry, can’t remember which one at the moment – I believe it was HP PrecisionScan, so let’s use that for the purpose of this example), but couldn’t actually load it (Sonic did start OK). In an attempt to correct this, I used Control Panel Add/Remove programs, and removed the PrecisionScan program.
But when I started Sonic again, I continued to get the same popup. So I edited the registry and deleted all references to HP PrecisionScan that I could find. I also did a search on my hard drive for all references to HP PrecisionScan (files and folders), and deleted them. Still, when I started Sonic, the popup re-appeared.
I installed Revo and attempted to uninstall PrecisionScan, but Revo did not find it (as I expected it would not, since I had uninstalled it earlier). I was stumped, so I decided to live with the problem. At that point, I did not have CCleaner on my computer.
After installing CCleaner (I had not yet re-installed PrecisionScan), while I was familiarizing myself with it, I noticed that PrecisionScan showed up in the Uninstall list, and opted to let CC uninstall it.
This corrected the error that I was experiencing when starting Sonic. I re-installed PrecisionScan, and it worked properly (actually, it had always worked properly), and Windows no longer attempted to load it when I opened Sonic.
This indicates to me that CC found remnants of PrecisionScan that Control Panel Add/Remove Programs and Revo (and my search through the registry) had missed.
As I said, just my experience. Yours was obviously different. For me, Revo is out, CC stays.

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I installed Revo and attempted to uninstall PrecisionScan, but Revo did not find it (as I expected it would not, since I had uninstalled it earlier). I was stumped, so I decided to live with the problem. At that point, I did not have CCleaner on my computer.
After installing CCleaner (I had not yet re-installed PrecisionScan), while I was familiarizing myself with it, I noticed that PrecisionScan showed up in the Uninstall list, and opted to let CC uninstall it.
This corrected the error that I was experiencing when starting Sonic. I re-installed PrecisionScan, and it worked properly (actually, it had always worked properly), and Windows no longer attempted to load it when I opened Sonic.
This indicates to me that CC found remnants of PrecisionScan that Control Panel Add/Remove Programs and Revo (and my search through the registry) had missed.
As I said, just my experience. Yours was obviously different. For me, Revo is out, CC stays.

Had you reinstalled PrecisionScan, then used Revo, you might have some basis.

Try the same install/uninstall head-to-head as I just did; otherwise, you’ve not made any meaningful comparison.

I gave CCleaner two clear shots at EasyBCD, a fresh installation on each, and it missed both times. Revo got two bullseyes.

And I still do a lot with only Regedit. Here’s a tip for hp software registry entries. Use only “hp” as a search term, then read each entry carefully. It’s quite tedious, but it only takes one run through the registry.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Talking about registry cleaners is liking talking about abortion. And the same answer applies: if you are against abortion, don’t have one. If you don’t like registry cleaners, don’t use them.

So much hostility here.

There’s a filter here that turns “Holy cr*p!” into “Holy junk!” Do we not know that CCleaner stands for (or stood for) CrapCleaner?

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Talking about registry cleaners is liking talking about abortion. And the same answer applies: if you are against abortion, don’t have one. If you don’t like registry cleaners, don’t use them.

So much hostility here.

There’s a filter here that turns “Holy cr*p!” into “Holy junk!” Do we not know that CCleaner stands for (or stood for) CrapCleaner?

The difficulty arises when someone follows so-called “good” advice, “cleans” their registry, and is then forced to do at minimum a repair/reinstall just to get it to boot.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

If it is broke, the chances are about 99.999999999999999999999999(add as many 9’s here as you like)9999999999999999999999999999999999% that it is not because the registry has not been “cleaned”.

I have tested and will continue to test CCleaner from time to time. So far, it has failed to live up to its praises, or to perform appreciably better than the tools already built into Windows when properly used.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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