So does CCleaner do a registry defrag? I DO have that program but have
never used it. Like I said, I'm not having any issues, everything is
running smoothly and zips right along and I'm not one to add/remove
programs. This system is 1.5 years old and I've only used 28GB of 320. A
friend was running a reg cleaner and it got me to wondering if I should.
I've always been a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" gal but I thought I'd
ask you guys what you thought.

"Ben Myers" wrote in message
...
On 9/8/2010 8:02 PM, Monica wrote:
I used to, as a computer novice in the mid 90s and let other people that
had
no idea what they were doing talk me into them.
I'm not having any problems but I'm sure there are errant files in there
that need removed/moved/fixed. Are Reg Cleaners EVER
a good idea? Maybe by now they're improved?? If so, are there any
"free"
reg cleaners you guys would suggest?
Thanks,
Monica



I can wholeheartedly recommend CCleaner, after using it for several years,
and installing it on many clients' computers. The Windows registry does
grow and grow and grow, and it has no built-in mechanisms to remove
obsolete entries, yet another idiocy of software design from good old
Micro$oft. I can say neither I nor my clients have ever, ever had a
problem with CCleaner's massaging of the registry. (You do need to be
very careful, however, with CCleaner's cleanup of junk files, as there can
be unintended consequences from asking it to remove files. CCleaner is far
more thorough than Windows' own Disk Cleanup.)

I have seen CCleaner remove over 1000 registry entries from old systems
that have had the "benefit" of many software installs and reinstalls over
the years.

When to use a registry cleaner? Use once, if you never have before. Use
after every significant Windows update. Use after uninstalling one or
more software packages, especially large complicated ones, e.g. an older
version of Microsoft Office or an Adobe suite.

What are the benefits? Faster system startup is the primary one. Slightly
reduced memory usage also occurs, because Windows decodes and loads a
working version of the entire registry into memory. Well, not the entire
registry. If the system has more than one userid, only the part of the
registry applicable to a single user gets loaded.

So, if you have a system with multiple userids, run CCleaner for each
user.

The Windows registry can also become highly fragmented over time. This,
too, slows down system startup. Windows defrag does not defrag the
registry. Mark Russinovich, once of SysInternals, wrote PageDefrag to
defrag the registry, paging file and hibernation file. Microsoft liked
Mark's work so much (he has written other good tools, too), that they
bought his company, and hired him. Now all the SysInternals software is
available on the Microsoft web site. PageDefrag does not work with Vista
or Windows 7 though... Ben Myers