Different defrag programs

Don Schmidt wrote:
> It seems it was explained pretty well; just don't go stomping around in mine
> fields. Nothing (little) can be gained and much can be lost.
>

Its seem that it was stated, but not explained at all. Specifically, I
was asking not for the cons (with which I totlaly agree) but for the
'pros' of registry cleaning. 'Snake oil' implies it is a placebo, which
has no effect at all...

The following article by Mark Russinovich comes to a different conclusion:
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2005/10/02/registry-j...-a-wind

"...but over time changed my mind, only to recently recognize that even
today they can help maintain Registry hygiene. "

and later..

"The troubleshooting example that triggered my realization is one where
a user discovers that Internet Explorer (IE) hangs upon startup unless
they’ve used their ISP’s dialer to establish an Internet connection
before opening IE. The user captured a Regmon trace of the hang and
found references to their previous ISP’s dialer in the “RAS Phonebook”
key under HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU, the personal settings area of the
Registry). After deleting the stale values their new ISP’s dialer began
launching automatically when IE opened like it was supposed to."

Donna in Idaho wrote:
> Should I or should I not use the registry cleaner in CCleaner?


You should most definitely *NOT* use CCleaner's snake oil registry
"cleaner." If fact, you should not use any automated registry cleaner,
ever.

Why do you even think you'd ever need to clean 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 "cleaner?"

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, most registry "cleaners" 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.

A little further reading on the subject:

Why I don't use registry cleaners
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=643

AumHa Forums • View topic - AUMHA Discussion: Should I Use a Registry
Cleaner?
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099

As for CCleaner, itself, CCleaner is worthless as a registry cleaner.
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, making it clearly a *worthless* product, in this
regard. (Not that any registry cleaner can ever be anything but
worthless, as they don't serve any *useful* purpose, to start with.)


--

Bruce Chambers

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