The typical Windows system has literally hundreds of thousands of Registry entries. Usually these utilities find like 19 “errors,” most of which are simply pointers to CLSIDs that don’t exist. that combined with the fact that these registry keys only take up a few kilobytes, is it really worth spending time on this task?
For yucks, I did a Google search for “registry cleaner” performance tests, and got more than 25,000 hits. In the first 15 pages, however, there wasn’t a single example of an actual performance test. Virtually all the results were lobbying companies that make and sell this sort of utility, or from download sites that have affiliate agreements with these developers. I found one recent how-to article from Ed Tittel on TechWeb. Ed asserts that “Most Windows experts recommend a Registry clean-up on all systems at least once every six months.” He didn’t link to any of those experts, however. Later in the same article, Ed advises: “I urge you to check comparative reviews, ratings, and rankings of Registry Clean-up Tools before you invest hard-earned dollars on these products.” Sadly, there are no links here either. I suspect that’s because detailed comparative reviews of this class of software don’t exist. Ironically, the article inadvertently documents the case against this sort of utility.
The best bit of reading I found in my search was this rant from a poster named Jabarnut on a thread at DSL Reports’ Software Forum:
"The Registry is an enormous database and all this “Cleaning” really doesn’t amount to much…I’ve said this before, but I liken it to “sweeping out one parking space in a parking lot the size of Montana” … a registry “tweak” here and there is desirable or even necessary sometimes, but random “cleaning”, especially for the novice, is inviting disaster.
I also would like someone to show me any hard evidence that registry cleaning actually improves performance. (Unless there is a specific problem that has to be addressed by making changes to the registry).
Sorry to go on like this, but I feel there is way to much Registry “Cleaning” going on these days just for the sake of “cleaning”"
Via Matt Goyer, John Hoole :
"Just a note to say if you have Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (probably all versions actually) steer clear of registry clean programs such as Reg Mechanic. They go through your registry and delete unnecessary keys….. sounds good but it didn’t count on Media Center. I ran it a few days back and when I came to use Media Center, it loaded, then produced a crash report and died. Took me ages to figure it out until I came to run Reg Mechanic again and realized this program deletes DLL files too, so….. I restored the first backup and rebooted and media center worked fine. So if you have that error on startup, that’s your problem right there. Just restore the backup from Reg Mechanic. So you have been warned."
So it looks like this software can actually HARM your computer. I can count several occasions where clients have called me saying that Windows won't run any EXE files, or Windows won't even start. In each of those cases I found both a messed up registry and a paid for registry cleaning utility. So that $30 you spend on Registry Mechanic could end up costing you an additional $80.
If anyone has done any serious performance testing on this class of software, I’d be interested in seeing it. In the absence of really rigorous testing and fail-safe design, I say: Stay far away from this sort of utility. If you have a counter-argument to make, leave a comment. But simply saying, “I use Reg-o-matic Deluxe and my computer is way faster than ever!” isn’t good enough. Show me the data!
Until then, I suggest leaving the tech work to a tech!
