Completely free registry cleaner tools are hard to find... very hard to find. A quick search will usually come up with several pages of registry repair tools that advertise that they are free. Unfortunately, this usually means they will scan your registry for free but that cleaning part will come at a cost.
Small detail, I guess.
Believe it or not, there are several very good, completely free registry cleaner programs out there:
Best Freeware Registry Cleaners Reviewed
Important: "Cleaning" your registry with a registry cleaner program should not be part of your regular PC maintenance. Registry cleaning has been sold as an important task up there with updating Windows and running malware scans. Not so. Registry cleaning is best used as a diagnostic tool when you suspect certain kinds of issues with your registry.
Small detail, I guess.
Believe it or not, there are several very good, completely free registry cleaner programs out there:
Best Freeware Registry Cleaners Reviewed
Important: "Cleaning" your registry with a registry cleaner program should not be part of your regular PC maintenance. Registry cleaning has been sold as an important task up there with updating Windows and running malware scans. Not so. Registry cleaning is best used as a diagnostic tool when you suspect certain kinds of issues with your registry.
That’s true. I’ve had fewer problems with my computer since I stopped using a registry cleaner regularly.
ALL OF THE SO CALLED FREE CLEANERS DO A FREE SCAN AND MAYBE FIX A FEW PROBLEMS BUT THEN SAY NOW YOU MUST UPGRADE TO GET THE FULL FIX.
THIS IS MISSREPRESENTATION !
IF \I FOUND A PRODUCT \I LIKED \I WOULD BUY IT BUT I REFUSE TO BE TRICKED INTO A SALE.
Tom
@TOM: This is positively NOT the case and I’m not sure what program(s) you’re referring to. Just for kicks, I checked the first several on my list and they’re all 100% free and do a full scan/fix.
Are you sure you’re downloading the right program? Can you give me some examples? If I’m wrong about one of these programs, I’d be more than happy to remove it from my list.
just read your post in reference to bait and switch tactics/ pctools is a so called freeware, ya sure, it will fix the first 6 errors of 30 , unless I buy the pro version then it can repair all…whats up with that ?? crap
@russell: I don’t think Registry Mechanic (the registry tool from PC Tools) is listed as freeware. On their site, they just offer it for “download” which is certainly cryptic and not very honest since they don’t specify one way or the other.
On Download.com’s website, Registry Mechanic is listed as “free to try” – in other words: Shareware.
These companies that make registry “fix” software are certainly not known to be forthright in their information about actually gets “fixed”.
Tried Registry Mechanic and the scan was free but would NOT fix ANY of the problems found unless I bought the program………. bad advertising there!
@Patricia: Yep, Registry Mechanic is tricky. They’ve cleaned up some of the language on their site but they still don’t publicize that you have to pay to do any cleaning.
Regardless, as I’ve tried to burn in to the minds of anyone who asks me about registry cleaners for the last decade, YOU DON’T NEED THEM unless you’re trying to fix a specific issue. Running them all the time is a waste of time and most of the “problems” found aren’t really concerns anyway.
Have you tried Argente Registry Cleaner??
@eric: I have not but I’ll take a look.
Tim, why do you say “‘Cleaning’ your registry with a registry cleaner program should not be part of your regular PC maintenance? The nature of Windows is that clutter accumulates in the registry. Registry searches can be a large part of the overhead of some programs, esp COM-intensive ones. It _will_be a regular part of PC maintenance, just as is defrag, whether you want to or not.
@Robert Evans: I simply disagree. I have never seen any data showing that a “large part of the overhead” of any program is due to registry searching. I’ve personally never seen much of a speed increase in any particular program, nor in Windows overall, after a registry cleaning. I have seen big problems after registry cleaning, partly due to bad software. I’ve also seen users being hijacked by scanners that don’t clean.
However, I don’t see too much issue in using a good one, like CCleaner, on a regular basis, but I also don’t see the need. Prove me wrong and I’ll change my stance.