Very happy to have found this post on registry cleaners by Malwarebytes, also quoting Microsoft:

https://blog.malwarebytes.org/social-en ... snake-oil/

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Thanks for the link Patty, it's a good read, I did see something the other day about them being snake oil but I can't remember just where, mind you I already knew it but that article would be good for newcomers to read.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

Yup. The only one that I trusted for several years was the one provided by CCleaner. It had a reputation for being very benign and conservative. And for years it held true for me and I never deleted anything that I did not recognize. Then several months ago I deleted something that hosed my system. Of course you know me, Mr. BackUp, within minutes I was back to normal. But lesson learned, never again. Besides, with today's modern pcs and their "Mr. Data" like processing speed, having thousands of no longer needed registry entries just does not matter, besides, they take up no space at all even on a small hard drive let alone today's terabyte monsters.
Acadia

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

These pieces of mostly crap-ware were possibly useful back in the days of Win 2000 and even to a minor extent with Win XP but not any longer. Just let Windows do its thing. Current versions of Windows handle the registry just fine

While systems do break, from what I've seen, too many issues are caused by this type of software that is supposed to improve performance.

This may sound rather odd but I sort of relate the registry to cookies in a browser. While losing a needed cookie will not hose the system it can still cause issues where you can no longer get auto log in on a site. With the registry it becomes a bit more serious as you may no longer be able to access a program... or, possibly, much worse.

I have ALWAYS looked at registry cleaners/optimizers as a tool that should NEVER be used by anyone that could not do the same thing manually. If you could not do it on your own how can you know how to answer when the cleaner/optimizer presents what it wants to remove?

The registry is a data base of system information. This is partly why I associate it with cookies within a browser. It is sort of like a GPS system. With a GPS enabled device you always know where you are. The Registry and Cookies sort of work the same way in that they let the system know where it is.

Remove the wrong registry entry and the system no longer knows its location resulting in the need for computer help forums...

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There was ever only one safe registry cleaner, and that was the original Microsoft RegClean.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Gosh, RegClean, I remember that one, it was my very first. I regret that MS discontinued it but then again, maybe they knew that the future Operating Systems would simply not need it, I confess my ignorance, I do not know.

But that fact that Malwarebytes would post that statement is cool. There are several software companies that I have an awful lot of respect for and Malwarebytes is one of them. Yes, I know, Malwarebytes has its flaws, but show me ONE software company, MS and Apple included, that does not!

Acadia

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

Indeed. I too have a ton of respect for Malwarebytes.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock