I've seen in alot of threads that you do not like registery tools however you do not offer any solutions to correct registery problems. Could you elaborate on why or what you use to correct issues. I had some issues with my computer, a friend suggested Registery Mechanic and it seemed to help my computer quite a bit. I'd like to understand your take on the subject instead of just don't use them. Thanks in advance for your response and if anyone else has any opinions I'd like to here from you as well.this has been discussed to DEATH in the forum.

the reason they are useless is there is no way to DIFFERENTIATE "bad data" from good data within the registry, which is why a lot of runs of these so called "Cleaners" their internal hueristics might decide that certain data VALUES are invalid- for example, many flag filenames in the registry that don't exist. What if the path points to a disconnected network drive? The cleaner will flag it and delete it, and the next time the app is run it will perform unexpectedly, possibly crashing.


Additionally although verifying the existence of COM server DLL,OCX, and EXE file is a simple directory lookup some configurations might have some of the registered com components on removable drive. run the cleaner while it's unplugged and it will delete the otherwise perfectly valid entries.

This situation compounds when it tries to verify component categories and CLSID's between the versions of the same component.

It boils down to this- Registry cleaners, regardless of the amount of hueristic data can not foresee how, or what applications store in the registry and thus it is a fools errand to try to define some standard.


This isn't even factoring in the use of the term "corrupt". If a registry is corrupted- windows won't boot. you cannot have a few "corrupted entries" unless specific applications purposely wrote those values to the registry. I've found most "corruption" as flagged by these so called registry cleaners is a REG_BINARY type that an application uses. Of course the proposed fix is the delete the entry, rendering that application unusable.

I've said it once and I'll say it again- the fact that registry cleaners even have a market is simply because of the instilled preconception by users that it holds anything more then mere data. It's a data repository, and nothing more; basically a giant conglomeration of Heirarchal INI files, really.

Why was there never a "INI file cleaner"? the same reason there shouldn't be one now- there is no way to objectively decide wether a foreign program's data is valid or not- but there wasn't- for the sole reason that people UNDERSTOOD INI files, Now, there is a cloud of CONFUSION over the registry. I've heard people refer to it as the "brain" of windows, which is like calling a acountants paper his brain- completely false. The reason registry cleaner's exist at all is because people think they are useful, when in fact the only purpose they serve is a placebo to the user who actually believes there is a such thing as a "registry issue". There isn't.


The only reason the registry even exists is thanks to OLE and COM, which used the windows 3.1 registry to save OLE registration information. Later versions removed the registry size limit (to some degree) and improved the node/key heirarchy. The registry's main purpose is to store COM/OLE registration, File association, and other system specific information, and as I said, no program can pass judgement on what another program considers to be valid. So what if a string looks like a filename? Without knowing how the application loading that string uses it the cleaner program has no business flagging it as "corrupt" or "file missing" or anything of the sort.


ONE change- a registry cleaner has only one, very specific use case- the removal of orphaned CLSID entries during the development of a COM component. Now I'm going to go out on a limb and say the average user really doesn't develop COM components. However- this use is PURELY cosmetic- a larger registry instills absolutely no time penalty of any sort, and the symptoms that people often diagnose as a "corrupt registry" or "registry issues" are 100% caused by malware. Warranted, the malware installs itself via registry keys in the Winlogon notify, RUN, and various plugin keys for the shell, but that doesn't make the entries invalid anyway- they are perfectly legal, which is why a spyware app is required to properly remove the entries, since it can flag the DLL's in question as malicious and thusly knows via it's database exactly how to go about removing it.
Quote from: Chevronman

a friend suggested Registery Mechanic and it seemed to help my computer quite a bit

"What BC said"......

Oh my goodness! I omitted links to the relevant blog posts we usually end up referring people to:

So, If you guys have programs that tend to not respond often or that slow down, what do you do?