[DEBATE] Do not use registry cleaners
- Thread starter rjsmithwalmart
- Start date
Mastershakes
OSNN Veteran Addict
- Joined
- 6 Jul 2004
- Messages
- 1,721
Funniest thread I've seen in awhile.
Welcome to OSNN, please PM me for tips on how to effectively use a registry cleaner.
Go Team Canada.
Welcome to OSNN, please PM me for tips on how to effectively use a registry cleaner.
Go Team Canada.
DaVo
OSNN Addict
- Joined
- 9 Jan 2006
- Messages
- 108
bobsalot said:
I use this one all the time: http://www.worldstart.com/weekly-download/archives/reg-cleaner4.3.htm
But if your new to the scene you may find this program a little complicated. But 'yes' this program will delete files by itself (its all automatic) but you just have to say 'Start cleaning'!
- Joined
- 12 Jan 2004
- Messages
- 5,015
Re: Hello Everyone!!! DO Not USE
As for a registry cleaner, I use Regcleaner, it is the best one out. It makes a back up what you do. So if something does go wrong it you can go back. It also has a search function on it. What this search function will do is look for entries of the programs you uninstalled. Like for example; Say one day you would wake up and switch from AOL to a real ISP and you uninstall AOL. You can do a search in the program for AOL and it will find all references to AOL. You can then delete then in one swoop. It saves time when trying to do a manual search threw the registry.
You can also do a search of uninstall programs. This will go threw and find references to programs there uninstalled. And you can delete them as well. This will still make a back up so if you screw it up you can go back.
It will also clean the registry of unused items. These are mostly prefect items, and temp items. It will not delete things you need. But like stated above, if you would happen to make the error, you can go back with a back up that is made.
Before you make a statement it is best to back it up.
rjsmithwalmart said:
As for a registry cleaner, I use Regcleaner, it is the best one out. It makes a back up what you do. So if something does go wrong it you can go back. It also has a search function on it. What this search function will do is look for entries of the programs you uninstalled. Like for example; Say one day you would wake up and switch from AOL to a real ISP and you uninstall AOL. You can do a search in the program for AOL and it will find all references to AOL. You can then delete then in one swoop. It saves time when trying to do a manual search threw the registry.
You can also do a search of uninstall programs. This will go threw and find references to programs there uninstalled. And you can delete them as well. This will still make a back up so if you screw it up you can go back.
It will also clean the registry of unused items. These are mostly prefect items, and temp items. It will not delete things you need. But like stated above, if you would happen to make the error, you can go back with a back up that is made.
Before you make a statement it is best to back it up.
Last edited by a moderator:
- Joined
- 8 Apr 2005
- Messages
- 16,950
bobsalot said:
I have used this one a bunch in the past, works great IMO
http://www.worldstart.com/weekly-download/archives/reg-cleaner4.3.htm
mlakrid said:
IMO, that is a very poor approach. OSNN would be nothing without it's members, and if a new person wants to contribute, we should all offer our opinions, to the contrirary if applicable, instead of trying to "laugh them out of here". I understand what you are saying, but people will disagree all the time. Conversations make topics interesting, don't you agree?
perris said:
Very good points, I agree completely.
- Joined
- 3 Feb 2002
- Messages
- 10,574
This thread is going fine. Debate is good. Just tone down the slightly attacking nature of the posts
Mainframeguy
Debiant by way of Ubuntu
- Joined
- 29 Aug 2002
- Messages
- 3,763
OT - can we have a thread cleaner on here please! I should love to see one that operates like the original poster implied, we could employ Ai heuristics so that the "thread cleaning" program would be "trained" by selected mods or elite subscribers and watch it evolving! We could have a new subscription option for viewing "clean threads" or maybe for viewing "dirty threads"
I know I will have lost many of you with my hyperbole, but I too see the funny side....
Back to the topic, we have a title that evolved - let us leave rjsmithwalmart alone - after all we know his name and where he works, so repect the guy for that maybe? There are signs of evolution already - who knows, maybe one day this guy will code the registry cleaning tool we all want to use? For all we know he is a code genius and this thread is a cunning ploy before he unveils his first beta link.....
I think I should stop posting today :dead: :smoker:
I know I will have lost many of you with my hyperbole, but I too see the funny side....
Back to the topic, we have a title that evolved - let us leave rjsmithwalmart alone - after all we know his name and where he works, so repect the guy for that maybe? There are signs of evolution already - who knows, maybe one day this guy will code the registry cleaning tool we all want to use? For all we know he is a code genius and this thread is a cunning ploy before he unveils his first beta link.....
I think I should stop posting today :dead: :smoker:
- Joined
- 15 Feb 2005
- Messages
- 2,346
wwwdjrcs said:
When someone differs in opinion to yours, thats fine.
His post to Johnny was more offensive than what I posted.
Attacking someone and saying:
rjsmithwalmart said:
Is simply unnacceptable... as much as Perris, Johnny and I disagree on many issues we keep it civil. We dont go attacking each other. I was VERY suprised when Perris only asked him to tone it down.
- Joined
- 4 Jul 2002
- Messages
- 6,584
Give it up.Perris has spoken and when Perris speaks you don't question him........He can and will hurt you :dead:
Mastershakes
OSNN Veteran Addict
- Joined
- 6 Jul 2004
- Messages
- 1,721
rjsmithwalmart said:
Huh?
- Joined
- 15 Feb 2005
- Messages
- 2,346
Evil Marge said:
LOL, me and Perris get along fine, every time I have made good points on any arguements he has commended me by giving me rep for the specified comment.
I for one appreciate that.
*back to the thread title*
back up your registry and do what you like, if you F it up, simply replace it with the saved version... end of story, this ain't rocket science...
*improper grammar and punctuation used for humor's sake only*
Mastershakes
OSNN Veteran Addict
- Joined
- 6 Jul 2004
- Messages
- 1,721
I prefer to live dangerously. but that is just me and it's not recommended.
Do what they say, backup.
Do what they say, backup.
Son Goku
No lover of dogma
- Joined
- 14 Jun 2004
- Messages
- 1,980
Re: Hello Everyone!!! DO Not USE
Ya know? Reading rjsmithwalmart's first post, is the first time ever, I had really ever thought of giving someone negative rep, since re-introducing this ability was discussed last year. Same goes with the reply of his, for which it doesn't help realizing that I was looking at the cleaned up version of it. That's largely the view I would have wrt this. The whole way it was written was similar to the manner in which many of those virus scares, (which seem to find their way emailed all over kingdom come) get spread. But in the case of those emails, they're in fact hoaxes. I know of those things, because I've had family email them to me, for which I've had to educate them a bit, and in the end ask that these emails not be forwarded to me anymoe...
In fewer words wrt registry cleaners, we're seeing essentially the equivallent of
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/watching.hoax.html
There were some that claimed they'd erase the BIOS, destroy monitors and hard drives, blow up power supplies, or infect a text file, or other such stuff. The claims were almost as ridiculous as melting down one's mobo or causing premature grey hair :laugh:
Now, admitedly someone who is ignorant and who just goes along the thing to remove anything "cause the computer said so, so it must be true, as, computers are infalible and can never make mistakes" can get themself in trouble. But no worse trouble then the unthinking use of the command line can result in as well... In this case, the problem would be more to do with operator error, and less to do with the program. The program is a tool, and yet it is only there to assist, not replace human thinking on what one is doing. If one is wondering why I might use terms such as this to describe this; it is because I have already run into this with another individual who did exactly what I'm describing with an uninstall program, and when I walked in the door was frantically waiting for me. The first words outa their mouth was help, my computer doesn't work anymore. It was the clean .dll function, and the same thinking "if the computer said it, it must be true" to which no additional thought was added.
And as it proceeded, using the option to reverse changes, or look at the log to see what files were delted wasn't possible. Reason is, the immediate thought on their part was "the program must be bad", so they uninstalled it. The thinking didn't fall along the lines of, "perhaps I shouldn't have used it the way I did, and perhaps I should have kept a better eye on what I was doing with it".
Actually, I have run into one, albeit I used regedt32 to manually purge the thing myself, rather then a registry cleaning tool. Johnny is correct though, that it might be a time saver vs. manually searching the stuff myself.
Anyone remember back to the days when 3dfx was still in existence, and as they didn't have unified drivers, such as nVidia and ATI now have, each product resulted in a whole new set of gfx drivers, based on a different code base? Well, not only could switching between a nVidia and a 3dfx card (or vise versa) cause problems, as setting it to VGA mode, or uninstalling the old drivers via the win2k Device Manager (only to have the system auto-restore the old drivers), then removing the board, and all other such stuff didn't effectively clean out the old drivers, but just switching between say a Voodoo 3 3000, and a Voodoo 5 5500
With many driver files, as well as registry entries left behind, and the newer driver installed right onto the same PC, some rather odd problems resulted. I'm talking about rather weird and completely bogus benchmark results, all the way down to strange color corruption problems. I still remember the day I got Martian Unreal, which had something like a red sky and people with green faces on the thing Not sure if I still have a pic of this. I also had some other images appear on screen that looked totally unreal, with color corruption occuring here or there... There were other odd gfx issues besides.
Unfortunately, the screen shot is no longer on my computer. But a cleanup of the old driver files (which could be done from safe mode), as well as removing references to older device drivers could clean this up without a reformat, perhaps. I ended up switching to a GF2 GTS then, after taking a look at the Voodoo 5, which proved, problematic albeit a little less problematic, then swtiching between 2 seperate 3dfx driver sets in terms of weird issues, even after supposedly "uninstalling the drivers" through the win2k Device Manager. I think that time, not wanting to reformat only a couple days after my first reformat, I did use this method to clean all 3dfx stuff off my system, and got things back to normal.
I think this potential problem with old device drivers, (albeit it's less of an issue with the same companies card now, due to the use of integrated drivers), is why nVidia released their detonator driver removal tool some years ago...
Ya know? Reading rjsmithwalmart's first post, is the first time ever, I had really ever thought of giving someone negative rep, since re-introducing this ability was discussed last year. Same goes with the reply of his, for which it doesn't help realizing that I was looking at the cleaned up version of it. That's largely the view I would have wrt this. The whole way it was written was similar to the manner in which many of those virus scares, (which seem to find their way emailed all over kingdom come) get spread. But in the case of those emails, they're in fact hoaxes. I know of those things, because I've had family email them to me, for which I've had to educate them a bit, and in the end ask that these emails not be forwarded to me anymoe...
In fewer words wrt registry cleaners, we're seeing essentially the equivallent of
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/watching.hoax.html
There were some that claimed they'd erase the BIOS, destroy monitors and hard drives, blow up power supplies, or infect a text file, or other such stuff. The claims were almost as ridiculous as melting down one's mobo or causing premature grey hair :laugh:
Now, admitedly someone who is ignorant and who just goes along the thing to remove anything "cause the computer said so, so it must be true, as, computers are infalible and can never make mistakes" can get themself in trouble. But no worse trouble then the unthinking use of the command line can result in as well... In this case, the problem would be more to do with operator error, and less to do with the program. The program is a tool, and yet it is only there to assist, not replace human thinking on what one is doing. If one is wondering why I might use terms such as this to describe this; it is because I have already run into this with another individual who did exactly what I'm describing with an uninstall program, and when I walked in the door was frantically waiting for me. The first words outa their mouth was help, my computer doesn't work anymore. It was the clean .dll function, and the same thinking "if the computer said it, it must be true" to which no additional thought was added.
And as it proceeded, using the option to reverse changes, or look at the log to see what files were delted wasn't possible. Reason is, the immediate thought on their part was "the program must be bad", so they uninstalled it. The thinking didn't fall along the lines of, "perhaps I shouldn't have used it the way I did, and perhaps I should have kept a better eye on what I was doing with it".
perris said:
Actually, I have run into one, albeit I used regedt32 to manually purge the thing myself, rather then a registry cleaning tool. Johnny is correct though, that it might be a time saver vs. manually searching the stuff myself.
Anyone remember back to the days when 3dfx was still in existence, and as they didn't have unified drivers, such as nVidia and ATI now have, each product resulted in a whole new set of gfx drivers, based on a different code base? Well, not only could switching between a nVidia and a 3dfx card (or vise versa) cause problems, as setting it to VGA mode, or uninstalling the old drivers via the win2k Device Manager (only to have the system auto-restore the old drivers), then removing the board, and all other such stuff didn't effectively clean out the old drivers, but just switching between say a Voodoo 3 3000, and a Voodoo 5 5500
With many driver files, as well as registry entries left behind, and the newer driver installed right onto the same PC, some rather odd problems resulted. I'm talking about rather weird and completely bogus benchmark results, all the way down to strange color corruption problems. I still remember the day I got Martian Unreal, which had something like a red sky and people with green faces on the thing
Not sure if I still have a pic of this. I also had some other images appear on screen that looked totally unreal, with color corruption occuring here or there... There were other odd gfx issues besides.Unfortunately, the screen shot is no longer on my computer. But a cleanup of the old driver files (which could be done from safe mode), as well as removing references to older device drivers could clean this up without a reformat, perhaps. I ended up switching to a GF2 GTS then, after taking a look at the Voodoo 5, which proved, problematic albeit a little less problematic, then swtiching between 2 seperate 3dfx driver sets in terms of weird issues, even after supposedly "uninstalling the drivers" through the win2k Device Manager. I think that time, not wanting to reformat only a couple days after my first reformat, I did use this method to clean all 3dfx stuff off my system, and got things back to normal.
I think this potential problem with old device drivers, (albeit it's less of an issue with the same companies card now, due to the use of integrated drivers), is why nVidia released their detonator driver removal tool some years ago...
Last edited:
I agree with Perris (ouch that hurt). I've never seen an improvement after a registry cleaning. But then I clean out the junk in my garage even when I can still squeeze the car into it.
Considering how many dead directory links and long ago deleted program references a registry cleaning finds I'll keep doing it regardless of not seeing an obvious improvement. Besides it's a good way to get an adrenaline rush between when you hit that Ok button and it starts deleting entries until you reboot and see if the computer still works.
regcleaner
system mechanic
registry mechanic
ccleaner
Just never run them in automatic and when in doubt, leave it alone.
Considering how many dead directory links and long ago deleted program references a registry cleaning finds I'll keep doing it regardless of not seeing an obvious improvement. Besides it's a good way to get an adrenaline rush between when you hit that Ok button and it starts deleting entries until you reboot and see if the computer still works.
regcleaner
system mechanic
registry mechanic
ccleaner
Just never run them in automatic and when in doubt, leave it alone.
- Joined
- 24 Jan 2002
- Messages
- 12,388
heheLeeJend said:
he said he agreed with me
hehe
Mainframeguy
Debiant by way of Ubuntu
- Joined
- 29 Aug 2002
- Messages
- 3,763
AWwwww Mr Smith never evolved to his third post ... then again maybe he's on shift at Walmart and it will be coming sometime soon with startling news of enlightenment!
I would say one thing out of this thread, which I know is OT... But imagine you were an OSNN virgin and you read this thread? You might seriously think about making your first post if it was on an issue where you did not feel technically competent, no? Yet folks like that are the ones we should (imho) welcome in more - just my closing thoughts here (since it don't look like no thread cleaning program is coming, we'll have to keep da mods!)
... then again maybe he's on shift at Walmart and it will be coming sometime soon with startling news of enlightenment!I would say one thing out of this thread, which I know is OT... But imagine you were an OSNN virgin and you read this thread? You might seriously think about making your first post if it was on an issue where you did not feel technically competent, no? Yet folks like that are the ones we should (imho) welcome in more - just my closing thoughts here (since it don't look like no thread cleaning program is coming, we'll have to keep da mods!)
Members online
No members online now.
Affiliates
Latest profile posts
Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone.
Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
Electronic Punk wrote on Sazar's profile.
Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.