Almost everyone at one point and time have been told that they should clean their Windows registry with a Registry Cleaner program. Doing a quick search in Google for registry cleaners brings up millions of results . Most of those sites ranking in the first positions say registry cleaning work. Which brings up the age old computer question
Do Registry Cleaners Work?
The answer is…. Yes, No, Maybe, Kind of. That is the only true answer to this question. Confused? You should be because while that answer is accurate is totally contradicts it’s self.
Why No
Often times registry cleaners are touted as being able to repair EVERY computer issue. They say it resolves blue screens, speeds up slow computers, will make your computer run like new. While you may increase the computers speed by cleaning out the registry a registry cleaning program along will not get you the boost you are looking for.
Why Yes
The simplest answer is Registry cleaners have evolved over the years to include several other tools that are not related to cleaning the registry. These programs are still called registry cleaners but they really are not just registry cleaners.
See our list of The Best Registry Cleaners 2015 for up to date information on what the best registry cleaners are.
Registry Cleaning can also be beneficial for users who get constant error messages from Windows after logging in and / or shutting Windows down. For those who have programs that seem to always want to install and fail out every time you boot, registry cleaning can help make these kinds of issues go away.
I recall McAfee not wanting to install because of a left over trace in the registry from Webroot. Once I did a quick cleaning the registry cleaner removed the old invalid entry and I was able to install McAfee on a clients computer.
So the answer is yes registry cleaners do work. However read on to see if it’s really for you or not.
Is Registry Cleaning Software Worth Me Spending Money On?
If you are not all that computer savvy and have a slow running computer you may want to think about getting a registry cleaning program. Not so much for the registry cleaning but more for easy to use tools that come with many registry cleaners out there. Products like PC Health Advisor have several key features that make it worth paying for. These items include:
- Registry Cleaning
- Start-Up Manager ( You choose what programs auto start )
- Defrag ( organizes disk space for faster access times )
- Malware Scanner
- Driver Manager ( Keeping drivers up to date )
- File Extension Manager
- Process Manager
- Manage Restore Points
- Missing Dlls message when you boot your computer
- Your Computer takes an EXTREMELY long time to load after you login
- You were recently infected with a virus and your computer has never been quite the same since even after your security client removed the virus.
- Programs will not install on your computer because they say “Fill in the Blank” program is already installed. However you know it’s not installed on the computer
- Some software package keeps wanting to install when you first boot your computer and then it errors out over and over again.
- If your already a tech person reading this you should be saying “Windows already has most of that stuff besides the registry cleaner and Driver Manager”. If your tech savvy and know your way around Windows your really do not need to use a registry cleaning program. You can just learn how to manage all the above using the various Windows tools that are built into the operating system.
However for most people out there they will find an easy to use all in one tool like PC Health Advisor is the better choice. Everything you need to manage your PC is at your fingertips in just a few clicks.
If you have one of the below problems than a registry cleaner may actually be able to help you out. If not I would focus more on what the other tools are in the software you are looking at buying.
All of the above have solutions without having to resort to using a registry cleaner. However I can tell you it’s not worth the 20-40 hours of time you may need to invest to learn how to resolve the issue. You are better off using a registry cleaner to resolve the above issues.
What Registry Cleaner I Recommend
I would say it all depends on the user. Personally I say install two or three different free trials and see what program is the easiest for you to use. As long as you considering a decent brand you really can’t go wrong. Some of the Cleaners that come to mind are:
PC Health Advisor => Trial Download
System Mechanic => Trial Download
Please note: Most free trial software is limited. This means it may not be fully operational. However you should be able to get a good feel for the program and see if it’s right for you.
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