My PC seems to be getting "doogier" the more I add/remove programs. Shouls I get a "Registry Cleanup" program. I have run disc cleanup and defrag. I use AVG antivirus software. Thank you for response.1 person needs an answerI do too

Registry clean up programs are pure snake oil, and could lead to a none functioning PC, If you know how to manually edit the registry you can do it yourself, which is preferable to using an automated tool. Generally removing orphan reg.entries leads to no performance increase

On Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:30:10 +0000, PMR5 wrote:My PC seems to be getting "doogier" the more I add/remove programs. Shouls I get a "Registry Cleanup" program.I don't know what you mean by "doogier," but regardless of what youmean, no! Definitely not!Registry cleaning programs are all snake oil. Cleaning of theregistry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the registry alone anddon't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many people think, andwhat vendors of registry cleaning software try to convince you of,having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt you. The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneouslyremoving an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefitit may have. Read http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.htmland http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099and alsohttp://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2005/10/02/registry-junk-a-windows-fact-of-life.aspxLet me point out that neither I nor anyone else who warns against theuse of registry cleaners has ever said that they always causeproblems. If they always caused problems, they would disappear fromthe market almost immediately. Many people have used a registrycleaner and never had a problem with it.Rather, the problem with a registry cleaner is that it carries with itthe substantial risk of having a problem. And since there is nobenefit to using a registry cleaner, running that risk is a very badbargain.Ken Blake

I differ from other opinions. Certain times left over registry entries, usually the driver references, affect computer speed. While it requires significant experience with manipulating registry organization, registry cleaners can help removing remanants much more easily so that you do not have to manually remove.I find CCleaner's registry cleaner to be safe with average users. JV16 Powertools and Iolo Registry Mechanic are extreme level of registry cleaner and cause give you more problems if used incorrectly or without deep understanding. Also, not all backup registry will plug-in back smoothly. Hence for non-technical people CCleaner is enough to clean registry. I agree that CCleaner cleaned registries may not improve computer functionality.I often use RegAlyzer to "hunt" for remnant registries that are not cleaned when a program has been removed from Control Panel / Uninstall.