I understand that even a massively inflated registry has no significant
effect on anything except the length of time required to search the
registry. Yet despite this knowledge, it is hard to eschew registry
cleaning. I don't know why exactly. There's something like a pre-wire
intution that if your remove 1,000 useless registry entries, it has to
imply there was a problem.

I myself don't run any serious risks, because I never proceed without a
full disk image. Worst case scenario, I lose 20 minutes while I restore
the disk. Sometimes problems arise with applications long afterwards,
but here the worse case is a reinstallation of the application.

Still, why waste the time. Registry cleaning may qualify as an
addiction.

Stephen R. Diamond

Graham Mayor wrote:
In the hands of people who don't know what they are doing, registry cleaners
do more harm than good. It's all very well having a smaller registry, which
might save a few seconds when you open Windows, but if the required entries
are scrubbed along the way, then the applications may not work properly and
in a worst case Windows will not start.

Some of these applications also remove 'redundant' dlls! Disaster in the
hands of the unwary

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



wrote:
If some people want or need such thorough cleaning that their settings
have to be sacrificed in the process, I'm glad CCleaner provides this
capability for them. But it isn't a behavior the user has any reason
to expect. There must be a mechanism to bring the behavior to the
user's attention before the effect is felt. One obvious way would be
to turn Office cleaning OFF by default and pop-up a warning when the
user checks Office. At this point, the CCleaner developer's
irresponsible marketing of the product has destroyed the confidence
in a product I need to allow it access to my registry, and I have
deleted CCleaner.