Registry Cleaner Reviews - Separating the Wheat From the Chaff

[Lee Keith]

With the plethora of registry cleaners available it's often hard to
decide which one is best suited for your specific problems. Most
programs offer trial versions that will scan your registry, but not
repair any problems. While that is a good way of sorting out the duds,
actual user and expert registry cleaner reviews are first hand
experiences that can help you make an informed decision.
While it's impossible to address all the registry cleaners available
in an article like this in depth, I'll focus on three popular
applications and give you an overview of their respective pros and
cons. At the end of the article you'll find a pointer to more user and
expert reviews and opinions of these and other programs.
RegCure
RegCure is available as a trial version that scans your registry for
inconsistencies. If you want to repair any of the problems it finds,
you will need to get the paid version.
The list of features is quite long, including removal of orphaned
application uninstall information, ActiveX registration keys, startup
items and more. Support is available via email, a customer support
forum and an FAQ/knowledgebase.
RegCure isn't reviewed often in the well-known print publications such
as PC Magazine et al, but it gets frequent user reviews around the Web
that reflect mixed opinions. While it seems to be working well for
some, there are also reviews that indicate problems. RegCure seems to
occasionally be a bit too agressive when removing registry entries it
deems obsolete, so it's definitely a good idea to watch closely what
this tools is doing and, as always, backup your registry before using
it.
Advanced Registry Optimizer
Advanced Registry Optimizer, or ARO for short, offers some unique
features not found in other tools. For instance, ARO enables you to
selectively roll back, I.e. undo, any or all changes it makes to the
registry. It's still advisable to make a backup of your registry
before using ARO, but this feature will make it a lot easier to
experiment with different optimizations.
Another nice option is to exclude certain registry entries from being
touched and a scheduler that runs ARO at predefined intervals to keep
your system clean and tidy.
Experts such as Tucows and Cnet give ARO very good ratings. Cnet gave
ARO version 5 a 4 out of 5 rating, Tucows even gave it 5 cows. User
reviews are, as always, a bit less enthusiastic but overall ARO seems
to be working quite well for the majority of users. ARO is available
as a trial version which will scan the registry and fix up to 20
errors it finds for free.
PC Tools Registry Mechanic
The third tool we're going to look at is PC Tools Registry Mechanic.
This application gets lots of praise from experts and users alike and
is among the most popular registry cleaners with over 60 million
downloads so far.
Registry Mechanic is designed with the novice user in mind. The
interface is very easy to understand and navigate and hides very
powerful features. It also integrates several useful Windows system
management functions in an easy-to-use interface, which is a nice idea
especially for the less tech-savvy user.
Features include automatic registry backup, registry restore, registry
monitor an ignore list (for registry entries that shouldn't be
touched) and more. A plugin interface makes feature upgrades a breeze.
Support options include eMail, a community forum and a knowledge base
and FAQ.