Ccleaner Registry Scan

[Barbro Faries]

Ive noticed many posts (seemingly more recently) about issues/concerns over using the CCleaner registry cleaner. I'm no "expert" but hopefully in this post I can clean up a lot of the issues people usually incur whilst using the registry cleaner.

See the "tips" section for a link to ERUNT, a handy backup tool. Taking a backup of the registry is an essential part of maintaining it, as it will allow you to undo any negative changes you make. It is very easy to mess up the registry, and unfortunately if you don't have a backup, exceedingly difficult to fix. Taking a backup will allow you to fix any mistakes and save yourself a lot of effort.

This is actually an issue of much debate, but the general consensus seems to be that unless you remove thousands and thousands of keys from the registry, its not significantly smaller to be any more efficient at what it does. Thats not to say however, that a tiny performance gain wont be seen at all.. again, this is on the fence and noone seems to really agree on whether or not it does.

It could be said that it is indeed safe to use, but unfortunately ALL registry cleaners have some element of danger behind them. While CCleaner does use methods of scanning that are safer than most cleaners, the best method of cleaning would probably be to manually pick through all the keys detected to make sure that they are indeed safe to clean, as well as taking a backup (and remembering where it is and what its named) so that if you fail to notice some important key, it can easily be restored by double clicking the backup.

Probably not. The windows registry is essentially the central database used to store the settings for users, programs, and the system. Its not something that can be tampered with without at least some knowledge of what you're doing. This isn't to say the registry cleaner will definitely break your computer, and in most cases it is safe to remove the majority of keys CCleaner detects, however if you really have no clue what you're doing, and/or how to undo what you've done, I really wouldn't recommend you use this feature.

Yes, it can and most likely will improve performance of your computer. This is not to say you should remove all the keys you see to gain maximum performance (see quote by Nergal at the beginning of the post)

First: give it some time. If your computer is especially slow, this can be the issue. The registry scan can be slow on some machines, but give it a few minutes or if its not pressing, try letting it run while you sleep. If it still hasn't finished over night, then theres a problem.

In that case, try un-ticking every box, then scanning each one one at a time. If you can scan them all individually, then good. You probably have many invalid keys and just need to clean it. If you find you can't scan a certain selection, try posting a query (see tips)

First and foremost, if you can boot into windows at all (this includes safe mode,) try restoring the backup you should have taken when cleaning the registry. After merging the registry keys you cleaned, and rebooting the computer doesn't work, its likely not caused by ccleaner, and you should try a System Restore. If worst comes to worst, try using a windows recovery disc or the windows recovery console to fix your system files without data loss, thus allowing you to rebuild whatever configuration was lost.

1) The key is locked. CCleaner can't remove "locked" keys, and they'll have to be manually fixed (advanced users would want to manually navigate to the key via regedit and fix it them selves, novices may just want to leave the key alone if its not hurting anything.)

2) Your user account doesn't have the permissions to remove the key. CCleaner can usually remove everything you need it to, but in some cases a key will require Administrator privileges. If your account doesn't have this, either log onto an account that does or contact someone who can. Else, leave the key alone.

Its likely these DLL references are being re-created every time they are deleted and you should just leave them alone. However if it means that much to you, try looking up the DLL name to see what program it is associated with to confirm whether or not you really need it.

It means CCleaner didn't detect any issues that it deemed worthy of cleaning. This isnt to say your registry is in perfect condition, but unless your an advanced user its best not to pursue it any further than CCleaner.

No, and even if it were, why would you risk critical damage to your computer just so you didn't have to go through the hassle of sorting keys yourself? This would be a dangerous implementation in the program as it could hinder system stability (however unlikely) and will probably never be added.

I'd honestly recommend forever, and put them in a subfolder like My Documents\CCleaner Backups\ to keep things tidy. Keeping all your backups allows you to restore anything that may have been accidentally removed. If you're really pressed for space or you're 150% certain you dont need a certain backup, I'd recommend waiting about a week, maybe 2 before deleting anything, because once you delete those backups, they're gone (Unless you use a recovery tool like Recuva, which probably wont be possible if you delete some critical keys.)

Yes, but support for them isnt given here, and you'll have to find them on your own. However; I cannot stress enough how important it is that you actually know what you're doing before playing with these tools. Also, when using them, be sure to take proper restore points and backups so you can undo any changes.

CCleaner uses a lighter method of cleaning and is "safer" (term used lightly) than ones that dive into the deepest parts of the registry. You wont get support for those programs on this forum though.

Hi, Winapp2.ini. Good information. Good post, I learned a lot. I think you might have a bad link, there, though. The link called Wikipedia Article leads to a site about an island of some sort...unless I am being redirected. If it is a mistake, and you fix it, I'll be glad if a moderator delets this post.

I am no expert but I think its fair to say that the registry is one of the least innovated and redesigned elements of the Windows OSs. The registry of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 are almost similar, although Windows 7 probably has a smaller registry since when I made a backup, it has a much smaller file size than the backups I made on Vista's registry. The only reason I got about this was that Windows 7 has fewer preinstalled programs than Vista.

But they didnt even make an MMC snap in to access the registry. The registry editor is not that good enough. I got a screenshot of the help topic in Windows 7 about registry cleaners. It says that the registry is self sufficient which I do not firmly believe.

I have seen PCs that are relatively slow. Their parts seem OK and even if I had tried all the tweaking tips that Microsoft suggest, its still doesn't have that new PC feel so I turn my attention to the registry.

Whenever I search for Microsoft's own tips of speeding up the PC, they got tips for disk cleanup, defrag, disabling visual effects, startup programs and that sort of stuff but they NEVER say directly,"clean up the registry for invalid entries that are slowing the system". Only third party sites, companies and individuals such as ourselves acknowledge that it is necessary on a number of occasions.

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