I have downloaded and run a free registry cleaning program from registryoptimizer.com, which claims to have found 450 faults that need urgent fixing. Should I pay $50 for the upgrade to solve a problem I didn't know I had? John Underhill
I don't like this approach: while registryoptimizer.com looks OK, it's a marketing technique used by scammers. In any case, Windows registry cleaning is something best done gently, and there are two free programs that will do the job: Microsoft's RegClean 4.1a and Jouni Vuorio's superior Regcleaner. You can download the Microsoft program from www.majorgeeks.com/download458.html.
Backchat: My apologies: last week I referred to "Jouni Vuorio's superior RegCleaner" as a free program, but it has been superseded by a paid-for version. You can still download RegCleaner 4.3.0.780, the "last freeware version," from A+ Freeware. However, it doesn't run correctly under a fully updated version of Windows XP SP2. Here, if I install it then double-click the RegCleanr.exe file in Windows Explorer, the program does not show up. If I open Windows Task Manager and close down its (running) process, then double-click the file again, it does.
When John Collier could not find the free version on Vuorio's site, he says: "I bought a copy of RegSupreme 1.3 for £7.37. It is very effective and good value: one licence covers all the computers in our house." David Williams reports that after "a long discussion on Community Feedback, the general verdict is to use RegScrubXP, which is freeware from Lexun. I have used it for six months without problems." Sadly, the author has shut down the Lexun Designs site (www.lexundesigns.com) for personal reasons, so it's now abandonware.
There are links to more registry cleaners at http://lists.thedatalist.com/pages/Registry_Cleaners.htm, including the TweakNow RegCleaner, which is free for non-commercial use. However, Microsoft's RegClean (unsupported) and CCleaner (www.ccleaner.com) - which I've recommended for other purposes - do more than enough for most needs.
