We get a pop up screen every so often that says something like "Your registry is corrupted. You need to clean it up. Go to www.registry-cleaner.com" or something similar (there seem to be about three or four varieties). I know it's important to sort out the Windows Registry, but is this a virus or spyware or, god forbid, for real? Nick Temple
Many companies try to sell things this way. The pop-up tells you your registry needs cleaning, or you have viruses or something similar, and directs you to free diagnostic software. Download this and it may find dozens or even hundreds of errors. The catch is that you have to pay something like $20 to $40 to register the program so that it will remove the errors.
Of course, the fact that the program "finds" lots of problems doesn't necessarily mean they exist!
Frankly, I would recommend never buying anything sold this way. There are perfectly good free registry cleaners, virus checkers and other utilites on the web. The good ones are reviewed in magazines, recommended in web forums and mentioned in columns like Ask Jack. Also, you can always run a search on the company or product name before you decide on a download.
One good free registry cleaner is CCleaner -- it cleans other sorts of crap as well, such as temporary Internet files. If you find it useful, you can make a donation via PayPal.
