JellyKnight

If anyone is interested:... So the other day I was vacuuming around my computer, which sits 5 feet off the floor when it tipped over and fell on the floor. My harddrive flew across the room as did my video card and a few other bits and pieces (my case is open and nothing is screwed in). It destroyed both a mouse cable end and ripped the speaker wires in half... oh and split a fan in two. Well after I had adjusted to the horror of the disaster, I put it all back together, found another mouse and speakers and switched on. Alas! the hard drive is toast ... just clicks and thats it. (2tb down the tubes!) Sooo.. whats this to do with this topic?... I did this: I took a another harddrive - reformatted with Win7 and the first time it came on, without even changing the default video settings and even using IE (ugg) to download Ccleaner I cleaned the brand new registry of less then a dozen errors Win7 made while installing, and then I downloaded the UNmentionable program from the first post again from Cnet. After I ran this UNmementionable program on a brandnew install of Win7 on a clean drive, it reported back 300+ registry errors that it would only clean if I paid money for the 'pro' version. So after all this I can see that those hundreds of errors 'found' are are indeed insignificant and therefore I now agree that one does not need such an agressive registry cleaner. On that basis I can recommend Ccleaner.

The software IS highly recommended by CNET so I doubt is causes damage - I ran the 'free' version which removes 50 errors but requires buying the full version to clean the other 500+ errors it claims to have found. After cleaning the 50 errors, I found that a couple of programs that I ran from removable drives 'lost' their shortcuts because I never had the drives plugged in when I ran it. However after rebooting and using the affected programs again they corrected themselves and all is well. i do use my system at least 12hours a day - but your advice about I may not find a problem happening for several months sounds a little far-fetched. Usually I reformat my harddrive, and start with a new install of the operating system and start from scratch every 'several months' anyways. Altho' I have faithfully backed up my registry daily for years, I have never actually had to 'restore' the registry even once. I'm fairly able to troubleshoot and correct windows errors as my system, loaded with games and modelling programs, often needs a good cleaning. As I have for quite a while now relied on CCleaner for cleaning and then after trying the 'unmentionable' other program it gave me cause to join this forum and ask the question that I did. I understand the concern and restraint that you are showing but would like to know about those other 500 errors and how much they may be slowing my system... however, I'm reluctant to buy another cleaner just to find out.... altho' I am seriously thinking about it and will let you know what happens if I do.

Well that was not a very satisfactory answer... If another program reports over 500 errors and CCleaner says - all fixed... it seems slightly more than just a more aggressive search... and even so why not add it, at least to the paid version, where CC could at least show a few of those extra 500 errors that go unreported, and let the user decide whether to delete or not?

I have used CCleaner for a long time and I run it several times a day asking it to clean everything including the registry. It never finds more than a few registry errors which I always delete. Today I downloaded ( highly recommended 4.5 stars from cnet) a program called [removed by moderation]. Before I ran it I CCleaned up everything. After I ran it [removed by moderation] says I have 563 errors including 101 ActiveX and COM errors/168 shortcut erros and many more. So if this is true - just how effective/reliable is CClean? and why does it not find the same errors? I will switch only if I cannot get a satisfactory answer from this post.