Yes, it would be my prerogative if it were an option, so that is why I suggested it. After some years and a lot of scans, you become more strict about some things and more casual about others. However, I would not demand that you folks do things my way. I'd just like to do it that way myself.
CCleaner could even place a caution—maybe not Living On the Edge, but perhaps Not Recommended or whatever CCleaner felt the danger zone might be. I think it is Spybot that refers to a couple of settings that you can find if you know how to find them, and maybe CCleaner might try that approach.
I suppose all of you folks do use NTREGOPT and know how to start your computer from an XP with the ERDNT backup, because it looks like you prefer much more safety than I do. You know, I've only ever had to do that once. I usually run several OSs from my main box plus I run two other computers—XP x32, XP x64, Vista x32—plus I spend a lot of time doing repairs and fixups for other people. I run CCleaner about three times an HOUR most days, year in and year out. As I said in my original post, it takes me 1? seconds to run it, and I just keep working, so why not?
But the registry clean takes me longer than that. Plus although I don't modify the results as a rule, I very often watch them.
The very worst CCleaner problem I've ever seen involved some innocuous-seeming Word 2000 registry settings, which looked totally as though they just WOULD NOT matter—but they DID matter. Word had an interesting safeguard that presupposed that ANY registry change—affecting ANY Word files in the manner of the CCleaner change—would represent a safety risk; and the MS response to that was to default a lot of Word settings for safety. And THAT basically made a few thousand Word users wonder what on earth was wrong with their Normal.dot file. (In other words, CCleaner was triggering a precautionary reset-to-default built in to Word, when CCleaner cleaned these supposedly "innocuous" files.) It took me 2 or 3 YEARS to figure that one out, but, yes, that was CCleaner doing the damage. In CCleaner, you could simply make Word (Office) an exception and then easily re-test the results; they were easily reproducible. Interesting.
CCleaner can take out your Google cookie settings for your browsing preferences, but again, you can set your preferred exceptions so that your Google cookie follows you everywhere and duly files away your brand of toothpaste. That cookie is merely a nuisance to people, but the old WORD problem was serious grief all over the internet.
Even so, apart from that, I've not had the experiences you guys suggest. I'm happy with your being as cautious as you wish. No problem at all. My suggestion is for those who would like to take their chances. I want speed and I run pretty lean and mean systems that don't have many iffy settings. I do a ton of software testing, and so I am adding and removing programs all the time—that would average, say, 3 to 10 programs per day; occasionally more. And I do like to keep things on the hard edge of strong. If CCleaner DID cause me harm—I repeat that it never has—I would first blame myself, and see what I might have set up or taken apart badly.
Ha ha! —And, very long ago, when we built delicate wooden model airplanes—lovely, intricately detailed, all-by-hand creations, that took forever to put together—we always dropped them on the floor as soon as they were finished. Just to be sure that they could sustain that kind of treatment. Then we'd repair the damage, if any, and we'd try the "drop test" again.
Cheers. CCleaner, please consider a Registry /AUTO, like RegSeeker has. Thank you very much.