Hi
An auto run off the registry cleaner would complete the hat-trick of switching off System Restore and downloading free-ware of uncertain origin. Very good for an exciting life !!!
Whenever I run CCleaner, it always finds redundant files to remove. It almost never finds any registry issues. When it does find registry issues then after fixing I run again just incase, and it is very rare to get any extra issues. I have never needed to run it 3 or 4 times - perhaps I do not ride my computer as hard as some people !!!
Real Life example of disaster :-
CCleaner purged all junk files and registry issues - as seen from my user profile.
I logged out and my daughter logged in, and as seen from her user profile CCleaner found more junk and registry issues.
I set up her profile to be much less aggressive than my profile in removal of junk files.
Although I had told her never to clean the registry, I was prepared to do so for her because it is an old computer that has had 4 years to accumulate some issues. Also as a matter of interest I wondered what CCleaner could see from her profile.
I WAS HORRIFIED. There were VERY MANY "Missing shared DLLs" and sundry other registry errors, which were typically due to being un-installed, with a remedy of removing the registry entries. Fortunately I recognised the file path that was missing - it was an application that I had used and was still there the last time I looked.
Had I removed the registry errors I guess I would have broken the application due to TWO ERRORS :-
The second error is that CCleaner did not recognise that the registry entries designated a file path in my user profile that was invisible from her user profile.
THE PRIMARY ERROR was that when I first started using Windows XP I was given a teach yourself "Step by Step Windows XP" book published by Microsoft Press, and this included a CD that was to be installed.
Those Microsoft imbeciles stupidly arranged that it would be installed in my private user profile, inaccessible to other users,
or perhaps they were not stupid - just immorally greedy and insisting that if multiple users want to learn then each user has to buy their own copy - acorns don't fall far from the tree !!!
n.b. After seeing this potential disaster, I unchecked absolutely every box under Registry Integrity, just in-case my daughter ever made a mistake and clicked the wrong button.
I often clean the registry, but I ALWAYS inspect and evaluate what is about to be done. Invariable my experience has been that it refers to something I remember un-installing in the last few days - but if this does not apply I back-off and Google and reconsider before I cleanse.
Regards
Alan