CCleaner registry cleaning question

[Youngbear]

I am new to CCleaner, and to all of my software programs and OP system. I am coming from a long journey into the ancient history of Windows systems. I made the jump from Win 98SE to Win Vista - if only I had known what I was missing!

 

In Win 98SE I had to learn to manually clean the operatiing system, learn to use regedit manually, and learn to compact my registry. Telling my friends I edited my registry myself would always send shivers of fear into the room. Now, CCleaner does the job - well done! CC was loaded by my computer tech for me, a true visionary.

 

Okay, enough cow-pucky. My question is this: when CCleaner cleans the registry does it also compact the registry? I have noticed and used the "Wipe free space" selection, and I am wondering if this is CCleaner language for "Compact Registry?"

 

If CC does not currently compact the registry, may I humbly suggest that it consider including this option.

 

In the mean, may I assume that the ms dos language underlying the Vista OP system is the same as it has always been and that I can use it to reach my command prompt and proceed from there as usual to compact the registry?

 

I thank anyone out there who takes the time to read and answer my questions, and communicating with you has been my pleasure.

 

YB

[Andavari]

CC doesn't compact/defrag the Windows registry, although it has been a requested feature before.

 

Freeware that does compact/defrag the registry:

? Free Registry Defrag

? NTREGOPT, get the setup that also includes ERUNT.

 

Just make sure you use ERUNT first to make a known good registry backup, and do make a System Restore Point before compacting/defragging the registry.

[Youngbear]

Thank you my friend!

 

I downloaded the first program on your list of two. It was a small program, simple, downloaded clean, and ran perfect.

 

Again, thank you for your time!

 

Your friendj,

YB

[ident]

Defragging the registry does nothing. please can some one show me proff it does.

[login123]

Hi, Youngbear. Welcome.

 

Yours is an interesting first post. Thats a pretty big jump in operating systems. Glad you skipped win ME.

 

Actually windows is not technically DOS based anymore. It still has a DOS emulator and the commands look and work very similar, but it is not now running on DOS. You probably already knew this...I say it only to save you some work and maybe some grief. It is rarely necessary to do much manual registry fixing or manual cleaning on XP. I don't use Vista but think the same is true there. The two applications Andavari mentioned are good, he will never steer you wrong, but for the life of me I couldn't see that they made much difference when I used them.

 

When you clean the registry, do it one item at a time, saving a backup to the folder you chose, named in such a way that you can remember (never easy for me ) what that .reg file was about. Slow and cludgy, but safer.

 

The Piriform apps CCleaner and Recuva are good, do an efficient job of cleaning and recovering. I haven't used Defraggler.

 

You can read more about the current status of DOS here. Post back and say what you worked out. :-)

[login123]

Well, ident got there first. Bit more succinct, too.

[ident]

lol yes, my answer helps no one. this is something i tryed to research a bit. i think the most it can improve system performance is something like 0.0007%

[Youngbear]

Defragging the registry does nothing. please can some one show me proff it does.

Hello Ident & Login 123:

 

I went to the CClean site and joined their forum (my first forum!) and posted my issue about CClean not compacting the registry. In under two hours I was given a choice between two free download programs that were designed just to defrag and compact the registry. I looked them over and chose one: http://www.registry-clean.net/free-registry-defrag.htm . I chose it on the simplicity of its code (a mere 750KB), its easy GUI (a five-year-old could run it), and as I suspected it loaded very clean, and did what used to be a one hour job in about 2 or 3 minutes. After a C drive and register clean up with CClean and a register compaction with the new registry defrag/compact program, I tested the waters (both programs together took my weekly manual cleaning time down from four hours to five minutes). I got out my heaviest Word document and clicked once. MS Word was open before my hand could leave the mouse (perhaps one second). Movie Magic Screenwriter - that used to take about five to seven seconds to open - now opens in two to three seconds. My machine boots up from scratch in the morning in 25 to 30 seconds, unless I have worked on it all week and not cleaned it, in which case it will take 40 seconds. Man, I am in Heaven!

 

You ask for proof. Coming from Win 98, a slow, unstable program, that I had to load with heavy coded energy monsters like MS Word and Movie Magic Screenwriter, and MS FrontPage, and never having had a crash or freeze in all the years I was on it, the proof is in what you will not experience more than in what you will experience. None of my friends cleaned their environment the way I did and compacted their registers - all of them had crashes and freezes that made them move on to other OP systems. It is the only proof I can offer.

 

YB

[login123]

Sure sounds like you know what you're doing. More than I, for sure.

 

So forgive me if I sounded a little preachy, but I read all the time things like "Help, I cleaned my registry and now my lawn mower wont start" or "CCleaner wiped my hard drive and set the toaster on fire."

 

So just advising a cautious start.

[Andavari]

Registry compacting/defragging has only helped my WinXP system on one occasion that I can remember, however it had nothing to do with speeding anything up. It was when I was having issues with the mouse not responding and acting very jerky to movements.

 

Long story short after thinking the wooden table my computer resides at perhaps needed polished, and bottom of the mouse being thoroughly cleaned neither did nothing to fix the issue however compacting/defragging the registry which was highly fragmented did fix the issue in mere seconds. Somewhat strange, but true, which is why I compact/defrag the registry whenever it gets over 5% fragmentation now.