registry cleaner, reccommendations please

georgiesmum

Know there must be some on this forum but haven't the time to trawl. Will be grateful for your help. Laptop only 6 months old and very slow. Not really computer savvy but will have a go.

debitcardmayhem

Cleaning the Registry will probably cause more harm than good ! look here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

waddler_8

Don't bother with a registry cleaner - they won't speed anything up.

Sparhawke

You are far better going after a general clean up of files and a defrag of your computer, most of the time companies will tell you that your registry needs cleaning but usually it is not the case, more than likely it is because you have a load of unnecessary programs running in the background even when you have not used them in months.

The free version of CCleaner will do pretty much everything, it will get rid of temporary files, it will allow you to choose which startup programs you want so they only appear when you want them to and it even has a rudimentary registry cleaner.

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/standard

Combine this with a defragmentor such as Auslogics or Defraggler and you should be good to go

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/after-download/?file
http://www.piriform.com/defraggler/download/standard

HereToday

Sparhawke wrote: »

You are far better going after a general clean up of files and a defrag of your computer, most of the time companies will tell you that your registry needs cleaning but usually it is not the case, more than likely it is because you have a load of unnecessary programs running in the background even when you have not used them in months.

The free version of CCleaner will do pretty much everything, it will get rid of temporary files, it will allow you to choose which startup programs you want so they only appear when you want them to and it even has a rudimentary registry cleaner.

Combine this with a defragmentor such as Auslogics or Defraggler and you should be good to go

A six month old computer does not need a Defragmenter. Also I wouldn't direct someone to the standard version of CCleaner without warning them of the possibility of installing a Toolbar with it.

Perhaps a check on the specifics of the machine, along with checking for Malware would be more appropriate.

Sparhawke

This is partly the reason I sent them to the direct download pages rather than having them hunt down the download page and navigating a load of crap that comes with it.

All free software tends to come with an option to add a toolbar, that is no reason not to recommend it and no one can possibly foresee every eventuality that may arise.

And you do not know what the opening poster does with his computer that could require a disk defrag, all computers need one at some point. When would you recommend one, a year? two? five?

What would you recommend the opening poster do? Since you mention malware, how about a recommendation of a good tool?

The OP claims not to be tech savvy, while this may be true there is no point in baffling someone and throwing way too many options at them, they gave absolutely no information about their system, their memory, their operating system or anything else like how fast their computer was before and how slow it is now. Might as well start with one or two things and then once that is done tell them something else if it does not work.

By the way, didn't mean to edit your post, I pressed the wrong button when I meant to answer you, I didn't change anything in your post

HereToday

Sparhawke wrote: »

This is partly the reason I sent them to the direct download pages rather than having them hunt down the download page and navigating a load of crap that comes with it.

All free software tends to come with an option to add a toolbar, that is no reason not to recommend it and no one can possibly foresee every eventuality that may arise.

And you do not know what the opening poster does with his computer that could require a disk defrag, all computers need one at some point. When would you recommend one, a year? two? five?

What would you recommend the opening poster do? Since you mention malware, how about a recommendation of a good tool?

The OP claims not to be tech savvy, while this may be true there is no point in baffling someone and throwing way too many options at them, they gave absolutely no information about their system, their memory, their operating system or anything else like how fast their computer was before and how slow it is now. Might as well start with one or two things and then once that is done tell them something else if it does not work.

By the way, didn't mean to edit your post, I pressed the wrong button when I meant to answer you, I didn't change anything in your post

Not true. CCleaner Slim has no Toolbar.

Version 4.04 will be available direct from their website soon enough. 4.03 available from Majorgeeks and the like.

I didn't recommend anything as waddler8 was already on the thread and can help the OP with most malware related problems.
Too many cooks and all that...

closed

defrag (which is probably done automatically), and ccleaner won't improve speed

if it's not a slow internet problem and it hasn't been loaded with some bloated AV product or malware, backup and factory restore is the quickest solution

fenlander_uk

I can't understand why some people are so keen to do a factory restore. Even if all your data is backed up safely, getting your pc back to a fully usable state after a factory restore can take days, what with reinstalling and reconfiguring all your software and applying umpteen updates. In all my years of using a pc I have never had to resort to a factory restore except after a hard disk failure and replacement.

Ccleaner is an excellent tool. Apart from removing unwanted files it is also an excellent editor for start up options, a decent registry cleaner (which has never caused me any problems whatsoever), and can be used to wipe unused areas of the drive. It is not the most radical registry cleaner - Auslogics cleaner will always find more redundant entries. The Auslogics defragger is also excellent, and much quicker than most. As always, use such utilities with common sense and they can help you avoid the horror of a factory restore.

Having said that, if your 6 months old pc is very slow, the cause is not just the registry or fragmented files. It's much more likely to be an accumulation of adware. I'd start by downloading and running adwcleaner from bleeping computer. It will quickly remove toolbars and other rubbish that insinuates its way on to your pc when you install software. Also, make sure you're running only ONE anti-virus and that you have at least a few GB of free space on your C: drive.

closed

because it works, in minutes, whereas defragging (any type) and ccleaner or any other cleaner wont do a thing. It also costs a far lot less than a visit to a pc shop.

Doing updates (a background task), installing a few programs, and copying data is hardly time consuming, copy, paste, and run a few installers, go make a cup of tea while it applies updates

Compare that to hunting for a cause that even the most experience tech around may not pinpoint.

It's 6 months old, unlikely to have much on it and will have plenty of ram/cpu grunt so that can be ruled out - which leaves hunting for a software cause can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

georgiesmum

Thank you all so much for replying. have downloaded cc cleaner and uninstalled a few things not needed. Hopefully that may help but i will go through some of your suggestions as soon as i have some time on the computer.