Registry Cleaners

“What registry cleaner do you use? What do you recommend?

(I'm also interested in a new anti-virus program, I've been getting more and more po'd at McAfee which seems more like adware/spyware than an anti-virus program)”

“I found that a scuzzball with a weapon can usually clean out the register at the local quickie mart VERY effectivly.”

“In severe cases the best registry cleaner may be a reinstallation of the operating system. Not a pretty picture I know. When I have been forced into that I have deleted only the OS folders. This leaves the data files intact as opposed to doing a reformat of the whole disk. That has meant reinstalling my application programs but since I wanted to clean house anyway I took the opportunity to whittle down the garbage I wasn't using in the first place.

Beyond that I have not had very good luck with registry cleaners. Partly because I am not a geek to start with and I can't figure out how to use them. Partly because every time I have tried I have ended up with such a mess it was easier to reinstall the OS.

As far as a virus program is concerned, I use Avast which is a freebie, no adware, no spyware and is linked to the major virus protection databases. It updates on a daily basis. I would probably not recommend it for a system dealing with highly valuable and vulnerable data. Nor for someone running a server network accessible to the web at large. But for home use I have found it quite satisfactory.

I also use that in conjunction with Spybot-Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware, and Spyware Blaster. From all I can tell, I have a reasonably clean machine and home LAN.”

“I've had good luck with AVG for an anti virus program. A good Reg cleaner is Easy Cleaner. It actually has several utilities with it that you may find useful.

You didn't ask, but a great start up manager is Starter. It allows you to search sites to decide if you really want to shut down a particular start up program

A Good site for free utilities is Gizmos Top Picks.”

“On this computer I use CCleaner. It's free,and really not bad.”

“Run Spybot S&D in regular windows , then in safe mode. Cleans things up rather nicely.”

“come on, aren't any of you tech nerds gonna give XL props...that was some funny chit”