Finding the Invisibles
Revealing The Best Registry Cleaner among Thousands of Internet Scams Do We Really Need a Registry Cleaner?
First thing first to ask yourself when you want to use a registry cleaner: "what do you need it for?" Is it for fixing your troubled Windows, optimizing your system, or just toying around with the kind of tool that your friends are bragging about? One thing you should know about registry cleaner is that it modifies and deletes your registry entries. Of course the entries it deletes supposed to be those that we don't need anymore. That is why it works as a cleaner. And it's no problem when the tool you're using knows enough what it's doing. But if they don't, your files and documents will be missing everywhere, Windows might behave strangely or even worse it stop working completely. Admittedly, Windows is not good enough at cleaning and managing its own registry. Most of the problems inside the registry happen because there are so many activities taking place on your Windows, from installing and updating programs to customizing Windows. Everything is recorded inside the registry and it never stops growing in size. But it doesn't necesarily means that it's the culprit behind your slow operating Windows or certain crashes that haunt your working hours. Windows is a complex system and there is no way that focusing in cleaning up the registry will solve those issues. Yes it might give the system some performance help as the registry becomes slimmer but in reality you might not notice the gap. In fact, if you have high-end PC and you are still having performance issue, my suggestion is to leave your registry alone as it's absolutely impossible that your registry can bother your system that much. The issue might come from other sources like slow or conflicting internet security suite, software that loads their key processes even when not being used, programs that are active in the background, badly-set Windows settings, and there are so many more possibilities. Does It Mean Registry Cleaner is Dead?
In the very basic form of a registry cleaner software that do nothing than simply cleaning up your registry, yes I think it is useless. But if you find a free registry cleaner with great and reliable cleaning mechanism, then go ahead, it's worth a shot. The industry now have evolved though. We've seen some software not only offers a solid registry cleaning tool but also dozens of others to help you optimize, modify, and even beautify your Windows. Several companies go even further to develop unique features in their suites like cloud-based optimization, dynamic and real-time system analysis, and even a feature with an easy on-off switch to disable a software from loading all of its key processes to save Windows system resource as an alternative option to uninstallation. But still, with all of this progress, it's amazing to see that traditional registry cleaner is still popular among PC owners seeking after extra speed that lost from their PC or seeking solution for their Windows problems. Ironically, the searching for the right package itself will also be just the start of another problem. There are so many poor registry cleaners out there with aggressive marketing strategy and intimidating way of selling. With this ruthless kind of approaching, you will easily end up choosing the wrong software. So Many Scams So Little Creativity
Last year to my surprise that when I tested a specific registry cleaner called FixTool aka Perfect Optimizer (they have so many exact clones for marketing purpose), my Norton AntiVirus recognized the program as “a misleading application that may give exaggerated reports of errors on the computer.” What surprising me more is the number of other registry cleaners that join this Symantec threat list database. I didn't stop there. I then go to websites where consumers report bad products like ComplaintsBoard and RipoffReport. I checked several names that got so many buzz by internet marketers but very quiet on the big online media. Joining the FixTool are RegCure, Registry Fix, ErrorFix, and RegTool. Lots of consumers echo very similar complains over and over again about these products. Don’t memorize the names though as most of them are fly-by-night products which possibly will disappear instantly next month or year. Although when that happens, they will probably still use the same engine. FixTool for example, it has different name, different website, but same engine and interface as Perfect Optimizer. Same case happens with ErrorFix and RegTool. If you think that is too much, search and Google for the keyword registry cleaner(s). If you find any registry cleaner with name you never even heard of, offer free download, got so many buzz but no achievement, and got high red marks in complaint board for its customer dissatisfaction, you will get an idea of how big the brotherhood of scamming in the internet really is. Find a Needle in the Haystack
So how to find a great software that can optimize or even fix our Windows problems without jeopardizing ourselves into the internet marketer scam scheme? First, let us separate the good from the bad. And in doing this, you has to remember one principle: Internet is just a market where sellers offer you their products. There are good and honest sellers but there are many more who are bad and wicked. These are 5 simple tips to separate the honest from the wicked: 1. Look for real company with long and proven track record Check if the publisher has a physical and valid office address. This is important to make sure they are not fly-by-night companies that can change their identity over night. Check if this company has long and proven track record. Big companies like TuneUp and Iolo has been around for more than 10 years. Go to their website and read the company’s profile and see what prestigious awards they have got for their product. Omit any award from download site like Softpedia, Softsea, or Tucows as it is meaningless and very often fictive. 2. Avoid error inflation report Registry cleaner is much related to registry problems solving and errors finding. But you are wrong to think that its capability is highly associated with high number of errors finding. Yes, you need a registry cleaner that can find errors and problems that are missed by other registry cleaners. But you also don't want it mess up valid entries. Bad registry cleaner usually has so many false positives in their report just to give good first impression. Most of these software are over-reporting, a single problem may have been divided into dozens of sub-parts prior to reporting. You should question the accuracy if the finding reaches hundreds or thousands of errors. 3. Watch out for empty promise and intimidation With its over-reporting, bad registry cleaner will scare you that unless these errors are fixed, your computer might suffer from critical problems and slow performance. This is to lure you into making a fast purchase. But this is only just the beginning. With its shoddy technical design and poor scanning algorithm, it will easily identify false positives. This registry cleaner will modify or even delete working and valid entries. Furthermore, your important files could also be in jeopardy. Legitimate software does not use such exaggerated claims and will provide straightforward, useful information about the status of your Windows, not frightening alarms. 4. Aware of complaints from previous customers Check for complaints in the legitimate consumer forum. It's true that there will be always complains even for big and legitimate software. Just look at Norton Antivirus from Symantec. It is a great security product but still there are many people who hate it for personal reason. One thing for sure, you can always assure yourself that the product you are going to buy is totally crap if there are dozens of consumers complaining on how one product ruining their systems. 5. Find products that could demonstrate its full capabilities Finally, the last thing you should do is testing the software for yourself. Avoid trying a product that only grant you free scanning ability but not repairing ability. This is vital because it is when repairing and optimizing does a registry cleaner really show what it is capable of. Is It the Right Needle?
After successfully avoid any bad registry cleaner, however in order to find the most ideal one among those trusted products to help you optimize or fix your Windows problems, you still need to ask yourself why you need a registry cleaner? If you need a registry cleaner to solve your Windows problems, unfortunately there are very few software that can meet this criteria. Furthermore, even the more sophisticated utilities suites that are equipped with more features cannot offer you a fix-all-problems button. System Mechanic from Iolo for instance, it does have a cloud-based system scanning and Drive Medic to help you boot your Windows and check your hard-drive for errors. But that's it. Also, the more serious Windows maintenance software like Spotmau PowerSuite even has some limitations. Although able to run independently outside any OS and run dozens of tools from there (in case you can't access your Windows) and able to recover your previous Windows state or even fix the NTLDR missing issue, it still can't do much of recovery process if you use it after the problem exist. So in this matter, the best suggestion is to be specific. If you only loose certain .dll files, search Microsoft website and you might get the right patch for it. Avoid registry cleaner as it can't replace the missing file. It's the same for most other issues. You might want to search the internet for a "how-to" article on solving the problems rather than looking for an easy fix-all-problems software. But if you want a software as your umbrella before the rain is falling, Spotmau PowerSuite can relatively fulfill it. Extra Value Please
For optimization purpose, again you should find beyond traditional registry cleaner because what makes your computer runs slower is more than just registry problems. It might be caused by heavily fragmented chunks of sectors in your hard drive that are accumulated overtime. There are also junk files that you should concern for the extra burden they give to your system in sorting out and indexing. Abundant startup entries also become the culprit on the lag of Windows process at startup. Another possibility is that there are settings in your Windows that are not optimized and suit your system very well. And actually, you can fix all these issues using no additional tools other than those that are already available in your Windows. On the other hand, the industry has evolved as I said earlier. Many registry cleaners also offer extra tools to do just these with only one single click. But what's astonishing is the fact that several other products go even further by adding extra value to what Windows has already offered for optimization. For instance, instead of browsing your Windows explorer and desperately search individual files that you don't need anymore, now you can see your entire file library summed up and presented in a chart categorized either by size, type, or importance. Or instead of manually disabling any unused startup entries using Windows' System Configuration Utility and having a chance to ruin your startup process, now you can get a cloud-based recommendation from the community on which entry is important and which is not. Or instead of uninstalling that huge resource-consuming movie creator program that you only use occasionally, now you can disable it to make any key process associated with it leaved unload in the background and have the option to enable it anytime you want in a second by a click of a mouse. These extra values among others can be found on TuneUp Utilities, unarguably the best optimization software out there at the moment. You Can't Have It All
At the end of the day, I can't recommend you any of these software for all your purposes. You simply can't have it all to get the best of each category. So it is important to know exactly where you more focused at. For Windows maintenance and recovery, there is Spotmau PowerSuite as a recommendation. For Windows optimization there is TuneUp Utilities. If you still insist to get the right balance of Windows optimization and maintenance in one software, go with System Mechanic Pro. Although once again, you may loose many recovery possibilities that are offered by PowerSuite or optimization prospects that are offered by TuneUp. Lastly there are general category for modifying, maintaining, and beautifying your Windows. In this category I can recommend you Advanced System Optimizer from Systweak that is equipped with more than enough tools and utilities to help you dig more from your Windows. It has a great registry cleaner module with rigorous yet reliable scanning and cleaning capabilities. And although it doesn't give extra value for tools that are already offered by Windows, it pays it off with far lower price tag and more extra tools that are absence in both TuneUp Utilities or System Mechanic. |
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