Scan and repair

[Coldicote]

There are programs inviting you to download them to check pretty well everything on your PC and then repair any problems; for example RegistrySmart, RegistryEasy, Error Doctor. They run a scan and then say they have found a large number of problems, perhaps one or two hundred. Then you're invited to register, at a price (in dollars), to download the repair software.

I'm tempted but don't know anything about them. Please is there anyone who has actually used one and able to speak from experience?

[Paulst30]

My experience of such programs are similar to your self, so i delved a little deaper into why this is.

Firstly its simple they want your money, however they know you will pay it because of the AHEM errors your pc has.

Secondly, most of the companies actually plant this stuff first to show you have more errors than you actually have, its shocking i know, but a method used by many of the spyware removal companies.

I use this

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner

http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/re gistry_cleaner.htm

Its free (as it says) and does the job cleanly.

Hope that helps :)

[willyboy]

Coldicote is right for most of them. They show you more errors than necessary to get you to sign up, and when you do, it's an overall cr*p program! However, each program looks at errors in different ways. What one program finds, another may not (and vice versa).
If you decide to buy a program, gather as many reviews as you can about it (not just from the site itself).
A reasonable free reg and general purpose cleaner is EasyClean by Toni Arts and a reasonable free cleaner is
CCleaner.
AdAware SE Personal is a pretty good free spyware package, and AVG is a good free virus package.

[Coldicote]

Thank you both for these very helpful answers. Eusing registry cleaner looks interesting. I've visited the site and there's a lot to read but it looks worth trying. I see they ask for a donation. Must admit I'm a bit wary about giving payment details, but it seems fair when one looks at what others charge. As regards spyware and viruses, at present I have Norton, which seems to do the job well, but it's a bit irritating - I have to wait for it to scan my own files before they will open.

[vehelpfulguy]

Why do you feel you need to tidy out your registry ?

On older versions of Windows there were problems with the registry but in XP these have been mostly sorted out.

Having out of date information in your registry does not really do much harm as most of the time it is ignored.

I doubt any tool which claims to tidy up your registry is worth running.

I think they prey on the fact that to most of us the registry is some mysterious file that is somehow full of all sorts of problems.

If you REALLY want to tidy out your registry, backup all your important files and re-install Windows.

[Paulst30]

I must agree once again with vhelpfulguy because tbh i dont see any difference when cleaning the registry at all.

Its supposed to make your pc quicker, but all you will see is the pc booting quicker in real terms. its only if people really go in there and start messing around with what they dont know.

yes it does clear out all the uninstal enteries that dont get cleared when you remove a program but other than that its not worth paying for

[HWKE]

Sometimes (not often), when you uninstall a program or drivers, it leaves behind registry entries which stop installation of updated ones. It is useful to have a registry cleaner for those occasions. Other than that, I agree that it doesn't matter very much.

[Coldicote]

Have to admit I made a huge mistake recently - very late at night! My PC had been in for an MOT and re-installation of Windows XP and MS 'small business edition' as it had become very slow. System Restore had not worked for ages so without thinking I gave it a run to see if it was OK - and undid some of the new configuration! I managed to repair most of it myself. The one remaining problem is that when I upload a website any links on it do not work on the internet and produce 'HTTP 404 - File not found. I'm thinking that a 'scan and repair' job might do the trick. If not then a re-installation of 'small business edition' which includes MS Publisher that I use for making websites.

[Paulst30]

If some of the core files have been corrupted or you think maybe missing then just pop the disk in the tray and run a command prompt with this dialogue

sfc/ scannow

It will replace the systems files from the disk that have been damaged or whatever.

Equally if its a program and not Windows OS then pop thedisk for that program and do what you need to do for uninstalling the program except choose repair rather than remove and i;m sure if you point to the disk it should do the same function.

[funnygirl]

Do be careful when using these. I once used one and at the end it told me that certain programmes were not needed and like a fool when asked if I wanted to delete, I clicked the yes option.
Boy did I regret as half of the stuff on my computer vanished.
So take care.

[ACtheTROLL]

In answer to your first point ... if you haven't heard of them ... don't use them ...
It's not just that they are rubbish (which often they are!) it's the other payload they could conceal such as keyloggers and bots that are the real concern.

Stand in your local newsagent or supermarket ... flick through a couple of PC mags ... and follow their advice ... Mainstream may be boring ... but it's become mainstream 'cause it works and won't empty your bank account..

If you've just had a recent re-build ... you shouldn't need a restore ....
My test rig is used daily ... I load/unload new software and Utils often daily
even antivirus s/w... as well as live viruses to see how the antiV copes
and I have used the same build for 6 months now ... without problems.

Most programmes will leave their registry entries.
Look in HKCU\software & HKLM\software
(you'll see entries for almost every prog you've ever loaded - and unloaded!).

The point is that the registry is extremely efficient "cleaners" etc rarely if ever make any measurable difference to the running speed.

If you send the machine to be rebuilt - next time get the guy to create a recovery image ...
or try http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm
and make your own BEFORE you connect to the net.

A fully configured system restore takes about 20 mins ...
so you could re-build daily if necessary

Your second Q.
1 - is it just your sites ... or all sites?
if just yours ... possibly you are using absolute refs
(publisher isn't really suited to websites)

look at the page code (notepad is good enough)
the links should look like this
Home
or this
13:54 Mon 14th May 2007

[ACtheTROLL]

not like this
"Home"