My registry scanner reported hundreds of errors! How do I know which to fix?

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Summary: Registry scanners often report hundreds, if not thousands of issues. Should you fix them, and if so, which? I recommend fixing none of them. Or all.

As I've discussed in an earlier article, I believe that registry cleaners are only marginally useful. One reason is that they rarely actually help anything.

Another reason is that it's all too easy to needlessly panic when you see the long list of issues they present.

That's not to say they aren't sometimes useful, but knowing what to do next in your situation ... well, that's not all that easy. It depends on the registry cleaner, actually.

Here's what I do...

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I take an all or nothing approach to registry cleaning.

Most of the time I simply don't run one. At all. And to date, I've never encountered a problem that using a registry cleaner would have solved for me.

I honestly believe that 99% of computers out there simply don't benefit from registry cleaners.

Which is the "nothing" in my all or nothing approach. In your case I would actually not have run the cleaner, and I'd ignore the "errors" if I did run it.

Note that I put errors in quotes. The fact is the majority of what a registry cleaner reports as needing cleaning are not errors at all. Most issues reports are what I'd call "inefficiencies" - entries in the registry that are unnecessary, but otherwise harmless. Yes, removing them might speed up your computer by some miniscule, but unnoticeable amount.

Given that so many of the so-called "errors" are in fact benign, I'm extremely comfortable ignoring all of them.

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But what if, for some reason, you really, really want to clean the registry? As I mention in that earlier article, perhaps this is a last step in attempting to address some kind of problem your machine is having. Or perhaps the tool you're running promises not only to clean, but to "boost" your registry's performance? Fine.

1. Make sure your computer is backed up.

2. Let the cleaner clean them all.

Yes, all of them. Again, 99% of the time, it'll be just fine to do this. And yes, it's possible that something cleaned or boosted will resolve some kind of problem you're having, or perhaps your machine will speed up a little bit.

Or perhaps you won't notice a difference at all.

The fact is that various issues reported by registry cleaners are too numerous for most people to track down and know what to do with individually. There are just too many, as you've seen with your 700+.

So if I run a registry cleaner, and it finds issues, I let it fix them all. And then I run it again, because fixing some issues can expose other issues that can also be fixed. I mean, if you're going down the path of fixing 'em, you might as well be thorough.

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One important note: please pay attention to step one: backup. Some small percentage of the time a registry cleaner may step on something important. You should be backing up your data and machine regularly anyway, but this is an important time to make sure.

Finally, all this assumes a "decent" registry cleaner. There are hundreds of tools out there that claim to clean, optimize, defragment, boost or whatever your registry. Many are the modern day equivalent of snake oil, and can even be dangerous. Recommended cleaners include:

• EasyCleaner - a free solution

• JV16 Power Tools - this is the package I purchased and includes several additional helpful utilities. If I'm going to use a registry cleaner, it's this one.

There are also many registry cleaner comparisons out there, including Langa Letter: Testing 10 Windows 'Registry Cleaning' Software Packs which lists several additional alternatives.

Related:

• Ask Leo! - What's the best registry cleaner?

• Ask Leo! - Internet Safety: How do I keep my computer safe on the internet?

• Ask Leo! - What is 'defragging', and why should I do it?

Article 11070 | Posted January 9, 2007