4 replies to this topic

[TeeJay3800]

I've read a lot about RegSeeker on this forum and I'd like to try it, but am concerned about it's safety. Even using the .ini exclusion file, is RegSeeker all that safe to use? I use Microsoft RegClean and of course the registry cleaner included with CCleaner, so is it worth using RegSeeker because of the safety concerns?

[rridgely]

If your not sure about what your removing then regseeker can cause a lot of problems. I think of it as a tool for more knowledgeable folks. Its safer and more beneficial to not use it if you don't know what your removing then it would be if you removed something critical and messed up your pc.

On the flip side you may find this to be a little easier to use:
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/downloads/216...stry-mechanic50

Its a full free version of registry mechanic 5.(the offer was supposed to expire but the link still works)

I've used this a few times and it seems safe enough. It makes backups and it hasn't caused any problems on the one pc I used it on. I know andavari tested it out a bit to so you may want to hear what he thinks too.

[JDPower]

rridgely, on Nov 18 2006, 02:49 AM, said:

If your not sure about what your removing then regseeker can cause a lot of problems. I think of it as a tool for more knowledgeable folks. Its safer and more beneficial to not use it if you don't know what your removing then it would be if you removed something critical and messed up your pc.

On the flip side you may find this to be a little easier to use:
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/downloads/216...stry-mechanic50

Its a full free version of registry mechanic 5.(the offer was supposed to expire but the link still works)

I've used this a few times and it seems safe enough. It makes backups and it hasn't caused any problems on the one pc I used it on. I know andavari tested it out a bit to so you may want to hear what he thinks too.

You say Reg Mechanic seems safe enough but do you mean you can relatively safely remove most or all of what it finds? I downloaded the free version you mentioned a couple of weeks back and it finds about 160 problems on my computer (compared to about 450 with RegSeeker).

[rridgely]

When I scanned with registry mechanic all it found was old software entries from stuff I uninstalled a long time ago. It didn't find anything that I was hesitant about removing.(that said it very well could find stuff on others machines that isn't safe to remove).

All registry cleaners require a certain bit of knowledge to use and nothing is 100% safe but if I was going to tell someone to use regseeker or registry mechanic I would chose registry mechanic.

I've just seen to many people unknowingly make their system not boot up with regseeker.

[Andavari]

rridgely, on Nov 17 2006, 09:04 PM, said:

All registry cleaners require a certain bit of knowledge to use and nothing is 100% safe but if I was going to tell someone to use regseeker or registry mechanic I would chose registry mechanic.

Agreed! Although Registry Mechanic is relatively safe you still will have to know what some of the stuff is it wants to remove by looking it up in the registry if it doesn't seem like it should be removed, however that's the norm for most registry cleaners - which is in part not their fault because of the strange way some applications store settings in the registry which can look like invalid paths to files on the hard disk when in fact they may actually be valid.

Advantages of Registry Mechanic over RegSeeker are that Registry Mechanic won't find a horde of valid stuff that shouldn't be removed, and it can create two types of backups:
1. It's standard backup system, sort of like RegSeeker but in a proprietary format which can only be restored via Registry Mechanic.
2. It can create a System Restore Point.

TeeJay3800, on Nov 17 2006, 08:40 PM, said:

Even using the .ini exclusion file, is RegSeeker all that safe to use?

RegSeeker in its default form with it's default exclude.ini isn't safe one bit in my opinion. The problem is many people aren't going to find out what it wants to remove thinking everything really is invalid when in fact in many cases it can and will list valid registry entries, hence the reason to know what you're doing with it.