Registry cleaner does not clean all. Why?

[moriez 0]

Hi,

 

I was just digging into the registry and noticed old software no longer installed still there. For example in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software. How come this doesn't get cleaned out? One would expect this from a top notch tool

[Aethec 0]

CCleaner would have to scan all exe files on your drive, see their metadata, compare this with the entries in HKCU\Software and HKLM\Software, and see if something has been forgotten by an uninstaller.

And that wouldn't give good results - Firefox stores some of its settings in HKCU\Software\Netscape\Netscape Navigator\, for example.

[moriez 0]

Very clear. Thanks. I guess it would fit the Piriform reputation to come with a tool that can. Something lightweight, something.. Piriform

 

Food for thought?

[moriez 0]

Actually I am thinking why a 'full' registry cleaner isn't in effect. So it would take a bit longer to clean out the registry. Who cares? I would only want to do it once in some many days/weeks anyway. Some intelligent scanning (like excluding the Netscape entries for example) should not be a prob for this team. If you say CCleaner you'd expect it to be thorough and complete.

 

Your thoughts?

[ident 0]

 

 

Your thoughts?

 

That registry cleaning is a waste of time. I would much rather the team spent there time on other aspects.

[Ishi 0]

That registry cleaning is a waste of time. I would much rather the team spent there time on other aspects.

 

I don't think it a waste of time at all. We still get reports about problems that come up from the use of the registry cleaner tool so I think the team should work into making it better, more detailed and safer at best.

 

I myself have found dead registry keys from HKCU\Software and HKLM\Software. Its not a very deep part of the registry at all but there is no denying for me that CCleaner, on occasion misses to remove those that were left behind by removed programs on this location that I have to remove manually.

[hazelnut 2]

Just a thought to bear in mind, that because of badly written uninstallers some softwares don't do a very good job and leave stuff behind.

 

Quite often you can come across whole full sized folders left behind.

[Andavari 1]

Just a thought to bear in mind, that because of badly written uninstallers some softwares don't do a very good job and leave stuff behind.

 

Quite often you can come across whole full sized folders left behind.

 

I've seen some so awful where they only remove the reference in Add/Remove Programs but leave the whole software installed, application data, and even start menu folders. Another reason to use an installation watching software like ZSoft Uninstaller (Free), or Total Uninstall (Free), and to uninstall with Revo Uninstaller (Free) followed by whatever install watcher was used to fully[*] remove during uninstall.

 

[*] Full removal isn't always possible with some software however like antivirus, firewall that set CurrentControlSet keys that require the keys be changed to Admin privileges to remove.