CCleaner Not Backing Up Registry Before Cleaning

[Ajer]

I just downloaded and installed CCleaner Pro (have used it before on other PC's).   I made sure that the Advanced Option of "Show Prompt to Backup Registry Issues" was checked.  

Went to clean my Registry and it did not give me a prompt to back up the registry.  After cleaning the registry I searched my PC to find backups (looking for "CCleaner Registry*" folder) ….. there were none that I could find.  .  Also looked for all *.reg files created after yesterday.   (Using program called Agent Ransack).   I could not find any CCleaner registry backup files.  Pretty sure that CCleaner creates files ending in .reg …. correct?

Does anybody know what I might be doing wrong or has anybody else had this problem?

I am using Windows 10, version 1809

Thanks,

Ajer

[nukecad]

Once it's prompted you to make a backup, and you say 'YES', then it gives a 'Saveas' dialogue asking where you want to save the backup each time.

If you didn't get this then it's probably not made a backup for some reason.

 

[Ajer]

I guess the next time I run CCleaner, I just manually backup up the registry using Windows "Create a Restore Point", then run CCleaner and see if it asks me to do a backup the next time.   BUT, CCleaner should have asked me to do a backup today and it never did.

[nukecad]

Yes I'm not sure why it didn't do that either?

Just for info the 'backup' that CC makes is not a full registry backup; it just makes a copy of the items that it is going to remove.

You can make a manual full Registry backup with Windows 10, or make a restore point.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/322756/how-to-back-up-and-restore-the-registry-in-windows

TBH you should not be cleaning the registry as a regular task, it's a specialist tool usually used to help recover a compromised/virused computer.

Registry cleaning will not 'speed up' your computer.
Microsoft recommend that you don't do it except as a last resort, especially with Windows 10.
Microsoft policy on Reg. cleaners: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2563254/microsoft-support-policy-for-the-use-of-registry-cleaning-utilities

You may also find this of interest if you think that you may have corrupted your registry:
https://pureinfotech.com/restore-registry-backup-windows-10/

[Andavari]

The default location it will store the backup in is the Documents folder, so look in there to see if there's any in there, they will start with CC*.reg and have the date+time, etc., after CC.

If it isn't offering to do any registry backups the settings could be corrupt, you can reset it to the default settings:
1. In CCleaner go into: Options > Advanced
2. Click: Restore default settings
Note: You will have to re-configure it to your liking after doing that, such as what to clean, and also which Cookies to Keep.

[Ajer]

To Nukecad - I followed your link to the support.microsoft web site about their recommendation to never clean the registry except as a last resort.  I never heard this before and was astounded by this and the fact that I thought this was one of the major features and benefits of CCleaner.   So, now you are saying I should never clean the registry as general maintenance a few times a year?   I thought cleaning the Registry via CCleaner would improve performance?   Guess not.

Do other people have any comment about this?

[Andavari]

Cleaning the registry will never give any system more performance.

It's a long-lived myth by companies with something to gain like money making performance claims. It's more likely to cause issues either completely transparent and unnoticeable, or by causing a serious and noticeable issue (Windows won't boot, programs don't work, etc.,) by removing the wrong thing.

Removing the wrong thing is called a false positive (akin to an antivirus deleting a safe file), and any registry cleaner no matter how "safe" it's perceived or boasted to be by the publisher (or fans) can/may/will have a false positive(s) - matters too just how aggressive a registry cleaner is or isn't.

I've personally seen some that would take out a good chunk of valid registry data (especially during the Win98 era), and others that can't find anything.

[nukecad]

Many of the regulars here have requested that CCleaner makes the registry cleaner tool less prominent and move it into the 'Advanced Tools' section.
It does have a use as an advanced tool, but it's snake-oil to say it will speed up your system.
We've all seen posts where someone has used the reg. cleaner indiscriminately and broken/bricked their machine, we used to get quite a few on here.

But we are only users so can only suggest, we can't make them move it.

If you never ran a registry cleaner you would never know that there were 'orphaned' entries in the registry, and not knowing would not affect your computers performance in the slightest.

TBH a lot of the temporary files and logfiles that CCleaner removes do not affect performance at all, they just take up space on your drive.
That could be a problem in the past but with the size of hard drives these days you'll hardly notice these either.
For me the point of using CCleaner was to remove cookies left behind after a browsing session. (and I now do that with my own batch file).

Programmes like CCleaner do have their uses, which is why I still have it on my computer, but some of the features that were useful in the past are no longer needed with modern computers.
(Microsoft Windows used to have a built in registry cleaner but it's not needed anymore - you've seen their stance on those now).