whats the best free registry cleanup tool to download.?

Most of the performance claims made by companies that sell registry cleaners are pure fantasy. Removing the wrong key can leave you with a computer that will not run or a program that will not work. Using Windows Live OneCare "full scan" is probably the safest and good enough for all users.

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

Registry Cleaners

Myth - "Registry Cleaners improve performance."

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.ht...

Reality - "A few hundred kilobytes of unused keys and values causes no noticeable performance impact on system operation. Even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive searches."

Notes - "Registry Cleaners can fix problems associated with traces of applications left behind due to incomplete uninstalls. So it seems that Registry junk is a Windows fact of life and that Registry cleaners will continue to have a place in the anal-sysadmin's tool chest."

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Free Registry Cleaners

Windows Live OneCare (free)

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

Full scan: Backs up registry and then cleans registry, virus and spyware scan, disk cleanup, disk fragmentation (if needed), updates windows, and checks for open firewall ports.

Clean up scan: Backs up registry and then cleans registry, updates windows.

CCleaner: Do not install toolbar option

http://www.ccleaner.com/

http://www.download.com/CCleaner/3000-2144_4-10720...

"Scan for Issues" function is the registry cleaner.

Clean function deletes unused files, history, and tracking cookies.

In options:

Set to run (does not registry) when computer starts.

Place cookies you want to save in the save list.

AusLogics Registry Defrag

http://www.auslogics.com/registry-defrag/

http://www.download.com/Auslogics-Registry-Defrag/...

Auslogics Registry Defrag is an extremely useful program to keep your registry as compact as possible. As a result of keeping the registry defragmented and as small as possible, your computer performance will be much improved.

Not a registry cleaner but a registry defragmenter. My seat of the pants feeling was it did improve my performance.

RegScrubXP 3.25

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Registry-Tweak/...

http://www.sofotex.com/RegScrubXP-download_L7528.h...

Toni Art's EasyCleaner(free)

http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane....

Separate scans for cleaning registry, find duplicate files, find bad shortcuts, unnecessary files, and more.

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How to Use the Registry Editor

http://www.helpdesk.umd.edu/topics/troubleshooting...

How to back up, edit, and restore the registry in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756

Safekeeping the Windows XP Registry

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/exp...

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

How to troubleshoot registry corruption issues

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822705

1

Mostly slow pc performance can be put down to having :-

a) too many programs in startup ( Run/MSconfig)

b) too many programs on your desktop( it's surprising how much difference taking programs off your desktop makes)

run BeClean if it'll make you feel better

There are many, so I will not bore you.

All I suggest is that which ever you choose, read the instructions before running it, and if unsure, then don't.

Us these 3 FREE tools from Microsoft -

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

They WORK !!

My IE uses 45,884K

Ccleaner seems good

try using tune up utilities, I use it and it's really effective

yep i use ccleaner too, seams to work

crapcleaner