So how can you win one of these?

Visit 31 days of the Dragon, each participating site is listed along with the dates of their contest. Each site will run a 7 day contest, with no two sites giving away their notebooks on the same day. In addition, each site is free to create their own rules for their contest, so you’ll have to visit each site after their contest starts to find details.

Our partner site Geeks to Go is participating. Be sure to check out their contest starting May 13 (ending May 20th).

Listed below is each participating site, along with the date their notebook will be awarded.

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If you remember XP SP1, you may be underwhelmed with Windows Vista SP1. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Microsoft has been telling anyone who will listen that there’s no reason to wait for SP1 before installing Vista. They may have been right. While SP1 contains a number of improvements in performance, and overall quality; most of those have already been available through Windows Update.

Advances in Windows Update, as well as the widespread availability of broadband Internet means that you no longer have to wait for a service pack. Updates are introduced continuously. A service pack is just a roll-up of those updates conveniently packaged. Gone are the days of waiting for a service pack to introduce new applications, and features.

By the numbers, Windows Vista SP1 rolls together 23 security updates, and 550 hotfixes into a whopping 434.5MB download (726.5MB for the 64-bit version). It also includes some changes not previously addresses by Windows Update. If you have automatic updates enabled, Windows Update will gradually download the service pack to your system starting mid-April. Or, you can go to Windows Update and install it now.

It’s possible you may not see Service Pack 1 when visiting Windows Update. SP1 is currently available in only 5 languages. It requires some prerequisites to be installed via Windows Update first. Some drivers cause issues when SP1 is installed. So, if you’re running one of these drivers you won’t be able to install it until resolved. See the Windows Vista Blog for complete details.

The most notable fix in SP1 is probably the file copying improvements. It’s not only much faster, but estimates for completion will no longer display erroneous estimates of many years. Estimates are also calculated much faster making the entire file copy experience ‘feel’ faster.

Other changes include a tweaked User Account Control (UAC) that includes fewer prompts, although some may have hoped for even bigger changes to UAC. Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) has adapted to address some exploits used by hackers to run unlicensed versions. If activation has not been successful in SP1, ‘Reduced Functionality Mode’ has been replaced with a notification mode.

If you haven’t installed Windows Vista, Service Pack 1 marks an important milestone. If you’ve already installed Windows Vista, SP1 corrects many of the frustrations, while improving performance and security. Retail packs and OEM installations will soon include Service Pack 1, negating the need to install it, or a number of Windows Updates.

Windows Vista has not enjoyed a great reception. While SP1 doesn’t address every concern, it has many welcome improvements, and support for future technologies. Many of the early problems deploying Windows Vista were related to drivers, and driver support is constantly improving. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will see wide spread adoption by businesses. IT departments, and enterprise customers have been waiting for the bug fixes in Service Pack 1. Server 2008 and Vista SP1 share the same core (or kernel), and work better together. Retail prices have recently been lowered. There’s really never been a better time to upgrade to Windows Vista.

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Wireless Keyboard/Mouse- it’s always a great feeling to get rid of those crummy wires- plus if you choose a nice set, you can control volume, media players, get shortcuts to emails/word documents…the sky is the limit- it’s controlling your entire computer from a couple easy buttons on your keyboard/mouse (ladies,this means you can even match your monitor or speakers for better looking computer desks!)

Wireless Internet Cards/Routers- for those of you with laptops who are still plugging in blue ethernet chords…just stop! YOU are outdated if you still use those blue cat5 cables with your laptop. Most laptops come standard now with a wireless card to connect to the internet from anywhere around the house/yard. This also is a great segway to a new router. Routers are becoming the talk of the tech world now with such new innovations that are providing to be useful more then ever. Some of the newest routers contain features like build in harddrives to have a network ready storage bin for everyone in the family to share documents or for users who like to work on a desktop and then work on that same file on a laptop as well

Better Display- If anyone is reading this article on a CRT…you have issues. LCD’s are the only way to go in our modern world with the prices expected to DROP rapidly (even though they are pretty reasonable at the moment) Treat yourself to a larger display (17-24″) moniter and dont feel shy to even look at some widescreen views. If your someone who spends some significant time on the computer- or if you even use it for simple email tasks, a monitor upgrade should be high on your list!

Sound Quality- Mp3 players are now owned by over 20% of the worlds population which means these users have a source for putting their music onto these players. Most computer users suffer through poor sound quality when a quick 30-50 dollar sound card and 20 dollar upgrade for a cheap pair of speakers would solve some ailing ears

Dont be afraid to spend some money on these products as they arent so “rapid- changing” as their hardware brother and sisters!

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Get Rid of Some Startup Programs:

One of the most common problems I see is most users wait 5 minutes for the computer to be ready to use after they start it up. Some of my friends use to boot up their machines, take a shower, and come back and still wait for some of the programs to finish loading….GET RID OF SOME! You do NOT need all these programs starting during the boot of your memory, they just hog memory and slow down your CPU. Remove the ones you don’t want…

1) Go to Start > Run and type msconfig in the text box . This brings up the System Configuration Utility.

2) Remove the programs you do not need to startup during the boot sequence (gaming login’s, messanger program, audio players)

(do NOT uncheck something if you do not know what it does- chances are then you might NEED it there if you dont know what its for- these are all recognizable programs–Google the ones you don’t know to be sure)

3) Reboot and Enjoy.

—————————————————————————————————————————

Next- learn to clean out temporary stored internet files and clear the cache. There are some great programs out there such as CCleaner and other, but my favorite has easily been ATF Cleaner This program is for XP and Windows 2000 only
Double-click ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program.
Under Main choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.
If you use Firefox browser Click Firefox at the top and choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.
NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.
If you use Opera browser Click Opera at the top and choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.
NOTE:If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.
Click Exit on the Main menu to close the program.

^These couple tips should help you see a greater improvement on your systems preformance…use these tools to help monitor and control your compter’s garbage from time to time!

Remember…99% of the problems sit in front of the monitor

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Jeff Jones (Director at Microsoft) recently released a One Year Vulnerability Report (PDF). A picture is worth a thousand words:

While Windows XP Service Pack 1 (and SP1a) contained some new features, they were critical upgrades mostly because of security improvements. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is mostly a yawner. It’s most notable ‘feature’ is probably a bug fix that improves file copy times. It doesn’t require any sweeping security improvements.

The next year should prove to be interesting. The 800 pound gorilla (Windows XP) will see declining market share. Windows Vista will reach the critical mass where it’s a more attractive target for malware authors. If Apple continues to increase it’s market share, OSX is also likely to experience more targeted attacks. They will all face many new security challenges. The battle lines have been drawn. Only time will tell who is better prepared to protect your data and private information.

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Microsoft and Dell have joined forces with (Product) Red. For every (Product) Red branded Dell product sold, Microsoft and Dell will make a donation to this charity that provides global AIDS support, with a focus on women and children in Africa. At no extra cost to the buyer.

Products to be included are specially branded XPS desktops, notebooks, and an all-in-one printer. The Dell hardware is very stylish with red accents, and will run special versions of Windows Vista Ultimate (Product) Red with custom wallpapers, screen savers, and gadgets. Unique and very attractive products that also support a great cause.

Microsoft (Product) Red Blog

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Do you want to send more information about the problem?

Additional details about what went wrong can help Microsoft create a solution.

Should I send the information? What does it contain, and what’s done with it?

Yes! Click that ‘Send information’ button.

Why?

The information will be used to fix the problem, and will even let you know when the fix is available. It doesn’t contain any personal information, only data that can help identify and resolve the problem.

If you happen to be the first person to experience the bug, a new entry will be created in the bug database. If it’s already been reported, then your report will increase the counter. The more bug reports a bug receives, the more resources allocated to fix it. If you don’t report it, it may go unnoticed, or not receive the attention it deserves. You also may not know when it’s been fixed.

Maybe the best reason to send the information, is that after the bug is fixed, Windows Vista will notify you. Then you can apply the fix. Whether it’s a Windows patch, or an update from a third party.

Next time you’re frustrated because of a crash, improve your experience, and everyone else’s, by hitting that ‘Send information’ button.

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Bill’s Last Day: The CES Keynote video

(requires Silverlight to view)

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Beginning Feb. 18, 2009, anyone who does not own a television with a digital tuner will cease to receive their programming via over-the-air antennas. They will no longer receive an analog signal. That day analog signals will go dark, and only digital signals will be broadcast free. Goodbye black-and-white, goodbye color, hello digital high-definition television. It has not only arrived, it will be the only signal broadcast by “free” over-the-air TV after Feb. 18, 2009.

Of course there are many millions of TVs manufactured that can’t receive digital signals. According to the AP, congress and the US government have come up with a plan to allow everyone to watch TV. It’s only available to the first 22 million requests. Basically, it allows a $40 government coupon that could be applied to special converter boxes.

The converter boxes are expected to cost between $50 and $70 and will be available at most big box and electronic retailers.

To request a coupon, consumers can apply online at http://www.dtv2009.gov. The government also has set up a 24-hour hotline to take requests, 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-888-388-2009).

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However, Spysweeper hasn’t kept pace with recent infections, and we rarely recommend it. It’s mostly irrelevant these days. Even worse they’ve chosen to install the Ask! toolbar by default. While this leads to more revenue for them, it potentially leads to less privacy for its users.

If you’re old enough to remember Happy Days you may know where the term “Jumping the Shark” comes from. Just as Fonzie jumps the shark to try and revive ratings, in my opinion Spysweeper is jumping the shark by offering a free year trial to revive its flagging Spysweeper product. Too bad they didn’t chose to improve it instead.

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Many free security applications are being bundled with toolbars, and/or gather information about your system and surfing habits. Often these add-ons are installed by default, and not clearly explained. Here are some examples:

• Recently it seems Ask! has been courting security publishers. Webroot’s Spy Sweeper, and ZoneAlarm both have the option to install the Ask search toolbar pre-checked, or installed by default. ZoneAlarm goes so far to call it “ZoneAlarm Spy Blocker”, which may make you think it’s a security add-on. Judging by the reaction in support forums, most people are surprised to find the Ask! toolbar installed after installing one of these applications.
• Spyware Doctor is available as a free download from Google, as part of their Google Pack [affiliate]. However, the default Google Pack installation will also include (pre-checked) Google Earth, Norton Security Scan, Google Desktop, Picasa, Google Photos Screensaver, the Google Toolbar for IE, Firefox with Google Toolbar, Adobe Reader, and will change your homepage and default search engine to Google.
• Trend Micro’s HijackThis “Analyze This” button. Per their license agreement, clicking this button submits the data from your HijackThis log to Trend Micro’s servers for them to collect, store, analyze, and disclose to third parties. Prior to Trend Micro’s acquisition, HijackThis never performed any data collection, or transmitted any information.

Why do they do it? In the case of Trend Micro, they are hoping to use the data to improve their own products, and could likely sell it to others. Google drives more customers to it’s products and search engines. The Ask toolbar pays publishers to install it.

What do you think, is it okay for these free applications to come with strings (or toolbars) attached? Does it affect your decision whether to install them? Did we miss any?

Unless there’s a user revolt, it’s likely we’ll see this trend continue, and even become more invasive. If you don’t like it, contact the publishers and let them know.

Webroot: contact form, or call (866)-612-4227

ZoneAlarm contact form, or call (415)633-4500

Trend Micro: HijackThis Feedback form

Spyware Doctor: sales@pctools.com

Google: Google Pack Group

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In the comments, we were challenged to review Registry Booster 2 [affiliate]. We already had an evaluation copy, so we decided to check it out.

The Windows registry is a central store for all system settings and options. It contains the information for all installed hardware, software, users, preferences, OS updates, etc. The registry is core to the operation of Windows. Invalid registry entries can cause system errors, crashes, and even refusal to boot.

Registry cleaners promise to clean up the entries left behind by uninstalled programs, remove errors in registry settings, and by doing so improve the performance and stability of a system. From the Registry Booster 2 website:

Have you noticed that the longer you have your computer, the slower it runs and the more it crashes? Often this phenomenon is caused by problems in the registry that accrue over time. Installing and uninstalling programs leave behind fragments - stray files, orphaned startup tasks, corrupted drivers. Over time the registry starts to get bogged down and conflicts emerge. Left unchecked, your system will become increasingly unstable, run more slowly and crash more frequently.

We decided to run tests using two different systems: a Windows Vista 32-bit desktop system with an Intel Core duo processor and 4GB of Ram; and a Windows XP Pro notebook with a Pentium mobile CPU and 1 GB of RAM.

First up is the Windows Vista desktop. This system is a test box that sees a lot of abuse. It’s seen MANY hardware changes, operating system changes, and had dozens of programs installed and uninstalled. If any system can benefit from a registry cleaner, it should be this one. We’ll be measuring boot time, shutdown time, and the time it takes to load Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Microsoft Word. Before making any modifications to the registry you should always backup. Registry Booster 2 has a registry backup feature. In addition to running this backup, we used ERUNT and created a System Restore point.

Registry Booster 2 has a nice looking, clean interface, and is simple to use:

After scanning, it reports 847 problems/errors found:

It took less than a minute to perform its cleaning:

Repair complete:

There’s also an option to defrag, which we did:

Registry Booster reported it found 847 errors, and repaired 835. Did it make any difference?

Windows Vista makes it easy to measure boot and shutdown times. Open the control panel, then Administrative tools, and finally the Event Viewer. In the Event Viewer tree select Applications and Services Logs, then Microsoft, Windows, Diagnostic-Performance, and Operational. Here we can find the boot and shutdown durations measured in milliseconds:

The system was booted five times. The high and the low times were tossed out, and the remaining three averaged. The results are shown below:

Boot time improved from an average of 73.517 seconds to 65.133 seconds, an improvement of 12.9%, or more than 8 seconds.

Even more impressive were the results noticed loading Photoshop. Load time improved from an average of 11.5 seconds, to 9 seconds. That’s a 27.8% improvement, or 2.5 seconds faster.

Microsoft Word showed some improvement, but since it loads on average in less than 5 seconds, it wasn’t significant. It was measured to start about .5 seconds faster.

Application loading times were measured with a plain old stop watch. The program was started five times. Again the high and lows were tossed out, and the remaining three times averaged. It should be noted the program start times were all measured after a system boot. With sufficient memory, Windows Vista will load programs significantly faster after they’ve been started once. There was no change in shutdown time.

Being skeptical of registry cleaners, we were surprised with the results. There was no denying the significant improvement in boot time, and loading time of some programs. Let’s see how the other system performs.

Next we tested the Windows XP notebook. This system hasn’t seen as much use. It hasn’t seen any changes to hardware and few changes to software. It doesn’t seem like such an obvious choice for a registry cleaner, and offers a good contrast to the first test system.

To measure boot times on Windows XP notebook we installed Microsoft bootvis. After each boot it provides a report including total boot time. We used the same method of booting five times, throwing out the high and low, and averaging the remaining three. Before Registry Booster the average boot time was 71.5 seconds. After Registry Booster it was 62.5 seconds.

Even though this system has seen far fewer changes over the life of the system, it still saw boot times improve by an impressive 14.4%, or 9 seconds. Unfortunately, we didn’t have Photoshop installed on this system. Microsoft Word was installed, and again saw just a minimal improvement of about .5 seconds. There was again no change in shutdown time.

Other Registry Booster 2 claims of reducing crashes, and improved system stability are more difficult, if not impossible to test. Neither of these systems were suffering from any crashes or stability problems. We debated introducing some errors into the registry to see if they were fixed, but decided it would be far from a real-world test, and opted against it. We did run each system for a couple of weeks after running Registry Booster. Neither system exhibited any new errors or crashes, which has been a problem reported with some other registry cleaners.

We began this test skeptical of registry cleaners in general. Computer support forums such as ours often have topics from people that have had bad experiences. However, if you’re expectations are realistic, we would have no problem recommending Uniblue’s Registry Booster 2. It’s easy to use, has a nice interface, and takes only a few minutes. It will provide improvements in boot times, and application loading times. It will not be able to cure every system crash, or stability issue. Maybe most importantly, it doesn’t create any new problems. If you’re in the market for a registry cleaner, Registry Booster 2 is a good choice. Click here to download, and run a free scan.

Please comment and share your experiences with Registry Booster, or other registry cleaners.

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Don’t feel bad, this one took me a while to figure out too. The new Windows Live Hotmail was designed to look and function much more like Outlook. Viewing email headers is no exception. To view the full email message header, right click an email message displayed in your list of messages. A menu will pop-up as shown below. Click on the View source option, and a new window will open displaying the full email message header.

View Windows Live Hotmail Headers:

Note: This does not work in the “classic” view of Windows Live Hotmail. You must be in the full version view.

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I’m always surprised how many people minimize Outlook, and the leave taskbar button visible. This is because the default Outlook settings display both the system tray icon, and Outlook taskbar button. The button takes valuable real estate on the taskbar, and really isn’t needed. It’s also very easy to hide:

1. Right click the Outlook icon in the system tray (near the clock).

2. From the popup menu, select Hide when Minimized. This will add a checkmark next to your selection.

The notification area, or system tray is only available in Windows XP and Windows Vista. If you have Windows 2000, ME, 98, or earlier this is not available.

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Note: This question comes from our forums, and the response below is used with permission of the forum member (Bill Castner - MS MVP).

Mark Russinovich (Author of the “Bible”, Windows Internals, co-founder of Winternals and Sysinternals, and since both companies were bought by Microsoft, now a senior Microsoft employee) was asked:

Hi Mark, do you really think that Registry junk left by uninstalled programs could severely slow down the computer? I would like to ‘hear’ your opinion.

His reply fairly captures my own view (quoting Mark Russinovich):

No, even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive searches (ed. of the registry itself).
On Win2K Terminal Server systems, however, there is a limit on the total amount of Registry data that can be loaded and so large profile hives can limit the number of users that can be logged on simultaneously.
I haven’t and never will implement a Registry cleaner since it’s of little practical use on anything other than Win2K terminal servers and developing one that’s both safe and effective requires a huge amount of application-specific knowledge.

To which you can add the additional problems: Applications installed on a machine that is used by more than one person can creates entries for each user in their private registry store: HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Because registry cleaners (and REGEDIT.EXE) operate under SYSTEM permissions with the logged-in user security token, they cannot access these other registry entries.

Again, quoting Mark Russinovich:

Uninstallers typically delete their application’s system-wide settings from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE part of the Registry and any per-user settings of the user running the uninstaller from HKEY_CURRENT_USER. But what happens to the per-user settings of the other users that used the application? You guessed it, Registry junk gets created - and possibly file system junk in the application’s Application Data folder in the \Documents and Settings directories of other users. An uninstall is only thorough if the user performing it is the only one that used the software.

So you have these issues with a registry cleaner:

• If an application is installed and used only by one user, a registry cleaner run by another user will remove “invalid” entries in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and disable the application from working by the other user(s);
• If an application is installed by User #1, and used as well by User#2, the registry cleaner operation run by User#1 cannot remove the instances of the application created by User#2.
• On top of these technical issues that should scare you away, there is the central argument made by Mr. Russinovich: only if the registry cleaner has a sophisticated database of all application software installation registry changes would it have a chance of being safe to use. There is to my knowledge no such animal out there.

Though the Microsoft Knowledge Base has a lot of articles on how to repair the damage created by using these utilities.

Summary:

Will using Registry Cleaners speed-up my system and make it more reliable?
It will have no effect on system speed. There is an excellent chance it will make your system less reliable.

So what should I do about the registry?
The best thing you can do is to enable System Restore and add to your Autostart applications a registry backup. Strongly recommended for this is ERUNT (freeware):
[ERUNT] Registry Backup and Restore for Windows
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
[ERUNT Download URLs]
http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt.zip
http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt-setup.exe
[Installing & Using ERUNT]
http://www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-on…runt/erunt.txt

But I backup my registry reqularly using REGEDIT.EXE
You might as well not have bothered, the backups created by Regedit are of no use to you.
Neither does it export the whole registry (for example, no information from the “SECURITY” hive is saved), nor can the exported file be used later to replace the current registry with the old one. Instead, if you re-import the file, it is merged with the current registry without deleting anything that has been added since the export, leaving you with an absolute mess of old and new entries.

References:
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/a…ct-of-life.aspx
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt

Are software registry cleaners of any use?
Fred Langa started with a standard PC, imaged it, and ran 10 registry cleaners. He ran each three times on an image:
Highest number of items that needed to be “fixed”: 800
Lowest number of items found to be “fixed”: 59

Does not this suggest that what needs to be fixed is not at all certain?
The other question it invites is it not possible that those generating a large number of entries are trying to sell snake oil? See this small discussion that prompted Langa to test. Quoting letter to Fred:

What are your thoughts on Registry Programs? I have run five different programs on the same computer, without making any of the recommended changes, and get the following results:
Registry Repair from Stomp — 732 errors
Registry 1st Aid from Rose City — 73 errors
Registry Mechanic from PC Tools — 18 errors
Registry Medic from Iomatic — 50 errors
Easy Cleaner from Toni Arts — 36 errors
No, that’s not an error; Stomp did return 732 errors. Best Regards, John

Mr. Langa answers: There are several reasons for the disparity in those error counts. First there’s the matter of simple semantics: At one end of the spectrum, there are Registry errors that — if not corrected — may make a system unbootable or unstable, or that may cause some of your software to crash or to malfunction. But at the other end of the spectrum, there are trivial, transient Registry items that are intended for short-term use, that harm nothing when they go out of date, and that are ultimately self-correcting via normal Windows housecleaning. Naturally, counting these latter as “errors” drives up the count and lets a given piece of software generate impressive-looking stats; but removing those “errors” doesn’t mean much in terms of a real benefit.

I cite the article so that you can read it in full: http://www.informationweek.com/LP/showArti…&queryText=

But back to Mr. Langa’s testing. One reason for testing each cleaner three times was as a credibility check. If you run the same cleaner three times consecutively, it would be a fair assumption that the results should be nearly identical each time. It would be hard to make a credible case for using a product that changed its mind about what was a registry entry to be cleaned if run three times as a test. As Fred explains:

Doing immediate second and third runs with each cleaning tool was to see if any of the programs under test were fudging their numbers by over-reporting errors. For example, if a tool was really doing what it said it was, it would find and fix all the errors it could on the first run. Immediate subsequent runs should show essentially zero errors, because they all were fixed on the first run, right?

But if a tool still reports a significant number of errors on the second and third runs, you might wonder what was going on: Why couldn’t the tool find and fix all the errors the first time? Is the tool introducing new errors as it runs? Is it fudging the numbers to make you think it’s doing more than it really is? Is it reporting as “errors” some things that really aren’t errors after all?

At the least, it seems to me that a good Registry cleaning tool should report a stable, repeatable, and very low number of errors on back-to-back repeated runs. To me, a tool that can’t get the number of reported errors down to a stable, low minimum number on repeated runs either isn’t fixing things right, or isn’t analyzing them right in the first place. Your mileage may vary, but I tend to stay away from tools that act this way.

With apologies to Fred Langa, my summary of his test results:

• JV16 PowerTools 1.3.0.195: I included the last free version of this highly regarded tool — from 2003 — because so many of you will be familiar with it. As such, it can be a kind of touchstone you can use for context in comparing newer tools. When run on my test system, it identified 307 problematic items in the Registry, 122 of which it deemed “safe to remove.”
• JV16 Powertools 2005: On our test system the PowerTools 2005 Registry Cleaner’s “aggressive” setting dug far deeper than its simpler, earlier cousin (above), finding and removing a total of 800 problem items, including 53 “highest” level problems, 691 “moderate” problems, and 56 “low-level” problems. This one proved a Fred Langa favorite. The results were repeatable after three runs.
• Easy Cleaner: EasyCleaner found and removed 99 entries on its first pass — on rough par with the old version of JV16 PowerTools. The second and third runs found zero additional items, meaning that the tool found and removed everything it could the first time, just as it should have, with no artificial number-pumping going on to try to impress you. EasyCleaner is a very nice little tool, and you sure can’t beat the price! (freeware) A Langa favorite.
• Registry Mechanic: found and removed 39 errors while informing me that the $30 paid/registered full version would remove an additional 58. …Repeated runs turned up 19 problems each time. I have no way of knowing if these were 19 new problems, or 19 of the initial 39 that weren’t really fixed, or 19 that came back after reboot, or what. But the combination of a low initial error count results and relatively high repeated count puts this tool on my “don’t bother” list.
• Registry Repair: its first run when it reported it found and fixed an impressive 691 problems. But my interest faded quickly when the second run reported 124 items, and the third run reported 200 items. To me, that’s a sign of something very wrong going on: either the program is introducing new errors as it runs; or is failing to correct some errors it reports; or is falsely reporting as “errors” things that are not really errors at all.
• Registry First Aid: found 59 problems on first run, less than what the old JV16 version could do. …Alas, the second and third runs showed a real problem, reporting 123 and 109 problems, respectively; higher than the number found in the original run!
• Registry Medic: The initial scan on my test system turned up an even 100 problems, with the second and third scans turning up 80 and 68, respectively. The initial “100″ didn’t alarm me, as it’s close to the number of “safe to fix” items reported by the old JV16 version, but if your initial scan starts at 100, how on earth can an immediate rescan still show 80 problems? That’s a big red flag for me, and so I set aside this software, as well.
• The Registry Drill: In my tests, the Registry Drill found 134 items in its first pass, 110 in the second, and 109 in the third. These lackluster repeat performances, plus an antiquated-looking interface, and a setup that makes it clear that XP support was bolted on to a much older product, all help convince me that this is not a top-tier tool.
• RegistryFix: In my tests, the software flagged 105 problems on the first run, 66 on the second, and 55 on the third. The program’s interface is nice enough, but the results weren’t anything special. I see no particular reason to select and use this software.
• CleanMyPC: In my tests, the software found 130 problems on the first run, 114 on the second run, and 112 on the third; another lackluster performance that doesn’t seem to warrant a deeper look.

The fact that your own results will likely vary is even more cause of concern. There simply is not a reliable way to test if a registry entry is valid or not. This requires a trained eye and not an automated tool. Langa cites the worst possible case for registry trash: a computer upgraded from Win98 to XP. The computer received regular scans from Norton’s “WinDoctor” and ToniArts “EasyCleaner.” When given to a group of XP experts, they manually removed over 3,000 entries.

Summary of Registry Cleaner Software:
Do not bother with this. It it unlikely to help, it can cause harm.
There are no end-user benefits from running registry cleaners. Unecessary entries in the registry do no harm. This should not be a regular maintenance chore. It most certainly if done should not be automated.

I hold to the singular distinction I made in the beginning: there are times that a fast registry editor with search is needed to fix a single issue under Expert hands. There is no justification for the regular use of automated registry cleaning tools; and as the results above show, they are of dubious merit as the “fix” for even one-off problems that need solving.

Bill Castner
MS-MVP, AumHa VSOP, DTS-L

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