Cleaning registry

Paul Black said:

DON'T clean the registry with third-party tools or software. In fact, unless you are an advanced user familiar with the registry leave it well alone.

In fact, I am an idiotic user that has cleaned the Registry with CCleaner many times, and my Windows has been working fine.
Latest CCleaner Version Released

Matthew Wai said:

In fact, I am an idiotic user that has cleaned the Registry with CCleaner many times, and my Windows has been working fine.
Latest CCleaner Version Released

Sometimes I also use CCleaner to clean the register (I do the backup first). I always analyze what is going to be cleaned. Never had any problem.

I have backups too but have never had to use them.

CCleaner is good, but I have been using Systweak's Registry Cleaner for years. I find that it does a great job of cleaning the system registry to not only increase system performance, but overall stability as well. Registry Cleaner is a component of Systweak's Advanced System Optimizer (ASO3). ASO3 comes with Smart PC Care, Registry Cleaner, Registry Optimizer, System Cleaner, Disk Optimizer, Disk Tools, Game & Memory Optimizer, Driver Updater, System Protector, Privacy Protector, Secure Delete, and more! Systweak has been a Gold Microsoft Partner for over 20 years. Purchase information may be found here and support info here.
The price can range from $10.75-$29.95/yr. Hope this helps!

Cheers,
TechWizard

When you open registry as administrator use CTRL + F to search (F3 to continue).

Your search string should be very specific, ex. program root directory, file name or exact program name.
And then delete entries you find.

It is not bad to delete program installation directory and configuration directory in appdata/programdata first, before going to registry.

There are very rare cases when cleaning the registry and file system is needed, but the point is when it's needed it's best to be done by hand.

There is no fear to do something wrong, because the only case when you will be doing this is when you want to clean software which refuses to be removed or it behaves odd for what ever other reason, so how could you screw up something?

In almost all other cases it's a waste of time, risk of damage, and no performance gain.
If you need performance gain and really clean registry then reinstall windows and take care not to install crapware next time.

Advanced System Optimizer does have backup manager as well. I highly recommend that a system or registry backup be performed before executing any kind of cleaning or modification to the Windows OS. @mesajflaviu, it is ultimately your call which program you use. Not every program is without flaws. I am simply recommending Systweak's Advanced System Optimizer based solely on my experience w/it. It also has an Uninstall Manager that, in my opinion, removes all traces of programs, even in registry.
Systweak's intent when designing ASO3, was (and still is) to make your PC run as intended--like brand new. As PCs are used and depending on how many programs a user installs, the more bloated the registry becomes resulting in slower performance, more frequent crashes and BSODs, which Microsoft replaced with screen instead.
I, sir, have used Microsoft Windows since Windows 3.1. Do I claim to be an expert? Not at all! That is why I am a member here. Before using programs such as ASO3 or Bitdefender A/V, I thoroughly research them to get a feel for how effective or ineffective they are. I think that I am a well informed user and a safe one. But, there is soooo much more to be learned and explored. I welcome any thoughts, suggestions and knowledge of other forum members.

Thank you,
TechWizard