Windows 10: Are Registry Cleaners Still Needed on Windows 10?

I like this answer. I have indeed seen registry cleaners improve performance, but the improvements are slight, and there had to be a lot of crap left around to start with. Still I do like a tidy system. However, you have to watch because sometimes there unused file associations that are removed, and that can break applications.

 

After a clean installation of Windows 10 Pro, which in my case happens relatively regularly, meaning each time MS releases an official ISO both for slow and fast rings - the first tool installed is always CCleaner Pro. The second is always Revo Unistaller Pro. I always run the cleaner and the Registry cleaner right after clean installing, and it cleans lots of obsolete Registry values. I then set CCleaner to continuously monitor the system and clean it "if cleaning saves more than 0,1 GB". I also manually clean the Registry often, and for sure each time I uninstall a program (with Revo). I've done this for years on Windows 7 Home Premium and I keep my habit with Windows 10 Pro. I have never (ever) faced any issues.

 

Same here I have the Pro version of Ccleaner and have had no issues with it at all or Revo, so those that say they do must be doing something wrong.
I like how Ccleaner monitors in the background then when you come out of a site/forum it cleans up wasted disc space the was left behind.
Would never ever not use it, and yes one of the first things I install on any system I work on and recommend to friends.

 

Technically you really don't need a registry cleaner. Ccleaner is nice for general clean up of left over junk but when it comes to cleaning a registry it's not going to do much if anything to improve performance. When an entry dies in the registry it's just bypassed and the amount of space it will take up is so miniscule that it's not necessary to remove.

In the pre Vista days cleaning a registry was far more necessary than it is with say, Win7 through Win10.

 

*Ditto

 

Let me take a minute to add to my comments.

First if anyone uses a registry cleaner make sure you back up the registry first, Why?? Let's say something that worked before you clean the registry stops after the cleaning it's a good bet the cause for this new issue was the cleaning and restoring it back to the state before the cleaning might just fix the new issue.

Second, I've never used a registry cleaner and I don't need to. Again why?? Simple.. removing entries from the registry that I didn't create might cause problems. And the only changes I do make to the registry are entries I add to include items in the context menu such as .. snipping tool.. paint.. command prompt and the recycling bin.
That's it.. and my PC .. well just works, fast and stable

 

A system image, tweaked to a pristine 'T' would be a better solution than running reg cleaners all the time.

 

If one uses Ccleaner or any other reg cleaner and uses VMware Player, it will nuke your VM(happened to me a couple of times). Now I use Hyper-V I don't have that problem. I only use the reg cleaner part after playing around with 3rd party customization tools and uninstalling them, that mess with Windows symbolic & hard links.

 

Some are more aggressive than others but all carry an unnecessary risk and my advice is to avoid them.

 

I use CCleaner, SlimCleaner and Revo...

I have never encountered a problem, and find that it actually does increase my performance. But I demo a lot of different software and if I remove something there is always junk left behind.

I use it mainly if I needed to reinstall something. I am forever removing Office and then a year later putting it back on or other things. Malawarebytes comes to mind. So, I always use them after a removal. It really has very little to do with Windows 10, so I find the topic a bit misleading.

And honestly, the opinion comes from a Microsoft employee, a bit biased I would think.

 

I think if you did a bit more research you would find that the thoughts on not using a registry cleaner comes from many sources and not just one MS employee.

 

Even in Ccleaner's own forums they recommend against using it as a "maintenance" option. And only using it for searching for something specific while troubleshooting.

 

Not surprised. It's a nice tool to cleanup other things but keep it away from the good old registry. Heck.. I wish MS could phase out the registry for something better and that no one could access. That would cut down on some issues people encounter I recon.

*Wink

 

Or they could do like in Linux and make EVERTHING a file, and confuse the heck out of everyone. "Hmmm what hapens when I link all my music and photos to the zero file(/dev/zero )?"

 

Perhaps, if Windows 10 own uninstaller was more efficient, then there wouldn't be any leftover bits in the registry to clean.
If Revo and the like can do it, why can't the software developers at MS?