Help topics | Getting Started | Advanced Info | FAQ

Introduction
Registry cleaner is a very easy way to find obsolete and invalid data from the registry.

Options

  • Don't create any backups. Makes the program not to create automatically any backups of items you remove.
  • Show ignored entries. The registry cleaner automatically ignores certain entries based on the ignore list, this options allows you to list the ignored items anyway. You can distinguish an ignored item by its item, green items are safe to remove and red ones are the ignore items.
  • I want manually verify deleted entries. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. If disabled, the program will automatically remove all the entries it finds invalid. You should always at least browse through the list of found items before removing them.
  • Disable screen saver. Sometimes the screen saver can start while scanning, you can use this option if you wish to prevent it.
  • Use as little processor power as possible. This option makes the scan a bit slower but allows you better to use your computer while scanning, especially on slower computers.
  • Don't pop up the registry cleaner when finished. If you minimize the registry cleaner window you can use this option to define if you want the window to pop up when the scan is finished. If you don't minimize the registry cleaner window this option has no effect.
  • Disable threading. By default the registry cleaner uses so called threads to improve the performance of the procedure. This can, however, under some special circumstances cause some problems with certain hardware configurations. These problems include crashes, blue screens etc. in such case you might solve the problem by checking this option.
  • Update the registry fixer database. The registry fixer (the Try to Fix button) uses a special database in order to fix registry entries, this database must be updated at least once before you can use the registry fixer. After that you should update the database every now and then, maybe once or twice in a month. You could, of course, update the database also every time you run the scanner but since it takes a bit long time it's not recommended to be done every time.
  • Ignore MRU list entries. MRU or Most Recently Used lists are used by many programs to allow users to quickly see and access the last used files. Obsolete MRU list entries can, of course, be safely removed but nearly always there's no point since the program will recreate the entry sooner or later anyway. It's generally a good idea to enable this setting.


Features

  • RegEdit. Opens the Windows registry editor. If select some registry entry and click the RegEdit button it will open to the specific key (works only with Win2000 or newer operating systems).
  • Explore. Opens the Windows explorer to the specific path if one can be detected. Obviously, works only with items that are listed as safe to remove because of an invalid filename.
  • Ignore. Adds the selected items to the ignore list.
  • Try to fix. This feature tries to fix the selected invalid registry entries. The program can rarely fix any invalid entries but it's not a bad idea to attempt to fix the invalid entries before removing them, especially if you are having some registry based computer problems. Before you can use this feature you must run the registry cleaner at least once with the Update the registry fixer database option.
  • Remove. Removes the selected registry entries. Automatically creates a backup if not otherwise defined in the options of the registry cleaner.


More information
The registry cleaner works by automatically detecting all kinds of invalid and obsolete data from the registry. The registry cleaner doesn't remove any files but registry entries from the registry. The registry can virtually contain any kinds of data, and some third party software sometimes create entries that look invalid but are actually needed. This is why the registry cleaner uses a so called Ignore List. It's a list of search words which are used to identify these entries which looks like invalid but are actually needed, these items are shown with a red icon in the list of found entries. If know what you are doing, you can modify the Ignore list by editing \Settings\Ignore\RegistryIgnoreList.dat. You can find more information about the Ignore list from the FAQ.
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