Hmmmmmmmmmm Nimbin scares me.......... My last PC died from too much stuff ... I can wait -- if it aint broke etc

I used System Mechanic for months...and then it got me. How long did you test this?

Not trying to knock you...it's just that the registry is one area you don't want to muck up. Everyone's system is different with different drivers for each brand, chipset, etc. Some of these cleaners can delete that one file that you won't even know about because the effects happen slowly or in some cases on the next reboot.

This one may completely harmless. I was talking from experience with one that supposedly had good reviews and all. When my PC fragged, the IT guy who looked at it said he could tell I had been using something 'harsh' to clean the reg and all.

Some of these company's know they are making their product sound so wonderful and up to date and etc., by listing all the crap it can clean/do and there are folks who think they have to or need to clean all that stuff even when they don't know what the hell it is or does. Then they hire companies to promote their product and those companies will pay bloggers to promote it (Which Google recently had happen to them - Bloggers Were Paid To Write About Google Chrome) without even knowing what they are blogging about.

I had installed System Mechanic because a free version came on a disk from PC Magazine. No warnings. No 'be careful'. Just 'You WANT this. It's the best!" etc. etc. And it is still considered a good product but NOT for everyone.

Example :

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-file-cleaner.htm

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-registry-cleaner.htm

One year apart and the above site lists CCleaner AND Wise Registry Cleaner as the BEST FREE FILE CLEANERS. One article by the site.editor one by a contributor. Who do you believe? I'm sure there are more like this. And each article lists alternatives at the end of the article. WHY? If these are the best and FREE then why list others? Why the hell would I want the lower rated free alternative to the higher rated BEST (according to the writer) when both are freaking free?!?!

I still have system mechanic, and there are things i won't let it do.

I've been using it about 2 weeks. the screenies are from a scan I did today.

Not selling it. I don't make a cent. Don't know why Nimbin's problem happened...

@Nimbin - They do also have free tech support. I'd report it, and there might be a log or something they could review and tell you what happened and why... although at this point I wouldn't blame you if you didn't bother... it might help them refine the software more. Up to you, mate. Sorry for your probs, though.

Po'. Seriously, these aren't 'paid for' prizes, and Preston Gralla has a fantastic rep. So... System Mechanic, and all the others have limitations. No one has perect software...

In his 10 Must-Have Free Downloads he lists CCleaner. I don't see Wise Cleaner even mentioned.

This is the kind of confusion I am talking about.

/still pining for some kind of 'watch this thread' function on the boards/

I would avoid System Mechanic, I've had nothing but problems with that program.

Wise does let you set a restore point before changing the registry, something you should do anyway.

I use the paid version Auslogics BoostSpeed to do this sort of work. So when I tried out Wise, I was surprised that not only it found a lot of errors that BoostSpeed didn't find, it also gave me a noticeable speed in the loading of my system. Had a WTF moment ...

Only have around 30days left on my subscription for BoostSpeed ... won't be renewing it

My eyes, after seeing the results on my system.

In G-d we trust. All others must show me.

His review is three years old and they haven't written a word about it since (according to their search engine his review is the only thing they have posted on it in three years) and I find that odd in itself. They have had four articles on CCleaner in the past year, from the portable version to enhancing to a review last AUgust (2 of which are by Gralla) not to mention his list have 10 must have downloads.

I notice you can't select which drive you want to scan (that I can find). When you have dual boot/multiple drives, external drives...it scans them all. For the novice, like me, how do I know the stuff on my Vista drive it wants to delete even though I ran it from Windows 7 is safe to delete and won't screw up Vista? Why does it want to delete (safely it says) anything at all from my external drive? For the completely uninformed, there is no mention of this in their help guide and that person may just click fix for everything. A lengthier review of the product and a better description by Mr. Gralla may stop the uninformed from believing they have just found the wonder cleaner that can do it all on it's own.

"It identifies Registry entries that may be dangerous to delete, and those that are safe to delete, so you can distinguish between the two. It also lets you decide which entries to delete, and which to keep"

and then he adds

"For safety's sake, it can also back up your Registry before a scan, so that you can restore it, if the program causes any problems."

It should read 'we strongly and always recommend' backing up your registry when running software that is scanning it for files to delete and don't go picking files to delete unless you know what you're doing because that restore point can be deleted or cut off from you as easily as anything else.

His review seems lacking compared to other, more in depth articles and reviews. It's almost kind of a 'do this as favor to get them off my back' kinda review compared to his other articles (to speculate any further would be slanderous). That's just MHO.

Like I said, it may be harmless. It may run forever just fine on your PC or any. But it is a STRONG piece of software, akin to System Mechanic, and for someone who doesn't know what they are doing (like me 8 years ago with system mech) it can screw up your PC. He makes no note of that in his review.

There is always a risk with a registry cleaner.  In the old days it was a big risk--nowadays it's much better.

The real risk is something new or uncommon is on your machine that the particular reg cleaner hasn't been prepared to properly handle.  It's like the equivalent of a false positive with your antivirus.

With laptops, I feel the trisk is greater because each manufacturer has proprietary and sometimes one-of kinds of drivers and the like that can be misidentified.

It's a risk--best to know a little bit about your registry yourself before using one.  Odds are you'll be ok but it's no guarantee.

Right.

And in my experience...my personal experience...system restore couldn't fix my registry when it got fragged. I ended up having to reinstall Windows. IMHO Gralla's review is very misleading and I believe he chose his words very carefully to convey a feeling that this product was harmless and any ill effects were easily reversible.

He and everyone else say CCleaner is totally safe. I'm not sure. Nothing is.

I don't need a "Totally safe" guarantee.

I said, "I installed this. I researched it. I tried it and I saw no ill effects on my system."

You want something totally safe? Try "Nothing". It does nothing to your disk, OS, lifestyle, hairdo and/or marriage. Kids won't choke on it. It's acceptable to all major religions, and it can't be photoshopped.

Which reminds me...

I'm tired. Going to bed. Nite, everyone.

I want the respected reviewer, contributing editor, etc., to be complete and responsible in his review when millions of people log onto his site for advice and recommendations. His review was a carefully crafted, throw away mention of a product that can screw up your PC. If he didn't take a kickback for it then he was just meeting his monthly obligations to PC World so he could get his paycheck that week.

If you're going to take the time to review something like a registry cleaner, explain what it is in detail for the folks that don't even know they CAN clean their registry or need to or whatever. It's not the software I have an issue with. It's the way it's promoted. He doesn't even say it's the best...or good...it does a NEAT job. Greg Brady was neat. Disposable Bic's were neat. The little Santa hat you can buy for your Corgy is neat. I would hardly call that a ringing endorsement. It's because his name is on it that makes it an endorsement.

When you go to their website it says

"Wise Registry Cleaner v6.21-Best Free Registry Cleaner

This freebie does a neat job of cleaning out the Registry junk. It scans the Registry, flagging orphaned or bad Registry entries, and shows you the name and values for each.

Highly Reviewed by PC World Editor preston Gralla."

Highly reviewed? Wake up and smell the propaganda.

Whew! For a minute there I thought you meant me.

Po' I luv ya to pieces and you know that. Not like that fickle Skinhit.

Anything that touches the registry is potentially dangerous. CCleaner cleans a lot less than Wise. Maybe for that reason, it's 'safer'.

Did Gralla 'sell out'? I don't think so... one thing I didn't look at was which version of each he was looking at. Tomorrow, I'll go back and take another look. He might have done his 'Top Ten' before he reviewed Wise. It could be just that simple.

I'll probably email him and ask him to reconcile the views. I'm not going to ask him why he didn't say, "Playing with matches can get you burnt." Hell, using them as intended can do that.

Anyway... I couldn't fall asleep misinterpreting, I think, what you wrote.

You still suck.

One poster here asked what do registry cleaners do other than clean obviously, Well it depends on the softwares capabilities, if the software is able to re-organize things it allows programs to load faster kind of like defragmenting a hard disk it re-indexes everything.

I wouldn't use System Mechanic either .. I used it way back in the old days of XP and had to reinstall XP then did not reinstall SM

@ PoSmedley, You say your a novice, That may be true , But from your comments I would have to disagree . your higher up then just a Novice User.

@ DrJBHL I will give this a try.