I installed registry cleaner on windows vista 32 bit and registered without any problems and I ran it and it found 1200 errors and fixed them and my computer is working great, this program is safe because you can undo or restore the registry and it even does a full registry backup, so how can you go wrong!

I use several other registry programs such as: Registry First Aid 7 Platinum that you can get free with license for a limited time and it found 1000 errors and fixed them without any harm to my computer, I have tried ccleaner and it wrecked my computer and I had to reinstall my windows vista and I do not recommend it to beginners because it is dangerous, I give todays giveaway a thumbs up, thank GOTD and Ath Teck.

To #70 I am most certainly not joking, and yes I do know what the registry does.

While junk does accumulate in the registry - there is absolutely no need to remove it. It really does not matter that it's there.

@61

That system restore point recommendation was for backuping your working system BEFORE you use some "cleaner". If "cleaner" mess up something, you can easily restore that point taken before meessing up.

#16 Roger - Are you joking ? Or don´t you know what the registry do ?
Each time you install, uninstall and run a program you will get more junk inside the registry base. Not all programs erase all of their entries. When you run a program then will most programs interact with the OS registry entries and put new entries. Those entries can sometimes make your OS crash if you remove them manually !

#56 Mike - Todays software don´t help the user at all.
- You can´t see the full entry
- You can´t maximize the window
- You can´t trust that it would let you keep any of your extern HDD, DVD entries
- You can´t have a full-automatic printer on your system as the program will remove anything that isn´t turned on.

My printer turn on/off whenever I need it to do so. After a cleaner like this one then will I have to reinstall all of my drivers again !

Registry cleaners are "snake oil" that can only damage the Registry. It doesn't need "cleaning". I've never seen any registry "cleaner" that actually did anything in the way of repairing the Registry, but almost all damage it. Those lists that Windows keeps are there for a reason, deleting them is guaranteed to adversely impact Windows. As for the claim that some people make that using a registry "cleaner" magically fixes their PC, their registry structure is damaged. The Registry isn't a flat file, it's a database. I neither know nor care what its internal structure is. If running a registry "cleaner" magically fixes your system, then it can only be coincidental, that altering some key just happened to coincide with a damaged area of the Registry structure.

In the description it says, "AthTek RegistryCleaner has the real ability to manage a 64-bit registry!" I really would like to give it a try, but that seems to be impossible. I installed it on my Dell notebook with Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium. It reported the installation was okay and registered. The installed shortcut executes "ARC64.exe" which looks right, trying to run it produces the error message, "The procedure entry point could not be located in the dynamic link library Kernel32.dll." So, what I see is that it doesn't work. Too bad I wasted all this time loading and re-loading it.

To #17 Micke - in some cases there are registry keys which are related to a key which is delete. If you re-scan the registry these keys will show up as errors, which is why you will often need several scans until no errors show up. Some of the better designed registry cleaners e.g. Registry Mechanic take into account the keys which will be affected by deleting other keys and show then as errors too right away - this means that subsequent scans are not needed.

The reason for some errors not going away is because some registry keys are protected and can't be deleted. Some registry cleaners ignore such keys - for that very reason.

As for large number of errors after compacting the registry - it is not actually a fault with the compacting. The problem is that this registry cleaner scans for empty registry keys. Some of these keys are actually used by Windows and will be re-created when you restart Windows.

For the record - there should be no actual need to delete these keys, and registry cleaners (seemingly) only do it to grealy inflate the number of errors found.

As a long-time user of Advanced System Care ( aka Advanced Windows Care) I can say without a doubt that judicious cleaning of the registry DOES make a positive difference in the performance of my computer. BUT please stick with a reputable-trusted cleaner and don't experiment with every new cleaner to hit the market. Google cleaner comparisons and do a little research first. It's cheaper than buying a gallon jug of aspirin.lol

Seems to work OK.

Nice job on the gui, clean and simple.

One thing I noticed is that the elapsed time does not reflect the actual time. In a test run it show the elapsed time as 5:01 just before it went to the results window. I timed it externally and it was 6:31. Although it is not a big deal it is a glitch.

Another thing I have always hated with registry scanners is the time it takes tor run. Being a 64-bit app does not always mean that it will run faster. I ran Ace Utilities and it was done in 32s on the same test that is over ten times faster.

All in all it is a decent app. But it could be cheaper :)

To #61 McSpocky - Yes there will usually be registry keys left behind after doing an uninstall, but at least 99% of the time there is no need to ever remove them.

After install, got this message trying to run it.

"The procedure entry point could not be loaded in dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll." OK?

I've gotten better results using Glary Utilities and CCleaner for registry cleaning and they are freeware!

@10 - I frequently install new programs and uninstall old programs. Simply doing a system restore doesn't work for me many times unless I want to reuninstall and reinstall programs again that I installed or uninstalled after the last restore point creation.

Also, no matter what software you uninstall, there may be stuff left behind in the registry from it afterwards and if you're not doing a system restore like the position I usually find myself in, if you don't want the reminants left in your registry, a registry cleaner comes in handy. Even after using revo uninstaller in advanced mode, I can find things left behind in the registry.

One more thing. Why are the comments that say this registry cleaner is a good program all getting negative votes? That doesn't make much sense either.

Program doesn´t work. Crashes immediately after execution. System: Win7 HP. Maybe that´s why the prog earned so much thumbs down so fast.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS! I am using Win 7 x64. This application wiped out 95% of my icons, even from the start menu. I could not even get to my anti virus. Granted after seeing this I didn't take the time to see exactly how much it messed up my system but if it cant recognize my AV and Firewall I don't need it.

Luckily I had a made Win 7 recovery cd and was able to do a system restore. This is DEFINITELY A THUMBS DOWN!

#41: "... When I uninstall any software packages, I run a reg cleaner to clear out old entries before they become a problem. I think that’s called house cleaning and should be on any IT tech’s check list."

IMHO, Maybe... Problem is registry cleaners are rather dumb -- they won't know to delete install/uninstall keys, or app keys when you remove software... that's where revo & other uninstallers come in, or just roll up the shirtsleeves & dig in, using Find in regedit or similar. In fact, running a registry cleaner 1st actually makes the job harder -- if a reg cleaner deletes a reference to a missing .exe, as it should, it'll delete that value, but leave a maybe huge key behind. Now, how do you or revo or whatever find that key to delete it? If that file's name were still there, Find would have led you to it. :-)

* * *

#50: "... I see some of the people in here are saying they are useless. If this is true for them they must either have the worse computer that money can buy... As for my computer there is a niotacible diffrence if I do not use one..."

FWIW, if nothing is added to Windows, not too much gets added to the registry. If little gets added to the registry, cleaning is little needed. The opposite also applies. IOW mileage varies with the user & their habits.

* * *

#54: "... SysInternal’s PageDefrag also defrags registry and log files at every boot for XP ... ERUNT... Works great in normal or safe modes. "

FWIW, ERUNT has some caveats with win7 -- just something to be aware of & read about before anyone uses it there. And the defrag that NTREGOPT [part of ERUNT] performs eliminates white space within the registry, rather than worrying about traditional file fragmentation, though re-writing the registry as it does the result will ideally be un-fragmented.

AthTek RegistryCleaner is lean app that works, & perhaps because of its small footprint, is missing some features you'll find in the competition. It does work well in win7 64, but it takes a while to start up there, & running setup.exe normally [not as admin] had extreme consequences as far as the registry is concerned. Also note that Mumutu flashed some sort of screen during install, but it was gone on its own before I could read it. Setup in XP Pro & win7 32 were both uneventful.

Using AthTek RegistryCleaner, you select what sorts of entries you want to scan from a list, e.g. "Application Paths", "Fonts" etc., then perform a scan. This gives you a 2nd window showing everything found -- results are broken down to the same sections as on thst list, & each entry has a checkbox to select it. One shortcoming is immediately obvious: you often can't read the full entry, the window is not re-sizable, & there's no provision to jump to that key in the registry. Once you select one of the categories, say "Application Paths", you can select/deselect anything listed, but that only holds as long as you don't leave that category -- click another category or "All Scan Items" up top, & everything reverts to being selected. If you've selected a category & click "Repair", only the items that are selected *in that category* are fixed/deleted. And every time you click Repair, deleted entries are saved to a *.reg file [in the program's sub-folder], with newer repairs being appended -- you don't get another *.reg file unless you close & re-open the app. This is separate BTW from the included backup feature, which packages a copy of the registry in a *.cab file [also in a sub-folder in the program's folder]. Once you're done you have to close the window using the right corner X to return to the main interface or GUI, where you access the Scan & Clean, Undo, Compact, Backup, Restore, & Help/About buttons.

Today's GOTD does have a small footprint -- it's a one file app [the program's folder holds 5 files at ~4 MB] that only uses the registry to store it's license key, though running setup.exe you also get a key for uninstall. Despite its limitations I found it quite usable, though the free CCleaner sets the bar fairly high -- a plus & a minus, depending on your outlook, AthTek RegistryCleaner found Far more problems than CCleaner, meaning both it's maybe not as safe but also maybe more effective.

* * *

On registry cleaners themselves...

Some people like registry cleaners -- some don't. There are two sort of "Ol' Timer" sayings that cut to the chase: "The more you have, the more you have that can go wrong. " and "Keep it Simple"... they apply to cars, appliances, & software [including OSes], among many, many other things, & were one of the reasons behind *nix rising from relative obscurity years ago. "Keep it Simple" purists try to keep Windows' registry bloat to a minimum, & understandably many (most?) of these folks like registry cleaners. OTOH if the "Keep it Simple" purists held sway we'd all be driving cars with manual transmissions. Most drivers don't mind automatic transmissions, & when it comes to Windows (&/or any software bloat), most users aren't terribly concerned. There are often extremists on Both sides of any debate, & honestly I think those extremes are where many of the claims, both for & against registry cleaners originate.

Again, cutting to the chase, Windows itself has a lot of registry entries before you install program 1 [more-so with win7 64] -- deal with it, because you're not going to have a lean registry no matter what you do. At the same time the principles behind Windows' registry, like the registry itself is relatively inefficient [compared to the Mac or *nix OSes that don't use a registry], & it has its limits -- open something like Autoruns or the Add/Remove Control Panel applet & it's plain to see the more you have installed, the more registry entries there are to scan, & the longer it takes before you see the complete listing... with a minimal Windows install those lists appear almost instantly, whereas they can take a few minutes when you've installed a lot of apps. Keeping the registry as lean as possible means you can slow its growth over time -- it's like emptying Windows' temp folders before you run out of disk space. A registry cleaner may help you keep it lean. It will not take out all the *trash* so-to-speak. Registry cleaners find values that don't point to anything verified, e.g. they'll pick up on a path to a file that's not there, or a reference to a class key that's nowhere to be found. They don't help when for example a class key can be deleted, nor do they eliminate the complete key when they find the app that one of that key's values points to is gone. Using a registry cleaner is kind of like a diet that may or may not help you lose weight all by itself, & like many diets, running a registry cleaner can have unwelcome side effects...

Windows' registry is just a list -- a very big list, but nonetheless that's really all it is. Software (including Windows) stores data in that list rather than in separate [.ini, .xml etc.] files. When software runs it finds the data it needs, writes new data it needs to store. No registry cleaner can know what every piece of software expects to find in the registry, & because they don't know that beforehand, they may "clean" data that an app or Windows needs. When that happens, when needed data is deleted, either software re-writes that stuff or something breaks. Since Windows can be one of the things that breaks, it's a good idea to be able to put things back, & that's where most all registry cleaners fail... How do you restore a registry backup you made when Windows doesn't start? Will it run in Safe Mode? Can you even get into Safe Mode?... a problem with some multi-boot setups. ERUNT performs a registry backup that can be restored from another OS or a command prompt, but it has it's own caveats in win7, & many people don't know how to boot to a command prompt in the 1st place. That's NOT to say never edit or clean the registry -- it's saying be forewarned so you can be forearmed to deal with whatever breakage *might potentially* result. As long as you can easily fix it, no fear. Dive in unprepared & you might just end up becoming one of those [often rather loud] Voices of Doom.

#21 Joseph Potter mentioned a PCWorld article on cleanup utilities. Recommended reading, and hard to argue with real-world, unbiased testing.

Ummm... after some testing: Not recommending Athtek - unable to review too many registry items (truncated listing) before proceeding, and it does not appear to be able to regularly restore registry snapshots it saves (or saves badly the first place).

As far as my earlier advice, a little clarification:

SysInternal's PageDefrag also defrags registry and log files at every boot for XP - so why not install it? It's not uncommon to have your registry fragged every session. It's also a good indicator of system problems - if it needs to defrag your page file (other than the first time), and you did not manually change settings, then something is definitely corrupting paging (check anti-malware / firewall or background applications with elevated rights).

ERUNT does 2 things - backs up the registry (old faithful has proven backup & restore), and can compact the registry also. Works great in normal or safe modes. Weekly backups never hurt.

Roger #33 I can assure you that I'm not totally wrong, I'm not even a little bit wrong. Nor am I going to dispute your conclusions, because of the sensitivity of the registry cleaners have to err on the side of safety, and will often do nothing rather than too much. In the early 90s whilst doing my postgraduate studies in computing instability was rarely a problem within Windows. Because of the huge workload and the large number of aspects of computing studied an endless stream of programs were put on and taken off my system, and I never experienced the problems that I do today, that is courtesy the dreaded registry. CompNetTeach #37 Thank you for a most informative comment, you pointed out the most serious fault of the registry, that is the instability it can cause and the dangers of attempting to repair it. Your general rules of thumb would certainly keep your machine running cleanly, however, because of my age I would miss out too much of life if I followed them all. PageDefrag is also something I would recommend if you allow the virtual memory size to change. Personally, I set the size to a specific amount by setting the maximum and minimum to the same value. This stops fragmentation of the page file, hence fragmentation of the drive to a large degree. Thank you Aya Lane #34 for your kind comment, most unexpected, I expect to be pilloried when I confront the “registry experts” and I'm never disappointed.

Unfortunately, a very dangerous and poorly tested software.
If you wish to test this product, or find out what a really bad product is....Please make a restore point with Windows before starting this program and have fun!

- Spelling mistakes - Startup as Stratup
- Removed ALL shortcuts from the startup lists, over 50 programs that were installed were not seen, had to surf for its *.exe to start it.
- Decided I had over 5000 errors in the registry, most of which I've never seen in the registry.
- Backup was created but would not work when put back - failed returning registry from any of their backups.
- Needed to use a recent restore point to restore shortcuts and anything else that was changed. Did not wait to see what else might be wrong with the program.
Over all, I had a good laugh, practiced some of my skills restoring the computer, and hopefully stopped some people from destroying theirs. Cheers!

Installed it, but never showed up running in the front. I have XP SP3, this program messed up with all my security settings (Comodo, Mamutu...) and did not start properly. I removed it.

I have used reg. cleaners for years. I see some of the people in here are saying they are useless. If this is true for them they must either have the worse computer that money can buy and nothing will ever help it or they have the best most expensive and it has enough juice to power thru stuff that normally bogs normal computers down. As for my computer there is a niotacible diffrence if I do not use one to the point that my computer will become completely useless.

Installed AthTek Registry Cleaner. It found 1880 errors and repaired them. I have no problems and appreciate this giveaway !! Thumbs up!!
I am running it on my Dell Dimension E521 with XP Media Center Service pack 3, Amd dual core 3600, 4gigs ram.

Respectfully, i have thus far found the AthTek RegistryCleaner to be
a very good program. I am running Windows 7 home premium 32 bit dual
core. First, i created a restore point before download and
installing. Registration was very easy, then i created a backup of
my Registry hive which the AthTek RegistryCleaner allows you to save
it wherever you may choose. After a full scan it found 2132 problems
which i must say was more than i expected. I gave it permission to
fix them, and so far my system is working well and a bit faster on
start ups and downs. I have only been running my system for one hour
so, i will give the program a thumbs up at this stage; and if
by days end i find otherwise, then i will repost. Thank you GOTD and
AthTek RegistryCleaner.

A adding to my earlier post, after the post I made a restore of my backup with todays software. That restore failed. Used Comodo Time Machine to recover from that.

There are many opinions about Registry cleaners, and by all right.
Are they safe: NO
Are they useless: NO
Should they be used: YES/NO

So what do this mean, well, the sad story about a registry cleaner is that it do need a brain to operate as safe as possible. One could think that that is in the code, but no. The code will find POSSIBLE errors, you have to deterimine whats what. That takes knowhows.

They can fix errors that makes your computer unstable. I have my self, had some success in that area at some times. But I have also failed a working computer this way.

If used with caution and in a emergency, when things can not go any worse, a registry cleaner can be a life saver. But once again, YOU NEED to guide it to the right decisions. This is no easy street. Your computer can live good with loads of error and crap in it. Just like some dish in the sink do not kill you. Its however when all the dish is in the sink you start to get problems, or it brakes. Same with the registry. Some times you need to poke around there to fix some thing, that should been fixed by Windows and used softwares.

Its at these times a cleaner comes in to the picture. They will look for errors using their own database, simular to how AntiVirus software works.
If this database has possitive false in it, it could remove a vital key, and prevent windows from loading.

If I'm not all wrong I do belive that XP had such a criticall key, once removed, you had to reinstall.

----

In conclusion, this is a powerfull tool at your fingertips. But it is not able to work without your involvement. How good are you att telling whats right and false finds with this tool? That is how safe and usefull it it is.

Also not that todays software seems a bit unstable, even for those with a bit more then none knowhows.

I've tried all kinds of registry cleaners. The ones with techsupportalert.com software reviews are always tested first. I've used "jv16 powertools" by Macecraft and never had any problem. All of them have a backup options.

Some entries are recreated automatically by windows every time they are gone ... if you notice the registry cleaner will say they are cleaned out but if you restart it they are back..notice what keys they are.

Some entries are recreated automatically by spyware, adware and viruses, again notice what keys they are and look them up on the internet...the registry cleaner may just have helped you...get an antispyware remover.

Some registy cleaners only remove certain areas of the registry, leaving parts untouched, or have a list of "don't touch these keys", other ones are more advanced and will let you choose how "deep" to clean...always make a backup....but I swear by JV16, ccleaner, winutilities and programs recommended by techsupportalert.com (Gizmodo's software reviews)...

This one is worth a try nevertheless so off I go....I might be surprised!

@41, try Revo Uninstaller instead. It's safer.

This could be a decent program, but with already having a registry cleaner that I trust, Advanced System Care Pro, I am going to pass on this one. There are good and bad sides to cleaning your registry, the main thing is to find a program that will do the job, but not overdo the job. That is when the problems occur. As has been said before, if it isn't done automatically, make a backup BEFORE you do anything to the registry.

Installed just fine. Despite the fact that it says it is registered when installing, you do have to click on the "Help/About" button then click on register and enter your registration info from the read me file. This seems to be a common problem with Giveaway Of The Day offerings.

I installed this on a Windows7 64bit system. I have none of the GUI issues mentioned by a couple people. Everything shows up just fine.

I do believe, in a software package that claims the end user doesn't have to know anything, that registry backup should be an automatic choice when you go to repair the registry. Besides that, backup, scan, repair and compact all went fast and smooth.

Nr 13, Thats like saying there is no need to DEFRAG your hard drive, or clear out your tmp/temp folder, etc. I had a reg issue with a old trial version of dreamweaver 5 and installed a purchased copy of 5.5. A registry (old key) entry left behind caused 5.5 to crash. When I uninstall any software packages, I run a reg cleaner to clear out old entries before they become a problem. I think that's called house cleaning and should be on any IT tech's check list.

If cleaning the registry is useless, why did Microsoft offer an app called "RegClean"? For the heck of it?

OK after reading the above, I decided to give it a go. Installed and registered all went as planned. I decided to do a backup of my registery first. and then I used the backup on this program. yep it did a backup but the file was unreadable with any other tool. next did a restore using this program IT FAILED TWICE to restore some part of the registery. it compled anyway. ok on to the clean up it found some 7600 or so things. tag all repair. after many times it still would not repair 6 items. move onto compact exited with a reboot NO ROLL back! reboot and no some programs no longer work icons are missing even the icons on the login screen missing.

to end it I restored my backup and now all is working again.

thumbs down big time from me!

Take advice of not installing. If someone has problems rebooting after messing with their registry, how are they going to come straight back and tell us unless they get on another computer? Doubtful. They will be frustrated trying to get their computer back up.

Ahh... Registry Cleaners... Anything more divisive as a topic?

Registry Cleaners can sometimes help. Yes, removing MRUs keep Explorer from background searches for files / websites that you may not need again, so yes there can be an improvement in speed, especially with large storage and slow connections. Removing orphaned registry keys can noticeably reduce the registry size and speed system access to the registry (try a speed comparison of a system with a 80MB vs 30MB registry - I did once during an involved image creation process). And yes, a fragmented registry is slower, a compacted registry not necessarily any better (once registry writes are issued, the registry becomes decompacted).

But, registry cleaners cannot handle the biggest stability issue: Installing and/or removal of programs that provide context menu actions and default file handling for Windows can be deadly. When these registry entries are wrong, they can cause Windows to crash, go into endless loops & search inordinately long times for missing / wrongly located files. (Even Microsoft has made mistakes in this - some versions of preloaded Microsoft Works with Trial Office do a good job of giving the user an unstable computer straight from the factory!) Unfortunately, a large proportion of software from giveawayoftheday are not well programmed in this regard - many developers use visitors for beta testing. No registry cleaner properly fixes these issues - you can only manually clean them if you know what you are doing.

You also cannot devise a general rule to handle all situations of bad programming polluting the registry. So, "aggressive" settings for some cleaners can actually do damage.

Some general rules of thumb:
1. Backup your PC / create a restore point before installing any software. Test thoroughly as soon as possible. Where possible, install into a VM and don't adopt until fully tested.
2. Avoid programs that install context menu & default handling wherever possible. (I hate how iTunes keeps screwing up my buddy's DJ system with every update.)
3. Always backup your registry before using any registry cleaner. Test all installed programs immediately afterwards (after a reboot).
So, if you hate registry bloat, and don't want an unstable system, don't download & install everything from here!

One run of Ahttek cannot provide significant results to form an opinion - so far so good. I can say that CCleaner & Wise Registry Cleaner have never screwed up anything within my circle of contacts (non-aggressive settings), and are a way to keep bloat down. For XP, SysInternal's PageDefrag is a must install. Occasionally using ERUNT never hurts.

Thanks giveaway. Gonna keep on testin'

@Giovanni, #32
I tried to download Avanquest Registry First Aid 7 Platinum using the link you posted. It was easy to get the Registration code, but more difficult to get the program. I'm probably overlooking it (although I did peruse the page rather carefully), but I could not find a link to the program. I went searching and downloaded #7 from elsewhere. Apparently it does not work on 64 bit machines? Do you know if there is a version which does, or do I have to go up to #8, which obviously, is not the free version.
Thanks for your help.

no thumbs either way to report
except to reflect on those others have clicked on

while i thank GAOTD for this offer
i have read the post-installation warnings above
and will stick with ccleaner which is free forever
and has other features this doesn't
( customizable file cleaning for all major browsers etc)
--all of which work without a hitch

#30 well done OldScotty for bringing some intelligible much needed sense to this complex subject.

My thoughts are that this program is a personal computer Registry Cleaner, just that, it doesn't pretend to belong to the Artificial Intelligence breed of upper echelon programing, download it, use it, see if it makes a difference, if not use the same program to rollback, uninstall it then restart, job done.

To #30 OldScotty you are totally wrong when you say that "A corrupt and cluttered registry will slow your machine down"

The fact is that "a corrupt and cluttered registry" will rarely "slow your machine down." I'm not claiming to be a "registry expert" like you say. But I know that what I say is true because I have used registry cleaners thousands of times, and in at least 99% of cases I have not seen any difference after cleaning the registry.

If what you said was true my findings would be different. Particularly considering I install and uninstall new software to test just about every single day (without ever doing a reinstall of windows), and for a while my preferred method of removing software was simply delete a program's folder, instead of actually uninstalling it.

Under those circumstances there would certainly seem to be a good reason to clean the registry. But after deleting thousands of registry errors and not seeing any speed increase, I think you are wrong!

The AWARD-WINNING FREEWARE REGISTRY CLEANERS tools ULTIMATE DEFRAG FREE EDITION and PURAN DEFRAG (and/or IOBIT SMART DEFRAG) are much better than this mysterious program and not just because they are FREE:

http://www.freewaregeeks.com/?page=detail&get_id=176&category=53
http://www.puransoftware.com/Puran-Defrag.html


And for a limited time you can also grab Registry First Aid 7 Platinum (with license and genuine Serial Code):

http://www.geckoandfly.com/8289/free-avanquest-registry-first-aid-7-platinum-with-license-and-serial-code/


Enjoy!!

Why in Giveaway version the option "Select All" indicates that it works only with registered users?
However while installing the message was that registration has been successful.
The Program has found approx. 1400 faulty entries, I will not select them manually to repair.

This makes this program practically worthless, especially if there is no technical support included.

It never ceases to amaze me the number of “registry experts” that appear when programs of this nature are offered.
To those who say cleaning the registry makes no difference to computer speed; try removing MRU’s from the registry and see what it does to your download speed (http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/). In my tests I have on occasions achieved more than a 40% increase in speed, why, God knows!
The whole point of the registry is to hide things, when everything was portable Microsoft was losing a fortune on illegal copies of its software, the registry more or less solved the problem. It is not necessary for this to be the case for all software, Microsoft could easily have written an application that trapped all writes to the registry, they certainly had long enough to do it, but they don't and so we the users must suffer when we cannot transfer software to our new machines.
Cleaning the registry without the knowledge to be able to do so, can, and often will stop your machine working.
Good registry cleaners can improve computer speed considerably, and a bad one will kill it!
That brings me to today's offering; after running a scan and then reading through the explanations against the errors it showed, in many cases they were totally illogical. One thing I have to have in a registry cleaner is confident, this fact alone totally destroyed even a vestige of such and I shall be removing it from my machine. Just hope that it doesn't leave residue in my registry to slow my machine down!
Being an XP user I have no idea how later versions of Windows effect the registry, but I do use a free registry cleaner called “Wise Registry Cleaner”, namely to keep my download speed up to maximum. I particularly like the fact that it tells me what is safe to remove. A corrupt and cluttered registry will slow your machine down, clean it regularly and safely and don't believe all these supposedly registry experts, there aren't many outside Microsoft!

Have installed this on Windows7 32bit. I can't get it to run, when I double click on the icon the little blue Windows circle just spins & then stops. Also my processor usage shots up to 100% & locks the pc. It shows up in task manager in processes & I have to end the ARC process to get the pc to run properly again. I did manage to open it once but when I tried using it the programme just crashed & blanked out on the monitor. Again I had to end it manually. Anyone else having this?

Again, when a registry cleaner comes out, many people warn of not trying it, etc, etc. Those who have never try it or have been helped by it, or maybe destryed by it will shy away from trying. For me, I have been toying around it for years, and even installing several registry cleaners at the same time, and using them one after the other to clean my registry. All I can say is that they are very safe, at leas in my experience, if you leave their settings (registry cleaning settings) at default. Recently, it solved again my problem of a constantly popping windows error message. I will be including this GOTD in my battery of registry cleaners.

I have carried out a small test using approx. 130,000 reg. entries.

Uni-Blue RegBooster 671 errors
WinUtilities 773 errors
Auslogics BoostSpeed 629 errors
AthTek RegCleaner 3357 errors

Does this make AthTek the best or what?

The only thing preventing me from downloading this is the poorly worded blurb that made no sense whatsoever to me. Thanks anyway GOTD.

I agree with some of the comments, more is not always best. Some registry cleaners are very agressive and can cause problems with the entries they delete. Personally I have found TuneUp utilities has the right balance for me and therefore won't be installing today's registry.

The only registry cleaner I trust(and have tried), is the one build into CCleaner, which shows me exactly what's wrong and asks me to backup the changes done to the registry. Won't be installing this software, because if your system runs good, why tamper with it?

You can't get enouth of Registry Cleaner Applications. Even if you have twenty applications and no matter what order you run them. They will all find something and that is because the registry is so big.

Using Windows XP I try a lot of programs offered on here. If I don't like them I uninstall them. This does lead to a lot of registry entries that are invalid.
I have used free Regseeker for years. I was very confident in that software because it never took out a necessary file on my PC.
I checked with my cleaner and it found 49 invalid entries that could be removed. Like today's software it has a backup to restore in case there is a problem.
Before running this program I used the backup function. After scanning my PC it found 2001 errors. Whoa! My first thought was, this cleaner is way too aggressive. I decided to delete them all. I restarted my PC and so far not a problem.
I also use Paragon's Backup & Recovery 2011 (Advanced) Free which was offered on here and on their website. I backup every couple of weeks to keep up to my installing new software from here.
If you are paranoid about cleaning your PC then you shouldn't consider using programs like this. If you have had previous bad experiences and think that all software are created equal, then don't use these cleaners.
AthTek RegistryCleaner is a keeper for me. Thanks GOTD!