I just had my credit card scammed, and this shows up as Mal ware.
Beware of this program.

Giveaway of the day should be more watchful.

Wiped out my desktop. Had to rebuild computer stay away from this one

RegTidy is a small app with a footprint in Windows that's almost as small -- should be able to make it portable using PortableAppCreator [found at the portableapps.com forum]. Have no idea of the developers' marketing ideas or approach -- I use adblock plus in FireFox, & ignore all adverts if I didn't -- but I can say that McAfee Site Adviser gives their site a green light.

All registry cleaners look for broken references [links], & some will attempt to find the missing reference target. Registry keys & values can include another key or a file -- if the cleaner doesn't see that other key or file, it marks it down as a registry problem. Many also delete known history storage, calling it a benefit for privacy. Additionally some apps provide registry backup/restore, &/or defragging, which AFAIK usually just means re-writing the registry files to your hdd without including any *white space*. Finally, registry utilities might offer to perform some tweaks -- Windows comes set for the vast majority of users & circumstances, meaning there are bound to be some compromises, which tweakers *adjust* for specific scenarios... a home user for example can benefit from settings that would give corp IT problems.

RegTidy is a minimalist sort of app without most all of those extra features, which some might like as simpler equals easier to use & less confusion. It comes set to start with Windows & has options for auto scanning, checking for updates, & scheduled scans.

The leading debates surrounding registry utilities are whether they help & are they safe. The answer to both is maybe. Windows has to read the registry, & anything that improves that helps Windows -- the proper question is does it help enough?... That depends on how screwed up your registry is, how long it takes Windows to read your registry (how fast your PC/laptop is has an effect), and what you consider a worthwhile improvement. As for safety, that depends on how prepared you are to put things back the way they were. In XP using ERUNT it takes just a few minutes + a reboot, even if Windows won't start -- providing you read & understand the docs, & are able to boot into some other, compatible OS. In Vista/7 Windows info is stored in more places than just the registry, so restoration can cause minor problems -- better to use System Restore if Windows starts. [also see http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/faq.htm] At any rate, as long as you can put the registry back to its prior state, using a registry utility is safer than installing unknown software, as that can alter the actual files Windows needs/uses.

Good alternatives are mentioned in this thread and there is good advice about not using a registry cleaner unless you are sure registry errors are causing system problems. The rule of thumb should be to simply not mess with the registry. And if your system is having issues the registry is usually the last place to check/fix as opposed to the first.

I believe a good number of registry problems occur when an uninstalled program leaves registry entries behind. You should check around on the internet before installing any program. Seek reviews from reputable sites. Make a backup of your system before installing a program and if you choose to uninstall later always use the built in uninstalled of the program (if available). From a common sense point of view most legit programs should have a built in uninstaller. Another thing is to check the program's site to see if a special uninstall tool is available.

All that being said, I would like to make another suggestion for a registry cleaner. It is free and from Macecraft, the same company that makes JV16 PowerTools. In fact the scanning engine is based on the same engine used in JV16PT. The freeware program is called PowerTools Lite and can be found at the link below-

http://www.macecraft.com/ptlite/

thers a new kid on the block, well sore-dove Perfect Utilitieshttp://www.putils.com/ our known as the free version of WinUtilities has an excellent registry cleaner and a bunch of other useful and not so useful tools.Witch may also be better than Glarys Utilities or Advanced systemCare free.
MV RegCleaner http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Registry-Tweak/MV-RegClean.shtml is also a very good stand alone registry cleaner but don't mes with RegSeeker a rescan revels not all cleans up.

Reg cleaners are totally unnecessary our registry is the backbone of your system do not fiddle ith it

It's not very cool to be giving this type of software away free or not, it's reputation is negative all over the web. I hope people read the reviews before installing something like this and pay 30 dollars for it? Shudder. Thanks anyway GAOTD

If you wish to clean up your registry I suggest using CCleaner instead.

I, like most others, am afraid of this software. Their website is scary at first site even - They have a "McAfee Hacker Safe" logo that is static...IE, they don't actually have the software installed to have it scanned properly. If a site tries to trick a user about another companies software which they are advertising falsely...I don't want to see what THEIR software will do to my computer.

Hi everyone!
I join you all in your comments re. ANY registry cleaner software. Especially when developers promise you heaven (i.e. nearly all of them) you're in for a descent into hell, a voyage through "the valley of tears" etc. with no "green pastures" in sight. Many years ago I "enjoyed" the experience of total dataloss and complete system breakdown due to some alleged functional registry repair tool. Ever since I've been extremely sceptical on this subject.
For some three years now I use CCleaner on a fairly regular basis (mostly depending on testing additional new programs - which I now do on a seperate machine anyway) and it works fine for me. (Before that time I had to rely on advise from friends to fix speed issues or worse.)
Tinkering with your computer's registry should be left to (human) registry-wizzards -which most of us are not, I daresay- or to the software equivalents thereof -the use of which also presumes a certain level of knowledge. Whenever something spells "registry" I raise my personal "DEFCON" one or two levels ;-)
I will try some of the above suggested alternatives and may well add some to my toolbox. So thanks for those links!!!

Greetz!
Pat

PS: IMHO none of the stars in the "People who tried this giveaway find it..."-box above should be colored in "gold". Red blinking down-arrows seem more appropriate ;-)
And for software that is potentially harmfull or requires above average knowledge befor use, appropriatly colored "!"-marks or "?"-s might be helpfull?

Enjoy Halloween!
P.

If you need a program which will solve all your Windows problems go to
http://wubi-installer.org/ .

#25, uh, yeah there is...I just used it and it cleaned everything just fine and...guess what?? My PC didn't explode, and everything works just fine.

The amount of ignorance here is staggering. I've used this in the past without problem and (as I say) I *just* used it. No problems, whatsoever.

I don't think GAOTD has joined the dark side and I don't think this is a rogue software.It is aggressive, but it generates an automatic backup (that works, I just tried it) and didn't kill anything that shouldn't have been killed. In fact, it found a *bunch* of detritus that others hadn't touched. Further, there are a couple of keys that just about *every* cleaner *tries* to kill that *shouldn't* be killed at all. (Ccleaner is notorious for that). THIS guy left them alone.

So, maybe this IS the most dangerous piece of software ever (if you can believe the ridiculous hysteria here) but not on my system.

I want to thank all of you for your wisdom and helpful comments on this and the past GAOTD. I especially would like to thank GAOTD for allowing these comments to be posted. I enjoy all your comments and the alternative software that's out there. Keep it up guys and gals. BTW I'm staying away from this one also based on your comments. I don't want to even try it out. I am happy with the free Eusing software I have on my machine. I also like to install and uninstall software about 3-4 times a week. Thank You!

Is this a joke?

It scans, shows some invalid entries, and ask to Repair All,

But there is no Repair All option/button on its interface :(

For me,for this kind of soft,good are only this:
-Free Window Registry Repair;
-Argente;
-Eusing;
-Auslogics.
With this everything was OK allways.Also CCleaner,but is not so deep.

RegSeeker from Hover Desk has never screwed up my machine and gives you easy access to many other functions. Free all the time, auto back up and highly rated among users. Have tried lots of other cleaners but have not found any that do as good a job as RegSeeker.

According to Asrhaf this is some kind scareware.
And well i started to trust his remarks (i did check in the past many times if he is correct he usual is).
Well i still look every now and then on this site but over the last year there have been to many offers that classifies as cheekieware (claiming to be original to the sold version) ore talorware i am losing my interest now in checking here evry day.
I only like to give a try of real unchanged software and give feedback on that.
If i want limited or adware kinds of software i can go to one of the other hundreds of sites with those kind of offers.
Ashraf thanks for your remark.
Giveaway of the day for this offer.No thanks.

Uninstall result: Spybot and WOT blocked the site's "question" page and Revo found 37 registry entries left behind their uninstaller. Go figure... Keith/GeekCSI

I personally use advanced systemcare pro, which i find very good i think i will pass on this one.

Downloaded, installed, set up, and ran easy enough. Found over 1K "issues" most of which are supposed to be there. Extensions and associations must be viewed carefully as I have many apps which do not have active projects but will need their .ext to function later. Ran RegTidy backup first, cleaned, checked, restored, reran RegTidy to find LESS than 1K "issues". Between Glary Utilities Pro, cCleaner, Erunt(for backup of registry), and Fix-it Pro 10 I don't need a scareware program on my system; it will be uninstalled as soon as I post. My advice? Stay away from this one. Keith/GeekCSI

My comment goes with Fubar why to take risk with all these nonsense.while we got a lot like Tuneup utilities,Glary utilities etc,,,
I have been using Tuneup utilies 2007(paid version) quite a long time Believe me it's a wonderful registry cleaner.Today I have jumped to Tuneup utilities 2008 (Big Thanks to Our friend Asraf as his sagessions are mostly good ones) Thank u fubar too.

DONT RISK IT!! Stick to something you trust 100%

For the casual user who isnt tech savvy I would suggest not dabbling in cleaning your registry unless you are sure about what you are doing. After running one registry cleaner I have frozen up the appearance and personalization section of Windows Vista and only a clean reinstall of the whole is going to fix it. Its been like that for the last nine months. Cant be bothered to reinstall as its not interfering with the computer in general - but this is what happens.

@Ashraf and Fubar - THANKS! Saved me the hassle of downloading with my slow connection and getting conned by cheats like this. I already have CCleaner. Am downloading Tuneup Utilities 2008 now (already have 2007 which is great).

I have tried many different so called "Reg" Cleaners. Some are downright dangerous and some are just plain useless. As Ashraf rightly pointed out, the better ones are - Glary Utilities, CCleaner, or Advanced SystemCare Free.
I have been using CC Cleaner for years.. Always does its job flawless and worry free. I am not about to be another guinea pig for such an important part of my Operating System Function.
Thanks GAOTD, but i am going to have to pass on this one.

This is more than simply "scareware", it's dangerously bad!! The author (I'll assume there's only one such fool) purports to have the expertise required to analyze and "repair" certain complex areas of the Registry, yet seems unaware (for example) of the existence and meaning of REG_EXPAND_SZ entries (entries containing expandable environment variable references): the programming "masterpiece" that is RegTidy therefore wants to delete entries that refer to (so it claims) "non-existent files" (e.g. "C:\Windows\WICCodecs\{A6D092A4-081A-4F0E-9356-DA167E87D922}\Raw Formats\Hasselblad\%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%\HasselbladCodec.dll") when in fact the file does exist when you correctly take into account that "%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%", on my machine, must be interpreted as "AMD64".

After RegTidy found several hundred such horrifying "errors" in my Registry and clamored to "fix" them URGENTLY, I immediately uninstalled this monstrosity. I can only imagine the damage it would have caused to the stability and functionality of my system had I been uninformed enough to let it go ahead with the repairs.

Scary to think that I even ran this thing: what if the two-stage "analyze THEN repair" had instead been a one-stage "analyze AND repair"? I guess I would have come crying here that I expected GiveawayOfTheDay to be a little more careful about whom it got in bed with! ... which I guess is what I'm doing anyway.

Pass on this one, folks, for your own sake!

JB

Oh god.

I used this on my crappy spare PC (Win XP, ~4 years old) and now it won't boot into Windows.

Fortunately, that is what that PC is designed for and I was able to fix it, but CCleaner is a FAR more sensible solution.

Would not try again.

Well as I type right now, I'm giving RegTidy a try, since I install and uninstall software on a daily basis, by the way...Fubar, I wouldn't call it "unnecessary" but yes...it is dangerous for the novice user who knows nothing about registry. I wouldn't consider myself an expert either but I do know that is a vital part of software operations...hey, that's where your registration\serial key for some software goes in the first place, so...you see what I mean by vital?

I love TuneUp Utilities, CCleaner, MV RegCleaner, WiseRegistry; believe me I have a lot of this type of software because, like I said before, I install and uninstall software on a daily basis...now I imagine, what my computer would be like if all I did was uninstall software and leave the residues behind...my registry would be 1GB in size!!! (Okay, I exaggerated there...but it could happen) So trust me...it is not "Unnecessary".

Agreed, this kind of software should be considered as HANDLE WITH CARE. How about the free CMODO Security Center? This is portable and free.

Good morning everyone, a word of advice to all - please be very careful about using any registry cleaner, as there are inherent risks in doing so. I, myself, am not downloading today's registry cleaner program for the following reason:

In general, industry editors and professionals recommend that computer users be very careful about cleaning and/or otherwise editing their computer registries, as doing so may mess up the registries and, thus, the computer's overall capability to function, etc. Below is an article from About.com, recommending users not to fool around at all with their registries - but, if a user must edit his or her registry, the article also describes how a user should go about doing it safely.

About.com Article Advising Users On How To Proceed Cautiously With Making Computer Registry Edits, If Necessary.

In addition, for everyone's benefit, I am providing a link to another About.com article, that provides a list of 100% free recommended registry cleaners, with the first one being the best, etc., according to the About.com Technical Editor/Author.

100% freeware options:

List of 11 Recommended Registry Cleaner Freeware Programs Per Advice of About.com Technical Editor

I hope the above links/articles help you make an informed decision about this topic, and what registry cleaner (if any) best suits your individual needs.

Best,
Happy

Once again I find myself facing a double-edged sword here. Registry software means more work for my company as a lot of customers download it (often spurred on by the enthusiastic claims of a 'cure-all' from the software manufacturer), run the programme and their computer crashes soon afterwards. For us it means more business (thank you very much) but for the customer it can lead to data loss and expense. So whilst I cannnot advocate the use of 'Registry Fixers', they do provide a steady income for my company!

My advice? Don't use them unless you are positively, absolutely sure your Registry is damaged and you know what you are doing! Oh, and do a complete back-up of your system before even attempting to run a programme like this.

Malwarebytes classifies this software as "Rogue"

A rogue program is a malicious program that is disguised, for instance, as trustworthy anti-spyware programs or registry cleaners. But these programs are only put on the market to scare you into buying these programs because they make exaggerated claims about the safety of your computer or, worse still, give erroneous scan results or put their own malware in your system.

Thanks Ashraf and Fubar. That's very helpful.

This seems to be crap software. Why pay 30$ for this when so many free utilities like Advanced system care, glary utilities, are already available.

Don't Use...will cripple system!!
Read Ashraf short review

Google is showing many pages this is not good software.
(Might have been changed since the bad reports)

http://www.threatexpert.com/report.aspx?md5=7fe660be6bfefc16514fd96846b12db6

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/malware/Adware.Win32.RegTidy-remove.aspx

I'll give it a miss as I have other reg software

As I've always stated, these types of utilities are unnecessary and dangerous. TrendProtect lists their anonymous website as dangerous. Notice in the third screenshot, near the bottom, it says "Registry Convoy is now taking a backup", not RegTidy.

RegTidy is a questionable program; it is a "rogue scanner". In other words, it is one of those programs that advertises "download me and scan your computer to find problems". When a user downloads and scans their computer, RegTidy scans show misleading/excessive results. Then when a user wants to fix the "errors" RegTidy found, RegTidy tells the user to purchase a license in order to remove all the "errors". Now of course today from GOTD we are getting a full version license, so we will be able to remove the "errors" RegTidy finds. However, I see no reason why anyone should have to put up with a developer who adds to the scareware problem.

Detailed evidence can be found at:

WOT Page for RegTidy

A-squared Rating for RegTidy

hpHosts Blog Post on RegTidy

My advice: don't bother with RegTidy. Instead, grab TuneUp Utilities 2008, Glary Utilities, CCleaner, or Advanced SystemCare Free. CCleaner has always been a favorite of mine. Since TuneUp Utilities 2008 is an "old outdated" version, people running Windows 7 may want to avoid it, although I don't see it causing much problems.