The only registry software I trust is the built-in Windows defragmenter, and TuneUp Utilities. Both of them are smart enough to tell you when a defragment is really needed, which is basically never on Windows 7. I don't think I've ever defragmented a Windows 7 machine, nor has the automatic maintenance on TuneUp done it for me. If you have Windows 7, you simply don't need any third party defragmenter. I only bought TuneUp because of the amazing price I got it for, and because of the host of useable features it brings together in one place.

I was going to try this because my PC (which is an Acer eMachine) has been getting slower and slower despite still having over 300 GB of the 500 on the hard drive and 2 Gs of memory. I will admit, tho, that I do a lot of downloading and deleting files I download, including softwares from here and see that this can be an issue for my PC. I've had this one for about 2 years and when I first got it, it was lightening fast. But, honestly, I'm a mac gal (been on them since 1988, my first computer ever) and only have had a PC, outside of work, since I got this one. Thanks to everyone that took the time to break down why registry cleaners aren't a good idea. Since I admit I don't know what I'd be doing, I will steer clear of this and programs like it. I may just have to do a fresh OS install. I hope that won't mess up the programs I got thru GOTD. :(

The only registry programs I trust are ERUNT for Registry backup and restore and NTREGOPT Registry Optimizer. (http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/)
I have used both of them for years and never had a problem.

As always if one does not how, stay away!. Using reg cleaners for 10yrs plus and never had any problem, make sure you read and understand the manual, and NEVER experiment with live registry!

Microsoft doesn't recommend registrycleaners (includin CC Cleaner) - they do more harm than good !

If You don't know how to manually clean up the registry then don't clean it up at all !

I know all about the dangers of messing with the registry. I decided to install this anyway and have a look.

I did a scan and it found 3621 errors. I had a look, closed it, and came back later. Started scanning and there are 400 errors and rising. There are two buttons visible "fix errors" and "cancel scan". So I think to myself "if I hit the cancel button it might allow me to review just these 400 entries. If I do this every so often, I can eventually review all the errors in bite-sized sized tasks". So I hit the cancel button.

Up comes a message "Warning. It will only take few minutes, it is highly recommended to complete the scan. Do you still want to stop the scan?" and there are two buttons "OK" and "Cancel".

This leaves me quite confused. I just asked it to cancel the scan. Now it refers to stop the scan. Is there a difference between cancel and stop? I just asked it to cancel the scan. It requires confirmation. But does "OK" confirm that I still want to cancel the scan, or does "Cancel" confirm that I still want to cancel the scan?

I see the message in front of my eyes "it is highly recommended to complete the scan ..." I see the button "OK". It would be reasonable to think that by clicking "OK" I would be accepting the recommendation in the dialog box - that is to compete the scan.

Does "OK" complete the scan, stop the scan or cancel the scan?
Does "Cancel" cancel the scan, or cancel this dialog and complete the scan?

I have been using PC's for almost 30 years so I use this vast storehouse of experience to guess that clicking "Cancel" will cancel my cancel request and will in fact continue the scan. That is not what I want, so I click "OK" instead of "Cancel" to cancel my scan and indeed the scan is cancelled by clicking "OK". Sadly my short list of 400 errors is taken away. It is all or nothing.

I must rescan and review all 3621 errors. Surely this will take more than few minutes. There is an "Unselect All" so I can still do a few at a time that way.

Registry bloat and slow-down are not a myth, but it would take quite an abnormal usage of the computer for it to happen, for example installing and uninstalling every GOTD product every day for a year or two. The last time I uninstalled, for example, an Adobe product I counted more than 10,000 deletes in the registry(!), which is really abusing it.

The reason the registry slows down, is not principally because of left-over orphan entries, although it doesn't hurt to get rid of them using a registry cleaner. The main reason for slow-down is the fact that deleted entries are only flagged as deleted and are left in the registry database file. These deleted entries will slow-down all registry accesses. BUT keep in mind that accessing the registry is done by Windows for many operations, for example launching a program, but is not that important once the program is launched (except maybe for regedit).

When there are many such deleted entries, we say that the registry is fragmented. A defragmenter will in this case recover that space and reduce the size of the registry. In effect, defragmenting the registry is much more useful than cleaning it.

If one is in the habit of installing and uninstalling many products, using a product such as Sandboxie will prevent registry updates when the product is installed in a sandbox. This is because Sandboxie will do all registry updates in its own shadow registry and not inside the Windows registry. Emptying the sandbox can get totally rid of the installed product, without any deletes done in the real registry.

I have used a few cleaners CCleaner, Glary Utilities, Revo Junk File Cleaner, Reg Vac, System Ninja.
The first three are the ones I use most regularly.
I do a sfc /scannow and scan with MalwareBytes weekly and run CCleaner daily
My laptop is from 2004 and still runs Vista fast with no problems

Programs and services starting at startup are often a problem. There are a lot of programs to deal with this. The best and more complete off all is in my opinion "anvir task manager". Winpatrol is also very good. A very interesting one, by outertech (free for the lite edition) is "started" with advices on safe programs & services and on malware, direct look on internet about entries, info and location on entries, backup and restore entries etc http://www.outertech.com/en/change-startup

I have used CCleaner Pro and WinUtilities Pro for many years and never had a problem. It is the only 2 programs out of many that didn't give me problems. ScanMyReg is part of WinUtilities Pro.

We do need to be careful with registry cleaners, as a problem with one can crash a computer. I disagree with any blanket statements about them, however. There is no 100% anything in the world, and no 0% anything either. One that I still trust, after many years of experience, is JV17.

If I am going to try this one, I would set up a virtual partition, run it, and save off the registry, then compare it with the results of products that I tryst.

The best one for me is Registry First Aid 10, paid version, (works similar with a log forgotten Norton Registry cleaner in the windows 3.1-XP era) sometime find as free "Giveaways ..".
And the registry accumulates a lot of junk not needed for the OS to run,,, In my humble opinion they do work, the paid once.

I will not try this. Have used Glary Utilties for years and saw it help on many computers

Besides CCleaner I have found jv16 soft to be of gentle and fairly trusting registry cleaning if used in the safe mode. Their other tools are worth considering to use as well.

Be VERY VERY CAREFUL using software like this.

Quick warning note and reality check.
If you're looking at software like this, and don't know what regedit is, you don't know enough to be looking at software like this.

Can it work?
Sometimes, in selected cases there are reasons for compressing the registry (out of control bloat) or if your developing and or testing like I do there are some uses.
For everyone else...

Day one after using a tool like no bloat or PC crap be gone, or CAREFULLY after removing or updating codec packages. After changing video cards or updating video care and sound card software.

Does it speed up your computer. Uh, no. If you're using a 486 and a booster chip on an XT hard drive that spins at 1200 rpm... maybe. in reality unless you have a dependency issue there's no reason to get into the registry! PERIOD. EVER.

I use ccleaner for registry but i will like to assume that YL Computing produces excellent software.

Some of us in email marketing know that their YL Mail Verifier and YL Mail Man are among the best in the market so far. Very fast, better results and very good user interface.

did a scan of my registry using both scanmyreg and ccleaner .ccleaner found only 30 errors while scanmyreg found 1868 errors!why such a huge difference in results between the two?

DONT CLEAN REGISTRY. You can "fine tune" it with a good free product like CCleaner. Unless you really know what you're doing it is a good rule of "thumb" not to touch your registry. $39 for something you can find FREE is ridiculous.

Note that all these GIVEAWAY softwares require a lot of uninstalls. Thus, a good cleaner is recommended.

Don't listen to whiners who claim registry software is the root of all evil (don't they tell us this about everything?). The problem is NOT the software, THE PROBLEM IS THE USER, who never bothers thinking about what he's doing or the possible implications. Too many users are simply ignorant and never willing to learn a thing or two about their PCs or how things work, so they check every possible option just to make sure they get the most out of the app and never even look into exception rules. Also often run several cleaners from different vendors in a row, as if hoping to find Eldorado or something. No wonder that with such an approach problems start to pile up. So, hopefully, you're not a mindless clicker but a conscious user.

That said, this one is a solid app. Quick, unobtrusive, flexible, yet simple. Registry cleaning is not at all as aggressive as many fear. In fact, it's just right. You can chose the categories you want to scan in the settings and you're shown a list of found items with detailed error description for each, where you can decide whether to fix something or skip. You can choose to create a system restore point before the software performs any operations. Defragmentation with full registry backup and restore are also present and are working fine along with the ability to maintain scheduled jobs. So, well done. I would suggest, however, that after defragmentation and system reboot, the software would place old registry files (.regbk and .regan) in the system temp folder, rather than keeping them permanently in their respective folders. Also, think about those who work with big screens and large resolution: make the interface scalable and make sure everything's clearly visible for them.

Thanks for the giveaway.

@ Goo,

I have the liscense of Vit Registry Fix . Thank You

About the last time I encountered a genuine problem caused by a corrupted registry was back in 1997 and those then revolutionary days of Microsoft's stunning new Windows 95. The registry had been a feeble little collection of basic settings inside Windows 3.1; crucially, it did not contain any data which installed programs might call upon because each program came with its own initialization file. The result was inevitable: .ini files scattered everywhere like confetti. Win95 changed all that. The registry was transformed into a scientifically-elegant repository of OS settings and initialization files.

That was then. This is now -- now, when Windows has matured to the level of Win7 (I won't say Win8) and PCs are exponentially more powerful with exponentially greater memory reserves. Win 3.1 to Win95 was a revolution; pretty much everything since has been evolutionary, a change here, an improvement there. But almost throughout that time, one thing has been fixed in hyperbolic aspic: the claims of so-called "registry cleaners" and "registry optimizers" to "fix". . . everything.

Even at a cursory glance, it's clear that the language is and always has been pure hype: to fix something means to mend it, either by re-configuring it with existing components or, more likely, by identifying and removing a faulty component and replacing it with one in full working order. Yet not a single "registry cleaner" has ever, ever, done that. Because they don't. . . Fix. They merely. . . Delete.

Trying to get that truth across to novice computer users (and even some experienced ones) has never been easy. Seduced by promises of "fixing" slow running PCs or, even more preposterously, "registry bloat", millions of computer users have indulged themselves in the feeling of their own empowerment: of being able to actually "fix" their own computers by simply pressing a button. Wow: look what I did. Fixed it all myself!

The exercise of control is, of course, fundamental to human need; no-one likes to feel helpless, and especially not when confronted by hi-tech. Purveyors of "registry cleaners" are as alert to that fact as were purveyors of snake oil 150 years ago or sellers of instant weight loss diet pills today. All of them have in common a unifying desire: to capitalize on the gullibility of others.

I have seen countless computers seriously damaged by "registry cleaners" and "registry optimizers". I have written on these threads before about how the registry is actually a shedfull of dynamite into which walking with a lighted candle ain't A Good Idea. But still people do that, walk in, mess around, drop the candle, and walk out again. And think all is well, thank you, because there's been no instant conflagration. Fact is, there very often isn't. Registry damage doesn't become immediately apparent. It depends how long the candle has to burn.

But burn it will until one day, sooner or later, an app with a dependency on a deleted ("fixed") registry file will not only cease to function but may trigger a whole sequence of dependency-related failures: literally, an explosion of faults. At which point -- or so has been the case in my experience -- the owner of the computer goes to System Restore because hey, that solves everything, right? Only to find that it has failed, too, it being the case that depending on System Restore to save your ass is like depending on that lottery ticket in your hand to win next weekend's jackpot.

I won't be the only GOTDer here who is surprised to find that the kind of giveaway on offer today is still being sold. I won't be the only GOTDer, either, who laments the fact that in 2014 computer users are still being blind-sided with "cures" for problems that may once have arisen two decades ago, but do not arise now.

And the reason they don't -- or shouldn't -- arise now is that where once a so-called "registry cleaner" seemed like the only tool in a computer user's armory, nowadays there's an entire encyclopedia of self-help available in the form of the following:

1) Slow running computer? Run Malwarebytes Free to check for infection;

2) Still slow running? Use your OS's System File Checker to truly "fix" a problem;

3) Still slow running? Get any of the free Task Managers to see which services are running in the background unbeknownst to you -- you'd be surprised how many there are;

4) Slow starting? Install WinPatrol Free -- it's Startup Manager is the best around;

5) Worried about installing apps and programs of uncertain provenance? Sandboxie 'em or use other protective software like Shadow Defender and Toolwiz Timefreeze;

6) Worried about the "junk" which you've been told "bloats your computer's registry" after a program uninstallation? Don't just depend on the program's own uninstaller then: use Revo Free or, if you've a x64 system, use Geek, because Revo Free doesn't handle x64 that well;

7) And finally . . . The Internet was a mewling infant when Win95 was launched. It isn't now. Search engines exist in abundance -- every one of the apps mentioned above can be found by using Startpage and answers to just about every "problem" of the kind addressed by "registry cleaners" exist in the plethora of online help forums.

But of course: you're still free to "clean and optimize" your computer's registry. So-oo. . . Here's the lighted candle. There's the shed. Now, off you go . . .

Happy with the free alternatives: CCleaner and ACleaner v4.1. A new unique original feature will need to be added to this kind of soft for me to be interested in testing a trial before purchase. Good commercial types of registry cleaners are Auslogics & Wise365. Stay far away from the coders at IObit. Here's a freebie example idea for you: Make an option whereby sys admins can clean, privatize, & optimize every workstation within their network/intranet while running as a background service from the main? Also, create your private cloud database of all the registry files that exist on the planet and allow a feature to update/upgrade/modify by the IT dept. Charge a business license monthly maintenance fee but keep the price reasonably low until your intellectual properties are viewed as necessary to stable net ops. Brainstorm a few original ideas with your marketing dept and your programmers to hatch new niche areas of profitability in old ideas; old ideas that even lead to completely new. Oh yeah, make sure they're getting a small residual for the portion the individual or team contributed towards. If you don't pay your employees and contractors then they will not contribute. 'jus sayin'

Hi, Registry Cleaners (fixers), provided nothing (I mean nothing!) is pressed to let them do their job automatically (by that I also mean making sure they DON'T run on Windows startup, just in case someone forgot their instructions) - can generally be an interesting 'Literature' to study a little what 'orphans' might still be lurking in Registry. That in turn can lead a person to look into their Uninstallers to check specific Programs thought to be uninstalled in the past, checking Program Files for any 'half-empty' Folders, a.s.o. All of it - very much detective job rightly, or not - indicated by a Registry Cleanner when time for maintenance approaches, or.. one has tones of time on their hands:) to follow this tedious procedure. Good Software Uninstallers, used v. carefully and wisely can usually take care of Registry not being clogged up, they too scan Registry for traces of specific entries.

I suspect there will be a lot of similar advice today calling for great caution HOW to use (if one really must) today's ScanMyReg, so not to get into a serious trouble! I would say - none of them are as safe (or effective) as they claim, and probably for those who understand a thing or two about complicated nature of Registry? Allowing automatically clean it is really like going on holidays while trusting a total stranger who promises to tidy your home in a meantime.. Thanks for this Offer, but I'll pass.

Woah! To all the naysayers who predict doom and gloom after running a registry cleaner, let me offer a counter opinion! I'm a PC tech with over 15 years experience and run a small business. What registry cleaners do is look for orphan entries in the registry, which are often left after software has been uninstalled, or a file has been moved from one location to another. A clean computer is usually an efficient computer (this applies to temp and junk files as well). I've experienced software starting faster after a registry cleaning. But there's a much more important reason to use a registry cleaner! Malware often leaves behind registry entries even after the malware has been cleaned by software (like Malwarebytes). These rogue entries can continue to negatively affect your system even though you thought the malware had been removed! That's why it's important to run a registry cleaner after running anti-malware software. In the 15 years I've been using registry cleaners I've never had an issue with my, or a client's, computer. You're much more likely to screw up your computer by trying to edit the registry manually than by running a registry cleaner.

Today, I think I will join this chat-room. Or, should I say,"Welcome to the Monkey House"
Some time back my 4gb, quad core AMD with 4gb ram running Windows 7-64 bit was running slow. I checked with with WinUtilities registry defrag and it was 80% fragmented. I ran registry cleaner's and defragged the registry. Voila - a faster computer.
It does work.
If you don't have a program like this, try it! Always back-up the registry and remember System Restore, just in case (IObit products mentioned below).
Stay away from all IObit products (they tend to cause problem's)except their Uninstaller, it has a forced un-install, it works. If it does offer any 3rd party programs, just say 'No.'
I have been owning and using computer's for 20 years. Anyone want to talk about Windows 3.1?
'Nuff said.

It is well known that Windows after 1-2 years of use runs slowly and slowly and if Microsoft does not give a solution of the problem, it is may be very complicate. For almost 15 year I have not find program which can speedup old windows if you have tested many and many program on it!

What good is an application that CLAIMS to FIX ERRORS in giveawayoftheday.com and doesn't offer anything more than a mere SCAN???

This app is USELESS!

If you really, really, really think a 'clean' registry will improve performance in some way don't play Russian Roulette with a cure-all program like this. Use an uninstall program that seeks and removes leftover files & folders and registry entries when you remove a program from your Windows system. Something like Revo Uninstaller http://www.revouninstaller.com/

Microsoft's answer to Are registry cleaners necessary? Read this

I always think twice or thrice before downloading any Registry Cleaner, because I had a really bad experience with Registry cleaning wizard. So this time I’m waiting for users reviews and after reading @Karl one, I think I should stay away from this free giveaway.

I use System Mechanic and it scans my registry on a regular basis. It's been going for almost two years now with no problems. I install many programs and give Windows a hard time.

Installed and registered without problems, under status there are three light blue buttons with white text, designed to be unreadable for old eyes.

As well as cleaning up the registry it also claims to defragment it; it is my understanding that the registry is loaded into memory on start-up, if correct it is pointless to defragment it.

Before testing I used Wise Registry Cleaner’s safe to remove option to clear up some of the registry, used it for years with never the slightest problem and at times it does improve performance.
Ran Auslogics Registry Cleaner to see how many errors it found, in total 36, Auslogics tend to make very solid programs, tend to trust them.

Now to test today's download, it found approximately 750 registry errors, leading me to believe it is a very aggressive registry cleaner, great when they work, disastrous when they fail.
If you're going to use a registry cleaner of this type in need to examine the items carefully, you can do it in this program by clicking on the item.
This opens a small window for insufficient time to actually read it.
As the main window cannot be resized it is difficult to read information regarding the registry error, a rather thoughtless approach.

Really aggressive registry cleaners have proved useful in the past, when an OS was on its last legs and so slow as to be unusable, a kill or cure option.

Frankly I didn't feel too confident with today's program. I didn't feel enough thought has been given to the interface so it made me wonder about the amount of thought giving to its cleaning function, so I'll pass!

I use portable freeware Wise Registry Cleaner.
Safe and never crashed my PC.
Not overly aggressive.

I tried CCleaner registry cleaner and it was too aggressive, leading to problems are it cleaned registry.

For today's ScanMyReg, I will wait to read the outcome from other users who have used it to clean their PC registry.

All time record for most aggressive registry cleaner I have used was from Software4U givingthe following registry scan results on 12-Aug-2012:
ActiveX. OLE etc 407 Errors
Software 49,590 Errors
Process entries 539 Errors
File types 874 Errors

Installing software installs a plethora of registry keys (especially through file associations and right-click menu options) but when you uninstall an application, not all registry keys are removed. Some software can get 'confused' if the OS believes an application handles a certain event, but that application no longer exists.
Well, thats the history lesson over with. Onto the software.
You can either be ruthless and remove all obsolete / incorrect registry keys, or err on the side of caution. Sometimes, removing an 'obsolete' key can cause further issues - unexplained crashes, where the OS can't handle the now-missing registry key.
Removing redundant / obsolete keys won't magically speed up your machine. The biggest bottleneck in a PC is either lack of memory (Windows 8 can't run smoothly on 1 GB of RAM) or a slow hard drive (some PCs still use IDE disks). Removing dud keys from the registry and expecting a speed increase is like emptying the ash-tray in your car and hoping you get extra miles-per-gallon performance.

CCleaner has already been mentioned, and for good reason - a lot of work has gone into making sure it only removed the crap (thus its name) and that it does it reliably. Stick with the well-recommended software.

I have used
WinUtilities PRO by this developer ( YL Computing ) and It consists of some really useful tools. But I never tried it's Registry Cleaner Tool and so is ScanMyReg.

After using (or trying ) few Registry Cleaners by different Developers I can only rely on
Vit Registry Fix and
CCleaner. I have found these two program's nice and healthy co-ordination which ensures the safety of the two programs. I've been using these two programs simultaneously for more than 3 years and They never let me down.
Vit Registry Fix has Professional and FREE Edition ( like Ccleaner ) but Good thing is it's Pro version is a Shareware. No limtitation to it's functionality.
I'll strongly recommend Vit Registry Fix .

ccleaner I do not like. I use the AthTecRegistryCleaner, - also giveaway -, and I will have no other!

I too would advise caution when using this type of program. You can run it and everything could seem fine. Until one day you find some of your programs are either no longer registered or won't run. I can suggest if you do decide to run any registry related program, make up a schedule and stick to it. It is much easier to look over a few dozen "errors" rather than waiting for them to build to the thousands.

Installed and registered without problems on a Win 8.1.3 Pro 64 bit system.

A Chinese company (digitally signed SuiNing Yilong Software Store) with an US address. We had had a previous version 2.0 on March 28th, 2012.
Here are the old reviews:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/scanmyreg20/

A big claim : ScanMyReg is the fastest and most effective registry optimization utility in the market.
I have to admit, that it doesn't interest me, if a registry scanner needs 45 seconds or 1:50 minutes.

A fancy not resizable interface opens. In the setting you can change language from Estonian, Farsi to Vietnamese, you can select the regions to scan, which does only make sense for those, who know, what this means, there is an editable exclusion list with ten entries, showing some "recent file list", which should not be "cleaned" automatically - and the needed option to create a restore point... The exclusion list starts the regedit process in a new window for the experienced user.

Let's see what happens. I run this on a newly installed system (last week) with a "clean" registry. Of course under a virtual environment.

The non resizable window makes it difficult to read all the information. Hmmm, a second run without "cleaning" finds 85 "errors". Most of the errors are MRU lists, which will be rewritten anyhow the next time the program starts. You can select which entries to delete, after deleting all 85 entries a new scan shows again 12 "errors". Some of the lists will be built up automatically...

The best is the registry backup. This is done easily, you can select which old backups shall be deleted automatically. I did not test the restore, because this would not work in my case (reboot...)

The software does, what a registry cleaner does, not more and not less. Has some extra features, not needed by most of us. If you want a scanner, defragmenter (read about that feature...), a registry backup and restore, you can keep this. Whether this is the fastest and most effective?

It makes no sense to replace an existing version - I cannot say, if I have saved 10 seconds or found 12 keys more. This is useless like snake oil.

Uninstalled via reboot.

This software is for anyone that actually believes that registry cleaners work. From what I know, and through reading various articles on the net, they do more harm than any good. Here is an excellent article on the subject: http://www.howtogeek.com/171633/why-using-a-registry-cleaner-wont-speed-up-your-pc-or-fix-crashes/

I haven't voted because I'd base my vote on what the program does, rather than the program itself and I haven't tested it(nor will test it).

If anyone uses a time machine program like TimeFreeze or the like, can test the software to see if it actually does any good.

If you want to grab ScanMyReg and give it a go, be my guest. I, however, stay away from software that claim to boost performance by cleaning or defragging the registry and unless you have a really messed up computer (maybe you have an old computer on which you install/uninstall lots of program and have a bloated registry as a result), I’d suggest you do the same. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Recomend Some Great System Tools:
CCleaner @ http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Advanced SystemCare Free @ http://www.iobit.com/advancedsystemcareper.php

I'm giving this a thumbs down simply because of the nature of the application. There's no such thing as an idiot-proof registry cleaner/defragger, and doing so doesn't noticeably enhance your OS. If you feel that you MUST play Russian Roulette with your OS, you could use the free CCleaner, which includes a registry cleaner, and also asks if you want to back up the existing registry before cleaning. $40 for ScanMyReg is a little over the top, but since it's free today... nope, still isn't a good deal.