PC Optimisers & registry cleaners should I use them?

Occasionally I am asked about the merits of PC optimiser programs and registry cleaners and whether they are worth buying.  The short answer is No they are a waste of money.  The slightly longer answer is some of them may help but generally not very much, and often you can perform the same job using free tools or tools already built into windows.

Firstly a word on registry cleaners.  The registry is the place in your computer that stores all your settings for the computer. There are thousands of these settings and often inappropriate or incorrect settings may cause your computer to misbehave or even stop working.   However the ability of a registry cleaner to actually fix these errors is highly doubtful and generally unnecessary. If you want to fix any incorrect settings you can simply use the System restore feature in windows to revert your settings to a time when they did work. Windows keeps a record of previous settings and can easily use these settings to restore your computer. In the event that that the settings prevent your computer from starting, windows will perform this step automatically for you and attempt to restore the settings by using the earlier copy of the registry to allow the system to start. If this process doesn’t work it is likely that a number of critical files have been corrupted or your PC has a hardware fault, in which cannot be fixed by changing the registry anyway. Prentending that a registry change will fix many computer problems is like trying to alter the controls in your car to fix a broken engine

Many registry software vendors are using dubious advertising tactics to entice you to buy their software. Type your error into the Google search engine and what comes up, might be RegFix wil cure X (X being what you typed in) pay here only $29.95 special today. Bascially  RegFix may have no chance of fixing problem x, in the mean time you are poorer by $29.95 plus banking costs and the problem still exists.

Some optimisers which also pretend to offer virus scanning are straight out extortion rackets. Firstly they infect your computer via a dodgy website or email and then pop up a fake message saying you have 25,415 errors that can only be fixed by buying PCOptoSoft (or some other fancy name) for a bargain $39.95 on special today. These rogue infections will shut down your existing security software and are difficult to turn off or hide.     They are made to appear like Windows error messages but they are not. The only way to rid yourself of these infections often is to take the system to a PC repair centre who can perform a clean boot, bypassing your operating systems and running a scan that way, or in many instances perming a clean installation.

For any questions about optimisation software  please call (03) 9555 4986 or contact us via the contact page. We offer a free consultation for local businesses.