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| Originally Posted by colinicky What is it, what does it do ? are they free/any good ? or any good /cheap ones ? |
Your registry is a centralised database which holds 1000s upon 1000s of settings used by Windows and the applications you have installed within it. Over time using the PC will cause various entries in the registry to become obsolete or inaccurate. A registry cleaner attempts to delete, resolve or otherwise correct the inaccuracies. The commercial ones are usually bundled with additional functionality such as, backup, defragmenting the registry files so settings can be looked up faster, searching and replacing values...etc.
A free one which is fairly OK is CCleaner. A commercial one which gets recommended a lot is Registry Mechanic...but I have never felt the need to use it.
Messing with your registry without knowing what you, or the utilities, are doing can seriously harm your Windows. The Registry is not difficult to manipulate, but ignorance is extremely dangerous.
HTH