Which cleaner to believe

[Monty]

A few months ago I purchased Uniblue Speedup My PC to clean and speed up my computer. I ran it yesterday and it "cleaned" my PC. In a thread Ed started about download speeds, he included a link to analyze your speed and it also has a progran to "clean and speed up your PC". I ran the program this morning and it shows 713 errors.

It says it will fix 15 errors for free but I need to buy the program to fix the rest.

I then reran Uniblue and it shows only 4 errors.


Which one should I believe? Is there a better program that I can buy to "fix" everything or do I need several programs to keep my computer running up to speed?

 

[ChrisN]

I wouldn't trust either of them,especially if you have to pay for them. Registry cleaning, if you don't know what you're doing, can cause great problems. Most of these "cleaning" programs i would term "scareware", i.e. they scare you into paying for them by reporting hundreds of "problems" and then making you pay to fix them. The only program I used regularly and trusted was CCleaner, which is free.

 

[Wraith]

All registry cleaners are good for is breaking the system. Of course that is how I met my wife she used a cleaner and I spent 4 hours on the phone with her helping her reinstall her system.

 

[walshjp17]

If you want your PC 'cleaned up' properly, take it to a professional and have them scrub the registry properly. First, it needs to be backed up then the registry needs to be gone over one line at a time to ensure something that you really do need is not bollixed up.

As was stated before, DO NOT trust any of the PC cleaning programs. While they may be legitimate, they do not know what you really do need and what you don't. Only a conversation with someone who knows exactly what they are doing can determine that.


If you value your PC and data, spend the money.


BTW, I am a retired information security specialist with over 26 years experience of dealing with PCs and Macs so I do know what is good for a PC owner ... and cleaning programs are not on that list.

 

[commercialbuilder]

I have used ccleaner for almost 3 years without any problems. It gives you the option to backup the registry before it does any cleaning or fixing. I usually run it once a week and have had great luck with it. The first time you run it can take a half hour or more but after that it usually takes less than 10 minutes if you run it regularly.

 

[Akula]

I have used ccleaner for almost 3 years without any problems. It gives you the option to backup the registry before it does any cleaning or fixing. I usually run it once a week and have had great luck with it. The first time you run it can take a half hour or more but after that it usually takes less than 10 minutes if you run it regularly.

ccleaner does work and the only "cleaner" I ever recommend to my members (system admin)
but keep it to cleaning history and temp internet junk.

I have never found any of these "PC booster" type programs do anything of real value.

 

[sbwertz]

I've had my own computer consulting business for more than 30 years, and I use ccleaner on all my client's machines. It has never caused a problem, and can DRAMATICALLY increase the performance of your system.

Never bite on one of those online "performance checkers." They are all ripoffs.

ccleaner is free and reliable. Be sure to run both the basic cleaner and the registery cleaner. (and their uninstall utility is better than the one inside windows.)


Sharon

I have used ccleaner for almost 3 years without any problems. It gives you the option to backup the registry before it does any cleaning or fixing. I usually run it once a week and have had great luck with it. The first time you run it can take a half hour or more but after that it usually takes less than 10 minutes if you run it regularly.

 

[randyrls]

Never bite on one of those online "performance checkers." They are all ripoffs.

Sharon; Also some of them are little more than malware.

If you value your computer and it's data you need to do regular backups of all the important data on your computer!

I do full snapshot backups of my computer before I run anything that will possibly break my OS. I do a standard snapshot about once a month. Paranoia in a network administrator / security specialist is a job skill!

A snapshot program like Clonezilla can make a full snapshot of your entire machine including the OS, programs, and data onto an external hard drive. If your computer or hard drive should fail, replace the fault and restore the entire system, programs, and data at one fell swoop. No need to reinstall OS and all programs. Note; This only works to restore to the same machine or an identical hardware machine.

 

[tbroye]

I downloaded the one that is advertised so heavily on TV. It told me I had a bazillion probable and issues with my PC it was almost impossible to get rid of almost had to reformat HD and reinstall system. If I remember right I did a system restore to get every back. This thing just took over my computer I couldn't do anything with our a popup saying my system was it critical trouble they wanted something like $69 to fix everything. Never again.

 

[healeydays]

I have been a computer professional for over 30 years and totally agree, don't use these scareware programs (and some of those programs are tougher to get rid of than the virus you are trying to get rid of in the 1st place).

If you're having a major issue, take it to a professional. Even being in the biz for as long as I have been, messing with the registry file can cause major problems and I rarely go in to delete things unless I know I can recover from whatever I do to it.

Mike B

If you want your PC 'cleaned up' properly, take it to a professional and have them scrub the registry properly. First, it needs to be backed up then the registry needs to be gone over one line at a time to ensure something that you really do need is not bollixed up.

As was stated before, DO NOT trust any of the PC cleaning programs. While they may be legitimate, they do not know what you really do need and what you don't. Only a conversation with someone who knows exactly what they are doing can determine that.


If you value your PC and data, spend the money.


BTW, I am a retired information security specialist with over 26 years experience of dealing with PCs and Macs so I do know what is good for a PC owner ... and cleaning programs are not on that list.

 

[Rob73]

Backup => Format => Reinstall windows => Install software for your motherboard & other hardware => Done. You be back in action and fast

 

[walshjp17]

Backup => Format => Reinstall windows => Install software for your motherboard & other hardware => Done. You be back in action and fast

Assuming you have all the disks/CDs/DVDs that came with the PC. And don't forget to install ALL the service packs and patches not covered by the latest service pack release. ==> Not so fast

 

[sbwertz]

Backup => Format => Reinstall windows => Install software for your motherboard & other hardware => Done. You be back in action and fast

Assuming you have all the disks/CDs/DVDs that came with the PC. And don't forget to install ALL the service packs and patches not covered by the latest service pack release. ==> Not so fast

It can take up to six HOURS just to do all the updates if you are running XP. Not so long for Win7.

 

[sbwertz]

Never bite on one of those online "performance checkers." They are all ripoffs.

Sharon; Also some of them are little more than malware.

Most of them ARE malware! Piriform's programs are the only one I use. ccleaner, defraggler, etc.

 

[Rob73]

Yes, the updates may take you time (though a lot of that you don't need to be sitting there) and you would require an OS disk. I agree. However, I think the benefits of knowing how to format your system far outweigh the time spent. You would be waiting far longer if you took your computer into a shop and you would be out a decent amount of hard earned cash. The learning curve is very small and there are plenty of walk through videos out there.