Registry Reviver

Hi, Can anyone tell me if Registry Reviver really works and is worth having on the computer? Cheers, Janice

The general consensus among experts is NO registry "optimizer" works as advertised and for sure, any optimizer that costs money is NOT worth it. There is no concrete evidence that running an optimizer will improve performance. However, there is lots of documentation of examples where computers did not work after running such programs.

The advantages of a Registry "cleaner" is a contentious topic too. Understand I am not against the judicious use of a good cleaner (such as the one included in CCleaner). But a cleaner or optimizer should NEVER, as in NEVER EVER be used to "fix" a broken computer, but rather be used on a fairly regular bases (depending on how the computer is used) to "maintain" a working computer.

If you regularly install and uninstall many large programs, regular use of a cleaner can help keep the Registry "tidy" as unfortunately, uninstall programs rarely thoroughly uninstall or clean out all Registry entries. If you rarely uninstall programs, you rarely, if ever, need one of these programs.

Understand Microsoft has teams of top developers/engineers whose goal is to ensure Windows runs at top performance. There is no reason to suspect they don't know what they are doing, or that folks at Registry Reviver or Piriform are smarter than Microsoft's.

Hi digerati and thanks for your speedy reply. You have confirmed what I thought so I will spend no more time on this matter! Cheers, Janice

Were you just wondering, or are you having problems with your computer?

I was helping a friend out with her computer and she had it running and I said what is this & why do you have this installed when you really don't know what it's doing and she replied that it finds lots of mistakes etc etc. Long story short a friend gave it to her for free, he swears by it and I don't so that's why I questioned it & to make sure I knew what I was talking about!! You confirmed I did (I showed her your reply) and she's going to keep it as long as she doesn't have to pay for it. Anyway thanks again for your reply and interest in this. Cheers, Janice

From my experience, if a Registry cleaner does not break the machine the first time you use it, you are probably safe using that same cleaner again. Nevertheless, you should always backup up the Registry before any cleaning.

From my experience, if a Registry cleaner does not break the machine the first time you use it, you are probably safe using that same cleaner again. Nevertheless, you should always backup up the Registry before any cleaning.

>>If you use system restore to backup the registry, then use the Ccleaner registry cleaner and there is an issue, will the restore point created before the cleaner ran, restore the pc as it was?
I know Ccleaner has a registry backup; will they both backup the registry equally well?

Short answer is yes, but System Restore will create a much larger file than CCleaner will do as it is creating a snapshot of your whole system, not just your registry.

To backup just your registry in W7, you would go to Start / run / type in msconfig / highlight Computer and under File heading click on Export tab / and name the file anything you want / choose where to save it, usually Desktop or Documents / click on the save tab. The Reg. copy will be around 130MB in size.

To restore the Reg. copy, just right-click on it and select Merge.

I apologize for not mentioning I am using Win 8 and am all set with system restore -thank you for the rest of the information..

The Reg. files in W8 can be manually backed up exactly the same way as in W7. You can also backup and restore individual Hives or a single Key with the same method. You might like to update your Profile Information in 'My Controls' to show that you use W8

I have the information for backing up. When you want to recover, when you click merge, is that all you have to do or do you have to go to another folder to do something? I am off to edit my profile here and other places I forgot. I was waiting to see if I was going to keep Wi 8 and I am sure now. Thank you. P.S. Although system restore and Tweaking recover more than the Ccleaner does, they seem easier to me.

When you want to recover, when you click merge, is that all you have to do or do you have to go to another folder to do something?

Right-click and click on merge, that's all you have to do.

When you want to recover, when you click merge, is that all you have to do or do you have to go to another folder to do something?

Right-click and click on merge, that's all you have to do.

>.Got it, thanks.

Just a quick word here. If you want to make a Registry backup using Regedit, as described by Lee above, it is important to save the file in the correct format.

If you save it as a .reg file, then when you restore to it, you "Merge" the restore file with the Registry as it now stands, and this will not necessarily overwrite any Registry changes you might have made during the time between you making the backup and restoring to it.

However, if you save the file in .hiv format, then when you restore to it, then it does overwrite any changes you might have made, and your Registry will be restored to exactly as it was when you made the backup.

Thanks for the heads-up Gary. Personally I only ever use ERUNT on XP and W7 and on W8 I use the Tweaking com one as ERUNT doesn't work so well on it (sigh).