Windows XP Registry Cleaners Reviewed

Introduction

The Windows XP (Both Home and Professional versions) Registry controls thousands of settings—a few for Windows itself, some for application programs. Over time, the Registry gets burdened with un-needed or inaccurate entries left behind by incomplete uninstall routines, application program errors, and even misapplied registry hacks. Problems also come up when users transfer or delete files without realizing that dozens of Registry entries aim to the old location.

In this article, we review and rank the best-selling Registry Cleaners for Microsoft Windows XP operating system.

This, by the way, is the only Windows Registry Cleaner Review that you will need. Now we won't kid you: there are many registry cleaner reviews you will find on the Internet. However, none of them will be technically meticulous, unbiased, and comprehensive as ours. As you will see, in the following section, our testing method to evaluate the registry cleaner is second to none. While ranking various products, we have put a lot of emphasis on the ability of the registry cleaner to fix illegal and invalid registry entries. As a result, we have been able to achieve an objective, technically accurate, and unbiased ranking system.

Comparative Analysis of Registry Cleaners for Windows XP

	RegCure	RegSweep	RegistryEasy	Max Registry	Wise Cleaner
Errors Created	8467	8467	8467	8467	8467
Errors Found	8322	8002	7124	6306	6005
Score	98.2/100	94.5/100	84.1/100	74.5/100	70.9/100
FREE Registry Scan
Link to Site	Visit Site	Visit Site	Visit Site	Visit Site	Visit Site
Features
Ease of Use
Effectiveness
Customer Support

Features

Descriptions of Problems
Deep Scan
Scanning Log
Ignore Lists
Backup/ Restore
Startup Manager
Registry Optimizer
Registry Compactor

Detects and Repairs

Application Paths
Shared Program Paths
File Associations
Active X Controls
Add/Remove Programs
Help Files
Font Files
Toolbars
Shared DLL Files
Invalid Shortcuts
Startup Files
Most Recent Files

Operating Systems Supported

Windows Vista
Windows XP
Windows 2000
Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows NT
Mac

Reviews of Top Registry Cleaning Softwares

Rating 98.2/100

Features
Ease of Use
Effectiveness
Customer Support

Simple PC Optimization

RegCure features advanced registry tuning functions that will safely optimize and compress your registry. This will increase your computer's performance, and save you valuable hard drive space.

Editor's Top Choice

1. RegCure

RegCure Registry Cleaner is an easy to use and effective tool for cleaning the Windows Registry. It offers a wide variety of custom scanning options, including a standard and deep scan.

RegCure Registry Cleaner also offers several data protection/backup options including a backup/restore feature for deleted registry items, so that you can roll-back any changes that cause problems on your system, a full registry backup option allows you to save the entire registry not just the changes made from cleaning as well as the ability to create a system restore point if you use Windows XP.

If you have any concerns about changes made to your system or lost data RegCure registry Cleaner offers the most protection of any of the registry cleaners in these tests.

Auto-updates and automated scheduled scans are also available if you wish to optimize your system on a regular basis.

The deep scan option found 8002 registry problems on my test system. Each problem detected has a brief description as well as a severity assessment, so you can identify and fix high-priority problems immediately

RegCure Registry Cleaner offers a Registry Optimizer/Defragmenter. The defragmenter will remove dead items and empty space from the registry, while reordering the registry to maximize access time. This will improve system performance, while reclaiming valuable hard drive space. This feature is is easy to use, fast and efficient, and can often shrink the registry by as much as 10%.

Finally, RegCure Registry Cleaner offers a nice range of support features including Scan Log Analysis which allows you to submit a copy of your registry scan to their support to for analysis if you are concerned about deleting a particular item. This way they can look at you log and make sure everything is ok before deleing anything.

Also included is Live web based help so you can get answers to your questions in real time as opposed to waiting for answers by email.

List of Features

• Deep Scan
• Custom Scan Options
• Complete Registry Backup/Restore
• Registry Optimizer
• Registry Compactor
• Problem Descriptions and Threat Levels
• Email Support
• Application Help File
• System Restore Point
• Live Customer Support

Click Here to Download RegCure Registry Cleaner

(Click here to visit RegCure Registry Cleaner)

Rating 94.5/100

Features
Ease of Use
Effectiveness
Customer Support

2. RegSweep

RegSweep is a robust and thorough registry scanner. It features standard, deep and custom scan options, including ignore lists. RegSweep was able to find and repair a large number of registry problems on our test system, behind only Registry Mechanic and RegCure Registry Cleaner.

This program also features a number of helpful "Managers" to make securing and cleaning your system much easier: The Full Registry Backup Manager is a quick way to ensure that you always have a working version of the registry available. Another useful manager is the System Startup Manager, which allows to browse and remove programs that have been set to start up when Windows boots. The Add/Remove Programs Manager allows you to browse the programs installed on your system and to delete any entries or data that may have been left behind.

RegSweep can also be configured to run at Windows Startup to ensure that the system is checked regularly for errors. Scheduled scans are not available, however, so users that run their PCs continuously will need to remember to run the scan manually.

Auto-updates are also not available, so future versions of RegSweep must be downloaded manually.

RegSweep offers email support as well as a help file within the application. There is no online FAQ or knowledge base available for RegSweep at this time.

List of Features

• Deep Scan
• Custom Scan Options
• Complete Registry Backup/Restore
• Ignore Lists
• Startup Program Manager
• Scanning Log
• Email Support
• Application Help File
• Scan on Startup

Rating 84.1/100

Features
Ease of Use
Effectiveness
Customer Support

3. RegistryEasy

RegistryEasy is an extremely simple and easy to use registry cleaner

Equipped with the standard features of most registry cleaners like custom scanning options, registry optimization, backup/restore capabilities and scheduled scanning options RegistryEasy is a satisfactory registry optimizer.

There is however not much that makes it stand out compared to our top choice RegCure. RegistryEasy lacks registry defragmenting, has only one method of backup compared to 3 different ways with RegCure and does not have some of the more advanced support features like Live Help and scan log analysis.

If you simple want a registry cleaner without all the bell and whistles RegistryEasy will more than meet your needs.

List of Features

• Deep Scan
• Custom Scan Options
• Complete Registry Backup/Restore
• Ignore Lists
• Startup Program Manager
• Application Help File
• Email Support