Solved What's the difference between Registry Cleaning and De-fragmentation?

K

k1ckuhard

Member
Hi Folks,

I'm new to this forum and this is my first post so I apologize for any mistakes beforehand. It is wise to mention here that though I have had my laptop for quite a few years I'm not so familiar with the technical know-how :p

Last night I downloaded this Free Registry Cleaner called Wise Registry Cleaner and after a scan it showed me that I have 524 issues that needed to be fixed. My Toshiba Satellite A100 laptop is pretty old (bought in 2007) and so far it has been running pretty smoothly without much problems (just running a little slow) but now suddenly I was surprised to see so many issues. I researched a little about registry online and found out that cleaning the registry would boost the performance of my system and that I shouldn't be meddling with it unless I have created system restore points and backed up my previous registry. So I proceeded to do so and everything went smoothly.

After the scan, the program asked me to start cleaning the registry which I promptly accepted and it cleaned up my registry and fixed all but 12 issues which it marked as "unsafe". Then I laid my eyes on this other option called Registry De-fragmentation. I'm a little confused as to what does that actually mean. Didn't I just fix all registry related issues? How is De-fragmentation different from cleaning? And the most important question - Should I go ahead and De-fragment my registry now?

System Specs:

Laptop Brand/Model : Toshiba Satellite A100 series
OS: Windows vista Home Premium 32bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5200 @ 1.6GHz
RAM: 2 GB
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite A100
    Motherboard
    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5200 @ 1.6GHz
    Memory
    2 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GE FORCE GO 7600
Registry cleaners generally cause more problems than they solve and should be avoided. A registry cleaner will delete registry entries that it considers unused and will often try to "fix" entries that are considered to be in error. The problem is that it is rarely possible to be 100% certain that a registry entry is unused or in error. So a registry cleaner must make frequent guesses. Most are correct but some are not. And there lies the problem.

Most of the errors found are of little or no consequence. There is little evidence that regular registry cleaning has any beneficial results and much that it does not. The vendors of registry cleaners tell a different story in order to sell their products.

Registry cleaners do have some value when used by an expert to solve a specific problem. But most people who use them have only a vague idea what the registry even is. That is a dangerous combination.

Registry defragmentation is very different. When a registry entry is deleted the space it consumed is not removed from the registry as this could seriously impact performance. The empty space will be used for new registry entries when needed. Registry defragmentation removes all of these holes. There is little evidence that this has beneficial results but is relatively harmless. I never do.
 

My Computer

System One

Welcome
Do not use the cleaners. Just maintain the computer properly. Download and use CCleaner once a week or so. Scan with your anti virus once a week. The most important thing that you can do is download the free Macrium Reflect and make an image of your hard drive once a week. Do this on an external hard drive. If anything happens to your OS, you can always go back to an earlier time and all your stuff will be saved. It helped me more than once.
From our Seven Forums, but the procedure is the same
To maintain your computer

10 Tips on How to Properly Maintain Your Computer
ignore, reg cleaners.

Steps that I did not notice on the guide include:

Running a scan disc before doing a defrag

Using Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes.

Making System Restore points, at least once a week

Makaing a system Image once a month (varies by user)

Not relying on your A/V common sense, should prevail. You know of many sites can cause a problem.

Do not use any reg cleaning or optimizing software.

Download and use Ccleaner about once every two months. Untick any registry entries.
http://www.piriform.com/

Download and use PSI, to to be sure that all of your software is up to date
Free Computer Security - Personal Software Inspector (PSI) - Secunia

If you follow these instructions, you will be trouble free for a long time to come.

Be sure to back up your hard drive about once a month (varies by user) and to keeep system restore points up to date.

Optimize Windows 7

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...er-performance

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/81176-speed-up-performance-vista.html
Last edited by richc46; 18 May 2012 at 04:13 PM..
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
I agree with both. Registry cleaners are more likely to hurt than help and defragging the registry hasn't been proven to help with speed however there are other safer methods that do help with performance. Only experts should attempt to touch the registry because it is so sensitive.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 8.1 Industry Pro x64
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion Elite HPE-250f
    CPU
    Intel i7 860 Quad core 2.8 ghz
    Memory
    8 gb
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 gb ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Alienware 25 AW2521HF
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 &1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    1 TB x2
    Other Info
    https://www.cnet.com/products/hp-pavilion-elite-hpe-250f/
  • Operating System
    Windows 2012 R2 Data center/Linux Mint
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Poweredge T140
    CPU
    i3 9100 3.6GHz, 8M cache, 4C/4T
    Memory
    8GB 2666MT/s DDR4 ECC UDIMM
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    1 TB & 360 GB x2
    Other Info
    https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/productdetailstxn/poweredge-t140?~ck=bt
@LMiller7 : Thank you so much for explaining the difference and dumbing it down for me to understand lol. I went through a lot of articles and pages but by far you have put it into words that's easy for us layman to understand.

@richc46 : That's some pretty useful and exhaustive list of tips. Thanks so much. Well, i took your advice and left it as it is and decided to follow the tips and the instructions.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite A100
    Motherboard
    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5200 @ 1.6GHz
    Memory
    2 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GE FORCE GO 7600
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