I want the respected reviewer, contributing editor, etc., to be complete and responsible in his review when millions of people log onto his site for advice and recommendations. His review was a carefully crafted, throw away mention of a product that can screw up your PC. If he didn't take a kickback for it then he was just meeting his monthly obligations to PC World so he could get his paycheck that week.

If you're going to take the time to review something like a registry cleaner, explain what it is in detail for the folks that don't even know they CAN clean their registry or need to or whatever. It's not the software I have an issue with. It's the way it's promoted. He doesn't even say it's the best...or good...it does a NEAT job. Greg Brady was neat. Disposable Bic's were neat. The little Santa hat you can buy for your Corgy is neat. I would hardly call that a ringing endorsement. It's because his name is on it that makes it an endorsement.

When you go to their website it says

"Wise Registry Cleaner v6.21-Best Free Registry Cleaner

This freebie does a neat job of cleaning out the Registry junk. It scans the Registry, flagging orphaned or bad Registry entries, and shows you the name and values for each.

Highly Reviewed by PC World Editor preston Gralla."

Highly reviewed? Wake up and smell the propaganda.

One poster here asked what do registry cleaners do other than clean obviously, Well it depends on the softwares capabilities, if the software is able to re-organize things it allows programs to load faster kind of like defragmenting a hard disk it re-indexes everything.

Thanks RedneckDude, roflmfaoo, and DrJBHL. I used this program, and although I can't say it has made a big difference, it didn't cause any problems either. It did clear my 'most recently used' list though, but I only noticed by coincidence as I hardly ever use it.

StevenAus, you're absolutely correct in that... it's something I forgot about, and it's an important thing to remember.

For light duty, I use CCleaner and for most users, it is sufficient. For anything beyond that, I've been using Advanced System Care for a couple of years now. The free version does a fair job, but the Pro version has a deep scan that will find more. Neither of these has ever caused an issue with my rig.

There are inherent risks in using any program that can/will modify or delete registry keys, including my favorite un-install tool, Revo. If you are not prepared to deal with the possible consequences of using (or mis-using) a registry cleaner.... Do Not Use One.

Here is a link to an In Depth Review of 31 of The Most Popular Registry Cleaning Products. It's done by MACECRAFT which makes jv16Powertools (another registry cleaner). That aside, it seems pretty fair in it's overall assessments. It does include Wise and CCleaner (which both were given the same overall rating/score). Along with the fact that that the survey was done by a company that makes their own cleaner, I believe this was done in 2009 .

Here is the link to their 2010 study which goes in to much more detail on how they conducted the test and this one covers 176 registry cleaners. In the 2010 test, Wise and CCleaner didn't even make their top 25.Also, the companies own product (which got the highest score in both studies) had it's own score cut almost in half on the second study.

To be clear, they are not scoring or rating them.

This comparison study is not a software review, nor is the goal to make a subjective evaluation regarding which of the products is the "best". Our sole objective has been to scientifically test the products, list the results and let the readers draw their own conclusions.

However, if one wants to somehow quantify or summarize the results of this study by scoring one point from each green line in which a product appears, and deducting one point for each red line in which a product appears, the results would be as follows:

One of the things I did find interesting was how many of these programs "leave stuff behind" when uninstalled. Another thing to note in the second study is that 33 out of the 176 apps studied gave false positives, the highest being 376.  You may want to compare whatever cleaner you use to some of this info and then search further.

I would love to see something this in depth done by an independent source.

CC Cleaner for it is tried and true have had it for years with no problems. It sounds as if some are pushing a program, and I am a subscriber t0o PC World and still will keep CC Cleaner

I believe that's because Wise Registry Cleaner does a more thorough job, copperhill.

Depends on the ears of "some".... or was that "one"?

aLL OF THESE APPS,  CC cleaner included. need an undo button. I guess if you have a small computer with no meat and potatoes{cpu and ram} you may require help in your computers performance, but if you have systems like some of the ones I have seen discussed here at wc,{dual core, quad core, 16gig ram, etc.} why would you need more speed. I doubt it would be noticed unless your os was already in poor shape.

I have had issues with cc cleaner as well as others. I do not feel it is worth the little extra umph you may get from running these apps.I for one will stick to reinstalling my os when my computer gets freaky.

I would add, I run my system ,for many years now with no antvirus, and to date ,I do not remember ever getting a corrupt registry from a virus or misplaced value, so careful interaction between you and the web can help cut the need for such things. Must be most people just install whatever , whenever, at the approval of the seller. This is called. believing what you hear, and can be bad for your pc,and your health, very stressful.

As the disclaimer goes,, IMHO!

PS. Words of wisdom said earlier, IF IT AINT BROKE! {Backups or disc images are great if you do them every day, otherwise you still could lose important data and work. They have also been known to miss a few drivers and such for the backup, leaving you without internet , and no easy way to replace updates and drivers and such.

Take ownership of your pc, you can control what happens for the most part, what gets in or out. I would not hire a stranger to clean my house, why use a stranger on my pc.  Thanks for listening. DT1

Well.....eleven months and eleven days ain't too bad. Was it 7 am or 7 pm. 7-11.......there's one of them right down the street.

Actually Uvah, it was like four am. Still sad though. We just got 7-11 back in my area. Left years ago.Now, they suck.

Hey! I resemble that!  .

Seriously, I've answered old posts too, without looking at the dates... so many of us have.

To the meat of the matter: Registry cleaners can be a blessing IFF (if and only if) you know what is being done, and what the proposed deletions relate to and whether or not that will louse up your machine.

MORE: You MUST make a registry backup and put it (as a file) on another machine or remote backup as well as on the machine you're tinkering with before doing any tinkering so you can fix thins. Setting a"restore point" isn't a bad idea either.

Any registry cleaner can wreck your machine. So, Unless you know what you're doing, don't do it!