"... to stabilize system, speed up start up ..." and so on.

The software is Uniblue Registry Booster. It comes recommended by the producer of a piece of email software that I like and use daily "Mailwasher". I believe that Mailwasher was recommended by someone here a few years ago.

My question: is it likely that this program will improve the performance, stability etc of my machine?

They offer a free scan, which showed 486 errors, 15 were fixed for free. It is $29.95 to register and continue with the clean up.

I have been having some minor problems: Outlook no longer invokes Word at the email editor unless Word is already running, minor shut downs of programs, etc.

Advice welcomed from those who know this application or its genre ...

Thanks in advance!

I recommend not paying for or using that registry cleaner. You might fix 486minor "problems" but create 3 large ones.

Instead, list out each individual problem you're having and find solutions for each; it's possible that a couple may have the same solution.

IME, it's the individual user the causes 90% of the problems on their computer, usually by: 1) poor browsing habits, 2) disinterest in what downloaded applications are actually installing/doing, 3) failure to run the basic maintenance tools (defrag, chkdsk, temp file cleanup, spyware scans, a/v scans) on a regular basis to keep they're computer running properly, and 4) implementing improper fixes and messing things up even more.

There is no magical tool that will resolve oddities and glitches with your computer.

After every software install/uninstall, I run CCleaner for registry issues. I delete the entries it suggests deleting but keep a pre-delete backup (the program makes this all dead-simple to do) in case an entry needs to be restored (which has never happened).

I also use SpyBot's active protection that notifies me whenever a program wants to add a change to the start up registry entries.

Google confirms my suspicion: malware.

http://www.pcmech.com/article/uniblu...ooster-review/

That is NOT what the article says:

In my experience, those people who are claiming that Registry Booster is malware and will not uninstall are not that computer literate themselves. In our tests, it DOES remove easily and causes no harm to our test computers. There are differing opinions out there on how effective the software is, but I am confident (at this point) that there is nothing dangerous about their free scan. People need to realize that ANY program that affects the Windows registry has the possibility of messing something up. That is why it is SO important to back up your registry before running any scanning software, whether it be Registry Booster or something else.

I also use CCleaner to delete unneeded registry keys.

Another ^ for CCleaner.

Been using all aspects of it for a few years and it's never caused any issues

CCleaner here too. I've used quite a few tools over the years to clean things up and CCleaner has been by far the best.

Yup, I followed the link and found that the guy was actually very impressed. Problem is that he is a self-described performance junkie and even the "tiniest improvement" in performance made him estatic!

I am not addicted to the same thing and $30.00 for the improvements he did report does not appeal to me.

Now CCleaner, at no cost with several very quick positive comments here, that's something I'll look into.

Thanks to all for your comments and advice.

That article doesn't seem like what I read earlier.

I just want to cast my vote for passing on CCleaner. There is no substitute for only installing what you really need. CCleaner is not needed.

I wouldn't put any faith into relying on a registry pre-delete backup, (or a program that makes it dead-simple to do), unless you've actually tested restoring that registry backup in real life.

I've never needed a registry cleaner. Why do people need one? With XP i clean the registry with an annual reformat/ reinstall.

Something a lot of people aren't aware of is that the majority of the problems in the registry are often found in HKey Current User and not HKey Local Machine. So recreating your local profile (or just renaming the ntuser.dat file and copying over the one from Default User), will get you back to a relatively clean slate. Of course, this needs to be done while logged on with a different user account, or in safe mode.

So, @ Teacher49:
- reboot
- log on as a different user (sometimes this doesn't work and you have to do it in safe mode)
- go to c:\documents and settings (c:\users if you're on Vista), open your profile directory
- rename the ntuser.dat file (make sure hidden/system files are visible) to OLDntuser.dat
- copy the ntuser.dat file over from c:\documents and settings\default user
- log back on with your account
- try to duplicate the problems you had

If the problems are fixed, great. You can always retrieve any information from your old registry hive if need be, since it's still there, but it's not likely you'll need to.

If they return, you can just reverse the process (delete the new ntuser.dat file you copied, rename OLDntuser.dat back to ntuser.dat...logged on with a different account or in safe mode of course), log back on, and everything will be like it was before.

This is much cleaner and safer than allowing some 3rd party application hack through your registry.