spitthedog wrote:I use C cleaner for cleaning up files, but dont know enough about registry cleaners to find out what they actually remove, plus they seem to have the words ''snake oil'' written next to them rather too much??
When you install an application normally it populates the registry. When you uninstall an application the uninstallation process sometimes doesn't properly remove what it created during installation, usually because the developers messed up in consistency between the procedure to add something and the later procedure to remove something or because of inconsistency between the version installed and the one uninstalled, but sometimes also because applications are erroneously uninstalled for other reasons. A classical example is hardware drivers. They are often installed and upgraded but rarely removed.
The registry clutters from normal use, just as NTFS partitions fragment over time per Microsoft design. There is seldom any right or wrong behaviour on the user in these cases, but using CCleaner to clean the registry and Windows' own built-in NTFS defragger periodically is generally a good idea. Take backups just in case but I have never seen a registry clean cause any problems. Scan, fix problems then rinse and repeat until the scan reports no problems.
Registry clutter and file fragmentation is pretty much unique to Microsoft operating systems.
Bless