Whether or not a lay person should use any kind of registry cleaning
software is subject to debate and you will find some people who tell
you not to clean your registry at all. It is true that monkeying
around in your registry can render your computer unoperational at worst.
With this warning up front, i have used registry cleaning tools for
just about as long as I have used a computer that uses a registry.
<g> IN the good old win 9x. days, Mickysoft themselves had a free
registry tool for download. this does not work anymore on versions of
windows newer than 2k, I believe.
As to when to clean your registry, many consider this a part of
regular computer maintenance and how often you clean out your
registry largely depends on how often you change something on your
computer that writes to the registry. Computer maintenance includes
other tasks as well such as defragging (and there are some that tell
you not to defrag a computer either), running your antimalware and
antivirus software, etc.
Your registry is written to each time you install a program, change a
file association, have a program store a setting in the registry,
etc. when you, on the other hand, uninstall a program, often "orphan
keys" are left behind in the registry that are no longer needed but
take up space and have the computer do more work when it scans the
registry for information.Additionally, even when information is
deleted from the registry when uninstalling a program etc, "holes"
are left in the registry similar to when you delete a file from your
hard drive. When you run a registry cleaning tools, it checks the
registry for information that is no longer connected to anything you
have installed or set on the computer. and it takes those parts out
and thus eliminates redundant information the computer goes thru each
time it accesses the registry. Ideally, after you ran your registry
cleaning tool, you should also defrag your registry to align
everything nicely and streamline it by getting rid off empty spaces
in the registry caused by either uninstalling a program, etc. or by
the work of the registry cleaner itself when it deleted unnecessary
information.
If you decide to run a registry cleaner,make sure you create a
restore point beforehand and also back up your registry before
running the cleaner. A good registry cleaner will either
automatically create a backup of your current settings of the
registry befoer changing anything or it will at least offer to do so.
As to which registry cleaner to use, this is largely a matter of
choice that depends on a few of your personal preferences,
resources, etc. it is best to download the program of yourchoice or a
trial version thereof (if you decide to go for a commercial program,
the program should at least offer a trial version so you can check it
out how well it works and how accessible it is. Whether or not you
consider a program accessible or not, also is largely a personal
thing. some people will want or need to be able to cover everything
by tabbing and clicking while others are comfortable using their
screenreaders mouse emulation and screen review cursor. Additionally
you may want to google for reviews of any program you may want to use.
Personally, I am cheap and a fairly proficient computer user. So I go
for free programs and will consider anything that can be used with
the mouse emulation if needed.
a good starter for a registry cleaner is "c-cleaner" (get the "slim"
versionwithout a toolbar. It offers registry cleaning as wel as a
bunch of other cleaning options. I do use c-cleaner but for the most
part and longest time use a program called "abexo registry cleaner".
Googling for "Abexo free registry cleaner" should get you what you
need. Abexo is a very thorough cleaner that works from win 95 up; I
have had no way to test it under anything beyond xp.
As I said, I have used registry cleaning tools for almost as long as
we have had windows computers and never had a problem but once. That
one time was pretty hefty, though, and I would have been in big
trouble if I had not been using a hardware synthesizer at the time. I
had uninstalled some sound related software and when running Abexo
after uninstalling the program, Abexo was a little too thorough and
cleaned out some parts of my soundcard driver that the program in
question must have overwritten (it was one of those that installed a
virtual sound device). After the cleanup and subsequent reboot, my
computer was dead silent and I needed to reinstall my sound
drivers. Using my hardware synth and knowing how to deal with driver
installs and troubleshooting such a problem, it was no big deal for
me. However, someone relying on software speech on a single soundcard
would have been in big trouble and would have needed sighted
assistence to restore the computer.
So while in most cases it is good and appropriate to run a registry
cleaning tool on a regular basis, the answer is not the same always
for everyone.
As for getting an accessible registry cleaner, if you want to use
something other than c-cleaner, any of the blindness related computer
resource sites such as jfwlite.com or Mr. Tekkkie Dave's jaws user
website probably has a couple of registry cleaners in their program
section. this is a good place to start as these are usually
accessible and free and have been used and tested by other blind
computer users. If you are more adventurous, you can just google for
what you want and find programs and try them out or go to a computer
sshareware site like ZDnet and search their database and try out what you find.
hth
Doris
At 08:19 AM 10/6/2011 -0500, you wrote:
To All Listers:
How can I tell if my registry needs to be cleaned and, if so, what
registry cleanup programs are out there that are totally blind
friendly via JAWS 11?
Many thanks.
Jerry
"The great thing about faith is that you don't have to see the light
at the end of the tunnel to know that it is there!"
For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit:
http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit:
http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
