I've Been using Revo Uninstaller Pro.
Has been great for me.

 

Glary Utilities, but it's not really mandatory and with moderately fast computer it's more likely to mess things up instead of improving speeds

 

Yep, a must have for people like me who install and test a lot of stuff.

 

I loved RevoUninstaller, until people pointed out it doesn't remove certain registry keys.

Now I use HiBit Uninstaller, but that one doesn't let me select remnant entries I don't wanna delete...

CCleaner doesn't even bring up remnant folders and reg entries when uninstalling a software.. ??

 

How so ?

 

either you cleanup files or cleanup registry,
(system related) files may be unused but that doesn't mean they may not be needed in the future, or not redownloaded again tomorrow,
same with registry entries and other stuff - just because they seem redundant or useless doesn't mean some specific software won't rely on them

 

I just installed it and ran a full cleanup in the free version yesterday morning.

Hopefully I wont run into any issue. Fingers crossed.

 

Well that is not true Windows registry is windows. only UNIX systems don't have a registry.
I am a network engineer for over 40 years. The Registry is how you use Group Policy to lock down windows along with other things . So I don't know where you got Windows registry is legacy. Windows could not run with out it. Delete it and find out what happens.
Again back to my point If the registry has a lot of junk in it it will slow down windows on loading.
You might not install / remove a lot of programs but it's a fact. Windows can not boot with out it nor can it function with out it.

 

CCleaner: Careful with it. Registry scan shows lots of "unused" files. 2200 in my case. There are a large amount of file extensions labeled "unused", yet they belong to software installations I use.
Also it marks "unused" and missing shared DLLs and other issues that may delete important files and entries you need on the computer.
Still this long list is worth delving into, if you remember programs you uninstalled earlier and yet their useless registry entries still linger..

I think I'll re-install Revo Uninstaller as that has the only high DPI excellently readable UI I know.

 

That's right, win system can't survive without it.

But during the last years I discovered that many tools and apps can work in portable mode without cluttering the registry: I did sandboxed installs then copied the sandboxed folder content (discarding the virtual hive) elsewhere and I verified that registry was not essential for the sw inner working.

 

About the registry cleaning dilemma.
1. Don't use, for instance, the "deep cleaning" of Glary Utilities (I use it and it's great). Or similar option in other apps
2. If you want to be absolutely on the safe side, just disable it
It works for me

 

I used to use System Mechanic, and then I started using free Ccleaner. But now I have Linux now and I don't worry about it

 

Those two Revo and Ultrasearch are basically indispensable when updating (having to remove old bits before putting on new bits) or just clean uninstalling. Those pesky apps like to hide reg/lic files all over the place that are otherwise impossible to find. I use CC just for the crud cleaning and it's a great quick-to-use tool to get rid of any crap that weasels their way into the startup. Never use registry cleaners because there's too much in the registry that can be munged when allowing one of those things to romp freely thru it... For registry hacks I just stick to the search function with good keywords.

 

A Potable version has nothing to do with Windows registry being legacy. I am quit sure some programs will run with out reg keys. but again as I said before the the person who said windows registry is legacy is incorrect.

 

Agreed. Though I've never kept PCs pristine, I keep them tidy, so it gets a bit frustrating, suddenly being shown all the jetsam crammed into every possible location where shit can possibly get buried, from obscure/vague ProgramData folders (using the company's parent company's name or something seemingly unrelated,) to the seventeen-folder-deep AppData files that may not even have identifying names, just "878u64514234ttxpu." It always makes me wonder if the program's devs are lazy or just inept.
And I almost wrote off UltraSearch as just another search program with a forgettable name when I first came across it, only to find out it does some serious backflips tracking everything down.

 

The best alternative for CCleaner is....: No cleaner at all!
Back in the day up until Windows XP, it made 'some' sense. Disk space and RAM was expensive and redundant DLL files sometimes were loaded into memory at startup.

Today you can maybe remove a few 100 MB's of files and some registry keys by scanning your system. But these files will not affect performance in any way. So there is actually not much to gain.

On the other hand, there is much to loose! CCleaner and other programs like this can fuck up your system beyond repair!
It has been known to remove (system) files and registry keys that are still used by programs.

A huge misconception is also that people think that redundant registry keys will slow down startup and system performance. This is total BS because the registry is mainly there to register program properties and registration and are only loaded when when a program calls upon these. If registry keys are orphaned they will just sit there and do nothing at all!

The only sections that are interesting for tweaking system performance are 'Services', Startup and Tools. (start MSconfig and look!). This is where you can tweak what should be loaded or not and this is where you can really make a difference regarding system performance.

My advice? Just leave the old obsolete files. Or if you really can't help yourself, remove them manually. Windows 7,10,11 doesn't load anything you don't start. So these obsolete files and registry keys don't impact performance in any way. They just take up some space.

If you really want to do some serious system tweaking and optimization invest some time in discovering what services and programs can be disabled at startup. But stop playing around with stupid BS programs from the past like CCleaner!

 

Last edited: Sep 13, 2023

This is a prime example of how not to use cleaning programs: using a dozen of the same tools which basically all do the same but slightly differently. Great way to eff up one's system.

 

I think it has more to do with the fact that they want to be in control of who/what/when installs or de-installs their stuffs. They don't want just any version or license being used in any setting (home vs business) etc, etc. So they use this kind of "system splatter" to get around things like windows uninstaller or REVO that can only un-install whatever has been included in the .INI files by the dev in question. There is also a level of vindictiveness that dev's use this "splatter-ware" to prevent one from installing a legit version of stuff in place of a scene release, or vice versa. Or possibly to phone home if something is being attempted that they do not approve of...

 

I use these two freeware and I think they do a good job...

https://www.wisecleaner.com/wise-disk-cleaner.html
https://www.wisecleaner.com/wise-program-uninstaller.html

 

If one is about to do a thorough job - each of these programs does either a partial [quantitatively] job or does something that others don't [qualitatively], they are complementary and differences are not slight. I haven't had any damage using this approach for years.