This article describes the Microsoft support policy for customers who use registry cleaning utilities that rely on unsupported methods to extract or modify the contents of a Windows Registry. The Windows registry is a database of settings for all hardware, software, and user preferences on your computer that controls how Windows interacts with your hardware and applications.
Windows continually references the registry in the background and it is not designed to be accessed or edited. Some products such as registry cleaning utilities suggest that the registry needs regular maintenance or cleaning. However, serious issues can occur when you modify the registry incorrectly using these types of utilities.
These issues might require users to reinstall the operating system due to instability. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved without a reinstallation of the Operating System as the extent of the changes made by registry cleaning utilities varies from application to application. A damaged Windows registry can exhibit a range of symptoms including excessive CPU utilization, longer startup and shutdown times, poor application functionality or random crashes or hangs.
These random crashes and hangs can ultimately lead to data loss due to the systems inability to save data back to the storage location during the occurrence. Microsoft does not support the use of registry cleaners. Some programs available for free on the internet might contain spyware, adware, or viruses.
First let's discuss what exactly a registry cleaner is. Registry cleaners came to prominence over 10 years ago when computer performance was nowhere near as fast as it is today. Essentially, a registry cleaner is a tool that scans your Windows registry for registry keys that are of no use, or potentially leftover remnants of malware that has been removed. It then gives you the option of removing this dead weight in your system. Vendors of registry cleaning claim that by cleaning up the Windows registry, you have an opportunity to speed up your computer.
Or at least this is what Piriform wants us to believe. Quite honestly, no. You see, Microsoft has refused to release their own registry cleaner tool, or endorse any third party registry cleaner.
And this is within reason. Microsoft's stance is that they don't want users messing with the registry since it probably brings attention to the most bloated part of Windows. Simply put, messing with your Windows registry without knowing what you are doing can trigger serious errors that can render Windows inoperable. Piriform now owned by Avast is run by smart individuals who get marketing. Do not let them fool you. They want you to believe that their Windows registry cleaner is the 2nd coming.
Piriform has cashed in on our eagerness to increase PC performance and fed into our undying euphoria of deleting things on our computer that we believe are useless.
Piriform and CCleaner aren't the only ones out there. We are so blinded by our own actions that we drive ourselves to false conclusions that a tool like a Windows registry cleaner, or any free registry cleaning tool, shows a perceived performance boost. Sorry to break the news, cleaning your Windows registry does not speed up your computer. However, if you are encountering problems that prevents you from getting into Normal mode or you get errors while in Normal mode, we suggest running them from Safe Mode.
After registry keys or other system settings are found, use the utility to delete or clean those keys. Often you need to select all found items and click a clean or delete button. If you are encountering new problems after running a registry cleaner, boot the computer into Safe Mode if Normal mode does not work and run the utility to restore the backup made.
If you did not make a backup of the registry, try using the Windows System Restore feature. Do I need a Windows registry cleaner?
Note When running any registry cleaner, we always suggest using the utilities backup registry feature first in case issues arise after the clean. It's compatible with modern versions of Windows like Windows 11 and Windows 10, and likely older ones, too. Auslogics Registry Cleaner v9 was tested in Windows Before and after installing Auslogics Registry Cleaner, you may be asked to install other programs, but they're easy to deselect it if you wish not to install it.
Glarysoft's Registry Repair is another good freeware registry cleaner. It's pretty simple to use and is a good option if some of the better tools aren't working out for you. We tested v5. Registry Clean is the utility within it that does the registry cleaning.
We find the registry scan to be very quick, regardless of the number of errors the program finds. All the features that are offered can be overwhelming and get in your way. To run the registry cleaning process, choose Manual Mode from the Care tab. The Deep Clean option requires the professional version of the program. We tested v15 in Windows AML Registry Cleaner wasn't part of this list when we first put it together, which was an obvious oversight on our part.
It's been the most frequent reader-suggested addition to these programs. The interface is a bit "old" in style, but AML Registry Cleaner makes up for that with a solid registry search, lots of still-free additional tools, and a long history of not accidentally causing more problems.
We tested v4. PowerTools Lite is a freeware registry cleaner created by Macecraft, makers of several popular Windows utilities. PowerTools Lite was fast and found a similar number of needless registry entries as other tools in this area of this list.
No toolbars or other programs tried to install like with some other free registry cleaners. However, the tool isn't supported above Windows 7. We tested jv16 PowerTools Lite in Windows 8. Kingsoft PC Doctor is another registry cleaner embedded in a software suite.
While this is the case, the manual scans do find a hefty amount of errors that are just a click away from being removed. EasyCleaner is one of the oldest and most trusted free registry cleaners out there. The interface is a bit dated, but it's a solid registry repair tool. EasyCleaner took considerably longer than other registry cleaners to scan the registry, but it did a fine job overall.
We also liked that we weren't asked to install a completely unrelated and useless browser toolbar during the install! Both installer and portable versions of this registry cleaner are available. We tested v2. Argente Registry Cleaner is a registry cleaner that walks you through a tiny wizard when you first open the program, which makes scanning for errors rather easy. It found about as many issues as the other programs in this list. Registry backups are created automatically before removing any registry items, and an automatic maintenance mode does all the cleaning for you when your computer first starts, without any intervention on your part, which is really nice.
Undoing changes to your registry are really easy because you can either restore to an automatically created backup or make your own registry backup whenever you like, and then restore the registry from the Undo changes section of the program. We tested v3. The website for Argente Software is in Spanish, but the download link above is to an English page. There's also a portable version on Softpedia. This free Windows Registry cleaner program packs some great features into a minimal program.
For starters, Little Registry Cleaner found a lot more problems in the registry than most other registry cleaners, so if one of the others in this list isn't working well for you, try this one. This program also lets you choose which folder on your computer to use for automatic registry backups before cleaning, can ignore certain files and folders from being scanned, will create a restore point before deleting the registry files, and can scan your computer for invalid registry entries on a schedule.
Little Registry Cleaner should work fine with any recent version of Windows. We tested version 1. Eusing Free Registry Cleaner is another free registry cleaner. We frequently see references to this particular registry cleaner on other "top" lists, but we didn't find anything spectacular about it.
Remember, a registry cleaner program is not a regular PC maintenance tool. Registry cleaners don't typically speed up your computer or provide any other day-to-day improvements to your PC. Registry cleaners should only be used to help solve specific kinds of problems. Try this registry cleaner if you need to, skip it and try a better one if you don't. Registry scan time with Free Window Registry Repair was longer that with some of the higher rated registry cleaners, but overall it looks like a decent tool.
It does all your standard registry cleaning, as well as some system cleaning. We found nCleaner's interface to be a little confusing, and we don't like that it hasn't been updated in years. However, we felt compelled to at least include it here after receiving so many suggestions to add it to the list. We tested the nCleaner v2.
ACleaner is another free registry cleaner. Although it looks a bit outdated, it works for the newer operating systems and does the job well. The Windows registry is backed up automatically before fixing any issues, and restoring is just a couple clicks away. There's also a startup manager and system cleaner that comes bundled with ACleaner, but the registry cleaner isn't difficult to find. ACleaner works with Windows 10 down through Windows We tested v5 in both Windows 10 and Windows 7 and didn't find any problems.
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