[zcaveman]

If you decide to use a registry cleanup program - be it a freebie or a paid-for program, please be sure to manually back up the registry before you run the program. That way you will have a way to get your registry back to its original status if something hokey happens.

Modifying the registry is not for the beginner. If you do manual changes, you can put the wrong data and put yourself in a bind. If you do it with a program, you do not know everything that the registry cleaner is doing. Use caution and make sure that the registry cleaner lets you look at the deletion before it does it and gives you the option to skip it.

If you (or the program) makes an incorrect change, you could be out of the water without a computer until you can fix what was changed or deleted in the registry.

I use the free CCleaner and it lets me examine every registry deletion and skip the deletion if I am not comfortable with it.

I like CCleaner but am not promoting it. It takes some examining of the deletions that it will do before you decide to use it. It does do a boatload of deletions when it runs but you have to know which options to skip. I found out the hard way in a couple of them. It did not stop the computer but I had a lot of data that had to be keyed in when I went to certain apps.