fsx-ms Is a Registry Cleaner Necessary?

[Glynn 405]

CCleaner is very good,  but whatever you do stay away from System Mechanic

[ErichB 3,638]

 

 

I use the Advanced System Care 9 program and run the registry cleaner at least weekly.  I'm like Rich above and mostly just use the registry cleaner.  I use the "Deep Clean" feature in Advanced System Care but that comes only with the payware version.  FYI, Windows will not allow certain system registry entries to be deleted so not even the registry cleaners can remove them.

 

I have used this for a number of years and am very happy with it.

[ZKOKQ 984]

I just ran it to clean the registry only and it found a whole mess of issues. I did back up the registry first, just in case.  :blush:

Ric, you need to run it more than once on first use, or if you have not used it in a while. Keep running it till it finds no erroneous entries.

[Capt Speirs 52]

Ric, you need to run it more than once on first use, or if you have not used it in a while. Keep running it till it finds no erroneous entries.

Thanks, i noticed after running it the first time and running it right away it found more issues.

[Ramjett 27]

Okay, so this thread intrigued me and made me wonder just how badly my system needed cleaned.  I regularly run Flight1's Registry Repair Tool, but it's focus is on Flight Sim, not the entire system.

 

I downloaded CCleaner and ran the registry scan only and it found a ton of "issues" that if I fixed them all would free up 5.4GB of space.  Just a drop in the bucket on 2 1TB hard drives, but still...5 gigs is 5 gigs, right?

 

What worried me is it considered my aircraft texture folders and custom sound folders and custom panel folders as "unused file extensions".  If I "fix" that will my "texture.UAL" folder become just "Texture"?  I don't want to lose all my textures!

 

There was also a long listing of "missing DLL" entries, mostly with the FS2004 version of the PMDG NGX, but a lot of freeware aircraft too.  I don't want to lose those aircraft either.

 

It also found a bunch of Installer reference issues, something called MUI something on things that seemed pretty important.  It called some of my nearest and dearest flight sim programs like SBuilderX, ADE9X 1.65, etc obsolete.  Man I don't want to lose any of that so I am quite honestly "scared" to run the "fix" tab.

 

I don't really understand what all these "files" and "issues".  Many of them, the majority actually aren't even in a file with an "HKEY" reference, which is where I thought all the registry entries resided.  Silly me, huh?

 

Randy 

[OneWhoKnocks53 51]

If you are running the Majestic dash8 q400 pro beta with p3d3.1, watch 3 files in the ccleaner registry cleaner, they all are needed for the q to operate properly. Ccleaner sees them as empty registry items, but they are not!! One is the UNS 1e, other two I can't remember. Check your files before you delete them!

[Pat Mussotte 92]

CCleaner all the way! Using it for years never the slightest problem :wink:

[Poppet 703]

If you are running the Majestic dash8 q400 pro beta with p3d3.1, watch 3 files in the ccleaner registry cleaner, they all are needed for the q to operate properly. Ccleaner sees them as empty registry items, but they are not!! One is the UNS 1e, other two I can't remember. Check your files before you delete them!

 

This is very good advice.   I use it all the time but i only delete the Registry Entry's that I'm specifically looking for, like Uninstalled left overs and so on.  

[aerostar 42]

Used ccleaner for years - quick and easy....   downloaded Advanced System Care a year or two ago and used it as well from time to time when I uninstalled programs etc...  it's great for finding left over entries and tidying things up but I'm not too keen of its constant push to buy it and the other software it throws at you,  I try and shut it down completely when its not needed but it seems to always be residing in the background... 

 

On the other hand...  I did try one of the programs that gets pushed by it and that is Drive Booster.

 

That program sorted loads of drivers my system was using that were obsolete or very old and it replaced them with the new latest versions...  all quickly and easily.

 

I ran it a few days ago and it found things related to motherboard and cpu files (cant remember exactly what but sounded important)...  since then there has been a noticeable improvement in my PC and I feel sure FSX and P3D are running better.

[N60JBravo 27]

Okay, so this thread intrigued me and made me wonder just how badly my system needed cleaned.  I regularly run Flight1's Registry Repair Tool, but it's focus is on Flight Sim, not the entire system.

 

I downloaded CCleaner and ran the registry scan only and it found a ton of "issues" that if I fixed them all would free up 5.4GB of space.  Just a drop in the bucket on 2 1TB hard drives, but still...5 gigs is 5 gigs, right?

 

What worried me is it considered my aircraft texture folders and custom sound folders and custom panel folders as "unused file extensions".  If I "fix" that will my "texture.UAL" folder become just "Texture"?  I don't want to lose all my textures!

 

There was also a long listing of "missing DLL" entries, mostly with the FS2004 version of the PMDG NGX, but a lot of freeware aircraft too.  I don't want to lose those aircraft either.

 

It also found a bunch of Installer reference issues, something called MUI something on things that seemed pretty important.  It called some of my nearest and dearest flight sim programs like SBuilderX, ADE9X 1.65, etc obsolete.  Man I don't want to lose any of that so I am quite honestly "scared" to run the "fix" tab.

 

I don't really understand what all these "files" and "issues".  Many of them, the majority actually aren't even in a file with an "HKEY" reference, which is where I thought all the registry entries resided.  Silly me, huh?

 

Randy 

Randy,

 

There is no need to "regularly run the Flight1 Registry tool". That tool fixes a specific problem that rarely happens, it is not a regular maintenance utility.

 

CCleaner found 5.4GB of problems in the registry? I doubt it.

 

The Cleaner and the Registry tool are two different things.

 

The Cleaner will actually delete unused files and getting rid of that much crap is worthwhile. I would bet you see a noticeable improvement in things like browser performance.

 

The "unused file extensions" is a registry item. Basically it means that Windows doesn't know what those file extensions are used for. You can safely remove those (they will probably get put back in the next time you use FS) because FS still knows what those files are for. Important to know that removing a registry key will not delete any files from your hard drive.

 

Use caution with "missing DLLs". Most of them are probably left over from aircraft that have either been removed or updated.

 

If in doubt, uncheck the entries until you verify what is needed. For payware I would always recommend you contact the developer if in doubt.

 

Installer references can be removed, these are bits left behind by installers that failed to do a full cleanup after you ran them.

 

MUI references can also be deleted from the registry, they are there for multi language display and most people don't need them.

 

One useful option in the CCleaner Registry tool is the option to backup the registry before cleaning. Never a bad idea, it acts as a sort of system restore if you should accidentally delete a needed registry entry.

 

While I recommend CCleaner and have used it for years without any problems, it never hurts to do a little research (Google is your friend) before you commit to any system changes.

 

regards,

Joe

[Jim Young 2,356]

If you are running the Majestic dash8 q400 pro beta with p3d3.1, watch 3 files in the ccleaner registry cleaner, they all are needed for the q to operate properly. Ccleaner sees them as empty registry items, but they are not!! One is the UNS 1e, other two I can't remember. Check your files before you delete them!

This entry should be rebuilt but I'm surprised a registry cleaner would remove this entry even if the parameter is empty.  If the parameter is needed and not seen when you load the Dash 8, I'm sure the software will enter it again.  My registry cleaner, Advanced System Care, removes all of the Flexnet Licensing Service and Nalpeiron Licensing Service entries and they are used by FSX/P3D developers.  No problems as the entries are rebuilt and I'm deleting them every time I run the registry cleaner.

 

Best regards,

[Ramjett 27]

Joe,

 

When I installed and opened CCleaner there were two tabs I could choose from.  One was Clean and the other was Registry.  I chose Registry and the result was a list a gazillion entries long and when it finished scanning and gave me the option to "fix" it said it could free up 5.4 GBs of space by fixing the entry problems.  That's all I know...

 

I will definitely back up the registry and then do some "elective" fixing on things I know won't hurt my system...I hope...and go from there.

 

Randy

[N60JBravo 27]

I'll let you in on a little secret, the registry is nothing more than about a half dozen text files that would never get to be anywhere close to 5.4 GBs in size.

 

That figure has to be the result of CCleaner analyzing on the Clean tab.

 

Anywho, proceed with caution and set a restore point before getting too carried away.

 

regards,

Joe

[vortex681 806]

As N60JBravo said earlier, with CCleaner always click on the "backup changes to the registry" button before fixing the issues - you can then go back if something goes wrong. Also remember that the regisitry cleaner function does not delete files or folders, only the references to them in the registry. So things like missing DLLs means that there are entries in the regiistry which refer to files which are no longer there. Fixing them just deletes these registry entries which may have left over from poor uninstall routines.

[Jim Young 2,356]

A backup is not going to do anyone any good unless they are computer wizards.  If Windows crashes after a backup that is likely it.  Your chances of restarting Windows is slim.  It is better to regularly create a restore point.  That's what my registry cleaner does, create a restore point (Advanced System Care9).  Then you can insert your Windows DVD and boot up to it and then select repair and then select a restore point (which sometimes requires an expert user too).  Once you get your system restored from an earlier time, you should then be able to go into your registry cleaner and reinstall the registry backup but don't think that's really required or advisable.

 

Best regards,