In-Depth Review of 31 The Most Popular Registry Cleaner Products

By Jouni Flemming and Veera Peltonen. Both authors are working for Macecraft Software, the author of jv16 PowerTools.


Introduction

After our previous registry cleaner comparison study we have received tons of feedback. Many people simply thanked us for taking the extra step to really compare these products but many also wanted to request us to review certain products not included in the original study.

So, to show our thanks to everyone who gave us feedback on the previous study we have now gone even further to give you the best possible data on the quality and performance of different registry cleaner products. The goal of this study is to be the most comprehensive and truly in-depth registry cleaner product comparison published so far.


Featured products

ProductVersionSetup sizeInstallation sizePriceProduct type
Abexo Registry Cleaner (Free edition)
1.1.0.0
0.7 MB
1.5 MB
$0
Standalone registry cleaner
Ace Utilities
4.2.0
3.9 MB
6.8 MB
$39.95
System utility suite
Advanced System Optimizer
2.20.4.746
10.7 MB
47.5 MB
$39.95
System utility suite
AMUST Registry Cleaner
4.0.0.49
1.9 MB
3.24 MB
$29.99
Standalone registry cleaner
CCleaner
2.16.830
3 MB
2.2 MB
$0
System cleaning suite
Chily Registry Cleaner
7.12.01
1.5 MB
7.9 MB
$29.95
Standalone registry cleaner
CleanMyPC Registry Cleaner
4.12
2.8 MB
5.9 MB
$29.95
Registry cleaner with some additional features
Comodo Registry Cleaner
1.0.17.23
3.1 MB
8.8 MB
$0
Registry cleaner with some additional features
EasyCleaner
2.0.6.380
2.8 MB
3.3 MB
$0
System utility suite
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
2.0 (Build: 20081022)
0.9 MB
1.8 MB
$0
Standalone registry cleaner
Fix-It Utilities
9.0.2.3
101 MB
94.6 MB*
$49.95
System utility suite
Glary Utilities Pro
2.10.0.622
4.8 MB
14.7 MB
$39.95
System utility suite
jv16 PowerTools 2008
1.8.0.468
6.9 MB
9 MB
$29.95
System utility suite
jv16 PowerTools 2009
1.9.0.539
5.5 MB
7.3 MB
$29.95
System utility suite
Migo Registry Repair
4.0.0.30C
4 MB
13 MB
$39.99
Standalone registry cleaner
PC Bug Doctor
5.0.2.3
2.1 MB
4.2 MB
$39.95
Standalone registry cleaner
PC Optimizer Pro
4.5.19
6.1 MB
12.1 MB
$34.95
System utility suite
Perfect Optimizer
4.0
5.2 MB
10.2 MB
$33.89
System utility suite
RegFix Mantra
6.0
0.9 MB
3.7 MB
$29.95
Standalone registry cleaner
Registry Drill
4.2.10
7.9 MB
7.7 MB
$39.95
Standalone registry cleaner
Registry Easy
4.9
2.3 MB
5.8 MB
$34.95
System utility suite
Registry First Aid
7.0.0.1648
3.6 MB
7.9 MB
$27.95
Registry cleaner with some additional features
Registry Genius
3.2
1.6 MB
5.7 MB
$34.95
Standalone registry cleaner
Registry Mechanic
8.0.0.900
7.1 MB
9.5 MB
$29.95
System utility suite
RegRestore PC TuneUp
5.0
0.8 MB
2.6 MB
$29.95
Standalone registry cleaner
RegSeeker
1.55b (Build: 3807)
0.4 MB
0.6 MB
$0
(Free for personal use)
Registry cleaner with some additional features
RegVac Registry Cleaner
5.01.25
1.1 MB
4.4 MB
$29.95
Standalone registry cleaner
TuneUp Utilities 2009
8.0.2000
16.4 MB
41.2 MB
$49.95
System utility suite
Uniblue Registry Booster
2.1.0.0
n/a**
10.1 MB
€33.29
Standalone registry cleaner
WinUtilities
6.4
6.1 MB
30 MB
$49.99
System utility suite
Wise Registry Cleaner Pro
3.94.143
1.6 MB
2.5 MB
$19.95
Standalone registry cleaner

* = The Anti-Virus features of the product was not installed.
** = The product's installer downloaded the main installation from the Internet, therefore the size of the setup executable is not relevant.

All the products were downloaded from the official developer's website, not from third party downloading sites. All tests were performed using the trial version of the products or the full version in the case of freeware products.

Note: We also attempted to install and test RegCure, RegToy and XP Repair Pro products. RegCure failed to install due to error message "RegCure is currently running, click Yes to close it" while product wasn't, of course, running. Clicking Yes or No didn't help. The installation didn't work even after using Task Manager to terminate all non-critical processes or in Windows Safe Mode. RegToy showed error message "Application failed to initalize properly", we didn't find a way to go by the error message. XP Repair Pro showed error message "Failed to download dotnetfix.exe" even while the system was connected to Internet and the connection was working perfectly. We didn't find a way to go by this error either.


Installation of the products

The test was performed on a virtual testing environment of Windows XP and 512 MB of RAM (the amount recommended by the virtualization software for Windows XP). The host computer was a Windows Vista Home with 2 GB of RAM and Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at 1.6 GHz. The virtualization system used was VirtualBox.


ProductComes with bundled softwareWants to start with WindowsAdds data to the registry during installationAdds data to the file system other than to installation directoryTrial version restrictions
Abexo Registry Cleaner
No
No
No
No
n/a
Ace Utilities
No
No
Yes
No
30 day trial, nag screen when starting
Advanced System Optimizer
No
No
Yes
No
30 day trial, nag screen when starting
AMUST Registry Cleaner
Yes
(AMUST Disk Cleaner)
No
Yes
No
30 day trial, does not allow to fix all found errors
CCleaner
Yes
(Yahoo toolbar)
No
Yes
No
n/a
Chily Registry Cleaner
No
No
Yes
No
30 day trial
CleanMyPC Registry Cleaner
No
Yes
Yes
No
15 day trial
Comodo Registry Cleaner
No
No
No
No
n/a
EasyCleaner
No
No
Yes
No
n/a
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
No
No
No
No
Nag screen
Fix-It Utilities
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
15 day trial
Glary Utilities Pro
No
No
Yes
Yes
30 day trial, nag screen when starting
jv16 PowerTools 2008
No
No
No
No
30 day trial
jv16 PowerTools 2009
No
No
No
No
30 day trial
Migo Registry Repair
No
No
Yes
No
30 day trial(?)*
PC Bug Doctor
No
No
No
No
30 day trial(?)*
PC Optimizer Pro
No
No
Yes
No
30 day trial(?)*
Perfect Optimizer
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
30 day trial(?)*
RegFix Mantra
No
No
Yes
No
30 day trial(?)*
Registry Drill
No
No
Yes
No
15 day trial with 10 second nag screen when starting, trial version reads max 60.000 registry keys, does not allow any errors to be fixed or removed
Registry Easy
No
Yes
Yes
No
30 day trial(?)*, nag screen, only fixes a few errors
Registry First Aid
No
Yes
Yes
No
30 day trial(?)*, nag screen, only fixes up to 18 errors
Registry Genius
Yes
(Google toolbar)
Yes
Yes
No
30 day trial(?)*, does not fix errors
Registry Mechanic
No
Yes
Yes
No
30 day trial(?)*, does not fix errors
RegRestore PC TuneUp
No
No
Yes
No
30 day trial(?)*
RegSeeker
No
No
No
No
n/a
RegVac Registry Cleaner
No
No
No
No
30 day trial(?)*, nag screen when scan starts
TuneUp Utilities 2009
No
No
Yes
Yes
30 day trial, nag screen when starting
Uniblue Registry Booster
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
30 day trial(?)*, nag screen when closing
WinUtilities
No
No
Yes
No
30 day trial, nag screen when starting
Wise Registry Cleaner Pro
No
No
Yes
No
30 day trial(?)*, nag screen when closing

* = It was not perfectly clear how long trial periods these products give.

Color keys: Green background is used for all products with all four features marked with green. Red background is used for all products which score at least three red marks. These color keys relate to subjective, but common, opinions how well made products should act and work.

Note: the "Adds data to the registry during installation" column does not take into account registry data created by Windows itself relating to the product because this data is created for each installed application automatically, only registry data created by the product itself is taken into account. The "Adds data to the file system other than to installation directory" column does not take into account any created shortcuts, even though for example a shortcut placed to the Desktop would technically count as a file created outside of the installation directory.



Registry cleaning engine accuracy comparison

The test was performed on the same virtual setup as above. Before the test 1000 registry errors were added to the registry of the test setup, also 1000 possible false positives were added.

An example of one such registry error is a file reference "C:\Fake\application.exe". This registry entry would be considered as an error because the file reference is not valid, i.e. the "C:\Fake\" directory does not exist. An example of a possible false positive is a file reference "C:\Directory\file.exe -foobar". The file reference is valid, i.e. directory "C:\Directory\" does exist and inside the directory a file called "file.exe" exists. The reason why this piece of data is considered as a "possible false positive" is because a bad quality registry cleaner engine might not properly analyze that "C:\Directory\file.exe" inside the data is actually the file reference and "-foobar" is not a part of the file reference.


ProductTotal errors foundNumber of test errors found (out of 1000)Number of false positives found (out of 1000)Scan timeComments
Abexo Registry Cleaner
426
Many*
0
73 Sec.
Wanted to delete HKCR\.exe as an invalid key, clearly a bad idea
Ace Utilities
981
962
0
41 Sec.
Product froze when attempting to sort the result list by clicking a list column
Advanced System Optimizer
472
Many*
Probably none*
16 Sec.
AMUST Registry Cleaner
70
0
0
55 Sec.
CCleaner
9
0
0
7 Sec.
Chily Registry Cleaner
34
0
0
79 Sec.
CleanMyPC Registry Cleaner
12
0
0
150 Sec.
Comodo Registry Cleaner
1502
Approx.* 950
Approx.* 400
55 Sec.
EasyCleaner
19
0
0
52 Sec.
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
91
0
0
156 Sec.
Fix-It Utilities
127
0
0
44 Sec.
Glary Utilities Pro
1335
Many*
Many*
22 Sec.
jv16 PowerTools 2008
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Product froze during scan, impossible to test
jv16 PowerTools 2009
1235
1000
0
65 Sec.
Migo Registry Repair
487
0
0
23 Sec.
Product seemed to list every empty key of the registry as errors, this is very dangerous. The user interface seems very similar to PC Optimizer Pro's, are these products somehow linked?
PC Bug Doctor
8
0
0
9 Sec.
PC Optimizer Pro
297
0
0
898 Sec.
With only 297 found errors the user interface became so slow it was almost impossible to use it. The registry cleaner's GUI seems to be the same as in Migo Registry Repair, maybe the engine is similar too
Perfect Optimizer
539
0
0
46 Sec.
RegFix Mantra
648
Many*
Many*
50 Sec.
Registry Drill
n/a
n/a
n/a
900+ Sec.
Due to the strange user interface it was not possible to fully test the product. The first scan mode requires user to go through every single error one by one, and the other scan modes didn't find any of the test errors.
Registry Easy
817
Many*
Some*
54 Sec.
Product's user interface is very similar to the one in Registry Genius
Registry First Aid
1312
963
76
103 Sec.
Registry Genius
817
Many*
Some*
52 Sec.
Product's user interface is very similar to the one in Registry Easy
Registry Mechanic
365
Many*
Some*
25 Sec.
RegRestore PC TuneUp
162
Many*
Some*
96 Sec.
Wanted to delete HKCR\.hta as an invalid key, this action would break the Control Panel.
RegSeeker
148
23
0
95 Sec.
RegVac Registry Cleaner (normal scan)
85
0
0
64 Sec.
Deleted registry keys and entries without permission from user.
RegVac Registry Cleaner (Bad Link Checker scan)
1115
Many*
Some*
60 Sec.
Feature available under 'expert interface'
TuneUp Utilities 2009
6
0
0
26 Sec.
Uniblue Registry Booster
22
17
0
34 Sec.
WinUtilities
37
5
0
73 Sec.
Wise Registry Cleaner Pro
131
19
0
63 Sec.

* = Due to limitations of these products' user interface, it was not possible to accurately count the number of errors found. These products did not seem to offer such basic user interface features as Search or any kind of filtering. Therefore, the results for these products are only approximations based on reading through the result list.

Color keys: Green background is used for all products which found all of the 1000 test errors and none of the 1000 false positives. Red background is used for all products which found false positives. These color keys relate to the test results and to the safety and performance of these products. Abexo Registry Cleaner is highlighted with red because it listed critical system key as safe to remove (see the comments for more details), Migo Registry Repair is highlighted with red because it listed many empty registry keys as safe to remove, removing these keys is potentially dangerous.


Registry error fixing comparison

The test was performed on the same virtual setup as above. Before the test Windows RegEdit was used to manually delete certain registry keys and values in order to make the .BAT file extension not to work. In other words, it wasn't possible to execute a standard Windows Batch File (.bat) by double clicking it. Problems like this can occur in the real world due to numerous reasons, for example because of badly designed third party application that modifies these file extension registry entries incorrectly or by uninstallers that behave bad. Also a low quality registry cleaner product can break critical file extension keys.


ProductDetected the problemFixed the problem
Abexo Registry Cleaner
No
No
Ace Utilities
No
No
Advanced System Optimizer
No
No
AMUST Registry Cleaner
No
No
CCleaner
No
No
Chily Registry Cleaner
No
No
CleanMyPC Registry Cleaner
No
No
Comodo Registry Cleaner
No
No
EasyCleaner
No
No
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
No
No
Fix-It Utilities
No
No
Glary Utilities Pro
No
No
jv16 PowerTools 2008
No
No
jv16 PowerTools 2009
Yes
Yes
Migo Registry Repair
No
No
PC Bug Doctor
No
No
PC Optimizer Pro
No
No
Perfect Optimizer
No
No
RegFix Mantra
No
No
Registry Drill
No
No
Registry Easy
No
No
Registry First Aid
No
No
Registry Genius
No
No
Registry Mechanic
No
No
RegRestore PC TuneUp
No
No
RegSeeker
No
No
RegVac Registry Cleaner
No
No
TuneUp Utilities 2009
No
No
Uniblue Registry Booster
No
No
WinUtilities
No
No
Wise Registry Cleaner Pro
No
No

Color keys: Green background is used for all products which were able to detect and fix the problem.


Uninstallation comparison

The test was performed on the same virtual setup as above. After all the testing was done we used each product's uninstaller and verified whether it fully uninstalled the product from the system or whether something was left behind. This comparison should be rather interesting because all these products are being marketed as tools for cleaning the computer, if their very uninstallers do not remove everything, one can only question how well they can in general clean anything.

RegEdit's Find feature was used to determine whether the products left any registry data behind, Windows' file search was used to determine whether the products left any files or directories behind.


ProductUninstaller available from Start MenuShows a nag screen when uninstallingUninstallation performance
Abexo Registry Cleaner
Yes
No
Good, leaves nothing behind
Ace Utilities
No
No
Bad, leaves many files and directories behind
Advanced System Optimizer
Yes
No
Good, leaves nothing behind
AMUST Registry Cleaner
No
No
Terrible, leaves most (if not all) registry entries behind
CCleaner
Yes
No
Good, leaves nothing behind
Chily Registry Cleaner
Yes
No
Bad, leaves many files and directories behind
CleanMyPC Registry Cleaner
Yes
Yes
Terrible, leaves many files and directories behind, leaves most (if not all) registry entries behind
Comodo Registry Cleaner
Yes
No
Good, leaves nothing behind
EasyCleaner
No
No
Bad, leaves many files and directories behind
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
Yes
No
Good, leaves nothing behind
Fix-It Utilities
Yes
No
Bad, leaves most (if not all) registry entries behind
Glary Utilities Pro
Yes
No
Bad, leaves most (if not all) registry entries behind
jv16 PowerTools 2008
Yes
No
Good, leaves nothing behind
jv16 PowerTools 2009
Yes
No
Good, leaves nothing behind
Migo Registry Repair
Yes
No
Bad, leaves many files and directories behind
PC Bug Doctor
Yes
No
Bad, leaves many files and directories behind
PC Optimizer Pro
Yes
No
Bad, leaves most (if not all) registry entries behind
Perfect Optimizer
Yes
No
Good, leaves nothing behind
RegFix Mantra
Yes
No
Bad, leaves many files and directories behind
Registry Drill
Yes
No
Terrible, leaves many files and directories behind, leaves most (if not all) registry entries behind
Registry Easy
Yes
No
Bad, leaves many files and directories behind
Registry First Aid
Yes
No
Good, leaves nothing behind
Registry Genius
Yes
No
Good, leaves nothing behind
Registry Mechanic
Yes
Yes
Good, leaves nothing behind
RegRestore PC TuneUp
Yes
No
Good, leaves nothing behind
RegSeeker
Yes
No
Bad, leaves many files and directories behind
RegVac Registry Cleaner
Yes
No
Bad, leaves many files and directories behind
TuneUp Utilities 2009
No
No
Bad, leaves most (if not all) registry entries behind
Uniblue Registry Booster
No
No
Bad, leaves most (if not all) registry entries behind
WinUtilities
Yes
No
Good, leaves nothing behind
Wise Registry Cleaner Pro
Yes
No
Bad, leaves many files and directories behind

Color keys: Green background is used for all products which uninstalled without leaving any files or registry entries behind.


Summary of results

The following table contains the products sorted by the data gathered in this test. The summary was created by giving one point to a product per each green mark in the previous tables and reducing one point of each red marks. The Score column shows the amount of points each software received.


PositionProductScore
1
jv16 PowerTools 2009
11
2
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
7
3
Abexo Registry Cleaner
6
4
Advanced System Optimizer
5
5
Comodo Registry Cleaner
5
6
RegSeeker
5
7
WinUtilities
5
8
PC Bug Doctor
4
9
RegVac Registry Cleaner
3-4
10
CCleaner
3
11
Chily Registry Cleaner
3
12
jv16 PowerTools 2008
3
13
Wise Registry Cleaner Pro
3
14
Migo Registry Repair
2
15
PC Optimizer Pro
2
16
RegRestore PC TuneUp
2
17
EasyCleaner
1
18
Perfect Optimizer
1
19
RegFix Mantra
1
20
Registry First Aid
1
21
Ace Utilities
0
22
AMUST Registry Cleaner
-1
23
CleanMyPC Registry Cleaner
-1
24
Fix-It Utilities
-1
25
Glary Utilities Pro
-1
26
Registry Easy
-1
27
Registry Genius
-1
28
Registry Mechanic
-1
29
TuneUp Utilities 2009
-1
30
Registry Drill
-2
31
Uniblue Registry Booster
-3

Color keys: All products which produced false positives are highlighted with a red background color to remind users to use extreme caution with these products as they may cause more problems than fix them.


Conclusions

Based on the result data it seems clear that jv16 PowerTools 2009 is the best and safest product of the tested products. The authors were very surprised that no other product was able to fix or even detect a simple registry based problem relating the .bat file extension tested in the "Registry error fixing comparison" section of this study. Another rather shocking result was the vast number of products whose own uninstaller did not work properly. It seems safe to say that some developers spend more time and effort on marketing their products than to actual product development.

You can discuss this study in our discussion forum.


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Terminology




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