OT, registry cleaners, important?

With all the PC's in this house with the wife and daughter in college, plus the younger ones using the internet for school and such, how important is it to clean the registry's. Is there a trustworthy free download for one? We have trendmicro, but cant find a cleaner on it. I am just concerned with all the stuff that is entered such as ssi numbers, account numbers, passwords, and all that stuff that goes with schooling/financials, and allthat stuff these days that is being typed into the PC as data. I know that the browsing history is deleted when exiting the browser, but isnt the registry accessible for todays hackers, and isnt there an awful lot of stuff stored in the registy that could be retrieved by a hacker, or if one of our pc's are stolen? Please advise.

Dave I use "Ccleaner" from www.piriform.com. That is what we use at work too. Works well for me, and it is free. Review the settings on it to delete what you want. Just my $.02 !
piriform.com Ccleaner

Usually most programs that monitor a computer (Ad-Aware basic is free for individuals) also monitor and usually can correct spyware that puts registry files on the computer. There are a number of free programs available, but if you get something serious they sometimes are inadequate to remove it (they show it, but cant remove it). Also, some of the free ones can screw up a computer in their attempt to fix it. I usually just use Ad-Aware and fix, sometimes manually, any problems when they show up. Other things to prevent ID theft:

1. Only go to trusted sites (although they can by hijacked and infected too)

2. Keep you computer up to date (Microsoft auto updates) including your browser (IE, firefox)

3. Keep track of you financial accounts regularly (balance the checkbook, read the statements, get you annual free credit scores). I check my accounts daily.

4. Don't store lists of passwords, account numbers, or other critical identifying information in regular text or spreadsheet documents. If you need to write them done do so with pen and paper and put it into the safe.

If you still can't sleep at night, then go buy Norton or a similar product. BTW check with you internet provider. Some of them provide a copy of retail spyware programs at no or reduced charge.

CCleaner and Malwarebytes are the two you want. GOOGLE them for a download or go to Filehippo.com. I do the CCleaner daily and the Malwarebytes monthly. Of course you also need a good antivirus. I use Norton/Symantec but some don't like it because of the extra burden.

(quoted from post at 08:12:32 01/27/11) With all the PC's in this house with the wife and daughter in college, plus the younger ones using the internet for school and such, how important is it to clean the registry's. Is there a trustworthy free download for one? We have trendmicro, but cant find a cleaner on it. I am just concerned with all the stuff that is entered such as ssi numbers, account numbers, passwords, and all that stuff that goes with schooling/financials, and allthat stuff these days that is being typed into the PC as data. I know that the browsing history is deleted when exiting the browser, but isnt the registry accessible for todays hackers, and isnt there an awful lot of stuff stored in the registy that could be retrieved by a hacker, or if one of our pc's are stolen? Please advise.

Click to expand...

I use WiseRegistryCleaner in addition to Malwarebytes and we have a corporate TrendMicro A/V. Biggest problem is people going to sites or opening emails that they shouldn't. Even with all the protection we have at work, I still spend a lot of time running cleaners and spyware removers that get on certain people's machines. I removed my A/V from a couple of machines at home because it was slowing things down (McAfee was the worst for bogging down a computer) and I only visit trusted sites on those machines.

When I do something critical, order or fill out forms, when I'm finished I back through the pages to see if they've expired or cleared my info. Only a couple times I've went back and everything was still there, I clear the page and hit enter again to set a new page w/o info.
Type the beginning of your ssn of cc number to see if it's in a drop down.
Actually Microsoft clears this stuff well if you go delete history passwords cashe etc.
CCleaner is pretty good.

crap cleaner,,, oops it was renamed to ccleaner.

The registry was designed to hold system-level settings in a common location to allow Windows and programs to store configuration & other information.

It was never intended to hold any personal information. There might be a few rare cases in which "personal info" like the name of the person entered during the initial set up of the PC, etc could be found, but in general, it does not store any user "data".

Also, I tell all my friends and clients that 95% of the free programs out there aren't "free programs" - they are BAIT!

Unless there is a visible business model behind a free program (like Adobe Acrobat reader being free helps Adobe sell their content creation tools or AVG wants you to move up to their for-pay products...), most of the free stuff out there has a hidden agenda - and usually it is at you or your PCs expense. Spying on your browsing habits without you knowing about it, introduce "parasite" programs with their install routines, browser pop-ups, web page redirects, etc, etc...

Why on earth would anyone go to the trouble of providing "free" programs unless they have an angle to make money??

For some reason - it seems like most of the really vicious malware these days masquerades as antivirus or "registry cleaner" garbage...

Malwarebytes, hijackthis, Microsoft Security Essentials, and AVG are about the only free tools I trust... Not saying there aren't others out there - but I've seen so much of that fly-by-night garbage that comes and goes over the past years, I just like to stick to those...

In short, I would just be careful what gets installed on my PC in the first place, and not worry about trying to "clean" the registry...

My 2 cents worth,
Howard

I have CCleaner. It was recommended by a computer person I trust.

Also have Microsoft Security Essentials which was installed by the computer shop where I bought this machine from. He stated several times to keep that title in mind ALWAYS and be sure it's up to date. I think I remember that it updates automatically or can be set to update automatically if you want it to.

We don't put any numbers concerning financial stuff in the computer. Old school here for sure!!

"Why on earth would anyone go to the trouble of providing "free" programs unless they have an angle to make money??"

With so many improperly safeguarded home computers, why wouldn't a company that provides security to large corporations find it in their own best interest to also keep those home computers safe, so that the owners aren't sending ills to the corporate ones via friends emailings, etc.?

Kind of like rodents---if you eliminate 95% from ever reaching your property there would be less of a problem.

I can't find a registry cleaner for my Linux box. Oh, that's right, it doesn't need one.