How useful is tune-up software?

The Register did some testing to find out. Mostly they found that upgrading RAM was a much better idea, but they found that the free tool CCleaner did almost as much for performance as most of the pay-for software, and most of the improvements were in getting rid of software starting up that you don't need.

 

But isn't this a sort of dead matter anyway since Vista?
The fact that "Tune Up" does nothing or breaks stuff... ???

 

I think that "Tune-up" is only good for the customers who don't want to deal with or have the know-how to optimize their computers. But, for hard core users it is a waste of money.

 

Yep! Tune-Up or other similar 3rd Party Software are useful for newbie that don't know how to optimize the System.
However, simply tweaking around without knowledge is not good for the System.
Problems often occurs for those who optimize the System using 3rd Party Software without really understand it.

I am not very hard-core. So, I did use 3rd Party Software to tweak something and I did manually tweak around as well. Can be said as 70% Manual 30% Auto(software). Usually, I tweak a lot on Vista due to Vista is crazy. I tweak slightly on Windows 7 only.

I love Tune-Up Utilities 2009, they provides good explanation and description before you choose what to be optimized.

 

That's the interesting part of the article. CCleaner rated as high as they rated anything, and it's free.

 

ccleaner along with a free defrag is all i use. i hate those tune up cuz they usually mess something up and are primarily geared to newbies. other than that, i rather do it myself

 

tune up software suck imo. they 'clean' the registry, and afterwards shortcuts and stuff start to fail. they immunize, and the system slows down. i only use windows bundled-in tools. its the best.

 

Just a quick side-question: How safe is the registry cleaner from ccleaner? I know I have some registry left from older programs but I don't wanna screw something up.

 

CCleaner is considered as the safest Registry Scanner/Fixer around.
Yet, it carries some risks too but very little and very rare.
I have it running on 3 of my own machines without any problems.
2 machines of my cousins also running fine with it.
My friends have CCleaner as well and don't have problems with it too.
Basically, CCleaner is extremely safe compared to other Registry Scanners.

 

any point and shoot program that messes with a windows registry without requiring the user to know what the hell they are doing is dangerous.

Hint: If you don't know, from memory, the registry locations a cleaner/tuner is pointing out as 'fixable', don't do it.

Corallary: If you are in the habit of clicking on every 'ok' button your system throws up, you deserve everything that happens to your machine.

 

cCleaner registry cleaning is safe. It also offers you the choice of backing up previous registry BEFORE the cleaning. And if you are still being concerned, there is always the secure proven tool called "create a restore point".

cheers ...

 

Well, I'm not ur if 100% safe, if there wasn't some abstract scanning software from HP.

I agree that CCleaner ispossibly one of the safest registry cleaners.

And the obvious suggestion given before - check every entry.
In most cases however, from Vista onwards a registry cleaner isn't required.
And if n doubt - better leave an entry in peace.

 

For me, i do not use them, i reinstall from a backup once a month. I find this is the best way to stay as clutter free as you can.

 

Ccleaner is very safe to use.
Registry entries will be forming even in Vista and Win7 when installing/removing programs.
The only reason I utilize it, is to effectively keep the registry clean of entries left by other programs that are useless.

It likely will not affect the speed of the system, but for the sake of having a clean and orderly registry (for the most part), it's fine.

Throughout it's use across numerous computers, I haven't seen CCleaner or TuneUP to cause instabilities with the OS and/or brick it.

It's also completely unnecessary and likely wearing down your hard drive.

 

Well, the OS may be fine but what if the programme isn't?

I know back on XP if you used a registry cleaner it broke some HP scansoftware in a way that only a clean instal could fix the problem - I have no idea how and why, but that wa the case.
The OS itself was fine, as was oter software.

I think a later newer version would work again, but still...

If a registry cleaner breaks any software you will be unhappy even is your OS is fine...

 

There's a point in any registry cleaner, start-up cleaner where you have to decide what stays and what has to go. At this point you'll have to know what every process does before you make a decision. Restore point is not 100% safe. If Windows has access to it most likely a trojan will find a way into restore. CCleaner and HiJackThis are good tools however I've seen them render useless when a trojan takes over. You'll double click on them and they just won't start. A homemade recovery boot-up disk might prove handy in this situation.