Free Registry Repair?

This Is An Honest Look At How Free Registry Repairs Are NOT FREE!

Below is an actual screen shot of the results of a “Free Registry Repair” that was not FREE. Notice the highlighted text with the arrow saying: “You can use the Advanced Tools for further analysis.”

This “repair” did nothing for this computer! The object was to sell me the Advanced Tools to clean up my registry. This is from an anti-virus company and I was very disappointed in their false advertising. I was not about to “buy” their NOT Free registry repair software!

Also, notice the amount of time the free registry scan took – 17 minutes?? That is way too long for a scan. I had over 20 minutes “invested” in this free registry fix.. and then found out that I would have to purchase an annual subscription for twice the price of a high quality online registry software!! No, I did not purchase the Advanced Tools. I then checked the computer speed and there was no improvement from what had been done (or not done) to repair the errors.

Above is another shot of the so called – free PC registry repair – and what it found. The program wanted me to click on the ADVANCED TOOLS tab and then pay for the repair. This is very common practice.

Free Scan and Free Download Do Not Mean Free Repair!

A Free Registry Repair Program??

Well this one was not FREE and most of them are not free. The only really free registry repair cleaners available have some questions – more on that on down..

Below is an other scan results on a different computer. Notice the number of errors the registry repair software found. The junk files are large but they don’t cause the problems that errors do. Junk files do consume storage space and need to be remove though. But the condition of this pc was really not that bad compared to so many I’ve seen.

Here is (picture at left) another screen shot of actual scan results from a different pc registry repair scanning. This one is from a fairly average normal computer with significant slow performance issues. Most of the computers I have scanned, or have known of, have had well over a thousand errors in the registry, not to mention junk and other issues.

Our recommended registry optimizer is high quality, safe, up-to-date, and has helped thousands of slow computers. It is not free (the scan is free!) but is inexpensive and guaranteed… if you are not completely satisfied you get your money back no questions asked.. just click below – for the FREE SCAN.

Next look at yet another shot (at right) of a pc with only “35 problems found”. I have included these scan results so you can see that there really are times that registry scans (at least the ones I have used and recommend) do come back with only a few registry errors. I am a skeptic of many online fixes just like I’m sure you are (especially free ones). And I have wondered if the “errors” were real or fabricated by the repair program just to sell me the “fix”.

Free Registry Repair Software

Open Source Software Available To The Public
I saw on a Forum that I use a lot about a “really free” PC registry cleaner repair that is from an open or group contribution project. So I checked out. And I found it to be FREE… really. The only way I could find or reach it though was through websites that were trying to sell be other registry cleaners, anti-spy ware, anti-viruses, etc. These were not free software, and I even went into one web site selling a registry cleaner and repair thinking I was going to the free open source site… very confusing. It was like a MAZE trying to get through the “for sell” stuff to find the “free” stuff. You’ve probably been there too…

Even with my understanding of how so many websites work, I still clicked on that registry cleaner link that, again, said blatantly – FREE REGISTRY REPAIR… but when I got into the website it had such a look of a site that would be asking for my credit card info real soon, that I backed out to the first page. I finally found a link – although a very inconspicuous link – that lead to the real free, open contribution site.

I ran this free computer registry cleaner it did not ask for my credit card before it would repair the errors on the pc I was using… but that is not the whole story either. First, the free pc registry repair software had not been updated for over 6 months, which is a life-time on the Internet (Here is an interesting article on how fast “search” has changed). Also, it did not offer a backup nor did it give me a promise of being able to undo anything that the software did.

I would not have used this software on your computer. I did run it on mine.. but only after doing a backup myself. And the free registry fixer did OK. It found a good many errors and repaired them. I ran my other registry cleaner right behind it and sure enough, it had done a good job (this was not a great test since my computer had a registry cleaner run on it about 2 months earlier). But because of the lack of security and updating, I do not think I will run it again.

Things You Can Do That Are Free – Registry Repair Solutions

First you can run the registry scan. Take advantage of it. It really is free and you do not have to purchase anything to see what condition your PC’s registry is in. You may find that this is not at all where your problem is located.

Not all scans are created equal though. Like the scan in the pictures above, some scans will do more than, or take longer than, a regular registry cleaner type scan. And some will give you more information about the errors that it finds than others. If you use a scan by your virus software (which will probably require an upgrade if you have just the home addition) it can take a long time to run and because it is usually incorporated into the virus scan.

Try Running Your Free Windows Defender

Your Windows Operating System provides a malware and spyware tool that you can use right on your PC. While this is not a free registry repair tool as such, these malicious viruses can cause problems in all areas of your computer. The Windows Defender is easy to use. The program can be found in your Programs from the Start button. If you have never used or turn Windows Defender on before you may have to go to Programs and then Accessories to find it. Simply turn it on and let it scan your PC. There is also information available to help correct any problems that it finds.

Windows Defender has a quick scan that will take only a few minutes. The full scan can take much longer but is also much more apt to find your spyware issues. You may want to plan to run the long scan at night when you do not need to be on your PC.

What To Do If The Registry Is Not The Problem

Here is what we recommend if you find that your computer has very few registry errors but is slower than it should be:

Simple Check 1. Clean up your computer yourself:

This includes (a) Removing any files that you do not need any more such as videos, pictures, documents, etc. by deleting them. (b) Uninstalling any unused and unneeded programs that you have previously used such as printer drivers of old printers or old outdated games. Uninstall them by going to Control Panel and then Programs and following the instructions. (c) After deleting and uninstalling be sure to empty the Trash Bin. See if you PC is any better.

Simple Check 2. See if your PC has enough memory:

This can be done by going to Control Panel and then System. There you will see a listing for Memory or RAM. Generally with Windows 7 or Vista operating systems you should have 2.0 GB (gigabytes) because it takes most of 1gb to just run the operating system itself (for gaming or high capacity programs such as CAD’s you may need 4gb or more). If you are not sure do Check 3.

Simple Check 3. Check if memory is overloaded:

If part of your problem is that your PC is hesitating or freezing and you are not sure about the amount of RAM above – go to Task Manager by right clicking on the bottom desk top tool bar. There you can watch the level or percentage of Physical Memory (RAM) being used. You should test this when the computer first starts up and then with a lot of programs running and internet browsing all at once. If you find the RAM overloaded you can add more, probably yourself. [Wikipedia has a great deal of information on the types of RAM or memory if you'd like to know more about what it does for you computer.. click Here.]

Simple Check 4. How many programs are starting at start up?:

Most of our computer have a lot more programs running than we need. An example of this would be an old virus software that came with our computer but we chose not to use it… it may still be running in the background, starting up when we start the computer, and doing constant updates from the Internet. To see go to the Start button in the left bottom corner of the desktop and type into the search bar “system config”. Now look under the tab “Startup”. Do you see programs that should not be starting with you computer’s startup? It is very common for programs such as Adobe to fire off at startup.. but it doesn’t need to, it will start when you open a program with Adobe any way.

Simple Check 5. Stop unneeded programs running in the background:

You will also notice that the System Configuration has a tab for Services. If you look under it you will see programs that are running in the background (you don’t even know they are running) of your PC. These programs will use up a lot of your memory and capacity as they run. The snip above is an example of an old program that was disabled because it was not used any more. This program, Quickbooks, was starting at startup and updating itself automatically for many months after the program had been assumed stopped. To remove the program completely you should use the Uninstall feature as mentioned above. However, if you think you may want to use it again one day you can just disable it here in the System Config control. It will then be listed here and can be activated again later. The same can be true of programs that you still use but don’t need to be up and running all the time. One example of this would be Itunes… you can always start it when you play a song.

There are some excellent freeware programs available over the Internet for download. But when it comes to a Free Registry Repair, most of the advertisers are not really Free. The scan maybe free and the download maybe free… but the repair is usually not. The word “free” is used in a misleading way.