Options

FAQ
Keyboard shortcuts
Tips & Tricks
Info for Experts


Introduction
With RegCleaner, you can easily remove obsolete registry entries from software that you may have deleted ages ago.

What RegCleaner does ?
RegCleaner deletes registry entries.
You can delete DLLs with the Shared DLLs feature,
and shortcut files with the StartUp feature.
You don´t even have to know what registry actually is to be able
to use RegCleaner.

Why to use RegCleaner ?
Because it's a good idea to keep the registry as clean as possible. Here are some examples to help you to understand how RegCleaner can truly help you:

1. Say you've accidentally destroyed a nice shareware program what has a 30-day trial period. Later on, when you notice that it's been destroyed, you try reinstalling it, only to find out that you can't, because the program thinks that you're just trying to get another 30 days. If you first remove the program's registry entries, however, you may very well be able to reinstall the software and recover your trial period again.

2. You've found that your favorite program is an older version, and you want to download the latest whiz-bang version. The program, however, doesn't provide any uninstall utility, so you simply destroy its files and cross your fingers. But, as fate would have it, when you try to install the latest version, you see a dialog box such as this:
"Please uninstall the old version of this program before attempting to run this installation".

Great, now what?

Hang on, you simply remove the old program's registry entries with RegCleaner! Now you can continue installing the newer program version that you wanted to have originally (I'm using the word "programs", but most of these examples will apply equally to games and other software as well.)

Note: Some programs register filetypes (such as: '.Txt'), so when you've deleted the program, Windows reports an error when you try to run files that are registered to that program. RegCleaner removes (when possible) all of the registrations done by that program. Now when you try to run files that were registered to it, Windows will bring up a dialog box and ask what program you now want to use with this particular filetype. You can then select a new association.

Note that in some cases, which programs have made particular filetype registrations isn't written into the registry. In those cases, RegCleaner won't help, but it's not RegCleaner's fault, it's simply the way the programs were written.

Very Important to know
If you are not 100% sure that you have the original disk(s) for all items of software on your computer, then don't remove anything. In theory at least, it's not dangerous if you remove registry entries of most software that you may be using, since likely you'll just lose your settings and some options, but there's always the risk that the software won't work at all any more as well.

Also, if you see some 'product' or 'author' like '!"#WFDSf"!4e2e2', and you know that it's in the software section by accident, DO NOT remove it It´s most likely some (stupid) program´s (stupid) copy protection.
E.g. Re-Volt and F-Secure´s virusscanners do these.

Note: You must agree to the Disclaimer on the top of this page to use RegCleaner.
If you disagree delete the software immediately.

Remove software´s registry entries
RegCleaner will search the whole registry and remove every entry that
is created by the software you wish to remove.
Of course, it´s impossible to remove all the entries, but RegCleaner
removes all entries possible. The main theme is security, there´s
no risk whatsoever to use RegCleaner. That is, if you use it right.
And I would like to point out that if you somehow manage to
break your computer with RegCleaner, Its not my fault.
Read the Disclaimer for more info.

Note: You can't remove any Microsoft entries, since you would have to be real computer guru to you know if an item was an intregal part of the Windows Graphic Interface and if Windows could possibly operate without it.

StartUp list
Here´s listed every program that is started from the registry and from start menu at the
same time as windows starts. These program can easily use
many percents of your computer´s memory and decrease performance.
Keep this list as empty as possible.

UnInstall menu
Here´s listed all the program that are available for uninstallation through Windows.
You can access this list also from Control Panel > Add/Remove programs.
The main idea behind this feature is that you can remove the junk
from the Add/Remove programs list. Like if you have deleted
some program rather than really uninstalling it. It´s uninstal
stuff is still in that Add/Remove programs list. So with
RegCleaner you can remove them from there.
And you can also Uninstall programs with the 'uninstall' button.

FileTypes
Here´s listed every file type or file extension. If you E.g. have tried some
program and it have registered some filetypes (That means that you
can access those files with a double click. I.e., you can view .Txt files
with notepad by double clicking such file).
If you have found that program useless and uninstalled it, but
some files are still marked like "Some programs some file".
With this feature of RegCleaner you can remove those unneeded file extensions.

Note: This feature should not work under Windows95. I.e. I have been reported that it doesn´t work,
but I haven´t been able to confirm this myself. Try it.

New files
Try to click you Desktop with the right mouse button, select 'New'.
There a few files that you can create. Now, with RegCleaner you
can remove some filetypes from that list.

Note: E.g. WinZip and Adobe Photoshop add their files ('Winzip file' and 'Adobe Photoshop image')
to that list automatically. If you remove them, they add them in there again.
Note 2: This feature should not work under Windows95. I.e. I have been reported that it doesn´t work,
but I haven´t been able to confirm this myself. Try it.

Shell Extensions
Here´s a list of all the file associations. E.g. If you right-click a mp3 file, there´s some special
items on the popup menu, with RegCleaner you can remove those extra commands you don´t need.
E.g. If you don´t even have a printer you don´t need ability to print some files with a right-click.

Shared DLLs
With this feature you can delete unused shared files. Here´s only listed those files that are not used
by windows or another programs, so they should be safe to delete. And note, RegCleaner will
delete the file and the registry entrie and them both are backed up

Backups
Here´s the list of current backups.
If you can´t see the sections of text i.e. the lines are too long, you can right-click the
item you want to see better and a popup will show it. Click the popup to hide it.
This works also in other sections, but there you have to only move the mouse over
the popup to make it go away.

Note: The backups ain´t removed even after you have restored them, if you
want to delete some backups, you will have to delete them by clicking the 'Remove selected'
button. It´s safer this way.

Remove .Reg files
You can remove .Reg files from the registry with this feature.
This can be done within the RegCleaner (File>Remove .Regs>Remove...)
or by enabling the shell extension (File>Remove .Regs>Enable shell extension).
If you choose to enable the shell extension, you can remove .Reg files from the registry
with right-click menu. Just right-click a .Reg file and select 'remove from registry'.
You can afterwards remove the shell extension.

Command-line
RegCleaner supports these command-line parameters: 'Automatic clean', 'Manual clean', 'no backups' and 'one backup file'.
E.g. RegCleanr.exe /automatic clean /one backup file start´s automatic cleaning and RegCleaner makes only one backup file.
Note: you can use 'no backups' only with 'manual clean'.