I cannot.

 

These boards are full of posts from those who ran into serious problems using general registry cleaners, free or otherwise.

 

I'm sure you will receive many opinions in answer to your question. If you want the considered opinions of many experts on this, I would suggest you read the following:

 

Do I Need a Registry Cleaner?
http://www.whatthetech.com/2007/11/25/do-i-need-a-registry-cleaner/

 

AUMHA Discussion: Should I Use a Registry Cleaner?
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099

       Thanks for the info,had uninstalled alot of software and wanted to make sure it was all removed.

http://www.ccleaner.com/

 

Ccleaner has worked without any troubles for me too. I'd say it's probably one of the "less aggressive" ones available.

 

 

I've been using Registry Smart right along and I haven't had any issues with this either.  Maybe it's the people's systems and not the software itself.

You can run a registry cleaner right from this Microsoft site (You trust Microsoft to do it right, don't you? ;-)   )

 

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-US/center/cleanup.htm

 

Per the warnings already stated, I still cross my fingers when I use it.

The fact that knowledgeable users are able to use various registry cleaners safely does not convince me that they confer any benefit, or are safe for the average user. I have yet to see any evidence that wholescale registry cleaning improves performance, despite unsubstantiated claims. I'm not talking about specific registry edits that address a specific problem.

 

Yes, I also use and find CCleaner useful. Never found a need to use its registry cleaning module though. From what I've read, it is less aggressive, as mentioned above, and at least it prompts the user to back up any changes.

 

As far as trusting Microsoft goes to "do it right" with Live Onecare, well... maybe not. MS was also the author of RegClean, an earlier registry editor. Didn't take long for MS to drop support for it... with good reason.

 

The experts (all MS-MVPs) in the links in my first post stated:
"Please consider yourself lucky to have gotten away with running the onecare registry cleaner without problems" -KB
"Steer well-clear of Windows Live OneCare's Cleanup scan, ... as well as all other "Registry cleaners". -Robear Dyer
"So take it to heart when people here tell you that you shouldn't use registry cleaners." -Manny Carvalho
"... there are times that a fast registry editor with search is needed to fix a single issue under Expert hands. There is no justification for the regular use of automated registry cleaning tools; and as the results above show, they are of dubious merit as the "fix" for even one-off problems that need solving." -Bill Castner