Do I need a registry cleaner and why? It caused so many annoyances.

A quick answer: NO, they can do more damage to your system. But if intend to use one, then try CCleaner.

To add to what Robin mentioned, so called "registry cleaners" can aggravate a situation and take steps we are many times not manually aware of.

 It is better not to resort to such programs if you don't know what is happening with the proposed fix and the registry.
Otherwise, a change to the registry can make a system unbootable by one mistake.

Here are some good discussions:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Are-registry-cleaners-necessary
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099
http://cwsandiego.com/2010/11/16/registry-cleaners-proceed-with-caution/
http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2005/10/02/registry-junk-a-windows-fact-of-life.aspx
http://www.whatthetech.com/2007/11/25/do-i-need-a-registry-cleaner/
http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/2007/04/do-i-need-registry-cleaner.html

If you absolutely must use a registry cleaner, always backup the registry first:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Back-up-the-registry

Thanks for the input and the links. You have validated my feelings on this issue. The tech I argued with didn't like my opinion very much, especially since part of her job was to sell more software to Dell customers and more warranties as well. Oh well, lesson learned. It is unstalled on both laptops and I uninstalled my mcafee and downloaded again. It works fine for now! It really is a rather nice program. I don't remember it being that efficient in years past. It has some good features for someone like me who does not have any pc background whatsoever.  Thanks

You are most welcome. I'm glad we could help. :emotion-1:

I'm just curious about this question because I was told that the CCleaner was a very good application and I should be using it for both the cleaner of files and my registry.  Am I not to use this, can this be more harmful then good?  Should I uninstall it?  What should I do?  I only downloaded and have used this because I was told it was a good program and that I could trust it.  Now from reading this I'm not sure if I should continue using it?  Please advise, thank you.

Hi CDLOUS4,

CCleaner is a very good application for cleaning out temps, cookies, etc..  I do not recommend using the registry cleaning component for the reasons stated above.

I noticed that my McAfee Security Suite has a setting to clean temp files, cookies, it deletes the sent mail in Outlook and then deletes the contents of the deleted folder as well. You can schedule that to run once a week. It came on the laptop.

It was me that recommended you to use ccleaner. I have never experienced any problems in using the registry cleaner within it.

It has actually fixed quite alot of things in my case and I have read through the list it wants to fix (on several cases) and it makes sense. Missing start-up entries (of programs which have been uninstalled) which have been problematic on some of the computers flagging up error messages at startup. Invalid or empty file classes, usually just removes the unknown file extensions not in use. Missing MUI References (of files I have deleted or moved). Missing Shared DDLs.

ccleaner explains exactly what its doing and (in general) flags up a handful of issues (e.g. say 12 in comparison with the programs which want you to buy them and flag up an awful number of over 1000 to panic the user), naturally it depends on the state of your computer. I have never found it doing something it shouldn't do and have found the default registry cleaning settings in ccleaner safe to follow at all times.

I stand by my recommendation for using ccleaner. Reviews for ccleaner are on cnet here, it is one of the highest rated programs there (by users) users are quick to give a program 1 or 2 stars if they break their system with it. 

I will not use any other registry cleaner (I learned the hard way by trying some of them, trials of them anyway/year promotional codes) especially those by uniblue and like as mentioned above, sent my system in complete disarray.

Then I will continue to use it and thank you natakuc4 for your input.  Since I have downloaded and installed it when you said I have not had any issues either and have done the registry cleaner every time I use it and have not had any problems.  I guess everyone has their own opinions of things and if you want to pay for the same kind of programs that you can get for free then I guess they can but I'm with you, if I can get a good program without having to pay for it and it works fine then I use it.  Thank you again for your input, I will continue to use it then.