Reg Organizer
Reviewed October, 2010
| What’s It Do?
Find keys related to a specific application, view their content directly from Windows Explorer, edit the Registry files, export/import/copy them, and uninstall redundant applications completely. Defrag or compress the Registry to improve performance, preview Registry files before adding them to the system, inspect/edit/disable programs that automatically start with computer bootup, and more. Does it do what it promises? Reviewer 1 - Mark Snyder: No, in part by omission. The Web site claims that Reg Organizer is . . . designed to edit, clean and maintain registry [sic], fix errors in the system, and improve performance. While it does edit, clean, and maintain the Registry, there is no mention of how safely it does those tasks. Furthermore, I could find no feature in the application that "fixed" system errors generally, and as for improving performance there are some "tweaks" offered that will actually degrade performance. Reviewer 2 - Name Withheld By Request: Reg Organizer promises to deliver a feature-rich application that will help tame the Windows Registry. While I did enjoy some clever features, I found the functions provided to be a mixed bag. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: Yes, to a large extent. The claims made on the Web site are not wrapped in the hyperbole of most other Registry cleaning programs. However, in addition to doing what similar products do, it provides a strong assortment of tools to manage the Registry that can be used by relative beginners and more advanced users alike. Was it easy to install? Reviewer 1 - Mark Snyder: Yes. It is a surprisingly small 2.33 MB download that took only six seconds to download on a reasonably fast broadband connection and only required an equally small 4.2MB of disc space. Installation was fast and smooth using the program's own Application Wizard. It required only accepting the default prompts. There were no confusing questions or technical terminology. In fact, it was one of the simplest and easiest installations I have seen in a long time. Best of all, there was no ubiquitous third party software so many developers are now trying to piggyback in their downloads. It did install an icon on my desktop without my permission, something to which I object; however, this is a minor point. The registration was a simple copy and paste. The EULA has to be the shortest and most easily understood licensing agreement I have seen, containing none of the liability legalese that seems to have become standard fare in most EULAs today. There is, however, an apparent omission in the licensing agreement regarding usage which I will address below. And, this program uninstalled easily, leaving only a few fragments in the Registry. Reviewer 2 - Name Withheld By Request: I found the installation process to be unremarkable and that is a good thing. When installing a new program it's often best if the installation process is boring with no surprises. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: Yes. It took only a few seconds to download on a fast Internet connection.. It is a standard Windows Installation that allowed me to place the program where I wanted in a sub-directory I chose. The EULA (End Users Licence Agreement) is one of the shortest and simplest I have seen, with very little of the legalese that makes most other agreements (perhaps intentionally) unreadable. Registration is a simple copy-and-paste operation. When there is an update, the new version can be installed it over the current one without user intervention. Good points. Reviewer 1 - Mark Snyder: There is a long standing debate as to whether or not Registry cleaners and compactors/defragmenters do any good or serve any purpose. Many experts consider them to be little more than hokum while others, such as I, praise their value. I have regularly use Registry cleaners on all of my computers and, in fact, have three that I use as a part of my routine maintenance. That is not to say that all Registry cleaners are created equally. There are some that are, quite frankly, a scam, creating false entries just to appear that they are doing something. There are others that are unsafe because they provide no backup and thus no way to rollback changes that they make, or restore Registry entries that they remove. There are also those that are too aggressive and thus unsafe, erroneously removing Registry entries needed by the system or applications, thus crippling one's system. Reg Organizer, while very aggressive, is not without some positives: 
It offers both a beginner and advanced mode of operation.
It provides a backup of the Registry and an ability to
restore or rollback any changes made.
It is lightweight and fast, using approximately 14MB of
RAM and scanning the Registry for need repairs in under two
minutes.
It identifies the errors found and allows the user to
open each found item in the Registry editor to identify it
further if needed.
The GUI (Graphic User Interface) is reasonably easy to
use with a degree of granularity through the use of a subset of
screens within each feature set.
There is a help file as well as link to technical support
and a support forum from within the application.
There is a 30-day trial before purchasing.In addition to the above, there is a feature set that includes a Registry editor, Registry find-and-replace tool, Registry search tool, Registry compactor, disk cleaner, install/uninstall tracker, and a set of Windows "tweaks" to system settings. Each of the added features performed as described. Reviewer 2: Name Withheld By Request: I enjoyed the Registry search and replace feature which was quite speedy. Equally useful were the optional context menu items, one of which allow the user to right-click a .reg file to remove it from the Registry just as easily as the double-click on the .reg file added it in the first place. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: The first time I ran Reg Organizer, it did an "Express Check", which included a scan of the Registry and file system for unneeded files and shortcuts. This took less than 30 seconds and there is an option to run the feature in the background. A screen reports on the condition of three main categories: the Registry Logical Structure (which will lead to the Registry Cleaner module), the Registry Physical Structure (the Registry Optimize module) and the File System State (the Disk Cleanup module). The Registry Cleaner is very thorough, allowing one to see the sections of the Registry that are being scanned as the process goes through its various steps, with a summary of the problems that Reg Organizer has found. Invalid entries can be shown, if desired. Entries can be selected to Show This Item in Registry Editor, Add the Selected Item to the Ignore List or Ignore List. After entries have been examined, Reg Organizer can be instructed to "Fix" problems. And will then show what has been done, item-by-item, and the program will do an automatic backup of the corrected entries. Most other Registry cleanup programs will give an option to backup; this one does it without asking. I prefer this approach. It is an important safety feature. which otherwise could be inadvertently missed. A small message informs where the backups can be found and how to restore them if necessary. In the Disk Cleaner (cleaning useless files), the program selects a series of defaults, but allows the user to go through and check or uncheck possible selections. Problem files are displayed and deleted files are placed in the Recycle Bin as a precaution. One of the most powerful tools in Reg Organizer is Registry Search and Replace. I have installed quite a few useless programs on my machine, and in spite of efforts at cleaning them up, some have left bits and pieces here and there. This is where the Search feature comes in handy. I can put in the name of one of these programs and Reg Organizer will do a fast search of the complete Registry. In the subsequent list of the results that it has found I can right-click on any of the items in the list. Reg Organizer gives me a set of choices, including "Show This Item in the Registry Editor", "Change Item", "Remove Item from the Registry", "Remove Item from the List", and a very handy "Save List As..." Being able to save the list as a text file means that I can take some time to investigate the risks and/or benefits in activating one of the choices offered. The Applications Uninstaller module monitors installation of new program, taking a snapshot of one's system, providing a Change Log which can be saved, and identifying changes in the Registry, files system, .ini file changes, and other system file changes. These are very complete records which can be used when programs are uninstalled. current status was and to navigate the various areas of the program to control what and when it was doing. Weak points. Reviewer 1 - Mark Snyder: As mentioned above, Reg Organizer tended to fall into the group of Registry cleaners I find to be on the aggressive side of the spectrum and that can be a real weakness if too aggressive. I found Reg Organizer to be too aggressive for all but the most advanced user. This and other weaknesses in the program are:
Too aggressive/Unsafe. I first cleaned my Registry with
three well known and respected Registry cleaners: Registry
Mechanic, jv 16 Power Tools, and CCleaner which run the gamut
from very aggressive to least aggressive. Even after my Registry
showed no further "errors," Reg Organizer found an additional
486 problems. Being skeptical, I did not allow Reg Organizer to
automatically fix these errors, and I switched to the Advance
Mode so that I could examine each of these entries. Nearly all
of these so-called errors were deep within the Windows
system-must of them in the highly critical System 32 area of
Windows. I immediately ran the scanner a second time to verify
the first scan and this time it reported 497 errors. It found 11
more errors just by running it a second time. The errors are not
listed by degree of harm or by application, which makes it
mandatory to literally search through each of the nearly 500
errors to ascertain their legitimacy! I did not allow the
application to repair any of these errors as I recognized many
of them as being necessary to the functioning of the Windows
system. I did remove those errors I knew to be safe in order to
test the backup/rollback function. It did work as described and
restored these two entries; however, had I removed all 497
errors I am not confident I could have rebooted my computer and
thus access the program to perform a rollback. I would also add
that all of the errors were checked for deletion by default so
had I allowed Reg Organizer to automatically repair these
"errors," I could well have been left with a large paperweight
sitting on my desk.
I was unable to close the Registry Editor screen, even
after closing and re-opening the program or rebooting my
computer. I could open a subsequent Registry Editor screen and
close it but the original remained.
There were small icons on the Registry Editor screen,
seemingly with no purpose. These could not be identified by
either the Help file or a mouse-over.
While the GUI was generally user-friendly, many of the
screens were confusing and non-intuitive.
The install/uninstall tracker feature, allowing one to
return the computer to an "as before" state when uninstalling
programs, was cumbersome and difficult to use. It required
saving the download to a file and then opening it to install
only after Reg Organizer is opened to the appropriate feature.
Many of the "tweaks" in the performance section were
questionable as to their reasonableness, such as the tweak Do
not record events in the system log. This is a critical file for
use in determining system errors for the user or for a computer
repair professional to determine a possible problem. As for
increasing performance, the tweak to Clear the page file at shut
down will have the opposite effect and will, in fact, increase
the time it takes one's computer to shut down.
The EULA is somewhat fraudulent by omission in that it
makes no mention of any restriction as to use of the license,
i.e. whether it can be used on more than one computer and/or by
more than one user. It is only by reading the page to purchase
the program that one finds it is a "single use only" license.
The Help file is sparse at best and only provides minimal
help; technical support is by email only and provides no turn
around time, or by a support forum which has 64 posts divided
among two programs and with answers to posted questions taking
as long as 15 days to be answered. My email question to support
was never answered.
Finally, support as well as updates is offered for only
one year. After one year one would presumably need to purchase
the program again if support is desired. I think $40 for a
program that offers only a single year of support is
unconscionable and would, if for no other reason, prevent me
from recommending this program.There are many Registry cleaners on the market, many free and most less expensive than this one that will do a better and safer job of cleaning one's Registry. There are also many excellent disk cleaners that are free, most considering the highly praised CCleaner being the best. And as for "tweaks," there are none offered in this program that you cannot be easily found by Googling "Windows Tweaks". Reviewer 2 - Name Withheld By Request: The most glaring weakness was immediately obvious the first time I launched the program. When I first starting working with this program the first and foremost thing I wanted to do was perform a complete backup of the Registry before I started my experimentation with the developer's idea of optimization. This function is missing, which is odd since the developer added other functions that are not really Registry-related, such as the applications uninstaller and unneeded file cleanup. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: During several months of using Reg Organizer, I found the Registry Optimizer module to be problematic. It insists on having all programs closed, including anti-virus software. I have many programs and services that run all the time, some in the background, and many that load when the computer boots up and some, but not all, appear in the System Tray. I have a small program that will shut down most of these programs and, without that program, doing it manually, one-by-one, is very tedious. If Reg Organizer really requires this, it should have a shut-down-all-programs feature built into it. Of course, Reg Organizer should request the user's permission to do this. If the user declines, Registry Optimizer's actions could be deferred until the computer is shut down later. Although Reg Organizer does automatic backups in certain modules, I did not find a feature where I could invoke a Registry Backup. This would come in handy, for example, if I wish to do some editing in the Registry, either with the Registry Editor or using the Search and Replace module. I would also want to specify where to do the backup and be able to make some notes or comments attached to that backup so I could then readily restore the Registry in event of problems. Other Comments Reviewer 1 - Mark Snyder: I do not want to suggest that the developer has anything but the best of intentions with this software; but, aside from the relatively small glitches which could easily be corrected, this software needs to offer various levels of aggressiveness for the user to choose from, as well as a way of rating those errors it finds. I would suggest that, to appeal to the broadest market and offer the safety necessary, this program should exclude Windows operating system files from its scan, as many Registry cleaners do. Users have been reporting this over-aggressiveness on the Internet since version 2 and apparently this has gone unheeded. Additionally, support is critical among cost-conscious consumers, especially with maintenance applications that can be dangerous if used improperly. To charge a premium for a software program, unlimited support must be provided. I spend my dollars where they purchase the best customer and technical support, and I encourage readers to do likewise. Reviewer 2 - Name Withheld By Request: I was surprised when I entered my registration code I was given a countdown timer as to how many days free updates would be available. It seems that the only place one can discover this program is subscription-ware is in a FAQ in the online forum which is not linked from the program's Web site. Additionally, since Reg Organizer is very aggressive in listing what it feels should be removed, I encourage everyone to use the advanced options to review what will be removed beforehand. I found things in the list that were vital to the operation of some of my programs and I had to prevent Reg Organizer from impairing or disabling these. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: I have used quite a number of Registry cleaners, most of them claiming to achieve miraculous levels of speed and stability. Quite honestly, I have never been able to detect any change in either speed or stability, so I approached this review with a bit of a skepticism. In the case of Reg Organizer, though, these grandiose claims are not made, instead simply stating that that Reg Organizer will improve performance. I do not have a reliable means of measuring performance improvements, but maintenance of the Registry is a worthwhile housekeeping task. The System Express Check will indicate whether or not a more thorough treatment is advisable. Even though it may find "a small number of problems", it will not drag one into the complete process, as most other Registry Cleaning programs will do by default. The additional modules, particularly the Registry Editor and Search functions and the Program Uninstaller make this program well worthwhile. There are a few good Uninstaller programs (and many poor ones). I would rate Reg Organizer among one of the best. I often downloaded and install programs, and some make a mess of things. Reg Organizer will reduce the number of unrecoverable messes that I am prone to make. Will you continue to use it? Reviewer 1 - Mark Snyder: No. It is dangerous as currently designed. Reviewer 2 - Name Withheld By Request: I will definitely continue to use this program. It's not the perfect tool, but it is quite powerful in some. Like most powerful tools, one must use them with care. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: Yes, I have added it to the repertoire of useful tools to keep on hand. |
OPERATING SYSTEMS USED IN THIS REVIEW
Windows 7, XP Pro, XP Home and Media Center
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