On 22 Nov 2013, "Trevor" wrote in rec.audio.pro:

"Nil" wrote in message
...

Windows registry rarely if ever needs "cleaning". Unless you have
some specific problem, trying to do so is at best a waste of time
and at worst catastrophically destructive. There is a shady
industry that sells so-called "registry cleaning" software but
what they're really selling is snake oil.

Not strictly true. Perhaps what you mean is cleaning the registry
is often pointless even though it can and usually does fill up
with lots of unnecessary crap over time.

That's almost what I mean, but not quite. Windows registry is an
optimized database, and the unnecessary crap that accumulates there
impacts performance so little as to be irrelevant. "Cleaning" it out
doesn't improve anything except one's urge to be neat. At the same
time, you can easily screw the registry up royally. There's great risk
and little or no benefit.

For those who know what they are doing, no need to pay any money
at all to clean the registry. For those who don't, probably best
to leave it alone. In any case reinstalling Windows just to clean
the registry is even more pointless IMO.

Agreed.