Registry Gear
License:
Shareware
Price:
$39.95
Download
Size: 1.5
MB
Operating
System:
Windows 98, ME,
2000, 2003, XP, Windows
Registry Gear styles itself as the “next
generation of
Windows registry cleaning and optimization tool.” The tool
scans the registry of your Windows system to detect and repair various
registry errors. It also eliminates invalid entries from the registry, as
well as invalid references and links, which helps in optimizing the
performance of your PC. Developers of the tool further claim that their
application is easy to use, even by novices, as it is geared to run
automatically without any intervention.
Registry Gear supports a number of Windows platforms,
such as Windows 98, ME, 2000, 2003,
XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The tool is also compatible with various
Windows Vista editions including Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista
Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows
Vista Ultimate. The tool works on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.
Registry Gear is available as a free demo version, as
well as a fully paid version. The free trial version scans and detects the
errors in the registry and only fixes Windows Fonts, Windows Software
Settings and Virtual Device Services. You need to purchase the fully paid
version to remove all detected errors. The tool costs $39.95 and its
download size is 1.5 MB.
Computers get overloaded with unwanted data and entries
with usage, and to return them to their pristine health you need to clean
them of this congestion. People with knowledge of computers prefer cleaning
the registry of their systems manually, but our technical team always
recommends that this be done through a good registry cleaning application,
such as Registry Gear.
Downloading and Installation
Being a small application, downloading and installing
Registry Gear does not take much time. The tool has a grey-colored
interface, which is quite to the point. The Start screen has five tabs on
top—Start Page (opens by default), Scan & Fix, Registry Defrag, Settings,
and Help & About. Below the tabs you will see four circles. The first three
circles display information about registry scan—number of errors found,
number of issues cleaned, and the status of your computer’s health. The
fourth circle is the Scan button. Clicking this button will start the
registry scan. The lower part of the Start screen displays the currently
created backups of your registry.
The lower part of the screen has three buttons that
enable you to restore selected backup, delete selected backup and create a
full backup of the registry.
Scanning & Fix
There are 20 items listed for scanning the registry.
You have the choice of selecting the ones you wish to scan and fix. These
items are:
·
Invalid ActiveX,
OLE, COM
·
Application Paths
·
Windows Fonts
·
Sound and AppEvents
·
Help and Resource
·
Shared DLLs
·
Startup Programs
·
Add/Remove Programs
·
File Extensions
·
Windows Start Menus
·
User Software
settings
·
Browser Helper
Objects (BHO)
·
History Lists
·
Shortcut Files
·
Windows Firewall
Programs
·
Virtual Devices and
Services
·
Empty Registry Keys
·
IE Context Menu
·
IE Toolbar Buttons
·
Invalid Files Paths
Our test team recommends that for the first scan and
repair you select all the options. Later, you may select the items you wish
to re-scan for whatever reasons you may have. After opting to scan all items
by clicking on the ‘Select all scan items’ button on the Scan & Fix screen,
hit the ‘Start Scan’ button to begin the scan. After the scanning process is
over, the results of the scan will be displayed. The total errors, followed
by the errors detected in the individual items are displayed.
Features Of Registry Gear Application
Registry Gear offers several useful features:
·
Registry Defrag – Whenever a registry is repaired or programs are
uninstalled, a lot of unwanted data and entries are removed from it. This,
at times, creates gaps in the places from where the registry entries are
removed. These gaps prevent the registry size from going down even after the
cleanup. To trim the registry, you need to de-fragment it. This can be
easily done using the Registry Defrag feature of Registry Gear. Defragging
the registry, enables quicker registry access and faster response time.
·
Backup
And Restore – Using the backup feature, you can backup the registry
prior to scan and repair, and ‘Restore’ will allow you to return the
registry to its previous state. Both, the Backup and the Restore options are
provided on the main ‘Start Page’ of the interface. Backups can be created
by hitting the ‘Create Full Backup’ button and you can restore any of the
backups by clicking on the ‘Restore Selected’ button.
·
Task
Scheduling – You can schedule the time you wish the registry scan to
take place and it will be done automatically, without further intervention
from you.
·
Ignore
List - You may not wish to clean certain keys and values in the registry
for whatever reasons. You have the option of adding these entries in the
Ignore List to bypass them during the cleaning process. Look for ‘Ignore
Keys’ and ‘Ignore Values’ buttons on the Settings page.
· Updates - You can manually check for Registry Gear updates, or set the application to do it automatically. You will be informed every time a new update is available.
The General Setting option on the Settings page allows
you to opt for certain useful tasks to be carried out. These options are:
·
Exclude all references to removable media,
such as, floppy diskette and CD drive(s)
·
Create a System Restore Point before cleaning
registry.
·
Automatically repair items after scanning.
·
Prompt before repair (not apply for
automatically repair).
·
Shutdown Registry Gear after repair.
·
Check for Registry Gear updates
automatically.
·
Minimize Registry Gear to tray.
Our Verdict
Our technical team is quite impressed by this
application. We find that this application can be used by the beginners and
non-techies easily.
The De-fragmentation and the Backup/Restore features
work efficiently. Being a small application, it does not take up much system
resources. Your system keeps on running smoothly.
We recommend Registry Gear registry cleaning application.
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