Security Stronghold

License: Shareware

Price: $29.95

Operating System: Windows 98,  2000,  2003,  XP, and Vista

Download Size: 1.40 MB

Developer: securitystronghold.com

Security Stronghold Registry Cleaner is a registry cleaning application developed by securitystronghold.com, with head quarters in Astrakhan, Russia. The tool helps you fix issues related to files, keys, and other data that is detrimental to the functioning of your computer’s registry. According to its developers Security Stronghold registry cleaner has the ability to safely and reliably search and do away with a variety of registry problems, such as invalid shortcuts, corrupted COM/ActiveX, corrupted BHO entries, wrong paths, and other unwanted and obsolete data, among many others.

Application Information

Security Stronghold Registry Cleaner has a very small file size of 1.40 MB and is compatible with Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP, and different versions of Windows Vista. The tool is also compatible with Windows 7 (Beta).

This registry cleaning application comes with a free trial version as well as a fully paid version. The paid version costs a little under $30. It is advisable that you first try out the free version on your system to get the feel of the application. This also allows you to have a look at the features this application offers, and whether you are comfortable with it.

Refund Policy

The developers of Security Stronghold Registry Cleaner offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee along with a conditional 60 days money back guarantee. Refund can be made if:

• The cleaning application does not detect or fix the problems this application is supposed to. Their support team will analyze the problem and try to find a solution which may take at least a week.
• The application is incompatible and is unable to solve some major technical problems. Their support team will require at least a week to try to solve the problems.
• You may duplicate purchase of the product by mistake.

Refund will not be made if you purchase this product without first trying out its trial version, and then later finding its incompatibility with other programs in your system. Refund, of course, will be made if the trial version works but the full paid version does not, even after the intervention of their support team.

Installation and Scanning

Our technical team decided to check this cleaning application. Downloading and installing this product is easy and went through without any problems. However, the interface leaves much to be desired and does not look like a professional job. There are a couple of spelling mistakes, such as ‘Pathes’ for ‘Paths.’ Of course, this does not mean that it is a bad application, but erodes a bit of confidence in the product.

There are just four options on the left of the interface:

• Scan Your System
• Restore Changes
• Customize Scan
• Buy Now

There are a number of areas you can scan and have the option of selecting them from a list provided. These include:

• Software HKEY­_LOCAL_MACHINE Entries
• Software HKEY­_CURRENT_USER Entries
• Software HKEY­_USERS Entries
• Abandoned Software
• File Associations
• History
• Shared DLLs
• Invalid Sound Entries
• COM & ActiveX entries
• Application Paths
• Internet Explorer Browser Helper Objects
• Start Menu Entries
• Add/Remove Entries

As always, we recommend that you scan all the listed areas, as leaving out a few areas from the scan can cause certain obsolete and invalid information to be left behind in the registry.

To start the scan, select the areas you want to fix and then click Scan Your System option on the right.

During the progress of the scan the number of errors detected is displayed against the areas selected. Once the scan is over, you can fix the problems by clicking the ‘Fix’ option. The tool also allows you to fix only selected entries and let the other detected issues unchanged in the registry.

Additional Features

Although not very nice in look and feel, the Security Stronghold Registry Cleaner comprises some useful features to help you fix various PC issues. These include:

• The Internet Explorer Browser Helper Objects (BHO) scan feature checks your Internet Explorer for harmful and no longer required BHOs. Getting rid of unwanted BHO plug-ins enable you to experience faster browsing speeds. This also helps you in getting rid of any malicious BHO that might have plugged-in to your Internet Explorer without your consent.
• The tool allows you to customize the areas you wish to scan. However, if you are scanning for the first time or if you are not looking for a specific type of issues, it is highly recommended that you scan all the areas in your registry for problems. Customized scanning is usually helpful when you wish to re-scan a particular area and need not go for a full scan.
• Security Stronghold Registry Cleaner ships with a good backup option. All good registry cleaning applications have it. A backup of your registry is made each time you use the tool to fix detected errors. Having a backup allows you to restore the previous registry in case something goes wrong. Things do go wrong during scan, or you may inadvertently perform a wrong action that may adversely affect your registry.

Our Verdict

The tool has a plain interface and a lot can be done to make it look better and more professional.

However, the scanning feature of the tool is quite powerful. The tool is designed to check your registry for problems in 21 different areas and fix them efficiently. After fixing our test PC by using this tool, we found a considerable improvement in the system performance.

Our test team did not notice any disk optimizing feature or registry de-fragmentation utility in Security Stronghold Registry Cleaner. De-fragmentation is one important feature any good registry cleaning application usually comes with. This feature helps remove the gaps in the registry caused by removal of invalid entries and obsolete data. The feature also helps in compressing the registry size and optimizes it for high-speed performance.

Security Stronghold Registry Cleaner’s backup feature does a good job of restoring the registry to its prior position. The conditional refund policy is a good one, at least for the promoters of this product. It helps avoid users from trying to get their money back through fraudulent means.

Considering that the Security Stronghold Registry Cleaner has very few features, we reserve our right to openly endorse this product, though it is a good one.

We leave the choice to the prospective users.

Useful Links:

http://www.securitystronghold.com/

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