Myth – “It is safe to use Microsoft’s RegClean.”

Reality – “The RegClean utility is no longer supported by Microsoft and has been removed from all Microsoft download sites. This was done for legitimate compatibility reasons with certain applications and Operating Systems. The RegClean utility was originally supplied with Microsoft Visual Basic version 4.0 for Windows. The last version of RegClean was 4.1a (build 7364.1) released on March 13, 1998 (RegClean.exe is dated December 30, 1997). During this time the latest Operating Systems were Windows 95 OSR2.1 and Windows NT 4.0. Windows 98 was not released until June 25, 1998. Compatibility with any Operating System besides Windows 95 and NT 4.0 was never substantiated, especially Windows XP. It is very dangerous to run a Registry Cleaner that was never certified to run on your Operating System since removing the wrong Registry Keys can break Applications and the Operating System.

My View – Most Registry cleaners are next to useless, and/or may cause more harm than good. If you most run a registry cleaner, I would suggest using CCleaner (Crap Cleaner). While the name is over the top, the results are gosh darn good, and it seems to be fairly conservative, and not too aggressive. Run the scan multiple times, and make sure to backup the registry / changes, just in case.