Does Norton Internet Security include a registry cleaner or do I need another tool (Reg Cure, Registry Mechanic or such)? If NIS has a registry cleaner, how do I use it?
No Norton Internet Security does NOT have a registery cleaner and it is debatable on the benefits of it:
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registry_cleaner#Advantages for a good read.
Hello Wolfman613
Welcome to the Norton Community Forum
Registry cleaners can be dangerous in the hands of the unexperienced. One wrong deletion and programs may not work or worse yet, windows can be messed up and you may end up with a computer which won't boot up. Some registry cleaners will conflict with NIS also.
Some people use ccleaner on occasion, but only parts of it I believe. I myself don't use it.
Hi Folks,
To offer a little different viewpoint on this. As stated registry cleaners in the hands of the inexperienced can cause more problems than they solve, up to and including system unable to boot, etc.
On the other hand there are valid uses for them such as cleaning up left over entries which can sometimes cause other applications not to install properly or at all. CCleaner among others, including Norton's own Norton Utilities can help with this kind of thing.
Like others I don't recommend daily use of registry utilties but to point out that there can in fact be perfectly legitimate and valid reasons for using them.
Another legitimate use is for registry defrag, also offered by Norton Utilities. But this is something which does not have to be run often nor should it be but if your system has been running for a long time with lots of program installs and uninstalls, etc a good registry defrag can make a difference. I went through that myself where I had upgraded all the way from Windows 95, to ME to XP to Vista and finally to Windows 7. Registry defrag resulted in a 30 second improvement in boot up time.
Caveat: It is very important to always create a fresh restore point PRIOR to running any software utility to clean or defrag your registry. Even better and safer is to have an Imaging backup program like Norton Ghost where you always have a fairly fresh image backup of your system.
If you are uncomfortable with exercising the proper precautions prior to using such utility then you should not use it but with the proper precautions as noted it can be done safely.
As an added footnote I recommend creating a fresh restore point even prior to installing software and especially drivers.
Also as yet an addtional note. If you ever find yourself needing to do a system restore, you will need to temporarilly disable Norton Tamper Protection in Misc. Settings. Failure to do this will result in system restore failing.
Wolfman613, in case you were not aware of it. Symantec took over PC Tools who made Registry Mechanic and that functionality is now branded into Norton Utilities.
Allen