Registry
Booster 2 follows in the footsteps of the previous version.
It's a comprehensive maintenance tool designed specifically
to clean out, maintain and optimize the Windows registry.
The registry is a complex database of every single program,
program file, operating system file, service and operating
system function, device, device driver and configuration
that's installed, connected to and/or running on your PC.
When you install a new program or piece of hardware, the
installation routine automatically places entries in specific
sections of the registry file so that the operating system
can recognize the new program or hardware and allow it to
operate correctly, provide it with appropriate access to
various parts of the system, allow it to access the Internet
as needed and allow other programs to interact with it. Any
time a program or device is reconfigured, updated or uninstalled,
the routine in that program responsible for making changes
to the registry is supposed to do just that. Unfortunately,
many programs leave disconnected and invalid registry entries
behind. Such entries often lead nowhere—to empty folders,
programs and their background services which no longer exist,
file associations with software that has been uninstalled,
pointers to devices and drivers which are no longer connected
and so on—leaving the operating system to waste time
looking for something in several different places or for
something that no longer exists, thereby causing system startup
delays, program launch delays, program shutdown delays, and
many other problems. Obviously, the Windows registry is both
a blessing and a curse. As junk accumulates in the registry,
your PC will gradually feel slower and slower. But if you
can find a stable, safe and trustworthy utility capable of
cleaning and maintaining your registry without mucking things
up, you may find that your old PC will begin to operate faster
and faster.
That's what happened to my reliable old workstation. Registry Booster
2, being fully compatible with Windows Vista, was able to track down
precisely 851 problems scattered throughout various sections of the
registry. The previous version of Registry Booster had nailed a little
over 1,000 problems, but just didn't offer sufficient knowledge of Windows
Vista to find the rest of the aggravations. I'm delighted to report
that my favorite workstation has a new lease on life. I'll probably
replace it anyway early in 2008, but until then I've got a Windows Vista
Ultimate workstation running nicely on three year old hardware that
just happens to be extremely stable and reliable. I'm now running Registry
Booster 2 once per week. Good for me. Good for Registry Booster 2.
Cons: There's a noticeably long delay before the progress/status
indicator appears onscreen after clicking the Repair button,
most noticeable on older PCs with single core processors.
The delay may give new users the impression that nothing
is happening. The configuration settings can be used to
exclude certain parts of the registry from maintenance scans, but
the Help system does not provide any instructions or guidance
whatsoever for this feature. As a matter of fact—our
typically enthusiastic approval of Uniblue Systems products
notwithstanding—the Registry Booster 2 Help system
is exceedingly thin on detail and guidance in general and
is also not context sensitive. No matter what part of Registry
Booster you're looking at, clicking the Help button simply
launches the Help system at the last tab you were in. It's
really not up to Uniblue's usual standards.
Pros: Registry Booster
2 is an important key to successfully running Windows Vista on older,
compatible hardware. It is to Windows Vista what a major overhaul
is to an older car. Registry Booster 2 creates a more
stable operating environment for all of the software,
hardware and driver components which form your system.
Obviously, running Registry Booster 2 on machines which
are otherwise well maintained and which, almost as important,
boast massive amounts of RAM and one of the newer breed
of dual core CPUs, won't show the sorts of radical performance
and stability gains I achieved on my older workstation.
But that's the point—there are tens of millions of
'older' workstations out there. If you're running Windows
2000, XP or Vista on any of them, you owe it to your sanity
to try Registry Booster 2. The main interface displays status
of other installed Uniblue maintenance products including
SpeedUpMyPC and Spy Eraser. The software is easy to use—two
or three clicks in a very simple interface are all that's
usually needed to maintain a PC. A quick pass on separate
Intel Core2Duo Windows XP and Core2Duo Windows Vista Home
Premium test machines helped stabilize and speed them up
as well. The Vista machine in particular benefited from
the maintenance. Highly recommended.
