Glary Utilities

[Ghosth]

Very nice comprehensive set of XP tools, your choice to do 1 click let it do things automatically, or jump in and get your hands dirty.  http://www.glaryutilities.com/download.htm

Clean up and Repair has Disk cleaner, registry cleaner, shortcut fixer, and Uninstall manager.
Optimize has Startup manager, memory optimiser, context menu manager, and registry defrag.
Privacy & Security has tracks eraser, file shredder, file undelete, file encrypter /decrypter
Files & folders has Disk Analysis, Dup files finder, Empty folder finder, File splitter and joiner
System tools has process manager, IE assistant to manage add-ons and restore hijacked settings, plus all the windows standard tools.

What makes this so sweet is that if you find an entry you don't know, or understand. You can right click, "google it" and it will take you to a page with a full description of the entry/process along with other users opinions. Really helps show you what to leave be, and what can be disabled, killed, etc.

Great tool for cleaning up computers that have gotten fat and full of junk.

Ohh and did I mention that the basic version is free, no limited time.
This one gets 5 stars from me. Total thumbs up.

[Fulmar]

I like when I clicked download it took me to 2 different sites first before it led me to Cnet to download it.
EDIT:  Also note that even if you uncheck "Add the Ask.com toolbar etc." it still installs it on your system, just doesn't default it to your browser.

Otherwise it seems pretty simple.  It claimed to fix 4000+ registry things and the process viewer/editor is kind of handy as it tells you a little more about the process than just the standard Task manager in windows.

[wabbit]

I've been using their registry repair for almost a year, and it seems to work pretty good.

Haven't had a need to mess with the other suite programs though



Wabb

[Chalenge]

Works with Vista too.

[drdeathx]

Ccleaner all I have to say.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I have never noticed any performance improvement from a registry repair, anyone else? 

[Chalenge]

I have never noticed any performance improvement from a registry repair, anyone else? 

Yes but only after letting a registry go without cleaning for more then a year with frequent install/uninstalls of various types of software and changes in file type associations.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Yes but only after letting a registry go without cleaning for more then a year with frequent install/uninstalls of various types of software and changes in file type associations.

After a year of installing crap on and off the box registry cleaning wont do diddly doo because half of your system dll's have been replaced by the applications own versions. Yes, the arch sin of Windows programming. Only way to really restore the situation is a full reinstall. Of course registry repair can do something minor but the bottom problem will remain.

So in the end either you don't install all the crap in the world to your computer (the only way to go especially if you do work on the box) or regularly reinstall OS. Anything else is a path of diminishing returns.

[Ghosth]

Registry cleaning won't make a huge impact, long term it will keep you running smoother IMO.

The real stars of this set of utilities are the startup and process managers.
Not really aimed for high end power users like you guys. But awesome for someone who needs to clean up his machine and doesn't really know how. Or what he can disable safely and what he can't.

I did see a little improvement in windows boot time. Not sure where exactly it came from but I'm not complaining.