The purpose of registry cleaners are to effectively speed up PC performance by eliminating junk files, optimize the computer's registry by eliminating unused and unnecessary entries, eliminate some common error messages, and remove other unused or "lost" files that your system spends processing power keeping tabs on that could otherwise be used more efficiently.

The challenge we faced when attempting to evaluate the performance of a number of registry cleaners is that there is no set standard or testing methodology available for these programs like there are for the anti virus and anti spyware industries.

As a result, we have devised a testing methodology for registry cleaners that borrows from some of the best practices for testing in the anti spyware and anti virus markets.

One of the most critical components for out testing was to ensure that every registry cleaner was tested on the same PC configuration.

This includes not only the hardware but the software as well. We imaged (made a copy of) a system that was used as a daily use computer (this we felt went a long way to emulating a real world environment in which most people will be using a registry cleaner as oppose to completely clean or unused PCs).

The image was placed on a "lab" of 6 Dell Dimension 1100 desktops pictured below (the larger PC pictured is a file server that was not used in the testing).




Next, each PC was installed with a different registry cleaner. At this point, each registry cleaner was faced with optimizing the performance of a computer with identical hardware and software setups.

As each of our tests was performed and completed the computers were re-imaged back to the original testing states so that each test could begin with a "fresh" PC setup.



The Tests Performed:

Each registry cleaner's performance was judged on six different criteria. They are in no particular order of importance:

• Speed of Registry Scan: How fast a scan is completed and whether system performance was impacted during the scan.
• Number Of Errors Found: How many errors did each program find. It is important to note that detecting more errors does not necessarily mean a registry repair program is better. More details below.
• Actual Changes Made To Registry: How many changes does a program actually make to your computer, is it close to the number of errors detected or is more going on “under the hood” ?
• Common Error Test: Each computer will have a different set of problems and issues that need to be fixed. With this test we manually created error messages and system warnings so we can compare how each program was able to handle specific types or problems and errors resulting in a more 
              comparable: way to judge effectiveness.
• Multiple Scan Test: After a computer is scanned and cleaned, are different “errors“ after each scan? If so, why weren’t they detected the first time and why do they suddenly appear?
• PC, Performance Score: The final test set was to use computer benchmarking software that assigns a “Performance Score” to a computer before and after a registry scan is performed to gauge if any noticeable performance improvements were detected.
  
  
  

In order to perform some of our tests, some special software and utilities were used to help measure the results.

The two main utilities we used were:


Regshot: This program allows us to take before and after snapshots of the computers registry to compare what changed in the registry after a registry scan was performed and the computer cleaned.


Performance Test by Passmark Software: This is a PC performance utility that measures the speed and performance of the various components of your PC and then gives you PC a simple to understand performance score like the one pictured below.


A baseline score was computed for the test PCs and then a final performance score was determined after the registry cleanup was completes to see if an noticeable performance gains were detected.


Finally, screen recording software Camtasia was used to record screen activity to help document the tests performed.  In some cases, we noticed the screen capture software slowed down the PC when the screen recording lasted more than about 10 minutes. 

In these circumstances, we used a camcorder to record the screen activity to eliminate any impact on PC performance from running screen recording software.


 

Below is our new Review rating scale. Hopefully this scale will bring some better understanding to our review scores. Also it makes it a lot harder for a program to be perfect. It is pretty basic and straightforward.


Testing Points - These are the points awarded for the performance of each registry cleaner based on their performance across all of the tests performed.


* 0 - Terrible, Awful, etcc
* 1 - Poor, Not Good, Bad, etc.
* 2 - Mediocre, Okay
* 3 - Good
* 4 - Great, Outstanding, Awesome.
* 5 - Perfect, no flaws, no technical areas of concern, etc.


Technical Points - These are the easier analytical points such as looking at install/setup, customer support, features, usability, etc


* 0 - Terrible, Awful, etc.
* 1 - Poor, Not Good, Bad, etc.
* 2 - Mediocre, Okay
* 3 - Good
* 4 - Great, Outstanding, Awesome!
* 5 - Perfect, no flaws, no acting problems, etc.



The final score will result with the two score charts being added together.

So 10 out of 10 is the maximum and 0 is the worst a program can get.

An Average Score will end with a score in the 6 - 8 range.

A low score will be in the 4 or lower range.