RegSeeker

RegSeeker is free, and alongside a Registry cleaner it has a handful of other Registry-focused utilities. The tools include a keyword finder; a utility to examine installed application Registry entries, assorted histories (for instance, Internet Explorer and Start-menu items), and Startup entries; and a tool to tweak about 24 XP settings.

This Registry cleaner is confusing because its interface sports a strangely labelled 'OK!' button that doesn't really give you a sense of what the program will do next. On the same screen, RegSeeker presents a dangerous option: Auto Clean, which we encourage you to avoid. The screen provides little help or guidance, though RegSeeker warns that to back up the Registry, you must make sure to check the 'Backup before deletion' option, another oddly labelled feature.

RegSeeker has no automatic restore function, either; you'll need to find the saved .reg file yourself and click on it to restore your Registry.

On our production PC, RegSeeker picked up 1108 problems. Unfortunately, the program offered no assistance in determining which of the errors needed deleting; it also didn't provide categories, such as invalid path or shared DLL, to help us decide whether items were safe to delete. RegSeeker isn't for novices. It supports Windows 2000, XP, and Vista.