Registry Cleaners: Few Live Up to Expectations

ORANGE, Calif., Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- An exhaustive six-point study done by the engineers at Macecraft Software has shown serious flaws in a disturbingly high percentage of computer registry cleaning products. The study, released today, is a follow-up to their blockbuster report released in April of 2009.

"Our initial report received so much positive feedback that we decided to redouble our efforts," said Faisal Habib, VP Product Management and spokesperson for Macecraft Software. "We expanded the number of products tested from 31 to 176, and then expanded our testing parameters."

The shocking results revealed that less than twelve percent of the products tested were found to be proficient in at least two of the six performance areas used to measure effectiveness.

"We used the same standards of measurement for all products, and awarded each one a point when they met or exceeded those standards," said Habib, going on to explain that when a product failed to meet the standards, one point was deducted. So exacting were the performance measures that a shocking 156 products scored below the minimally acceptable threshold of two points.

The six aspects of functionality judged to be most critical included a "Fresh Windows Test," in which the engineers used a freshly installed copy of Windows 7, with no updates and no third-party software added. Theoretically, there should be few, if any, registry errors found in such a case, but most of the registry cleaners tested found more than three hundred. "This would lead you to believe that many programs were displaying non-existent errors in an effort to enhance their product's perceived performance, and hence, desirability," Habib pointed out.

A surprising number of registry cleaning products seemed to do more harm than good; failing to detect leftover data from uninstalled software, or failing to detect a sufficient number of invalid file references. In what is referred to as a "Choke Test," the engineers seeded the registry with 20,000 broken file references -- fewer than a dozen products found "most" of the errors.

"Our goal was not to do a marketing study or a product comparison -- our goal was to do a scientific study based on hard data," cautioned Mr. Habib. "Products were not rated on any subjective basis, merely scored in a way that would allow consumers to see beyond the hype and form their own opinions."

The report can be viewed online at: http://www.macecraft.com/registry_cleaner_comparison2010/

A leading provider of Windows registry and maintenance utilities, Macecraft Software is a privately held company. With headquarters in Finland and offices in Europe and the United States, Macecraft produces software that has been recognized by tens of thousands of computer users worldwide, from helpdesk professionals to home users, as well as leading computer magazines. Macecraft Software's flagship product, jv16 PowerTools 2010, is available in all the major languages. For more information, please visit http://www.macecraft.com/.

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SOURCE Macecraft, Inc.