Registry Mechanic Review — Does It Stack Up Against the Hype?

Almost anywhere you go on the internet or on radio, you will see or hear ads about Registry Mechanic. It's one of the most advertised registry cleaners on the market. If you ask, most computer users have either seen or heard an ad for this product, proclaiming its ability to repair Windows registries. Yet, the question is: does this utility deliver the goods?

Almost anywhere you go on the internet or on radio, you can see or hear ads about Registry Mechanic. It's one of the most advertised registry utilities on the market. If you ask, most computer users have either seen or heard an ad for this product, proclaiming its ability to clean up Windows registries. Put out by PC Tools, Registry Mechanic is one of the most recognized names in registry cleaners.

But how does this utility actually stack up against other industry leaders in its field? That's what this review of Registry Mechanic will attempt to answer.

One immediately noticeable plus is that it grades the files it targets for repair according to a priority grading scheme of low, medium, or high. This lets the user know which entries are more important to repair. It can also monitor your system's registry performance in real time from the system tray, in order to automatically prevent the build up of invalid files.

Reg Mechanic's DeepScan feature is quick and very thorough. On our test machine, it discovered a large amount of junk that had been left behind from both installation and uninstall applications, as well as recent internet activity. It found 380 errors from a variety of sources: Shared DLL, Start up, Add remove programs, Temp files/Shortcuts, Custom Controls, and DeepScan.

The system optimizer in Registry Mechanic includes five components: optimization, processes, performance, drive space, and system information. While it may be useful to have these elements all in one place, it might be argued that this part of the utility is window dressing. The optimization component offers to simply open the Windows Defrag application, while the processes section shows a carbon copy of the processes content from within Windows Task Manager.

When it comes to helping the user eliminate unnecessary programs from the boot start up sequence in order to speed this procedure up, Reg Mechanic, unlike other high end utilities in its class, lacks a feature that easily allows the user to manage their system's startup menu.

Another convenience tool that is lacking in Registry Mechanic is an individual error undo tool, which means that the user would have to restore all his data back to a specific point in time in order to restore one lost registry item. Other high end programs make a backup of the items being removed, which then can be easily restored should the system act up at the removal of something important.

Overall, though, Registry Mechanic does a more than adequate job of cleaning the registry, which after all is why people buy this registry cleaner. It contains an excellent online help files section and its graphic interface is easy to follow and to use. And while it does provide good value for the money, this utility does lack many features that come standard on comparable registry cleaners.

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