Registry Cleaners and Spyware Removers: comparing Brand X vs Brand Y

Infopackets Reader Dirk J. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

I'm a bit confused about the outcome of scans performed by 'Registry Mechanic' and 'RegSeeker'. RegSeeker always finds more than 50 'problems' even if Registry Mechanic has done it's job and corrected the 'problems' it found. Does this mean that a program like RegSeeker is more thorough than Registry Mechanic -- or does it just work in a different way? It reminds me of identical differences in the outcome of spy scans by Spybot and AdAware. Thank you for being a such a beacon in the IT jungle. "

My response:

I get asked similar questions like this all the time.

Unfortunately, there isn't a cut-and-dry answer to your question, but consider the following:

Understandably, most folks don't know the answers to these questions.

As I've mentioned a few times before -- in this case, what you should do is review the reputation of the company / program in question through research on the Internet. And having said that: consider the source of the reviews that you read (example: is it no-name web site with a skewed review designed to make visitors lean favorably toward a certain product?).

As for RegSeeker vs. Registry Mechanic: Registry Mechanic has an outstanding reputation and is highly regarded among the Internet community -- and there are plenty of users and reputable web states that agree. Something else you might want to consider is the fact that RegSeeker is freeware, while Registry Mechanic is shareware. That doesn't necessarily imply that RegSeeker is inferior to Registry Mechanic; however, Registry Mechanic is developed by a company that pays its employees to improve the product on a regular basis so that it can compete with other (similar) products in the marketplace.

On a side note: you can read an in-depth review on Registry Mechanic online our site.