Registry Mechanic Review

Registry Mechanic has gained a lot of popularity in the past year and for good reason. Firstly, it is not a very heavy download. The size of the downloaded installer usually hangs around 4.3 MB which is pretty decent for any application. The installation process is also pretty easy, and all that the user has to do, is push a few obvious buttons.

When you launch the application, the first thing that catches your eye is the clean interface. Put simply, it is pleasing to the eye. Anyone with just about any kind of knowledge with common Windows software can navigate around the software easily. The main functionality of the software resides in the 'Scan your Registry' option. What it does is that it cleans your registry of useless/old entries, making the system a little healthier. The results I saw were good. The software found out a lot of useless entries which were skipped by other scanners. But this does not mean that the scanner will remove unsafe entries. The system remains stable as ever. The results of the scanning process are quite detailed and a very useful addition is the 'Priority’ information related to each of the useless entry. Repairing these is as easy as clicking on 'Repair'. You also have the option of individually deselecting entries you want to keep.

There is another option - 'Optimize your System' which are supposed to be registry tweaks that improve system performance. However I’m a little uneasy since very few details are given of the process. However there is an option to roll back the tweaks that are applied. The third and final functionality is 'Compact your Registry' which does exactly what it says. Generally I've noticed, the option results in a ~5% compaction. Before the analysis is done, the software allows you to make a System Restore point in case anything goes wrong. The analysis process is decently fast and takes usually about 45 seconds though this may vary, and a reboot is required for the changes to take place.