Review: Auslogics Registry Defrag
Don Bradbury tries out stage two of Auslogics' Windows optimisation suite
| Product | Registry Defrag |
|---|---|
| Company | Auslogics |
| Web | www.auslogics.com |
| Price | Free |
| We like | Fast; minimally invasive; informative; reputation for reliability |
| We don't like | Pay-for BoostSpeed advert, which you can choose to ignore |
| Rating | 9/10 |
| Requirements | Windows 7, Vista, XP, and 2000 |
We reported some months ago on Australian company Auslogics' Disk Defrag, a fast hard drive defragmentation program that you can use instead of the painfully slow Windows defrag utility.
Recently we've been trying out their Registry Defrag program. Registry defragging is something you might run every two or three months in order to put all sections of the Registry into an appropriate state for optimum loading and running speeds.
The Registry is an integral part of Windows, whichever flavour you use, but over time, with constant expansion and adjustment by the addition or removal of applications, this most important text file becomes 'fragmented' and slower than it need be.
Downloadable from the author's website, the Registry Defrag installation executable runs quickly and is easily configured. The program itself takes very little time to run, and the benefits, while not generally dramatic, offer faster loading of, and quicker access to the Registry, not to mention reduced liability to corruption because everything is arranged how it's meant to be, not how sometimes sloppy uninstall apps may inefficiently leave it.
After an initial investigation run, a report of the anticipated benefits is produced:
You can then opt to either back out or carry on with a defrag run during the next reboot, and a report will be produced showing the Registry size and access speed improvements. The Registry is held in memory while Windows runs, so the way to defrag it is while Windows is not running, ie during the reboot.
The Registry is divided into what are known as 'Hives' or sections, and the number of these is reported, together with the time it took to carry out the defrag run, and the start and finish size in Kilobytes.
A further report section shows the actual 'Hives' which have been optimised, by name, plus the start and finish size of each.
In conclusion
As is always recommended in such cases as this, the Windows Registry should be backup up before starting to defragment it. To do that you should create a Restore Point, suitably labelled. Most will also fully back up their data drives, just to be on the safe side. As we've pointed out before, you have to fully back up at some point so it might as well be now. If anything should go awry, due to a power cut or something critically interruptive, the original Registry, or the drives, can be reinstated.
The Auslogics Registry Defrag program has been found to be fast and efficient and it has gained a reputation for being reliable, so it's recommended for occasional use.
