When you browse the internet, you may come across a popup message like the message above telling you that your security software is somehow lacking and should be updated. Don't be fooled. For some reason, registry cleaners have taken on a life of their own with claims from everything to optimizing your computer to removing spyware and viruses. The truth is, these registry cleaners do nothing in the way of real security. But they convince people that they are missing out, and are vulnerable to attacks and all kinds of other dubious claims, while in fact, these programs are themselves sometimes part of a spyware installation package that does much more harm than good. But the recent appearance of these falsely advertised "security" programs has snagged more than a few unknowing customers into thinking they had problems and needed to buy the registry scanner for real protection. Let's take a look at registry scanners to find out some cold hard facts about what they are and what they are not.
What registry scanners are
Let's first take a look at what registry scanners actually do. Many people love these programs because they help clean up leftover registry junk. When a program uninstalls (McAfee and Norton products are notorious bad about this) sometimes items are left behind in the system registry. You might find thousands of leftover unused keys, values and data left from programs that were removed years ago. Is this a problem? Not typically. Problems can occur if you have removed a program for example, and there is a leftover registry value in a startup location. This would tell Windows to automatically start the program when you boot up your computer, but if the program has been removed, then the computer will try to start it, but nothing will happen. Usually this is followed by an error message indicating that a program could not be started. The most annoying part of this is that once you shut down the computer and start it up again, you will continue to get the same annoying message saying that the program could not start. This is where registry cleaners might come in handy. They scan through your system registry for items like this that have been left behind by programs that were removed. In this situation, registry scanners can be a good thing. They simply remove leftover junk.
What registry scanners are NOT
While surfing the internet, you run across a website like this one from misleading security application RegAuditor which claims that "Registry Auditor gives you a quick look at the Adware, malware and spyware installed on your computer including parasites and trojans." At the top of their webpage it says in big bold letters "Registry Adware - Spyware Scanner" What the average computer user will think is that this is a security program that will find and eliminate unwanted viruses and spyware. But, this scanner does not look for viruses, spyware or any sort of adware on your computer. it is not a security program and will not find any spyware or adware at all. Instead, what it does is look for leftover junk in the system registry. In fact, our in-house testing of this product RegAuditor found that it didn't detect even 1 single adware trace on a heavily infected test system. The claim that a registry cleaner is a spyware, adware or even virus scanner is equivalent to saying that by washing your car you are giving it a tune-up. The claim simply isn't true. These registry scanners clean leftovers (some better than others; we recommend Registry Polish) but they do not scan for adware, spyware or viruses.How they install themselves
To best understand how many of these registry scanners seem to suddenly "appear" on your computer, I refer you back to the post on social engineering and how popup messages and the like fool people into thinking they are infected and must "click here to fix problems detected" and other misleading ways. From this popup message, you might think your system is about to crash and that you have major problems. But these are the types of methods used to lure people into installing the software on their computers. Often, the software comes bundled with other unwanted items including spyware and/or other rogue applications. The best advice at this point if you see one of these popup messages and are unsure about it's authenticity to do some research on the program name on Google ask a computer technician to assist you.Conclusion
While registry scanners definitely have their uses, removing malware is not one of them. Don't be fooled into downloading and purchasing a spyware application in hopes of it cleaning, repairing or somehow saving your computer from the brink of utter destruction. Taking out the trash is not remodeling your home, and neither are registry scanners security applications.
