Registry Mechanic Review

Review of Registry Mechanic 8.0 by – PC Tools 
Rating: 4.2/5 stars     Price: $29.95

Registry Mechanic 8.0 by PC Tools Software is a powerful registry cleaner program. It comes with a smooth graphic interface which streamlines the choice in functions. Many users may be familiar with this product through the high profile promotion done on radio and television. As a result, this registry repair tool has gained some market popularity.

One of the features this program has is a system tray real-time monitor, a feature that most other registry tools do not offer. This allows the program to actively monitor for performance checkpoints through the usage day. This feature is not a necessary feature to have, but functions as a marketing selling point for the product.

One feature that Reg Mechanic is missing which other leading registry cleaners have is a Startup Program Manager. This feature allows the user to quickly adjust their system startup programs in order to optimize startup time and RAM memory usage. If you were hoping to find a Startup Program Manager feature in Reg Mechanic, you will need to look elsewhere in this review for a registry repair tool that performs these functions easily and conveniently from outside the Windows system Start function.

Reg Mechanic also includes a system optimizer feature, in addition to its scanning capabilities, which can compact and optimize the registry and assist in optimizing your disk through the running of a defragmentation program in the event that you have no program running in the background monitoring this function. (Special Note: Heavy users often utilize a program like Diskeeper to monitor and take care of real-time disk defrag duties. This program works in the background and has a set-it-and-forget-it type feature so that you do not have to stop and manually run a defrag operation once every so often. An extremely useful program for heavy users.)

As far as the business end of Registry Mechanic is concerned, there are mostly only programs that equal its performance but few that outstrip its scanning proficiency. It not only does a more than adequate job of scanning and removing orphaned references in your Windows registry, it in addition even lets you know the priority of the references so that if you wish you can tweak which to remove and which to retain.

Although in a head to head test, we found that a program such as Registry Fix – which does not identify and remove as many references as Reg Mechanic does – will actually do an effective job of identifing the most necessary of references needing removal and will keep your system equally clean of performance slowing invalid entries.

Of course, like other top registry repair tools, Registry Mechanic automatically creates a backup of your Windows registry with each repair. You have the option to remove or keep these backups as you deem necessary. (Special Note: Personal experience has proven that most backups can be safely removed thus providing more disk storage space, as in over three years of useage, we have never had to restore our registry with any of these backups. But then, we stay on top of registry optimization needs on a daily rather than weekly basis.)

One of the positive features of this program is that it's easy to use and to understand from the graphic interface. Whether you need a status report, to begin a scan sequence, set a restore point, or check your settings, Reg Mechanic allows you to perform these functions quickly and easily with the click of a mouse. 

Registry Mechanic will work with most any Windows operating system: Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP and Vista. It comes with unlimited free upgrades and email technical support for one year. After that, you're on your own. But you won't need to be concerned about this as Reg Mechanic does such a thorough job that you should experience no problems.

Pricewise, Registry Mechanic can compete with any program out in the market. At $29.95, it is an excellent value for the money. You won't go wrong purchasing this program. It is among the most thorough of registry cleaners that we have tested and reviewed, and you can be assured of its dependability.

Review updated 8 August, 2008