registry

Protect your registry with MJ Registry Watch

Mark Jacob's MJ Registry Watcher is a very simple yet effective tool for automatically monitoring your Windows Registry for changes (especially unauthorized changes) and alerting you to the change, and even preventing it from happening. It polls your registry and files every few seconds, looking for changes to your startup files, registry keys and values, and other places that Trojans and rootkits target. RegWatcher also hooks the registry, which means it intercepts commands and blocks those that pose a threat, simultaneously issuing an audible alert.

RegWatcher is portable freeware that needs no installation. The download includes a lot of … Read more

Tidy up your registry with Abyssal Registry Cleaner

Abyssal Registry Cleaner is a freeware registry cleaner that offers several advantages, chief among them safety and simplicity. Like other registry cleaners, it scans your system's Windows registry for broken, invalid, and corrupt entries and deletes all or some of them, as you choose. And, like other free registry cleaners we've tried, it tends to emphasize speed and safety over deep cleaning. It automatically backs up your registry before it deletes any files, making it possible to restore the previous version if you need to.

Abyssal Registry Cleaner's user interface resembles many similar tools, with large, colorful … Read more

Tweak your registry with Vit Registry Fix Free

Vit Registry Fix Free is one of the nicer freeware registry tools we've tried, and one of the more thorough in its actions, too. It creates automatic backups of your registry before it changes anything, so it's safe for beginners.

Vit removes a variety of unnecessary entries from your registry. That usually makes your system boot more quickly and run faster. Vit also packs in some useful extras, including a Registry Optimizer and Disk Cleaner.

Vit Registry Fix has a clean and attractive interface that is a welcome break from the overstyled GUIs so common these days. Before … Read more

Don't expect much from Genuine Registry Doctor

Registry cleaners always make us a little nervous; too often they contain entirely too little information about what they're doing and the potential risks involved in tinkering with the registry. Occasionally we encounter registry cleaners that do a particularly good job of helping users make wise decisions about their use, but unfortunately Genuine Registry Doctor is not such a program.

Genuine Registry Doctor opened and immediately began scanning before we had a chance to even realize what was going on. When the scan was done it listed the number of problems found in each of four categories--Registry Clean, Privacy … Read more

These .xxx domains are ready to hook up

If you always fancied your very own .xxx domain name, it's not too late: plenty of real estate in the Internet's official red light district remains unclaimed, CNET has learned.

WhiteHouse.xxx and NASA.xxx are reserved, but USDOJ.xxx, Treasury.xxx, DARPA.xxx, and USEmbassy.xxx could be yours for as low as $100 a year.

Many school names remain unclaimed. Stanford.xxx, Harvard.xxx, and Princeton.xxx may be off-limits, but Brynmawr.xxx and LoyolaCollege.xxx are available. Others, including Cornell.xxx and UPenn.xxx have been earmarked for auction. (Playboy, which recently published a "… Read more

JetBoost and JetClean clear for takeoff

BlueSprig, one of the newer PC utility developers on the block, is today pushing out full versions of its JetBoost and JetClean apps, both of which launched in beta earlier this year.

Tipping the scales at around 3MB each, JetBoost and JetClean are meant to be lightweight, easy-to-use utilities that can speed up and clean out your computer with minimal input.

At a click, JetBoost scans your PC and selectively halts active processes and services in order to boost your performance. You can choose to optimize your computer's performance for work or gaming, or you can manually halt processes … Read more

SlimCleaner 2.0 crams in even more social tools

A bucket-load of community data, Facebook-styled "like" and "dislike" of user comments, and a pile of interface tweaks that make the program easier to use capstone SlimCleaner 2.0 (download), available exclusively today from Download.com.

The update to its sophomore version makes some big changes from version 1.6's collection of robust tools. There's a registry cleaner, for sweeping up all the detritus left by unruly programs after you uninstall them, a faster scanning engine, and recommendations for similar programs. The recommendation engine appears to be accurate, so if you're looking at … Read more

Man behind XXX domains says they'll help parents protect kids

After years of being debated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( ICANN), .XXX was approved earlier this year and is now a reality. Approximately 100,000 XXX domains are going live on Tuesday.

The new top level domains (TLD) are not without controversy. Some free speech advocates worry that there will be governments that require the use of XXX for adult content, effectively forcing such sites into a virtual red-light district but others, including some religious groups, worry that it will legitimize or even sanction pornography.

Stuart Lawley, the founder and CEO of ICM Registry, the company … Read more

The Little Registry Cleaner that could

A decent registry cleaner can help you keep your computer clean, safe, and running at its best, but with so many available, how do you choose? First off, any program that makes changes to the registry should do no harm. It should have a scheduler and other performance options, and a good Help file. Make it open-source freeware and you have our attention. Little Registry Cleaner provides safe, effective registry cleaning with automatic registry backups. It requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0, which you can download and install from Little Registry Cleaner's setup wizard, if your system lacks it.… Read more