Computer America and Winferno

Product Review: Power Registry Cleaner v2006.3.0

Since my introduction to the Apple iPod, I have been hooked on Podcasts. In my search for infinite technology news, I stumbled across a little program called “Computer America”. For those of you who don’t know “Computer America” is hosted by “Knight Ridder” columnist Craig Crossman and another gentleman named Carey Holzman. The show is broadcasted from coast to coast weeknights from 10:00 PM to 12:00 midnight EST and as you probably already guessed is all about computers. These nightly shows are also archived for my iPodding pleasure.

To make a long story short, Carey makes an announcement to give the everyday computer user a chance to review some software from companies that appear on the show. So I took that opportunity to send the e-mail that lead me here, typing a review for my Blog.

The software that I bring to you via the Computer America Show is Winferno’s Power Registry Cleaner v2006.3.0. I have broken down the software into 5 sections ranging from “Ease of Installation” to “Does this software do what it claims to do?”

Never having a reason to install a registry cleaner before, mainly because of not trusting them, I didn’t know what expect. I ran the .exe. file and did the “One Finger Install” only because there were no other options except “Cancel”. The only thing I can say is that if you find the enter key you get past the installation.

So now that I made it past the installation I figure most users that would purchase this would only do one thing and that is start cleaning my registry. Leaving all the default settings alone, I decide to scan my systems. One thing I did like was that the software, by default creates a system restore point. When the scan was complete it returned several hundred errors.

Now it’s time to clean those errors, which was also very easy to do, since there is a huge button at the bottom that says “Clean Now”. After it was done cleaning it produces a registry report to let you know what it has cleaned. Looking at this report I noticed that 140 of my errors were not cleaned. “Why?” I asked. Was it because it returns false positives or was it because those registry files were in use some way or other? That still remains a mystery.

This brings me to the help menu. Not much to comment on here except that it is pretty descriptive and answers most questions.

Does it do what it claims to do? To answer this I went to Winferno’s website and clicked on the link to take me to the Registry Cleaner product page, which I might add was easy to navigate. I scroll down about half way and see a header labeled “Benefits”. As I read down the list I thought to myself it was kind of misleading. “Fixes current errors and stabilizes your PC” was the first item. My thought is if it couldn’t clean 140 errors then how is this going to stabilize my PC. I read past a couple more claims and feel myself become angered. Why am I feeling angered? Easy, because some of these claims I don’t feel could be solved by a registry cleaner. Then I see a headline that states “Improves PC responsiveness and start up time. Finally something I can relate to, since before installing and running this software my PC takes roughly 25 seconds to boot from Windows splash screen to my desktop. Needless to say my PC now takes 40-45 seconds to boot.

Another thing I find misleading is on the product page is an insert that has links for “Reviews and Awards”. If this product receives awards, then it must be me that don’t see the benefit. So I click to see what people are saying about Power Registry Cleaner, but everything mentioned is about other Winferno products. I understand this is a new product and there may not be any comments as of yet, but don’t mislead users into thinking it was meant for the Power Registry Cleaner.

Overall I would probably not recommend this product to my customers, not because it’s problematic, but because I didn’t see any real benefit that it helped my system run smoother. Save your $30 and use it for another month of broadband internet, you’ll get better use out of that