Registry First Aid Review
Why should I pay for this when there are better free tools?
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You can buy it at RegNow for that price.
One thing it asked, which I don't see in a vast number of other software applications which aim to fix registry errors, was whether I wanted to fix only the errors generated by the current user or all users. I consider that to be an advanced feature.
Seems fast at first, but it took a long time to compile a complete list. Mind you there was a warning about this before pressing the start button. Help screen launched on startup and seemed a bit awkward as it was in the way of the main screen until I closed it.
The registry trial only allowed me to fix 16 errors when I had over 400 to fix. The full version also allowed me to remove the icon from the system tray whereas the trial version did not.
It had some pretty advanced features like a filter to set certain keys which ought not to be touched (handy when you need to skirt around settings for removable drives which might not always be included in a system check) and a risk level, which I found a little obscure. There were three classifications: 1) Safe (if the key was safe, why was it mentioned?) and 2) Caution (with a black on yellow exclamation warning triangle) and 3) Extreme Caution which obviously pointed to errors which would make life changing differences to your computer if checked!
Another very nice touch was the prompt to do a complete registry backup before starting. (This could be unchecked, but the default was checked.)
Certainly the other language support was outstanding with 21 languages, including English supported by just a keystroke. I chose French, Spanish, German and Italian and the language was changed instantly along with a startup key as soon as I clicked on the languages. The only curious thing I noticed about this was the English (and in fact in all other languages) description of the Spanish language, described as Espanol-Spanish. But since I am not reviewing the language capability here, I will just comment that I didn't see any errors in translation here. I think I was most impressed with the additional support which was included without having to add to the install after the initial one.
The program used between 15 and 21 Mbytes of system memory and was fairly heavy on the CPU, but ran with no problems under Windows XP Professional SP2.
I can see that this application has been written very well, but I cannot see what more it does than free software which cleans registry errors faster and with less choices to make. Granted, this package is for an advanced user who would want to be able to control exactly what should be fixed or not as the case may be. But to the average user, there are easier packages out there which cost nothing.