A registry cleaner is a class of utility software designed for the Microsoft Windows operating system, whose purpose is to remove redundant items from the Windows Registry.
Registry cleaners seem to no longer be supported by Microsoft, despite originally having made and distributed their own registry cleaner under the name of RegClean. Currently, vendors of registry cleaners claim that they are useful to repair inconsistencies arising from manual changes to applications, especially COM-based programs.
The effectiveness of Registry cleaners is a controversial topic.[1] The issue is further clouded by the fact that malware and scareware are often associated with utilities of this type.[2]