Okay to defrag Windows registry on an SSD?

De fragmenting is ok anyway, just not useful. Zero seek times makes the concept redundant, so all you're doing is writing to the drive for no reason. Don't bother.
 
No, it isn't. Either you're moving data around on the drive, which is defragmenting, and the above applies. Or the software you have in mind is deleting parts from the registry/moving them around, in which case I recommend not running it. Either way, don't do this.

Registry cleaning programs are not a very good idea.
 
They are, if you use a good one to stop software rot (but that's for another thread as it's a controversial topic). I'll pass on this. Thanks for the advice Jon.
 
You may well be right. The perspective I have is that if the user can't go into the registry and clean parts themselves, and they let a program hack away as it, they don't have a hope in hell of fixing things when they go wrong. So I just reinstall occasionally, as I can't do much in regedit myself.

No worries man, sorry if I sounded harsh.
 
I'm like Jon and don't use these types of utils. When my system has problems I can't resolve myself - I reinstall - it doesn't take long, especially if I have an image.

Anyway, what does the program do? Is it deleting redundant registry items, and cleaning it up? Or is it physically defragging the registry on your disk? Sometimes the vendors of these apps mix and match terms, and maybe they've called it a defragger when it's more of a cleaner? I dunno :?

If the former, and you find it useful I'd continue using it. If the latter then as per Jon, it's just extra writes for little beneft.
 


Here is a preview of what the program is like. I check the files before it deletes them and unselect any I'm skeptical about. It's a good program for tweaking context menus. It can delete redundant registry items, and cleanin them up. There was just an option saying

"Over time a bloated registry with a lot of empty space in it can slow down the boot time as well as performance as a whole. This program will rebuild and re-index your registry to eliminate structural mistakes and corruption. After defragmentation your registry will acuire linear structure which will reduce application response time and registry access."

I thought that's a no-go on an SSD right? Also I wondered why MS doesn't have that kinda feature built in already. Is the registry one file or is it made up of lots of different files maybe text files. I might be okay to defrag it if it's one file and working inside it?? I have no idea. I'm really just trying to keep this install clean because I'm tired of re-formatting all the time and I'm gonna try and keep it going more then 4 months.
 
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No expert, but looking at that it just appears to be tidying up your registry and deleting temp files etc. The rebuilding and re-indexing quote seems to suggest it's just getting rid of the junk that Windows will try and load, slowing stuff down, but is no longer needed.

If it works for you, I'd run it. I might be wrong but I don't think it's physically defragging files on your drive. Even if it does, as long as it gives you some benefit I'd run it.

I'm not being too precious about avoiding writes to my SSD. Mine have between 2 and 5 year warranties and i fully expect them to be junk in comparison to what will be around then :)
 
Nate Silvers said:
There was just an option saying

"Over time a bloated registry with a lot of empty space in it can slow down the boot time as well as performance as a whole. This program will rebuild and re-index your registry to eliminate structural mistakes and corruption. After defragmentation your registry will acuire linear structure which will reduce application response time and registry access."
Click to expand...
That sounds simular to what NT Registry Optimizer does:

Similar to Windows 9x/Me, the registry files in an NT-based system
can become fragmented over time, occupying more space on your hard
disk than necessary and decreasing overall performance. You should
use the NTREGOPT utility regularly, but especially after installing
or uninstalling a program, to minimize the size of the registry files
and optimize registry access.

The program works by recreating each registry hive "from scratch",
thus removing any slack space that may be left from previously
modified or deleted keys.

Note that the program does NOT change the contents of the registry in
any way, nor does it physically defrag the registry files on the drive
(as the PageDefrag program from SysInternals does). The optimization
done by NTREGOPT is simply compacting the registry hives to the
minimum size possible.
Click to expand...

Can't speak for the app your using but NTREGOPT doesn`t defrag the registry or change it's contents, in any case the writes will be minimal because the registry isn't that big reletavly speaking. I'd just go for it and not worry about the writes.
 
Okay I did it and your right it was only like 70MB. I ran it again and it said the registry is fine and doesn't need compacting so it appears to have done something. Nice placebo effect :D
 
ChileanLlama said:
No expert, but looking at that it just appears to be tidying up your registry and deleting temp files etc. The rebuilding and re-indexing quote seems to suggest it's just getting rid of the junk that Windows will try and load, slowing stuff down, but is no longer needed.

If it works for you, I'd run it. I might be wrong but I don't think it's physically defragging files on your drive. Even if it does, as long as it gives you some benefit I'd run it.

I'm not being too precious about avoiding writes to my SSD. Mine have between 2 and 5 year warranties and i fully expect them to be junk in comparison to what will be around then :)
Click to expand...


I'm interested in this. One reason I am avoiding SSDs at the moment is minor concern about the issue of constantly writing to it. If you have ever monitored registry activity you will know that it is constantly being written and read - not just once every few secs but many times per second. Perhaps hundreds of times per sec. I wouldn't have thought SSDs wouldn't like this.
 
Ram doesn't care much. Hard drives are written to all the time as well and don't mind, and that's a metal disk spinning at 7200rpm with a magnet being jerked back and forth across the surface. I believe it was considered an issue with the earlier ones, but less of one now.

I don't really expect hard drives to last five years, so I don't mind much if ssds don't either. OCZ are on a 3 year warranty on all their drives, crucial are on 5. In three years time my prized 30gb vertex isn't going to be worth much
 
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