Programs often add extraneous information to the Windows Registry, or fail to remove their settings when they are uninstalled.

Registry Repair promises to clean up your computer's registry by removing old and unused settings, thus potentially making the computer run faster and with fewer problems.

Installation was painless, and the program connected to the internet to update itself immediately. A full scan took just under five minutes and uncovered 1,450 ‘problems’.

Annoyingly, the program doesn’t give you any details of how serious these problems are. Having fixed them, we saw no ill effects but no real speed increase either.

Registry Repair is probably best suited to those having serious problems with their PCs. As always, it’s worth backing up the Registry before starting ­ and the program can do this itself.

There's a time-limited trial version available on the StompSoft website if the £20 puts you off.

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Rating: 4
Price: £23