Software and Hardware Reviews

UNIBLUE's Registry Booster Review

by Don Marks

Uniblue's Registry Booster is, in my opinion, a very good product. The installation was easy and went well. There were two minor surprises during the installation, neither of which was of any real consequence. The first surprise was immediately after the installation; Registry Booster launched automatically, scanned the system registry, and displayed the number of errors and/or problems within the registry. This was not a major problem as the user will most likely initiate the software after installation anyway.

The second surprise occurred when I attempted to allow the software to correct these problems. Selecting the repair registry button generated the option to make a backup of the registry before repairs at the user's discretion. However, after creating a backup of the system registry, only 15 of the original 93 errors/problems were fixed. A message was displayed in the software that gave the option to purchase or register the product. However, in this respect, register the product meant to enter the registration keys to unlock the full potential of the software. Uniblue should require the product be registered, or identify it as a trial version before any executions.

The product appears to work as described. After running Registry Booster on my system I did notice an improvement during startup and some performance improvements while performing other operations. To say that it absolutely functioned as stated in the literature, a user must be totally knowledgeable of the system registry and how it works. It would then require a review of the registry both before and after the software has executed to see of all problems were identified and fixed to determine if Registry Booster truly performed as stated.

Registry Booster is very simple and easy to use and to set up for automatic operations. I particularly liked the help files as it not only explained how to operate the software, but they also provided a basic description of what functions were performed, and an introduction to the system registry. Both of these will help any user to understand why such a product is essential for the system (it makes you wonder why Microsoft didn't include such a program in their system tools). I would recommend everyone with a computer running Microsoft Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP use Registry Booster on a regular basis, even those techies that delve into the system registry could save some time over using regedit to modify the system registry.

Registry Booster has a street price of $29.95 for a download version and $39.95 for the box version. I would consider either a good value to help keep the system operating smoothly and efficiently. In addition updates are periodically available and technical support is offered through e-mail. I haven't experienced either yet as there were no updates available for my current version, and I did not need any technical support for the evaluation. Premium technical support is available for $9.95 per year, or $14.95 for two years.