The developer of RegCleaner, jv16 PowerTools, Uninstalr, WinFindr, Startup Timer, ScreenshotX, System Examiner and Windows Update Fixer.
Windows Startup Time Improvement Benchmark
These tests were performed in February of 2017
Introduction
In recent years, Macecraft Software has published a total of seven registry cleaner product comparison studies which have attempted to answer questions about the quality of different registry cleaning products as well as what kind of effects they can have on your system.
Windows startup time improvement is something that concerns us, especially since we released the Startup Timer tool. In order to satisfy this curiosity, some test cases had to be performed.
Cumulative Test Results: Summary
We measured the Windows startup time improvement in an attempt to determine if using registry cleaners will have any positive (or negative) impact on the average Windows startup time for either Windows 7 and/or Windows 10.Interesting benchmark summary takeaways:
- The highest total Windows startup time improvement after using a registry cleaner was 56 seconds
- The lowest total Windows startup time improvement after using a registry cleaner was 5 seconds
- The highest total number of Windows system problems reported after using a registry cleaner was 14224
- The lowest total number of Windows system problems reported after using a registry cleaner was 252
| Product | Total system problems | Total Windows startup time improvement (seconds) | Total system problems Test 2 | Total system problems Test 3 | Startup time after Test 2 | Startup time after Test 3 |
| 360Amigo System Speedup Pro | 3790 | 44 | 2087 | 1703 | 87 | 48 |
| Abexo Free Registry Cleaner | 3586 | 46 | 3119 | 467 | 87 | 46 |
| Ace Utilities | 432 | 46 | 332 | 100 | 88 | 45 |
| Acleaner | 7262 | 47 | 7243 | 19 | 88 | 44 |
| Ashampoo WinOptimizer 2017 | 2011 | 34 | 1726 | 285 | 89 | 56 |
| Auslogics Registry Cleaner | 1957 | 32 | 1924 | 33 | 90 | 57 |
| Eusing Free Registry Cleaner | 3873 | 33 | 3804 | 69 | 90 | 56 |
| jv16 PowerTools | 5154 | 56 | 4593 | 561 | 91 | 32 |
| Lavasoft Registry Tuner | 758 | 44 | 579 | 179 | 90 | 45 |
| Netgate Registry Cleaner | 1795 | 46 | 1593 | 202 | 90 | 43 |
| Registry Life | 252 | 46 | 209 | 43 | 90 | 43 |
| Registry Help Free | 499 | 42 | 321 | 178 | 90 | 47 |
| Registry TuneUp | 953 | 36 | 922 | 31 | 90 | 53 |
| RegSeeker | 4452 | 37 | 4400 | 52 | 90 | 52 |
| SlimCleaner Free | 14224 | 42 | 14073 | 151 | 91 | 46 |
| TweakNow PowerPack | 2996 | 32 | 2339 | 657 | 91 | 56 |
| Vit Registry Fix Free Edition | 325 | 5 | 241 | 84 | 91 | 83 |
Windows Startup Time Improvement: Verifiability
All possible measures have been taken to ensure the verifiability and credibility of these these benchmark results. For instance, all the testing has been recorded in both video and screenshots, links to see these recordings for each tested software are provided below.
Current Benchmark Objectives
This current case study aims to continue the tradition that Macecraft Software has established while releasing similar product comparison test reports alongside every recent major product release. The latest benchmark test report currently covers the following tests completed in February 2017:
- Test 1: Number of errors found from a freshly installed Windows 10
- Test 2: Effect on Windows startup time on Windows 10
- Test 3: Effect on Windows startup time on Windows 7
All of the test results are accompanied by screenshots and video recordings which have been saved during various testing phases in order to address some of the most common test result credibility concerns for this type of studies.
This case study is open to discussion and public review, in this forum thread.
We would strongly appreciate if you could join the discussion on the forum, let us know what you think about the tests done, comment the current test results and recommend us new test ideas that we should cover in future similar studies.
Windows Startup Time Improvement: Test Methods
The testing was performed using an Oracle VirtualBox (version: 5.0.32 r112930) virtual environment running Windows 10 with 4 CPU cores, 8 GB of RAM. The virtual machine was run on a host computer running Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS (64 bit) with Intel Quad Core i7-6700K CPU @ 4 GHz, 32 GB RAM with a system disk of Samsung SSD 850 EVO.
The products tested were chosen simply by searching Google with search words “registry cleaner” and “make windows faster”. Only products that have a dedicated website were accepted to this study. In other words, if a product was only found from a software download website but it didn’t have a website of its own, we assumed the product has been deprecated and did not download it for testing.
Test 1: Number of errors found (freshly installed Windows 10)
A total of 67 products were tested in this benchmark of registry cleaners with the purpose of ultimately determining the Windows startup time improvement, if any, after using each of these products. Each software was ran using its default settings on Windows 10 with all updates installed, with no third party software installed. The purpose of the first test is to determine which products can be tested, that is, which products allow cleaning and fixing the system without the need to buy anything.
As the products are run on a freshly installed Windows 10 with no third party software installed, the assumption is that not many errors should be found on the system. Nevertheless, the number of registry errors and unneeded files identified by the different products are in the first test results table below.Test 1 interesting takeaways:
- 37 out of the 67 tested products allow the system to be cleaned / fixed without having to pay.
- 1 out of the 67 tested products removed files from the computer without user confirmation.
- 20 out of the 67 tested products opened at least one advertising browser popup after installation.
- 1 out of the 67 tested products opened three advertising browser popups after installation.
- 8 out of the 67 tested product installers contained at least one pre checked bundled software.
- 1 out of the 67 tested product installers contained three pre checked bundled software.
| Product | Version | Registry errors found | Unneeded files found | Trial restriction | Comments | Screenshot |
| Wondershare 1-Click PC Care | 8.2.1.0 | 564 | 52.1 MB | Trial restriction: Can only clean disk. | Screenshot link | |
| 360Amigo System Speedup Pro | 1.2.1.7900 | 105 | 8.7 MB | Browser popup. | Screenshot link | |
| Abexo Free Registry Cleaner | 1.1.0.0 | 461 | n/a | Screenshot link | ||
| Ace Utilities | 6.3.0 | 29 | 3.99 MB | Screenshot link | ||
| Acebyte Utilities | 3.1.2 | 548 | 2.99 MB | Screenshot link | ||
| Acleaner | 4.5 | 15 | n/a | Screenshot link | ||
| Advanced System Optimizer 3 | 3.9.93636.16880 | 0 | 7.81 MB | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Browser popup. | Screenshot link |
| Advanced SystemCare 10 | 10.1 | 939 | 26 MB | Pre Checked bundled software. Browser popup. | Screenshot link | |
| AVG PC TuneUp | 16.72.2.55508 | 76 | 12.8 MB | Browser popup. | Screenshot link | |
| Argente Utilities | 1.0.7.0 | 36 | 0 MB | Screenshot link | ||
| Ashampoo WinOptimizer 2017 | 14.00.04 | 62 | 13 MB | Forces user to receive a license key via email. Browser popup. | Screenshot link | |
| Auslogics Registry Cleaner | 6.1.1.0 | 23 | n/a | Pre Checked to install three bundled software. Browser popup. | Screenshot link | |
| AthTek Registry Cleaner | “lastest version” | 759 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Avira System Speedup | 3.1.1.4250 | 7 | 0.02 MB | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| AVS Registry Cleaner | 3.0.5.272 | 256 | 24.4 MB | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Chily Registry Optimizer and Cleaner | 7.12.01 | 590 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Baidu PC Faster | 5.1.3.131061 | n/a | 755.7 MB | Screenshot link | ||
| BitOptimizer | 3.3.16 | 24 | 11.4 MB | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Carambis Cleaner | 1.3.3.5315 | 56 | 35.77 MB | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Pre Checked to install bundled software. | Screenshot link |
| CleanMyPC Registry Cleaner | 4.5 | 90 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Comodo PC TuneUp | 1.0.265884.46 | 0 | 25 MB | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Cloud System Booster | 3.6 | 56 | 0.01 MB | Screenshot link | ||
| iolo System Mechanic | 15.5.0.61 | 25 | n/a | Forces user to receive a license via email. | Screenshot link | |
| Norton Utilities | 14.5.0.120 | 43 | 13.9 MB | Disc Cleaner removes files without user confirmation. | Screenshot link | |
| Ccleaner | 5.26.5937 | 14 | 33.5 MB | Pre Checked to install bundled software. Browser popup. | Screenshot link | |
| Eusing Free Registry Cleaner | 4.0 build 20160918 | 65 | n/a | Screenshot link | ||
| JetClean | 1.5.0.129 | 325 | 7.67 MB | Screenshot link | ||
| Glary Utilities | 5.68.0.89 | 16 | 5.85 MB | Browser popup. | Screenshot link | |
| Lavasoft Registry Tuner | 2.0.1 | 15 | 100 files, size n/a | Screenshot link | ||
| MYPCTuneUp 2017 | 1.7.61 | 82 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Browser popup. | Screenshot link |
| PCRx | 2.0.0.105 | 15 | 53 MB | Cannot clean: software crashes when attempting to clean. | Pre Checked to install two bundled software. | Screenshot link |
| Raxco PerfectRegistry | 2.0.0.2679 | 4 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Premium Booster | 3.8 build 9900 | 95 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Browser popup. | Screenshot link |
| Little Registry Cleaner | 1.6.0 | 100 (approx) | n/a | Screenshot link | ||
| Netgate Registry Cleaner | 16.0.990.0 | 15 | Pre Checked to install bundled software. Browser popup when installed, browser popup while cleaning. | Screenshot link | ||
| Registry Life | 3.3.6 | 35 | Pre Checked to install bundled software. Browser popup. | Screenshot link | ||
| RegAce System Suite | 3.3.1.0 | 419 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Browser popup. | Screenshot link |
| RegCure Pro | 3.3.2.2 | 24 | 12.6 MB | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| RegHunter Registry Repair | 2.1.7.2022 | 101 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Registry Drill | 4.4.01 | 598 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Registry First Aid 11 | 11.0.1 build 2433 | 492 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Registry Healer | 5.5.0 build 574 | 378 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Registry Medic | 2015 | 86 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Registry Help Free | 1.82 (1.8.2.1) | 188 | n/a | Screenshot link | ||
| Registry Reviver | 4.12.0.10 | 26 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Browser popup. | Screenshot link |
| Registry TuneUp | 5.7.0.26 | 30 | n/a | Screenshot link | ||
| Registry Wizard | 3.2.16.613 | 130 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Browser popup. | Screenshot link |
| RegSeeker | 3.01 build 3680 | 50 | n/a | Screenshot link | ||
| RegVac Registry Cleaner | 5.02.15 | 127 | n/a | Screenshot link | ||
| SeriousBit Enhanso | 2.1.1 | 81 | 14 MB | Screenshot link | ||
| Simnet Registry Repair | 3.1.1.2 | 33 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Simplitec Simple Clean | 2.5.0.39 | 27 | 7.4 MB | Screenshot link | ||
| SlimCleaner Free | 4.0.30878.55015 | 49 | 33 MB | Browser popup. | Screenshot link | |
| Speed It Up Free | 11.32 | n/a | n/a | Three browser popups. | Screenshot link | |
| Speedy PC Free | 3.3.21 | 24 | 11.6 MB | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Synei System Utilities | ‘4.0 | 36 | 58 MB | Screenshot link | ||
| System Cleaner 7 | 7.7.32.720 | 67 | 7.76 MB | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Browser popup. | Screenshot link |
| TweakNow PowerPack | 4.6.0 | 38 | 8.4 MB | Screenshot link | ||
| Uniblue PC Mechanic 2017 | 1.2.0.0 | 25 | 42 MB | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Pre Checked to install bundled software. Browser popup. | Screenshot link |
| Vit Registry Fix Free Edition | 12.8.4 | 186 | n/a | Screenshot link | ||
| WinASO Registry Optimizer | 5.2.0.0 | 94 | n/a | Trial restriction : Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| Windows Doctor | 2.9.0.0 | 409 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| WinMend Registry Cleaner | 2.2.0.0 | 693 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| WinTools.net Premium | 17.2.1 | 99 | n/a | Trial restriction: Does not clean the found items. | Screenshot link | |
| WinUtilities Free | 13.25 | 66 | 0 MB | Screenshot link | ||
| Wise Care 365 | 4.53 | 51 | 638 MB | Browser popup. | Screenshot link | |
| jv16 PowerTools | 4.1.0.1670 | 150 | 14 files | Screenshot link |
As can be seen from the results table above, 37 out of the 67 tested products allow the system to be cleaned and/or fixed without having to pay. Only these 37 products were therefore passed through to the the next tests to see what kind of effect they have on Windows startup time improvement.
Test 2: Effect on Windows startup time (Windows 10)
In the second test case, we measured the Windows startup time improvement after using each of the tested software on Windows 10.
Test 3: Effect on Windows startup time (Windows 7)
In the second test case, we measured the Windows startup time improvement after using each of the tested software on Windows 7.
Other Historical Benchmark Tests
Since February of 2009 (when the first test of this kind was done in our lab), Macecraft Software has published a total of seven registry cleaner product comparison studies:
- Benchmark Report of 133 Windows Optimization Software Products – March, 2015
- Registry Cleaner Performance Comparison Study – October, 2016
- Benchmark of Top Three Windows Registry Cleaners – January, 2017