We ensure that our reviews are as accurate and thorough as possible at the time of review.  In some situations, updates or revisions to the software may have been made after we’ve reviewed the program.  We will do our best to revisit previously reviewed programs once they’re updated to ensure accuracy.

Our Basic Set Up

We use a computer that has been “ghosted” before each review.  This means that the computer is completely wiped of all information, programs, etc. and then we install an “image” on to the blank drive.  Basically, we are putting a computer that is full of errors, spyware, malware, etc. up to the test for each program.  We are able to save this “image” and “ghost” it on to the computer each time we conduct a review, ensuring that each registry cleaner has the same errors, spyware, and other programs to fix.

Things We Look For

A computer can behave problematically for many reasons, and because of that we are looking for many things when we test an error fixer:

• Can it fix problems associated with files missing extensions?
• Can it fix missing .dll files?
• Can it fix missing help files?
• Can it fix missing system fonts?
• Can it fix invalid application paths?
• Can it fix missing startup files/applications?
• Can it optimize the registry?
• Does it recognize and fix random crashing and blue screen errors?
• Does it fix internet browsing problems and/or pop-ups?
• Does it fix most runtime errors?
• Does it clear junk files?

And, perhaps most importantly:

• Is it an easy to use, cost effective solution?

Our Rating Methodology

We rate registry cleaners/error fixers based on a few key areas:

• Overall rating.  This represents the overall score that we’ve given the program out of five stars.  The more stars, the better overall it performed.

• Performance.  This reflects how quickly the program worked.  The more stars, the better.

• Effectiveness.  This represents how effective the program was at clearing out errors, spyware, pop-ups, etc.  The more stars, the better.

• Value.  This is strictly a measure of how cost effective we felt the application was.  If an application was $1 but didn’t do anything, it would score low.  However, if that same application was $50 and worked wonderfully, we’d score it very high.

Ultimately, we are looking to score registry cleaners based on how well they perform versus how much they cost.  We don’t want you to spend $80 on a program if you could have spent $50 and got the same results!