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I'm looking for open source or freeware registry defrag app, preferably one who doesn't need a stupid .exe installer. .zip packed and ready to go preferred!

I'm using Windows 7 64bit.

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possible duplicate of Defragmentation Applications Comparison / Alternatives – techie007 Mar 11 '12 at 16:28
Yea...except I'm looking for REGISTRY defragmentation tools. – Don Salva Mar 11 '12 at 17:40
Is this actually still an issue with modern versions of Windows? Note that there's a difference between filesystem fragmentation of the registry files, and fragmentation of the registry hives themselves. – Daniel Pryden Mar 11 '12 at 18:14
@DonSalva Oops, my bad. Unfortunately it's still 'not constructive' as it's just soliciting opinions. – techie007 Mar 11 '12 at 18:43

closed as not constructive by techie007, iglvzx, Simon Sheehan, random♦ Mar 11 '12 at 18:35

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3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

I have used NTREGOPT in the past to reduce the size of user and machine registry hives. Usually gives about a 2% to 3% reduction.

NTREGOPT squeezes the unused space out of the registry (the registry works a lot like a database or filesystem in that "hbins" need to be allocated and can be left behind when things are changed). To actually remove unused entries, I usually use CCleaner as mentioned below (but might be giving Eusing a try).

There is a "zipped" version of NTREGOPT that doesn't require installation.

There is a portable version of CCleaner that doesn't require installation.

However, to actually, physically defrag the registry files, use SysInternal's PageDefrag. This will make the page and registry files contiguous on disk.

I don't believe PageDefrag needs installation.

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Please note that PageDefrag only works with Windows XP clients. – Oliver Salzburg♦ Mar 11 '12 at 16:14
Pagedefrag doesn't work on 64Bit Win7 which is what I'm using. – Don Salva Mar 11 '12 at 17:41
up vote 1 down vote

You can download Ainvo Registry Defrag Portable. Its freeware and portable (no need to install).

You can also try UltraDefrag which is Open Source. Its portable package is also available to download. But, its not dedicated for registry defragmentation. It can defrag registry hives just like other system files, but can't clean, re-index and compress the registry.

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up vote 1 down vote

CCLeaner has a good registry cleaning tool; it's worked well for me.

Free Registry Defrag is also a good freeware defragging tool

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Does CCleaner also perform registry defragmentation? – Oliver Salzburg♦ Mar 11 '12 at 15:52
It just cleans registry.. not full defragmentation.. – Sachin Shekhar Mar 11 '12 at 15:59
@SachinShekhar Then the answer is confusing me, since the user asked for a defragmentation tool. – Oliver Salzburg♦ Mar 11 '12 at 16:02
@Oliver: How exactly does a registry get "fragmented" in the first place? – Lèse majesté Mar 11 '12 at 16:03
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@Lèsemajesté There's a knowledgebase article about it and the page for PageDefrag touches on the subject as well. – Oliver Salzburg♦ Mar 11 '12 at 16:08
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