Installing and especially uninstalling softwares inevitably leads to a thick registry and this in turn affects your system's performance. That is why whenever you uninstall a software, make sure that all the entries left behind are gone. A manual cleaning of the registry is definitely impossible (I started this several times and the job constantly resulted in searching the Internet for a good automated alternative).

Of course, a good solution is to grab yourself an unistaller to fix this problem for you, but there will always be those nasty file types and extensions that are obsolete, the links that are broken or the no longer needed DLLs. These too generally lead to the same poor computer performance result we are all trying to avoid.

An automatic registry cleaner smart enough to avoid the good files is always a good way to solve the issue. But the trick is getting the right one, that will not negatively affect your computer and successfully clean the most invalid entries in your registry.

XP Repair Pro 2007 seemed to me like a good way out of the above presented jam. The $36.95 price may seem a little too much, considering the free alternatives available on the market. But the truth is that none of them are comparable to XP Repair Pro 2007 in terms of features.

The skinnable interface can change its themes from Windows Theme to Default Blue or Classic Grey. I wouldn't recommend Default Blue as in my case it hurt my eyes a little and I only used it for the screenshots. Classic Grey on the other hand is quite soothing, but not as much as Windows theme or no theme at all. Anyway, functionality is what counts in this case and that is where we are going next.

The features available comprise a scan and repair tool, a system optimizer, system backup tool and the registry editor (due to its smart search options you will find it more useful than the Windows equivalent). The dual view of the interface (vertical and horizontal splitter) help the user into adjusting the detected errors view.

The areas the software is going to scan for trash and obsolete entries are the Add/Remove Programs, ActiveX, DLL and COM objects, Recently Used Shortcuts, File Types and Extensions, Application Paths, Font Files and Help Files. XP Repair Pro will also perform a deep analysis of the registry, just to make the job complete.

It is enough to choose the areas you need to be checked and the application will look nowhere else. After the scan is complete (start the scan from the lower right hand corner of the window) you will be provided with the total number of errors detected in the lower part of the application window and if you hover your mouse pointer over the categories you will receive the total errors found in there and the number of nodes that have been verified (if you are in the Selected Category tab).

Listing all the errors is as easy as switching to View and Ignore Errors tab from the upper part of the screen. Each category is listed and selecting one of them results in displaying them in the lower half of the window. The information provided here includes the key value, key data and location in the registry. Checking them all can be done automatically by using the Check All button in the lower part. One thing though, if you are using the trial version, you can forget about cleaning as this is one restriction of the program. All you can do is manually edit the registry and get rid of the unwanted entries.

With optimizing the system things are a bit different in the sense that there is no restriction and you can abuse the option for as long as you want. This feature will actually defragment the registry, decreasing the access time and improving the overall performance of your computer. There are four optimization levels available: Custom, Windows Only, Only the current user and the Entire Registry. Customizing the defragmentation can be used by typing the path to the part of the registry you want defragmented.

The optimization process is incredibly fast and from what I could gather it sticks to its job pretty good. During the process the user will see the current hive that is defragmented as well as the current node (that is if your eyes are very quick).

Besides getting a pretty darn good job with detecting the errors in your registry, XP Repair Pro 2007 comes equipped with a safety net, just in case something goes wrong. Every time the softwares fixes something there will be created a backup point to return to. The backup files are kept in the installation folder of the application and can be managed from System Backup menu.

The two tabs available cover the backup restore points management. The restore points are taken directly from Windows XP's System Restore utility. There will be displayed exactly the same restore points as in XP. Additionally you can invoke the Windows Restore Tool if you feel more comfortable working with it. There is one mischief here: the software does not allow you to delete any older restore points. This may be a measure of precaution, but I for one would like to keep only some of the restore points available and get rid of the others.

Registry Editor is the same as in Windows, only it comes with a twist in what concerns the search options. You have your editing option, import/export functions, creating new keys/strings/binaries/DWORD values and the search function. The search can be performed by looking in the entire registry or only in certain hives. The options available for this job allow you to search in keys, values or data.

The Preferences area includes the general settings for the behavior of the software: notification when the scan/repair is complete, display settings (remember panel sizes and position, confirm before exiting, tray icon display, etc.), run as a background process, start minimized, load at Windows startup, always create a backup point, discard older backups (you can choose the number of backups to keep).


The Good

Every error detected can be analyzed by the user. This way you can avoid possible false positives. The "safety nets" (backups, restore points, registry backup option) cast by the application assure that recovery is possible no matter what.

The items detected by XP Repair Pro 2007 are definitely contributing to the low performance of your computer.

The Bad

The price is quite "premium" considering that there are applications that do the same job for free. Of course, they are not equipped with all the options available in XP Repair Pro 2007, but still, their results are significantly leading to an improved performance.

The System Repair restriction is definitely an issue to be considered as detection is very good, but there is no proof that the application is indeed able to eliminate all the problems.

The Truth

The application proved to be quite stable. As the registry editing is more then often a delicate procedure, the application comes equipped with an arsenal of caution elements that make it worthy of giving it a shot.

Due to the limitation of the reapiring feature I will leave the Overall rating to the default. Detection in turn is safe and if you take a look at the elements detected you should get a pretty accurate idea on what it can do.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: