up capability along with a start-up manager
The short answer to the question posed in the headline is: Yes, they can. Depending upon the free programs one is using. But the real question needing to be asked is: Are free registry cleaners worth bothering with in the first place? Especially with advanced operating systems like Windows 7 and 8. Because the registry can be a very complicated area to work with in a Windows system, the level of application-specific knowledge needed by an effective registry utility is high indeed. And anyone who has worked with free utilities such as Eusing or CCleaner knows that these only target the safest of entries to fix, while leaving a massive amount of empty outdated entries alone and untouched. You can find this out for yourself by running your favorite free utility up against the trial version of any of the commercial applications to find out which registry repair does the more thorough job. If you're not a very heavy user of your computer - meaning you don't do a lot of downloadin...