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There seems to be dozens of registry cleaners these days but it is debatable if many of them can boast about having 3 million users like the way XP Repair Pro can. This review looks at the 2010 update of the product to see what if anything has been improved.

XP Repair Pro has been around since 2005 and the latest edition comes with some snazzy additional features. After installing, the product downloads the latest database of system faults for the program to check for (as of summer 2010, this contains 60,000 items to check). It is worth pointing out that the product supports several operating systems, not just XP as the name might suggest.

Once downloaded most users will start fixing computers registry problems using the simplified scan provided with the product that covers the bulk of registry checks that most users would need. In fact, it is worth running this to set a baseline for running advanced checks to see what they uncover. The advanced scans are well documented (and detailed on the site) so are worth looking into once you know your way around the product.

The other key functionality in XP Repair Pro is the recovery centre section of the product where the Windows registry is backed up automatically and users can restore date-stamped checkpoints if their file becomes corrupted. This in itself is worth the price of the product.

Product support appears to be primarily email based with no sign of a phone/chat support service. For the most part though, the documentation and online information should be enough for most users to become proficient with using the product. There are some online user forums worth considering if you are into computer tuning which a general google search on the product name and feature/scan will find.

The additional features include a registry defragmenter which consolidates often used registry keys, a hard drive cleaning tool (similar to CCleaner), a boot program manager (similar to the System Configuration utility by Microsoft) and an anonymous internet client. These seem a little disparate and out of keeping with the product’s core objective, but make for useful PC maintenance utilities all the same.

XP Repair Pro is still one of the better registry cleaners on the market and its dynamic database of system faults is probably the key to this programs success. Hopefully the product road-map gets a little clearer and the additional features become a little more focused.