Looking at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE I see some old stuff:
- American Online [I never had AOL, this is from Compaq]
- Apple [the only entry is QuickTime32, but I recently uninstalled QuickTime]
- Apple Computer, Inc. [the only entry is QuickTime, but I recently
uninstalled QuickTime]
- Earthlink [I had them as my ISP many months ago, but I deleted it through
the wizard]
- Macromedia [the only entry is FlashPlayer, but I just uninstalled
FlashPlayer]
- Yahoo [the entries are Companion and Uninstaller, probably from the one
hour I had Yahoo toolbar installed]

All these entries are remnants from old software, right? All of the above
can be deleted, right?

Can someone list a Microsoft support URL that explains the registry? I'm
running XP Pro SP2. Thanks.
--


Pete

"Pete" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:00CDFCED-069F-4F18-8BBC-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Looking at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE I see some old stuff:
> - American Online [I never had AOL, this is from Compaq]
> - Apple [the only entry is QuickTime32, but I recently uninstalled
> QuickTime]
> - Apple Computer, Inc. [the only entry is QuickTime, but I recently
> uninstalled QuickTime]
> - Earthlink [I had them as my ISP many months ago, but I deleted it
> through
> the wizard]
> - Macromedia [the only entry is FlashPlayer, but I just uninstalled
> FlashPlayer]
> - Yahoo [the entries are Companion and Uninstaller, probably from the one
> hour I had Yahoo toolbar installed]
>
> All these entries are remnants from old software, right? All of the above
> can be deleted, right?
>
> Can someone list a Microsoft support URL that explains the registry? I'm
> running XP Pro SP2. Thanks.
> --
>
>
> Pete
>
It seems that the uninstaller routines did not touch the registry.

You failed to mention any problem that these orphan entries cause. Hence,
it isn't broken and doesn't need to be fixed.

Sorry, I don't know of any network site that describes very much about the
registry.

My reference is:

Microsoft Windows Registry Guide
Author: Jerry Honeycutt
Publisher: Microsoft Press

This book is big.

Jim

Pete wrote:
> Looking at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE I see some old stuff:
> - American Online [I never had AOL, this is from Compaq]
> - Apple [the only entry is QuickTime32, but I recently uninstalled
> QuickTime]
> - Apple Computer, Inc. [the only entry is QuickTime, but I recently
> uninstalled QuickTime]
> - Earthlink [I had them as my ISP many months ago, but I deleted it
> through the wizard]
> - Macromedia [the only entry is FlashPlayer, but I just uninstalled
> FlashPlayer]
> - Yahoo [the entries are Companion and Uninstaller, probably from the
> one hour I had Yahoo toolbar installed]
>
> All these entries are remnants from old software, right? All of the
> above can be deleted, right?
>
> Can someone list a Microsoft support URL that explains the registry?
> I'm running XP Pro SP2. Thanks.

Do a Google for REGISTRY and you'll find lots of data.

Yes, you can delete those, but that is only part of the full list of
locations where things live. It -could- break something or cause errors to
remove things without knowing what you're doing.

If you MUST remove them, Export each key you remove to a safe location so ou
can put it back if you need to!

I would advixe ignoring these entries; they are not causing any prolbems and
aren't important in the over scheme of things.

HTH
Pop`

"Pete" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:00CDFCED-069F-4F18-8BBC-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Looking at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE I see some old stuff:
> - American Online [I never had AOL, this is from Compaq]
> - Apple [the only entry is QuickTime32, but I recently uninstalled
> QuickTime]
> - Apple Computer, Inc. [the only entry is QuickTime, but I recently
> uninstalled QuickTime]
> - Earthlink [I had them as my ISP many months ago, but I deleted it
> through
> the wizard]
> - Macromedia [the only entry is FlashPlayer, but I just uninstalled
> FlashPlayer]
> - Yahoo [the entries are Companion and Uninstaller, probably from the one
> hour I had Yahoo toolbar installed]
>
> All these entries are remnants from old software, right? All of the above
> can be deleted, right?
>
> Can someone list a Microsoft support URL that explains the registry? I'm
> running XP Pro SP2. Thanks.
> --
>
>
> Pete
>
Microsoft does describe the registry as a hierarchical database. In such a
database, orphan entries cause no problems.
Jim

The problem I am trying to solve is that over the past few months I am
getting more and more (hard to say, maybe five now) very fast popups
appearing at login, and sometimes one or two at logout. I thought that
cleaning up after the installers might help.
--


Pete



"Jim" wrote:

>
> "Pete" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:00CDFCED-069F-4F18-8BBC-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Looking at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE I see some old stuff:
> > - American Online [I never had AOL, this is from Compaq]
> > - Apple [the only entry is QuickTime32, but I recently uninstalled
> > QuickTime]
> > - Apple Computer, Inc. [the only entry is QuickTime, but I recently
> > uninstalled QuickTime]
> > - Earthlink [I had them as my ISP many months ago, but I deleted it
> > through
> > the wizard]
> > - Macromedia [the only entry is FlashPlayer, but I just uninstalled
> > FlashPlayer]
> > - Yahoo [the entries are Companion and Uninstaller, probably from the one
> > hour I had Yahoo toolbar installed]
> >
> > All these entries are remnants from old software, right? All of the above
> > can be deleted, right?
> >
> > Can someone list a Microsoft support URL that explains the registry? I'm
> > running XP Pro SP2. Thanks.
> > --
> >
> >
> > Pete
> >
> It seems that the uninstaller routines did not touch the registry.
>
> You failed to mention any problem that these orphan entries cause. Hence,
> it isn't broken and doesn't need to be fixed.
>
> Sorry, I don't know of any network site that describes very much about the
> registry.
>
> My reference is:
>
> Microsoft Windows Registry Guide
> Author: Jerry Honeycutt
> Publisher: Microsoft Press
>
> This book is big.
>
> Jim
>
>
>

Pete wrote:

> The problem I am trying to solve is that over the past few months I am
> getting more and more (hard to say, maybe five now) very fast popups
> appearing at login, and sometimes one or two at logout. I thought that
> cleaning up after the installers might help.

Nope. It is very unlikely that there is any connection.

sysinternals.com have a utility called AutoRuns that might help identify the
cause of the popups.

Harry.

Msconfig would give you a better idea of what is happening at startup/logon
but it is very hard for most users to determine the meaning of all those
items. I suggest you try booting into Safe Mode and scanning for Spyware if
you have popup problems. AdAware SE is free and I have had pretty good
results with it cleaning up people computers. If you try it or anything else
be sure to "update" the program's reference definitions files first.

Steve

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html --- AdAware SE

"Pete" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news04E0E6C-0527-432D-9797-(E-Mail Removed)...
> The problem I am trying to solve is that over the past few months I am
> getting more and more (hard to say, maybe five now) very fast popups
> appearing at login, and sometimes one or two at logout. I thought that
> cleaning up after the installers might help.
> --
>
>
> Pete
>
>
>
> "Jim" wrote:
>
>>
>> "Pete" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:00CDFCED-069F-4F18-8BBC-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > Looking at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE I see some old stuff:
>> > - American Online [I never had AOL, this is from Compaq]
>> > - Apple [the only entry is QuickTime32, but I recently uninstalled
>> > QuickTime]
>> > - Apple Computer, Inc. [the only entry is QuickTime, but I recently
>> > uninstalled QuickTime]
>> > - Earthlink [I had them as my ISP many months ago, but I deleted it
>> > through
>> > the wizard]
>> > - Macromedia [the only entry is FlashPlayer, but I just uninstalled
>> > FlashPlayer]
>> > - Yahoo [the entries are Companion and Uninstaller, probably from the
>> > one
>> > hour I had Yahoo toolbar installed]
>> >
>> > All these entries are remnants from old software, right? All of the
>> > above
>> > can be deleted, right?
>> >
>> > Can someone list a Microsoft support URL that explains the registry?
>> > I'm
>> > running XP Pro SP2. Thanks.
>> > --
>> >
>> >
>> > Pete
>> >
>> It seems that the uninstaller routines did not touch the registry.
>>
>> You failed to mention any problem that these orphan entries cause.
>> Hence,
>> it isn't broken and doesn't need to be fixed.
>>
>> Sorry, I don't know of any network site that describes very much about
>> the
>> registry.
>>
>> My reference is:
>>
>> Microsoft Windows Registry Guide
>> Author: Jerry Honeycutt
>> Publisher: Microsoft Press
>>
>> This book is big.
>>
>> Jim
>>
>>
>>