Compress registry?

[Howard Schwartz]

I recently read something that reminded me that the windows registry is a
database, and therefore can get fragmented. Apparently, the original win95
version of regedit -c has a size problem, when compressing the registry,
and there are other issues with how regedit compresses.

Is there a freeware program that does a good job of compressing the
registry - not just fixing or removing problem entries?

 

[mike ring]

Is there a freeware program that does a good job of compressing the
registry - not just fixing or removing problem entries?

I use Regcompact (google, it's everywhere)

TBH, I don't know if it does any good, but it's never done
any dama

 

[J44xm]

["Howard Schwartz"; Fri, 03 Jun 2005 21:08:02 GMT]

Is there a freeware program that does a good job of compressing the
registry - not just fixing or removing problem entries?

How about NTREGOPT <http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt>?

 

[Sietse Fliege]

I recently read something that reminded me that the windows registry is a
database, and therefore can get fragmented. Apparently, the original
win95 version of regedit -c has a size problem, when compressing the
registry,
and there are other issues with how regedit compresses.

Is there a freeware program that does a good job of compressing the
registry - not just fixing or removing problem entries?

+ You can physically remove 'deleted' records (compact the registry)
+ with regedit's -c option, indeed (in real mode)
+ or maybe with third party tools (like regcompact, as suggested?)

Your ORIGINAL Win95 regedit's -c option is problematic, indeed:
+ The original Win95 version of regedit contained 2 bugs indeed
+ Win95B's (OSR2's) regedit resolved 1 bug, left one bug,
+ Win98's regedit resolved both bugs

For the regedit -c route in Win95 you want to use Win98's regedit.
Or better: a slightly modified version of it
(to circomvent a version conflict: DOS 7.1 vs DOS 7.0).
You can download that fixed Win98's regedit version from here:
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~flibble/regsmall.html
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~flibble/reg/reg.zip
With instructions on how to use Win98's regedit for compacting, here
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~flibble/regcheat.html


Or you may want to try the third party tool route (regcompact?).

HTH

 

[Figaro]

I recently read something that reminded me that the windows registry is a
database, and therefore can get fragmented. Apparently, the original
win95
version of regedit -c has a size problem, when compressing the registry,
and there are other issues with how regedit compresses.

Is there a freeware program that does a good job of compressing the
registry - not just fixing or removing problem entries?

I think the registry would also get defragmented when you defrag the
drive/partition.

 

[me]

message


I think the registry would also get defragmented when you
defrag the drive/partition.

That's very different kind of defrag, i.e., physical placement
of a file vs. the contents of a file.

J

 

[mike ring]

I think the registry would also get defragmented when you defrag the
drive/partition.

I would have thought, only if you do it from Dos, like regcompact.

Then it struck me, if you defrag from within windows, does the OS get
defragged - surely the files are in use.

Any answers, please, should I defrag from outside windows?

mike

 

[old jon]

I would have thought, only if you do it from Dos, like regcompact.

Then it struck me, if you defrag from within windows, does the OS get
defragged - surely the files are in use.

Any answers, please, should I defrag from outside windows?

mike

Defrag while in `Safe mode`.

 

[Helen]

Won't 'compressing' the registry cause it to be slower, just as
compressing a drive does? Compressed drives must be uncompressed
before they can be used. Does this apply to the registry as well?

Helen

I recently read something that reminded me that the windows registry is a
database, and therefore can get fragmented. Apparently, the original win95
version of regedit -c has a size problem, when compressing the registry,
and there are other issues with how regedit compresses.

Is there a freeware program that does a good job of compressing the
registry - not just fixing or removing problem entries?

=----

 

[me]

Won't 'compressing' the registry cause it to be slower,
just as compressing a drive does? Compressed drives must
be uncompressed before they can be used. Does this apply
to the registry as well?

Helen

Unfortunate, poor choice of word(s). In one sense "compressing"
means removing unused (previously deleted) registry entries. In
this sense, "compressing" the registry would speed up registry
accesses (garbage was taken out).

More common use of "compress" means "zip" (shink the size of) a
file, etc., w/o changing the contents of the file(s). In this
sense, compressing the registry would cause slow down.

J

 

[REM]

I would have thought, only if you do it from Dos, like regcompact.

Then it struck me, if you defrag from within windows, does the OS get
defragged - surely the files are in use.

Any answers, please, should I defrag from outside windows?

From what I've read recently, defragging is not nearly as critical as
it was 5+ years ago. Modern drives are good enough that the data can
be read in whatever state the data is in without slowdowns.

I have a good pair of 7200 rpm drives, each with an 8 meg cache,
running XP on a 2.4 ghz processor, and I can tell no difference
whatsoever. I have run defrag from the Ultimate Boot CD 4 Win and this
also did not speed up the machine to where I could detect it.

I have a gig of ram and I have disabled the swapfile, again with no
slowdowns.

If you have an older drive, defragging might well be beneficial,
however.


My favorite defragger: PowerDefragger

http://www.excessive-software.tk/

"Power Defragmenter is a GUI (Graphic User Interface) application for
program Contig by Sysinternals.

Contig is a very powerful defragmentation application designed for
Windows NT/2000/XP operating systems."



Interesting utility: PageDefrag

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PageDefrag.html

"One of the limitations of the Windows NT/2000 defragmentation
interface is that it is not possible to defragment files that are open
for exclusive access. Thus, standard defragmentation programs can
neither show you how fragmented your paging files or Registry hives
are, nor defragment them. Paging and Registry file fragmentation can
be one of the leading causes of performance degradation related to
file fragmentation in a system.

PageDefrag uses advanced techniques to provide you what commercial
defragmenters cannot: the ability for you to see how fragmented your
paging files and Registry hives are, and to defragment them. In
addition, it defragments event log files and Windows 2000/XP
hibernation files (where system memory is saved when you hibernate a
laptop).

PageDefrag works on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and
Server 2003."




Another interesting utility: avast! External Control

http://www.excessive-software.tk/

"avast! External Control (AEC) tool was designed to extend avast!
Antivirus functionality and security.

AEC gives you almost full control over avast! Home Edition or
Professional Edition.

You can change update check interval, tweak many hidden settings and
view detailed avast! Antivirus status.

External avast! component launcher gives you ability to scan files
externally or even schedule Boot-Time scan directly from AEC. avast!
Status Info function can be used to dump status log, so Alwil staff
can easily help you on avast! Forums. Most functions is limited to
Windows 2000/XP only.

AEC is a standalone application (extract&use) with integrated Smart
Auto-Update feature."

 

[Howard Schwartz]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in

Unfortunate, poor choice of word(s). In one sense "compressing"
means removing unused (previously deleted) registry entries. In
this sense, "compressing" the registry would speed up registry
accesses (garbage was taken out).

More common use of "compress" means "zip" (shink the size of) a
file, etc., w/o changing the contents of the file(s). In this
sense, compressing the registry would cause slow down.

I believe compressing or `compacting' the registry is neither of
the above. It is doing something within a database file, that is
similar to what is done to a disk when it is defragged:

Think of a text file with many one line entries, that are constantly
changing. Some lines are deleted, leaving a blank line; if new material
is added and only needs one line, it can be put where the blank line
is; otherwise it is put at the end of the file as several lines.

Over time, the number of ``blank lines' within the list in the file
increases. Compressing, compacting, or defragging the registry would
be roughly equivalent to deleting all the blank lines within the file,
making for a smaller file, and a faster search when looking for something
in that file. This is a very crude analogy.

This type of defrag is different than removing bad or obsolete registry
entries. The latter may create holes or ``blank lines'' in the datebase.

 

[REM]

I believe compressing or `compacting' the registry is neither of
the above. It is doing something within a database file, that is
similar to what is done to a disk when it is defragged:

Think of a text file with many one line entries, that are constantly
changing. Some lines are deleted, leaving a blank line; if new material
is added and only needs one line, it can be put where the blank line
is; otherwise it is put at the end of the file as several lines.

Over time, the number of ``blank lines' within the list in the file
increases. Compressing, compacting, or defragging the registry would
be roughly equivalent to deleting all the blank lines within the file,
making for a smaller file, and a faster search when looking for something
in that file. This is a very crude analogy.

This type of defrag is different than removing bad or obsolete registry
entries. The latter may create holes or ``blank lines'' in the datebase.

Accessing a binary file is very fast, even if it is not compacted
(contains obselete entries and such), however, I think there is
something within us that desires clean and compacted reg files. I
suppose that I disagree with the last sentence in the first paragraph
below:


PageDefrag

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PageDefrag.html

"One of the limitations of the Windows NT/2000 defragmentation
interface is that it is not possible to defragment files that are open
for exclusive access. Thus, standard defragmentation programs can
neither show you how fragmented your paging files or Registry hives
are, nor defragment them. Paging and Registry file fragmentation can
be one of the leading causes of performance degradation related to
file fragmentation in a system.

PageDefrag uses advanced techniques to provide you what commercial
defragmenters cannot: the ability for you to see how fragmented your
paging files and Registry hives are, and to defragment them. In
addition, it defragments event log files and Windows 2000/XP
hibernation files (where system memory is saved when you hibernate a
laptop).

PageDefrag works on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and
Server 2003."




I installed this and it quickly compacts each bootup. I still can tell
no difference at all as far as booting or program access goes. It
works very well, if you're using one of the listed OS's and have the
tidy reg urges.

 

[me]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in
net:


I believe compressing or `compacting' the registry is
neither of the above. It is doing something within a
database file, that is similar to what is done to a disk
when it is defragged:

Think of a text file with many one line entries, that are
constantly changing. Some lines are deleted, leaving a
blank line; if new material is added and only needs one
line, it can be put where the blank line is; otherwise it
is put at the end of the file as several lines.

Over time, the number of ``blank lines' within the list in
the file increases. Compressing, compacting, or defragging
the registry would be roughly equivalent to deleting all
the blank lines within the file, making for a smaller file,
and a faster search when looking for something in that
file. This is a very crude analogy.

This type of defrag is different than removing bad or
obsolete registry entries. The latter may create holes or
``blank lines'' in the datebase.

Howard,

Please do not confuse the topic any more that it is already.

(e.g., a "text file" vs. a file containg some text)

J

 

[Dick Hazeleger]

Accessing a binary file is very fast, even if it is not compacted
(contains obselete entries and such), however, I think there is
something within us that desires clean and compacted reg files. I
suppose that I disagree with the last sentence in the first paragraph
below:


PageDefrag

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PageDefrag.html

"One of the limitations of the Windows NT/2000 defragmentation
interface is that it is not possible to defragment files that are open
for exclusive access. Thus, standard defragmentation programs can
neither show you how fragmented your paging files or Registry hives
are, nor defragment them. Paging and Registry file fragmentation can
be one of the leading causes of performance degradation related to
file fragmentation in a system.

PageDefrag uses advanced techniques to provide you what commercial
defragmenters cannot: the ability for you to see how fragmented your
paging files and Registry hives are, and to defragment them. In
addition, it defragments event log files and Windows 2000/XP
hibernation files (where system memory is saved when you hibernate a
laptop).

PageDefrag works on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and
Server 2003."




I installed this and it quickly compacts each bootup. I still can tell
no difference at all as far as booting or program access goes. It
works very well, if you're using one of the listed OS's and have the
tidy reg urges.









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Hi REM

Pagefile (aka "swapfile") equals registry (system hardware and software
settings database)??? NOW THAT is new to me!

FYI: A too heavilly fragmented "swapfile" (pagefile) IS a burdon to
your system, just as a too heavilly frgmented file system (fortunately
NT is more stabile in thhis than the Win9x/ME systems).

Obsolete entries, blanks, or plain faulty entries in the registry could
cause errors to pop up, and a slowdown (again..) of the OS. However
programs like Regseeker, CCLean and the like should be able to deal
with that part of maintenance.

For the swapfile (pagefile) several utilites exist that can defrag the
swapfile, for users of an NT-system (NT/2K/XP/2K3) Sysinternal's tool
is really a keeper, but it is a whole different animal than a registry
defragger!

BTW: Those who have 9x/ME: Make an export of your registry to a file
(Regedit, Registry menu, Export). Place this file in your root dir
(C:\); then boot into DOS from Floppy, or through the "Command prompt"
option in the boot menu. Next type in: regedit C C:\(name of your file)

This will recreate the registry from scratch and will (though basic)
test the entries, on an average system with a 2MB registry 200 - 400 K
decrese of registry size is quite normal.

Regards
Dick

Dick

 

[REM]

Hi REM

Pagefile (aka "swapfile") equals registry (system hardware and software
settings database)??? NOW THAT is new to me!

It also lists the registry hives, but I think this is still different
from compacting the registry, as you list at the bottom.

FYI: A too heavilly fragmented "swapfile" (pagefile) IS a burdon to
your system, just as a too heavilly frgmented file system (fortunately
NT is more stabile in thhis than the Win9x/ME systems).

Obsolete entries, blanks, or plain faulty entries in the registry could
cause errors to pop up, and a slowdown (again..) of the OS. However
programs like Regseeker, CCLean and the like should be able to deal
with that part of maintenance.

For the swapfile (pagefile) several utilites exist that can defrag the
swapfile, for users of an NT-system (NT/2K/XP/2K3) Sysinternal's tool
is really a keeper, but it is a whole different animal than a registry
defragger!

Defragger? Or compactor? The more I read the less sure I am

BTW: Those who have 9x/ME: Make an export of your registry to a file
(Regedit, Registry menu, Export). Place this file in your root dir
(C:\); then boot into DOS from Floppy, or through the "Command prompt"
option in the boot menu. Next type in: regedit C C:\(name of your file)

This will recreate the registry from scratch and will (though basic)
test the entries, on an average system with a 2MB registry 200 - 400 K
decrese of registry size is quite normal.

If I do understand now, this is compaction. The registry is rewritten
from scratch, leaving the void entries out.

9x-ME:

includes a nice batch file:
http://aumha.org/win4/a/regpak.php

includes more step by step information:
http://www.ameriwebs.net/groupworks/compact.html


XP-NT:

http://aumha.org/win5/a/regpak.php

I apologize for missing the basic point that the OP was using Win 95.
I had to backtrack to see the initial post. I'm sure that he will
enjoy the speed increase from cleaning and compacting.