Micro Angelo said in news
[email protected]:
Not quite. Ashampoo Uninstaller is their program installation logging
utility. It records the changes to you system when you install
software so that, if you choose, you can remove the software and
restore any changes the installation made to your system.
The Run key loads the module that watches for installers that are
executed so it can begin to monitor a program installation. That's
why I said it was a legitimate key.
So, I'm back to square one with the phantom reg key. Any other ideas
on this?
Thanks,
MA
A data item, also called a value name, with a non-blank name ("AShampoo
Uninstaller") under the Run registry key but which has no value [data]
is NOT going to load *anything*. It is blank. It doesn't point to
anything to load. It's empty. It's defunct. I've seen products that
when disabled will null out the data value, or value data, but leave
behind the data item, and when you reenable the program then it fills in
a non-blank value for the data item. Without a data value, the data
item is just an impotent placeholder.
What I got wrong is that you said there was one valid data item which
was for AShampoo and that is what I mistakeningly thought had the null
data value. From your response, the Value Name = "AShampoo Uninstaller"
has a Value Name = <some_nonblank_string>. If instead you are asking
about the data item named "(Default)" with a null value showing as
"(value not set)", that is just a placeholder. You can actually see
this. Highlight the Run key and then use the Edit menu to create a new
subkey called, say, "TestKey". Notice that after creating the new
registry key that you get the Default data item with no value. In fact,
just scroll around while selecting different registry keys in the left
pane and notice that they all have a Default data item as a placeholder.
It's a container so it must contain something.
See
http://cloanto.com/kb/3-151.html.
The default data item need not necessarily be a null value; for an
example, see
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/253/. It depends on
whether or not whatever uses that registry key actually interogates the
default value.
I would think msconfig.exe would not include the default data item, or
value name, for the Run keys in its list. So I'm thinking that you only
looked at one of the Run keys. There is a Run key for each user (under
their account settings under the HKEY_USERS hive) and there is a global
Run key for all users on that machine. Have you checked both of the
following registry keys?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_USERS\<accountSID>\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
The accountSID is the one assigned to each account. When you login,
yours gets copied into:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
if all you are interested is in checking just the account under which
you are logged in.
