Safe registry scrubbers?

[Top Spin]

I keep reading recommendations for products to "clean" or "scrub" the
registry. Are these products necessary? Useful? Safe?

I have installed and uninstalled a number of programs (commercial and
shareware) over the years so I no doubt have junk in the registry. I
just don't want to mess the system up.

Thanks

 

[Dave Patrick]

Unless you have some compelling reason to do so it's always best to leave it
alone.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect.

:
| I keep reading recommendations for products to "clean" or "scrub" the
| registry. Are these products necessary? Useful? Safe?
|
| I have installed and uninstalled a number of programs (commercial and
| shareware) over the years so I no doubt have junk in the registry. I
| just don't want to mess the system up.
|
| Thanks
|
| --
| For email, use Usenet-20031220 at spamex.com

 

[Dave Patrick]

Unless you have some compelling reason to do so it's always best to leave it
alone.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect.

:
| I keep reading recommendations for products to "clean" or "scrub" the
| registry. Are these products necessary? Useful? Safe?
|
| I have installed and uninstalled a number of programs (commercial and
| shareware) over the years so I no doubt have junk in the registry. I
| just don't want to mess the system up.
|
| Thanks
|
| --
| For email, use Usenet-20031220 at spamex.com

 

[Mark V]

I keep reading recommendations for products to "clean" or "scrub" the
registry. Are these products necessary? Useful? Safe?

I have installed and uninstalled a number of programs (commercial and
shareware) over the years so I no doubt have junk in the registry. I
just don't want to mess the system up.

In general you take on more risk by running them than not. Further,
leftovers in the registry for un-installed programs are rarely cause
for concern or need to be removed for performance reasons.

If you should want to run them anyway...
Full registry backup in advance is mandatory.
(eg ntbackup.exe, "ERD", [x]"Also backup...")
Review using Recovery Console and procedures to replace backed up
registry hive files in advance. Explore using RC.
Never use "automatically fix without asking" in one of these
programs.
When in doubt, don't remove it.

Most of those type applications are sold for money. They may tell
you it is "important", "critical" "better than sliced bread"...

In the hands of an experienced user some of them can be good tools.
IMO and YMMV.

 

[Mark V]

I keep reading recommendations for products to "clean" or "scrub" the
registry. Are these products necessary? Useful? Safe?

I have installed and uninstalled a number of programs (commercial and
shareware) over the years so I no doubt have junk in the registry. I
just don't want to mess the system up.

In general you take on more risk by running them than not. Further,
leftovers in the registry for un-installed programs are rarely cause
for concern or need to be removed for performance reasons.

If you should want to run them anyway...
Full registry backup in advance is mandatory.
(eg ntbackup.exe, "ERD", [x]"Also backup...")
Review using Recovery Console and procedures to replace backed up
registry hive files in advance. Explore using RC.
Never use "automatically fix without asking" in one of these
programs.
When in doubt, don't remove it.

Most of those type applications are sold for money. They may tell
you it is "important", "critical" "better than sliced bread"...

In the hands of an experienced user some of them can be good tools.
IMO and YMMV.

 

[Top Spin]

Unless you have some compelling reason to do so it's always best to leave it
alone.

OK. I guess I don't have a "compelling" reason and I'm no expert. I
have this machine for almost 3 years running W2K. It just gets slower
and slower. I don't think the the CPU circuitry is getting "worn out"
or the HDD is getting tired. I have installed a lot of programs (and
uninstalled) most of them. My wife's machine is a similar setup, but
she has hardly installed anything and it's running closer to it's
original speed (same age).

I do a defrag about every 2-3 months even if it says its not needed. I
have about 30% free space on the HDD. I have a hardware firewall and
anti-virus software and I run Scandisk (CHKDSK?) regularly and I also
run adaware and spybot. But the machine is much slower than it was two
years ago. I just thought that registry junk might be the problem.

Thanks

 

[Top Spin]

Unless you have some compelling reason to do so it's always best to leave it
alone.

OK. I guess I don't have a "compelling" reason and I'm no expert. I
have this machine for almost 3 years running W2K. It just gets slower
and slower. I don't think the the CPU circuitry is getting "worn out"
or the HDD is getting tired. I have installed a lot of programs (and
uninstalled) most of them. My wife's machine is a similar setup, but
she has hardly installed anything and it's running closer to it's
original speed (same age).

I do a defrag about every 2-3 months even if it says its not needed. I
have about 30% free space on the HDD. I have a hardware firewall and
anti-virus software and I run Scandisk (CHKDSK?) regularly and I also
run adaware and spybot. But the machine is much slower than it was two
years ago. I just thought that registry junk might be the problem.

Thanks

 

[Dave Patrick]

I suppose it's possible. I recommend reinstalling the operating system every
six months or so. Or restoring from an image.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect.

:
| OK. I guess I don't have a "compelling" reason and I'm no expert. I
| have this machine for almost 3 years running W2K. It just gets slower
| and slower. I don't think the the CPU circuitry is getting "worn out"
| or the HDD is getting tired. I have installed a lot of programs (and
| uninstalled) most of them. My wife's machine is a similar setup, but
| she has hardly installed anything and it's running closer to it's
| original speed (same age).
|
| I do a defrag about every 2-3 months even if it says its not needed. I
| have about 30% free space on the HDD. I have a hardware firewall and
| anti-virus software and I run Scandisk (CHKDSK?) regularly and I also
| run adaware and spybot. But the machine is much slower than it was two
| years ago. I just thought that registry junk might be the problem.
|
| Thanks
|
| --
| For email, use Usenet-20031220 at spamex.com

 

[Dave Patrick]

I suppose it's possible. I recommend reinstalling the operating system every
six months or so. Or restoring from an image.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect.

:
| OK. I guess I don't have a "compelling" reason and I'm no expert. I
| have this machine for almost 3 years running W2K. It just gets slower
| and slower. I don't think the the CPU circuitry is getting "worn out"
| or the HDD is getting tired. I have installed a lot of programs (and
| uninstalled) most of them. My wife's machine is a similar setup, but
| she has hardly installed anything and it's running closer to it's
| original speed (same age).
|
| I do a defrag about every 2-3 months even if it says its not needed. I
| have about 30% free space on the HDD. I have a hardware firewall and
| anti-virus software and I run Scandisk (CHKDSK?) regularly and I also
| run adaware and spybot. But the machine is much slower than it was two
| years ago. I just thought that registry junk might be the problem.
|
| Thanks
|
| --
| For email, use Usenet-20031220 at spamex.com

 

[Top Spin]

I suppose it's possible. I recommend reinstalling the operating system every
six months or so. Or restoring from an image.

Actually, that is something that I have been meaning to check into,
but it seems daunting.

1. Can it be done without reinstalling all of the applications?

2. Will I lose all of my personalized settings?

 

[Top Spin]

I suppose it's possible. I recommend reinstalling the operating system every
six months or so. Or restoring from an image.

Actually, that is something that I have been meaning to check into,
but it seems daunting.

1. Can it be done without reinstalling all of the applications?

2. Will I lose all of my personalized settings?

 

[Dave Patrick]

Inline reply:

:
| Actually, that is something that I have been meaning to check into,
| but it seems daunting.
|
| 1. Can it be done without reinstalling all of the applications?
* Only if you did an in-place upgrade. (IMO as a last resort precluding a
repair, etc.)

| 2. Will I lose all of my personalized settings?
* If you do a clean install yes you lose everything.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect.

 

[Dave Patrick]

Inline reply:

:
| Actually, that is something that I have been meaning to check into,
| but it seems daunting.
|
| 1. Can it be done without reinstalling all of the applications?
* Only if you did an in-place upgrade. (IMO as a last resort precluding a
repair, etc.)

| 2. Will I lose all of my personalized settings?
* If you do a clean install yes you lose everything.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect.

 

[Leonard Severt [MSFT]]

OK. I guess I don't have a "compelling" reason and I'm no expert. I
have this machine for almost 3 years running W2K. It just gets slower
and slower. I don't think the the CPU circuitry is getting "worn out"
or the HDD is getting tired. I have installed a lot of programs (and
uninstalled) most of them. My wife's machine is a similar setup, but
she has hardly installed anything and it's running closer to it's
original speed (same age).

I do a defrag about every 2-3 months even if it says its not needed. I
have about 30% free space on the HDD. I have a hardware firewall and
anti-virus software and I run Scandisk (CHKDSK?) regularly and I also
run adaware and spybot. But the machine is much slower than it was two
years ago. I just thought that registry junk might be the problem.

Thanks

The most common cause of slower system is lots of programs running in
the background that are starting automatically. I have seen systems that
had 55 or more programs running at startup.

Let me suggest you look at one more thing and that is the size of the
individual registry files. The files are in \winnt\system32\comfig
You will have System and Software both with no extensions.

Average size for system is 5 to 7 meg.
Average size of softare is harder as it varies a lot more with what you
have installed. It is more like 15 to as much as 25 meg with a lot of
things installed. With only a few things installed it will be more like
13 meg.

If these files are lots larger than you may have a lot more garbage in
them. Note the system hive can only be up to 10.3 meg in size.

Leonard Severt

Windows 2000 Server Setup Team

 

[Leonard Severt [MSFT]]

OK. I guess I don't have a "compelling" reason and I'm no expert. I
have this machine for almost 3 years running W2K. It just gets slower
and slower. I don't think the the CPU circuitry is getting "worn out"
or the HDD is getting tired. I have installed a lot of programs (and
uninstalled) most of them. My wife's machine is a similar setup, but
she has hardly installed anything and it's running closer to it's
original speed (same age).

I do a defrag about every 2-3 months even if it says its not needed. I
have about 30% free space on the HDD. I have a hardware firewall and
anti-virus software and I run Scandisk (CHKDSK?) regularly and I also
run adaware and spybot. But the machine is much slower than it was two
years ago. I just thought that registry junk might be the problem.

Thanks

The most common cause of slower system is lots of programs running in
the background that are starting automatically. I have seen systems that
had 55 or more programs running at startup.

Let me suggest you look at one more thing and that is the size of the
individual registry files. The files are in \winnt\system32\comfig
You will have System and Software both with no extensions.

Average size for system is 5 to 7 meg.
Average size of softare is harder as it varies a lot more with what you
have installed. It is more like 15 to as much as 25 meg with a lot of
things installed. With only a few things installed it will be more like
13 meg.

If these files are lots larger than you may have a lot more garbage in
them. Note the system hive can only be up to 10.3 meg in size.

Leonard Severt

Windows 2000 Server Setup Team

 

[Torgeir Bakken (MVP)]

Actually, that is something that I have been meaning to check into,
but it seems daunting.

1. Can it be done without reinstalling all of the applications?

2. Will I lose all of my personalized settings?

Hi

To avoid reinstalling all applications and lose your personalized settings, you
could make an image after you have set up the OS as you want it.


Some image products:

Gost from Symantec, PQDI from PowerQuest

- or -

Image for Dos or Windows from TeraByte Unlimited
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com

 

[Torgeir Bakken (MVP)]

Actually, that is something that I have been meaning to check into,
but it seems daunting.

1. Can it be done without reinstalling all of the applications?

2. Will I lose all of my personalized settings?

Hi

To avoid reinstalling all applications and lose your personalized settings, you
could make an image after you have set up the OS as you want it.


Some image products:

Gost from Symantec, PQDI from PowerQuest

- or -

Image for Dos or Windows from TeraByte Unlimited
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com

 

[Top Spin]

Hi

To avoid reinstalling all applications and lose your personalized settings, you
could make an image after you have set up the OS as you want it.

But wouldn't that defeat the purpose of reinstalling the OS? Maybe I
don't understand what you are suggesting.

 

[Top Spin]

Hi

To avoid reinstalling all applications and lose your personalized settings, you
could make an image after you have set up the OS as you want it.

But wouldn't that defeat the purpose of reinstalling the OS? Maybe I
don't understand what you are suggesting.

 

[Torgeir Bakken (MVP)]

But wouldn't that defeat the purpose of reinstalling the OS? Maybe I
don't understand what you are suggesting.

Hi

I was thinking of an image containing a freshly installed OS with only the base
application that you always install/use, and with all your standard adjustments.
This way it will be much quicker to go back when you feel that your OS installation
starts to feel sluggish.