wylbur37 said:
I'm about to try one of those Registry cleaners that are supposed to
eliminate obsolete entries in the Registry (which, I'm told, is one
of the causes of sluggishness).
You were told wrong.
What specific problem are you experiencing that you *know* beyond
all reasonable doubt is being caused by a registry error? If you do
have a problem that is rooted in the registry, it would be far better to
simply edit (after backing up, of course) only the specific key(s)
and/or value(s) that are causing the problem. Why use a shotgun when a
scalpel will do the job? Additionally, the manually changing of one or
two registry entries is far less likely to have the dire consequences of
allowing an automated product to make multiple changes simultaneously.
The registry contains all of the operating system's "knowledge" of
the computer's hardware devices, installed software, the location of the
device drivers, and the computer's configuration. A misstep in the
registry can have severe consequences. One should not even turning
loose a poorly understood automated "cleaner," unless he is fully
confident that he knows *exactly* what is going to happen as a result of
each and every change. Having seen the results of inexperienced people
using automated registry "cleaners," I can only advise all but the most
experienced computer technicians (and/or hobbyists) to avoid them all.
Experience has shown me that such tools simply are not safe in the hands
of the inexperienced user.
The only thing needed to safely maintain your registry is knowledge
and Regedit.exe. If you lack the knowledge and experience to maintain
your registry by yourself, then you also lack the knowledge and
experience to safely configure and use any automated registry "cleaner,"
no matter how safe they claim to be.
Further, no one has ever demonstrated, to my satisfaction, that the
use of an automated registry "cleaner," particularly by an untrained,
inexperienced computer user, does any real good. There's certainly been
no empirical evidence offered to demonstrate that the use of such
products to "clean" WinXP's registry improves a computer's performance
or stability.
I just thought, out of curiosity, that I'd first see how much space
the Registry currently occupies, and then check it again after using
the cleaner.
Why? Are you short of hard drive space? Otherwise, the size of the
registry is pretty much irrelevant; it certainly has no affect upon the
performance or stability of the operating system.
Is there a feature in Windows XP Pro that tells you the Registry size,
or is there a free program that does that ?
The WinXP registry can be found in C:\Windows\System32\Config\.
It'll be divided into several data files, such as Security, Software,
and System. The user-specific portion of the registry is stored in each
user profile, in a file named NTUser.dat. You could use Windows Explorer
to examine the sizes of these files.
--
Bruce Chambers
Help us help you:
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of
chains and slavery? .... I know not what course others may take, but as
for me, give me liberty, or give me death! -Patrick Henry
