Lost Accessories Shortcuts

[Guest]

I used a registry cleaner on my comp which uses Vista Home Premium and now
all the shortcuts that appeared in my accessories folder are not there
anymore. A lot of the stuff I use I can't access anymore such as defrag and
notepad etc.

 

[P. Di Stolfo]

Hello,

if you haven't made other important changes since the last restore point,
you could use System Restore for immediate help.
What did you clean using the registry cleaner?

Greetings,
P. Di Stolfo

 

[Guest]

I used a program called registry helper, did a scan and a list of 'invalid
entries' came up. I didn't check every one I thought it was safe and so went
ahead and deleted them. After that I noticed my accessories folder was
almost empty. I believe the programs are still there for instance i can still
open text files with notepad it's just the icons in the accessories folder
are missing. This is a new comp and I haven't made a backup of files yet. I
did find a program on the internet that restored lost system tools shortcuts
but that was for XP I wondered if there was one for Vista, thanks for your
help.

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

I used a registry cleaner on my comp which uses Vista Home Premium and now
all the shortcuts that appeared in my accessories folder are not there
anymore. A lot of the stuff I use I can't access anymore such as defrag
and
notepad etc.

Don't ever use Registry cleaners.

Save your important file, format the drive and re-install Vista and your
programs.

 

[Guest]

I did a restore like P. Di Stolfo suggested, I wasn't aware I could do one
because I previously used 'goback' on my old computer. It has restored
everything to how it was before I did the registry clean (relief) it has also
removed the registry cleaner program from my HD (saved me from doing it).
Thanks P. Di Stolfo for the help and thanks Frank Saunders for the good
advice, I won't be doing that again. Cheers to both,

Paul

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I did a restore like P. Di Stolfo suggested, I wasn't aware I could do one
because I previously used 'goback' on my old computer. It has restored
everything to how it was before I did the registry clean (relief) it has also
removed the registry cleaner program from my HD (saved me from doing it).
Thanks P. Di Stolfo for the help and thanks Frank Saunders for the good
advice, I won't be doing that again. Cheers to both,

Glad to see that you got good advice, and glad to see that your
problem is fixed. I'll just add my standard comment about registry
cleaners:

I strongly recommend *against* the routine use of registry cleaners.
Routine cleaning of the registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave
the registry alone and don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what
many people think, and what vendors of registry cleaning software try
to convince you of, having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt
you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit
it may have.

 

[Guest]

If you purchased a new computer why did you install and run a registry
cleaner? Why would you run a registry cleaner without backing up your
registry first? Why do you feel a need to run a registry cleaner? What
advantage do you hope to gain by doing so?

I would suggest you stay away from registry cleaners, including the ones
that come with some utility software packages. If you want to fool around
with your registry you should educate yourself as to how to do it yourself
and how to do it safely.

In any event, I wouldn't consider altering my registry in any way without
first backing it up. Backing up your registry is such a simple process.

When I first started using computers I did many stupid and ill-advised
things. I learned the hard way. You can avoid the mistakes I made by
researching any issue before attempting to make any changes.

Have a nice day.

C.B.