multiple almost identical registry entries

[narcan]

I noticed when I was browsing through my registry that a lot of entries in
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT have multiple entries, example:

Shell.Explorer
Shell.Explorer.1
Shell.Explorer.2

They all have a CLSID entry and sometimes the entries point to the same
CLSID, one of the entries also has a CurVer entry.
I have f.i. 3 Shell.Explorer entries (like above list) with the first one
having a CurVer that points to the third (Shell.Eplorer.2).

My question: Can I remove the .1 .2 etc. entries and keep the first one (by
replacing its CLSID entry to be identical to the one pointed to in The
CurVer entry, thus cleaning up redundant data and make my registry
smaller/faster?

Kees Spierings

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Kees,

Never do that. Though they look similar, they're for different purposes,
with different Class IDs.

 

[narcan]

Never do that. Though they look similar, they're for different purposes,

with different Class IDs.

Some of them point to the same class id, and others just seem like
dereferences to me.
In the Shell.Explorer example, the Shell.Explorer entry has a CurVer that
points to Shell.Explorer.2 which has a different class id, thought if I make
Shell.Explorer point to the same class id that Shell.Explorer.2 points to
and remove the CurVer entry, things would still work. As long as .1 .2
entries are not directly used by XP, which doesn't seem likely.

Regards,
Kees Spierings

 

[johnf]

Why bother. You probably have plenty of HDD free space & one i entry =
bugger all space or time.
Why are so many fanatical people around still living in the dianasour days?

 

[narcan]

It doesn't really matter how much free space one has, a slightly overbloated
registry will slow any machine to a crawl as it is accessed almost
continuesly. I have have been running that same speedy configuration for
about 3 years now and I like to keep it that way. I'm not talking about 1
entry btw. it's more like 50 to 75 entries. It is the Windows architecture
(plus the intel x86 one that lacks speedy context switching) that is the
Dinosaur btw. not me, the registry is a bad idea, but I have to live with
it, hence the questions. Oh and I think linux and osx are quite arcane as
well (don't get me started).

 

[Stan Brown]

It doesn't really matter how much free space one has, a slightly overbloated
registry will slow any machine to a crawl as it is accessed almost
continuesly.

Can you show some authority for that rather surprising statement,
or is it just "cargo cult" stuff?

Many MVPs have posted to the effect that there's no noticeable
performance hit from unused registry entries.