Need advise on registry cleaning software

[Dr. Indera]

hello,

like many others, i have installed and then un-installed a lot of software.
i'd like to remove any traces of these packages from the registry, as well
as, another other place files may still be.

i haven't tinkered with the registry, but know that it's not something one
should do without some experience.
i'd like to know if anyone can recommend a package that will tell me which
registry items i can delete without causing havoc. if possible, i'd like the
package to be able to display the name of the software that the file belongs
to. that way i shouldn't get myself into trouble.

thanks
indera

 

[Gerry Voras]

To start, download the lastest copy of "regclean" from microsoft.

 

[XS11E]

To start, download the lastest copy of "regclean" from microsoft.

regclean was removed from the Microsoft website some years back.

 

[William W. Plummer]

I use Easy Cleaner from ToniArts.com.

regclean was removed from the Microsoft website some years back.

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Dr. Indera - In my experience all of these Reg cleaners, even the best,
are fraught with
danger. I advise against using them except in one specific instance, that
is when you have one that is capable of doing specific Reg searches, and
you NEED (not just WANT) to remove the remaining traces of something that
didn't get uninstalled correctly. (and you didn't have foresight enough to
install it using Total Uninstall,
http://www.geocities.com/ggmartau/projects/projects.html, in the first
place.)

Lastly, if you must screw around with your Registry, then at least get
Erunt/Erdnt, and run it before you do the Reg clean. You'll then have a
true restore available to you. Read below to see why you might not just
using the Reg cleaner's restore:

Get Erunt here for all NT-based computers including XP:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/index.htm I've set it up to
take a scheduled backup each night at 12:01AM on a weekly round-robin basis,
and a Monthly on the 1st of each month. See here for how to set that up:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/erunt.txt, and for some
useful information about this subject.

This program is one of the best things around - saved my butt on many
occasions, and will also run very nicely from a DOS prompt (in case you've
done something that won't let you boot any more and need to revert to a
previous Registry) IF you're FAT32 OR have a DOS startup disk with NTFS
write drivers in an NTFS system. (There is also a way using the Recovery
Console to get back to being "bootable" even without separate DOS write NTFS
drivers, after which you can do a "normal" Erdnt restore.) (BTW, it also
includes a Registry defragger program). Free, and very, very highly
recommended.

FYI, quoting from the above document:

Note: The "Export registry" function in Regedit is USELESS (!) to make a
complete backup of the registry. Neither does it export the whole registry
(for example, no information from the "SECURITY" hive is saved), nor can the
exported file be used later to replace the current registry with the old
one. Instead, if you re-import the file, it is
merged with the current registry, leaving you with an absolute mess of old
and new registry keys.


--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In

 

[Gerry Voras]

OK, I just got a copy from download.com last week.

 

[Dr. Indera]

thank you gerry, will do.

indera

To start, download the lastest copy of "regclean" from microsoft.

 

[Dr. Indera]

hi william.

thank you. i will look into it.

indera

 

[Dr. Indera]

hi jim,

hopefully, this isn't as complicated as it sounds, especially for someone
that isn't well versed in the registry.
i'm going to print this email out and walk through it carefully.

i tried the geocities link and it came up not found.

thanks
indera

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Dr. Indera - Try this link instead:
http://www.geocities.com/ggmartau/tu.html or you can directly download it
here: http://files.webattack.com/localdl834/tun234.zip

--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In

 

[Mik]

Regclean is a good start, but it really does not do much, and IMHO
there must be a reason Microsoft withdrew it ! I stopped using it
years ago. I use EasyCleaner v2.0 :

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Downright_pages/downrights_a-z.htm

good luck.

mik.

 

[Gary Smith]

Regclean is a good start, but it really does not do much, and IMHO
there must be a reason Microsoft withdrew it ! I stopped using it
years ago. I use EasyCleaner v2.0 :

Microsoft withdrew Regclean in part because it doesn't handle Office 2000
properly. Evidently it removes things that should be kept.

 

[Dr. Indera]

thank you jim.

indera

Hi Dr. Indera - Try this link instead:
http://www.geocities.com/ggmartau/tu.html or you can directly download it
here: http://files.webattack.com/localdl834/tun234.zip

--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In enough up can like

 

[Dr. Indera]

thank you mik.

indera

Regclean is a good start, but it really does not do much, and IMHO
there must be a reason Microsoft withdrew it ! I stopped using it
years ago. I use EasyCleaner v2.0 :

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Downright_pages/downrights_a-z.htm

good luck.

mik.