C
Charles
Can someone recommend a good freeware/shareware registry cleaner?
G
Guest
Charles said:
RegCleaner and jv16 powertools are both good.You can still get the free versions here:
http://pricelessware.org/2004/PL2004SYSTEMUTILITIES.htm
C
CS
There are several that work well. Please note - there is a risk when
using any registry cleaner. Here's one that will make a backup of any
registry entry it removes so it can be restored:
"regseeker" (free license)
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/regseeker.html
However, if the registry cleaner removes something that prevents XP
from booting, you won't be able to restore the entries. So be sure
to make regular backups.
J
Jim Byrd
Hi Charles - 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/tu.html or direct dwnld here:
http://files.webattack.com/localdl834/tun234.zip, 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
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/tu.html or direct dwnld here:
http://files.webattack.com/localdl834/tun234.zip, 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
E
Edward W. Thompson
I can't argue with your expereince but in my experience all Registry
Cleaners I have tried have not given a single problem and all backup before
making changes to the Registry. Whether or not Registry Cleaners are really
required is another matter and another debate. System Mechanic is likely to
be as 'good' as any but it isn't free.
As a matter of interest, how do you restore the Registry to a NTFS volume
from DOS using ERUNT? Whenever I boot to DOS I can't see the NTFS volumes
and I don't see any 'available' software that allows reading and writing to
NTFS volumes from DOS. I know about NTFSDOS Professional but the price of
that is outside of my means and the trial version only allows you to read
NTFS, not write, at least that is my understanding.
Cleaners I have tried have not given a single problem and all backup before
making changes to the Registry. Whether or not Registry Cleaners are really
required is another matter and another debate. System Mechanic is likely to
be as 'good' as any but it isn't free.
As a matter of interest, how do you restore the Registry to a NTFS volume
from DOS using ERUNT? Whenever I boot to DOS I can't see the NTFS volumes
and I don't see any 'available' software that allows reading and writing to
NTFS volumes from DOS. I know about NTFSDOS Professional but the price of
that is outside of my means and the trial version only allows you to read
NTFS, not write, at least that is my understanding.
Jim Byrd said:
K
Kelly
Hi Charles,
Is there a particular reason for your needing a cleaner? Just a note, but
if there weren't any offered freely for download, the posts in this group
alone would drop at least by 25% from the troubles that follow.
From a previous reply by Bruce Chambers:
The only thing needed to safely clean 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.
I always use Regedit.exe. I trust my own experience and judgment
far more than I would any automated registry cleaner.
Good luck!
Is there a particular reason for your needing a cleaner? Just a note, but
if there weren't any offered freely for download, the posts in this group
alone would drop at least by 25% from the troubles that follow.
From a previous reply by Bruce Chambers:
The only thing needed to safely clean 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.
I always use Regedit.exe. I trust my own experience and judgment
far more than I would any automated registry cleaner.
Good luck!
J
Jim Byrd
Hi Edward - You can only do this from a DOS boot if your file system is
FAT32 OR you have NTFS drivers. However, you can do a partial restore to
get back to being bootable by using the Recovery Console if you've installed
it, and then do a full restore. (BTW, remember to re-install the Recovery
Console if you slipstream any of your SP's into a local i386 folder.)
Essentially, the approach is to put the ERDNT folder(s) where your nightly
ERUNT is saved inside %SystemRoot% and then use the Recovery Console to
first back up the existing hives in %SystemRoot%\System32\Config and then
replace them with the ones from an appropriate ERDNT folder. This won't
restore the User hives, but will let you boot so that you can then do a
normal ERDNT restore of all hives. You can do it manually or you can
automate the process by using a batch regcopy1.txt command in
Recovery Console where regcopy1.txt contains something like (in this case
E:\ is the %SystemRoot% for my Win2kProSP4 system, and I save to both a Temp
folder and a nightly named folder each night. Here I'm just using the Temp
which will have the last night's save in it.):
md tmp
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\system e:\winnt\tmp\system.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\software e:\winnt\tmp\software.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\sam e:\winnt\tmp\sam.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\security e:\winnt\tmp\security.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\default e:\winnt\tmp\default.bak
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\system
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\software
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\sam
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\security
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\default
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\system e:\winnt\system32\config\system
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\software e:\winnt\system32\config\software
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\sam e:\winnt\system32\config\sam
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\security e:\winnt\system32\config\security
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\default e:\winnt\system32\config\default
See: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545 (Be
very careful about your specific system's ERUNT naming conventions which can
depend upon just how your backup was saved, manually vs. a scheduled task.)
As to your other comment - I think you've experienced very good luck and/or
are very careful in using such cleaners if you haven't had a bad experience.
We see a constant stream of screwed up Registries because of them, and I
don't think I know of an MVP who will recommend their use. YMMV, however.
--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP
In
FAT32 OR you have NTFS drivers. However, you can do a partial restore to
get back to being bootable by using the Recovery Console if you've installed
it, and then do a full restore. (BTW, remember to re-install the Recovery
Console if you slipstream any of your SP's into a local i386 folder.)
Essentially, the approach is to put the ERDNT folder(s) where your nightly
ERUNT is saved inside %SystemRoot% and then use the Recovery Console to
first back up the existing hives in %SystemRoot%\System32\Config and then
replace them with the ones from an appropriate ERDNT folder. This won't
restore the User hives, but will let you boot so that you can then do a
normal ERDNT restore of all hives. You can do it manually or you can
automate the process by using a batch regcopy1.txt command in
Recovery Console where regcopy1.txt contains something like (in this case
E:\ is the %SystemRoot% for my Win2kProSP4 system, and I save to both a Temp
folder and a nightly named folder each night. Here I'm just using the Temp
which will have the last night's save in it.):
md tmp
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\system e:\winnt\tmp\system.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\software e:\winnt\tmp\software.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\sam e:\winnt\tmp\sam.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\security e:\winnt\tmp\security.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\default e:\winnt\tmp\default.bak
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\system
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\software
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\sam
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\security
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\default
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\system e:\winnt\system32\config\system
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\software e:\winnt\system32\config\software
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\sam e:\winnt\system32\config\sam
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\security e:\winnt\system32\config\security
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\default e:\winnt\system32\config\default
See: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545 (Be
very careful about your specific system's ERUNT naming conventions which can
depend upon just how your backup was saved, manually vs. a scheduled task.)
As to your other comment - I think you've experienced very good luck and/or
are very careful in using such cleaners if you haven't had a bad experience.
We see a constant stream of screwed up Registries because of them, and I
don't think I know of an MVP who will recommend their use. YMMV, however.
--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP
In
E
Edward W. Thompson
Thanks Jim. Re Registry Cleaners, I guess, as you say, I have been lucky.
Re ERUNT I take note of what you advise. As a matter of interest you
mention NTFS drivers precisely what are these drivers and where can they be
found? I have a USB HDD that I can boot from (Yes, my motherboard will
allow me to boot from an external USB HDD) and have formatted it FAT 32 with
a DOS OS (WIN98 version) to allow it to be used on other machines. My
principal machine has two SATA fixed disk drives each formatted NTFS. I use
the USB HDD for backup purposes which is fine unless the fixed drives will
not boot, then I would ideally like to boot from my USB HDD and do whatever
necesary to repair the system. With the present arrangements and without
appropriate NTFS-DOS 'drivers' it's not possible.
I am thinking the best solution may be to partition the USB Drive and
install a copy of WINXP on the primary partition intead of using DOS, while
I could do this, the drive is 30GB, it will waste space as I suppose I will
need to dedicate at least 2 GB for a WINXP installation. I am beginning to
wonder whether in the overall sense NTFS is such a good idea as if things go
wrong it seems to present difficulties that weren't there in good ole DOS.
Any thoughts on this?
Re ERUNT I take note of what you advise. As a matter of interest you
mention NTFS drivers precisely what are these drivers and where can they be
found? I have a USB HDD that I can boot from (Yes, my motherboard will
allow me to boot from an external USB HDD) and have formatted it FAT 32 with
a DOS OS (WIN98 version) to allow it to be used on other machines. My
principal machine has two SATA fixed disk drives each formatted NTFS. I use
the USB HDD for backup purposes which is fine unless the fixed drives will
not boot, then I would ideally like to boot from my USB HDD and do whatever
necesary to repair the system. With the present arrangements and without
appropriate NTFS-DOS 'drivers' it's not possible.
I am thinking the best solution may be to partition the USB Drive and
install a copy of WINXP on the primary partition intead of using DOS, while
I could do this, the drive is 30GB, it will waste space as I suppose I will
need to dedicate at least 2 GB for a WINXP installation. I am beginning to
wonder whether in the overall sense NTFS is such a good idea as if things go
wrong it seems to present difficulties that weren't there in good ole DOS.
Any thoughts on this?
K
Ken Blake
In
And my Uncle smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for eighty
years, never got lung cancer, and died at the age of 102.
The experienece of a single person doesn't prove anything and
doesn't count for very much. In my view registry cleaners are
potentially dangerous and I don't recommend their use. Yes, some
people use them and don't have problems, just as not all smokers
get lung cancer. But I wouldn't push your luck.
Edward W. Thompson said:
And my Uncle smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for eighty
years, never got lung cancer, and died at the age of 102.
The experienece of a single person doesn't prove anything and
doesn't count for very much. In my view registry cleaners are
potentially dangerous and I don't recommend their use. Yes, some
people use them and don't have problems, just as not all smokers
get lung cancer. But I wouldn't push your luck.
J
Jim Byrd
Hi Edward - Well, the actual main driver is ntfs.sys; however, a parallel
install is IMO far-and-away the best solution AS LONG AS your machine is
bootable to the parallel system on your outboard HHD. See MVP Chris
Quirke's tutorials on Multi-booting and Maintenance OS's here:
http://cquirke.mvps.org/index.html (Some of these maintenance/recovery
considerations are why Chris isn't a great proponent of NTFS vice FAT32
..) Also take a look at: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=119467 and the
referenced KB 305595, KB 301680 and KB 325879 as applicable for some info on
this.
This will ordinarily require at least some minimal functionality from your
original %BootDrive%. If there are problems then, unless your original HD
is majorly ill, you can <often, but not always> get to this state using the
Recovery Console fixboot and fixmbr functions if you've
installed the RC, by booting off of the orig install CD and selecting the RC
repair option. The message here is INSTALL THE RECOVERY CONSOLE.
Other approaches that are used which get around some of these problems are
to boot to a GNU/Linux system which incorporates the NTFS drivers (see here,
for example: http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/ and the very
common and recommended 3.4 version of KNOPPIX http://www.knoppix.net/ and
various Debian-based systems which will allow you to mount an NTFS volume
and access it).
For a Windows DOS based alternative boot, you'll probably need to
incorporate the NTFSDOSPro utility you referred to earlier into your DOS
system, or some other source of NTFS write drivers for Windows. I don't
know off-hand of any free ones, but look around - you may find something.
Chris' recomended BitDefender approach may be a relevant solution - I
haven't had time to try it out yet.
Proceed AT YOUR OWN RISK along this path. Fair warning - setting something
like this requires very careful planning and a fair amount of knowledge
about what you're doing. There is a serious risk of making your machine
unusable without a complete format/re-install. Mistakes here are often not
very forgivable, so use care.
--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP
In
install is IMO far-and-away the best solution AS LONG AS your machine is
bootable to the parallel system on your outboard HHD. See MVP Chris
Quirke's tutorials on Multi-booting and Maintenance OS's here:
http://cquirke.mvps.org/index.html (Some of these maintenance/recovery
considerations are why Chris isn't a great proponent of NTFS vice FAT32
..) Also take a look at: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=119467 and the
referenced KB 305595, KB 301680 and KB 325879 as applicable for some info on
this.
This will ordinarily require at least some minimal functionality from your
original %BootDrive%. If there are problems then, unless your original HD
is majorly ill, you can <often, but not always> get to this state using the
Recovery Console fixboot and fixmbr functions if you've
installed the RC, by booting off of the orig install CD and selecting the RC
repair option. The message here is INSTALL THE RECOVERY CONSOLE.
Other approaches that are used which get around some of these problems are
to boot to a GNU/Linux system which incorporates the NTFS drivers (see here,
for example: http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/ and the very
common and recommended 3.4 version of KNOPPIX http://www.knoppix.net/ and
various Debian-based systems which will allow you to mount an NTFS volume
and access it).
For a Windows DOS based alternative boot, you'll probably need to
incorporate the NTFSDOSPro utility you referred to earlier into your DOS
system, or some other source of NTFS write drivers for Windows. I don't
know off-hand of any free ones, but look around - you may find something.
Chris' recomended BitDefender approach may be a relevant solution - I
haven't had time to try it out yet.
Proceed AT YOUR OWN RISK along this path. Fair warning - setting something
like this requires very careful planning and a fair amount of knowledge
about what you're doing. There is a serious risk of making your machine
unusable without a complete format/re-install. Mistakes here are often not
very forgivable, so use care.
--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP
In
E
Edward W. Thompson
I wasn't aware I was trying to prove anything. What are you trying to
prove, bad manners?
prove, bad manners?
J
J. S. Pack
The latest version of ERUNT uses a batch file that you can run from the
Recovery Console to restore your registry easily. You can also make
yourself a free Bart's PEBuilder (google) boot CD that can do anything you
could reasonably want with your NTFS-formatted disk, far more than you
could ever do with a DOS diskette and FAT32. And of course you can run
ERUNT from your PEBuilder CD as well. See the readme.txt for details.
J
J. S. Pack
Fine in theory, but how much time are you gonna spend rummaging around
trying to find things in huge registry? When you look a what a good
regcleaner is going to clean out, you have the choice of allowing it or
not. And think how long it would take you to find all that stuff that you'd
want to allow.
E
Edward W. Thompson
This is most helpful, thank you.
J. S. Pack said:
K
Kelly
In theory, one "should" seldom need to manually remove anything from the
registry. Rule of thumb "used" to be, if you didn't put it there, don't
remove it. However, with some of the uninstallers written today......that
tends to be a different story, sad to say. But then again using the
uninstallers, users seldom pay mind to keeping the shared dll's and end up
in trouble anyway.
Back to your comment, if you are looking to remove a particular
program/remnants, etc., then that can be accomplished without a registry
cleaner using Edit/Find and/or the steps provided here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_a.htm#addremove.
I would rather point someone directly to the keys/values than suggest them
using a regcleaner. Most users today want quick fixes and trust third party
programs to do all of the work and shouldn't (spyware cleaners included).
If "you" seem to know what you are doing, then go for it and good luck.
)
As per your other comment: The registry may seem huge, if you don't
understand it, but it really isn't. Generally and for the most part, you
are only dealing with Local and Current Machine hives.
I spend a great deal of time in the registry daily and have done so for
years and have never found the process lengthy nor time consuming at all.
Lastly, for most, doing things as these manually, helps one to be better
familiarized with using the registry. Thus again, going full circle to not
ever needing a regcleaner at all, to start with.)
All the Best,
Kelly
Microsoft-MVP Windows® XP
2004 Windows MVP "Winny" Award
Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm
registry. Rule of thumb "used" to be, if you didn't put it there, don't
remove it. However, with some of the uninstallers written today......that
tends to be a different story, sad to say. But then again using the
uninstallers, users seldom pay mind to keeping the shared dll's and end up
in trouble anyway.
Back to your comment, if you are looking to remove a particular
program/remnants, etc., then that can be accomplished without a registry
cleaner using Edit/Find and/or the steps provided here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_a.htm#addremove.
I would rather point someone directly to the keys/values than suggest them
using a regcleaner. Most users today want quick fixes and trust third party
programs to do all of the work and shouldn't (spyware cleaners included).
If "you" seem to know what you are doing, then go for it and good luck.
)As per your other comment: The registry may seem huge, if you don't
understand it, but it really isn't. Generally and for the most part, you
are only dealing with Local and Current Machine hives.
I spend a great deal of time in the registry daily and have done so for
years and have never found the process lengthy nor time consuming at all.
Lastly, for most, doing things as these manually, helps one to be better
familiarized with using the registry. Thus again, going full circle to not
ever needing a regcleaner at all, to start with.
)All the Best,
Kelly
Microsoft-MVP Windows® XP
2004 Windows MVP "Winny" Award
Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm
K
Ken Blake
In
If you felt I was being rude, then my apologies. It wasn't my
intent. I may have come on stronger than I intended, but I was
only trying to point out that it's necessary to look at the
experiences of large groups of people, not individuals.
Again, sorry.
Edward W. Thompson said:
If you felt I was being rude, then my apologies. It wasn't my
intent. I may have come on stronger than I intended, but I was
only trying to point out that it's necessary to look at the
experiences of large groups of people, not individuals.
Again, sorry.
P
Philippe L. Balmanno
I have never seen a Microsoft Operating System work on principles andIn theory, one "should" seldom need to manually remove anything from the
registry. Rule of thumb "used" to be, if you didn't put it there, don't
remove it. However, with some of the uninstallers written today......that
tends to be a different story, sad to say. But then again using the
uninstallers, users seldom pay mind to keeping the shared dll's and end up
in trouble anyway.
Back to your comment, if you are looking to remove a particular
program/remnants, etc., then that can be accomplished without a registry
cleaner using Edit/Find and/or the steps provided here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_a.htm#addremove.
I would rather point someone directly to the keys/values than suggest them
using a regcleaner. Most users today want quick fixes and trust third party
programs to do all of the work and shouldn't (spyware cleaners included).
If "you" seem to know what you are doing, then go for it and good luck.
As per your other comment: The registry may seem huge, if you don't
understand it, but it really isn't. Generally and for the most part, you
are only dealing with Local and Current Machine hives.
I spend a great deal of time in the registry daily and have done so for
years and have never found the process lengthy nor time consuming at all.
Lastly, for most, doing things as these manually, helps one to be better
familiarized with using the registry. Thus again, going full circle to not
ever needing a regcleaner at all, to start with.
All the Best,
Kelly
Microsoft-MVP Windows® XP
2004 Windows MVP "Winny" Award
Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm
theories that make sense to the real world when dealing with the
registry database. And regedit is a way too simple tool that makes
scrutinizing the registry tedious at the least. There are several
registry cleaners that will unload and delete software and all
associated registry keys and files/folders by simply choosing that
software. And, I've only been using MS since MSDOS 3.0. I currently
have a simple XP SP2 system that I use two regcleaners as-well-as
spyware detectors that remove registry key entries which are loaded by
spyware. The registry database is so extensive and I guarrantee not
all spyware or orphaned keys are detectable by even the most
knowledgeable user using regedit alone going from a to z. To assume
that the keys would all be found under HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software is a
bad mistake. After doing a clean install of XP and XP Office Pro I
ran my registry cleaners and over two hundred registry keys were
orphaned (I'm being modest 220 keys) using RegCleaner.exe & jv16 Power
Tools and RegCompact to get rid of excess in the hive files. Mind you
this was MS software only that was loaded. It could be that it
misreads the hardware or just loads everything instead of what is
needed only.
I concur that regcleaners can be dangerous to novices but you don't
become better without a lot of stumbling along the way.