Registry Cleanup.

[Jack]

I need some good advice about choosing a registry cleaner. Something that
will do the job, without causing a lot of problems. I just looked in my
registry, and I have stuff in their that I thought was deleted two years
ago.
TIA Jack

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Jack - My "standard" post about Registry Cleansers:

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

 

[dev]

/Jack/ said:

I need some good advice about choosing a registry cleaner. Something that
will do the job, without causing a lot of problems. I just looked in my
registry, and I have stuff in their that I thought was deleted two years
ago.

....and a registry "cleaner" won't necessarily remove those specific items,
while it may dispose of others. Registry cleaners can cause big problems,
and should be used with caution - occasionally. In any case, be certain
that the cleaner has an UNDO function.

http://toniarts.com/products.php?PH...52&PHPSESSID=4c5f3cbda08f01382615bcd05c640852

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Jack;
I would suggest to leave it alone.
Unless you know exactly what is deleted, you may damage Windows.

 

[Kelly]

Hi Jack,

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.

<MVP Bruce>

My words and thoughts on the issue:

1. If you know your Windows and registry files well enough, there would be
no need for this post.
2. NEVER trust 'any' registry cleaner unless you know the files you are
dealing with and understand the registry.
3. Your question may pertain to simply Add or Remove files and/or Software
listings, if so:

Troubleshooting, Removing and/or Cleaning Add or Remove Programs
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_a.htm#addremove

4. Registry files are best left alone.

 

[Al Smith]

I need some good advice about choosing a registry cleaner. Something that

will do the job, without causing a lot of problems. I just looked in my
registry, and I have stuff in their that I thought was deleted two years
ago.
TIA Jack

I've never had any problems with EasyCleaner. It is still a free
program, depending on where you download it. This is a good place
to get it:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download414.html

 

[Plato]

http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/files/EClea2_0.exe
Why not get it from the Author himself?