Registry Editing

[Guest]

Hi, this is new dude. I have a registry question, i am running win xp sp2
home edition, can i delete old uninstalled software program folders on the
registry. If yes can you please let me know where they are located. Thanks,
new dude.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi, this is new dude. I have a registry question, i am running win xp sp2
home edition, can i delete old uninstalled software program folders on the
registry. If yes can you please let me know where they are located. Thanks,
new dude.

Yes, and simply search the registry for them.


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Bruce Chambers

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[ChristyLynn]

Does doing this benefit your system... ie, make it faster, etc.

 

[Val]

Not particularly, unless you have a stopwatch that can measure in
nanoseconds.

You gain the most by deleting the old programs, all their files and folders,
then defragging the drive. And that may not really make a noticeable
difference.

Val

 

[Handy]

Hi, this is new dude. I have a registry question, i am running win xp sp2
home edition, can i delete old uninstalled software program folders on the
registry. If yes can you please let me know where they are located.
Thanks,
new dude.

Here is how to do it, but don't .....

To find the entries you need to run regedit, then click on edit then click
on find, then type in the name of the uninstalled program. There are likely
to be several old registry entries so you need to click on edit then click
on find next to find all the entries, quite a tedious process. However, this
is potentially very risky because if you delete any crucial registry values
you may wreck Windows XP and then your computer will not work properly. If
you must make any changes in the registry make sure that you do a registry
backup before each change so that if it goes horribly wrong you can recover
the situation. If your computer is working fine I would advise you to leave
well alone.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Does doing this benefit your system... ie, make it faster, etc.

Deleting leftover orphaned entries? No, it doesn't do any good, and registry
editing is always dangerous. A mistake can leave you with an unbootable
computer.