Unable to delete invalid registry entries

[miscak]

Hi, a novice here need some help on registry clean up. I started to use
Registry First Aid, but there is a lot of entries that have not permission to
delete, and they keep growing, now is more then 700 entries.

I read about the UAC, admin account / std user account, registry permission
etc. And I'm get more and more confuse. BTW, I am the only user for my PC. I
am runing Vista Home Premium SP1

BTW, I also tried the method of go to cmd and run as administrator, ie log
off then log in as the adminstrator, then re-run the registry scan. The 700
over entries still have no permission.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

First, do not use a registry cleaner. Period. At best they remove dead
entries that have no affect on the system. At worst they remove legitimate
entries and cause no end of problems. These cleaners came about because of
registry bloat issues that occurred in the Win9x line, these problems are
not applicable to modern NT-based systems like XP and Vista. The dead
entries will not have any affect on system performance and can be left
there.

As to what you're seeing, it's likely that this program is trying to remove
keys/strings from protected system areas, and that's the last thing you
would want to do, unless of course you enjoy having to reinstall the
operating system to correct the damage this utility inflicts.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[miscak]

Well, I don't mind leave them there if they don't do any harm, but i think
the registry will grow bigger and bigger, which it would drag down the whole
system. I only use Vista for 3 months and did not install a lot of software,
but it already have 700 redundant lines, imaging after 1 year....

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi, a novice here need some help on registry clean up. I started to use
Registry First Aid, but there is a lot of entries that have not permission to
delete, and they keep growing, now is more then 700 entries.

Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil. Cleaning of the
registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the registry alone and
don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many people think, and
what vendors of registry cleaning software try to convince you of,
having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit
it may have.

Unused registry entries don't hurt you because access to the registry
is random, not sequential.

 

[John Barnes]

Unlike the others, I do not find a registry cleaner as totally useless, but
you do need to be a little more than a novice to properly use one. I
personally like Ccleaner and if you only use it for obsolete programs and to
clean up entries you no longer need, but only select the programs you know
you have uninstalled and be sure to make the backup before deleting. The
program is usefull mainly for cleaning up other Windows items.

As others have advised, it is not necessary to clean up the registry of
Vista as they have virtually no effect on the speed or running of Vista.
They only take minimal extra time when written to memory and in memory if
you are short on memory.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

That is precisely the misconception. The size of the registry has exactly
zero effect on system performance.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[miscak]

Thanks guys, for all your replies and advices, I'll leave the registry alone
now since it has no impact on system performance.