another regseeker story?

WinXP Home, SP2.

I ran regseeker (1.45) "Clean Registry" and it found 655 entries to remove. No
problem, everything booted up just fine.

Now the Horror story -
I ran it again and told it to find "Norton ", found 5 entries. Again i ran it and
told it to find "Symantec ", 19 entries found. Ok, so i'm cooking! Again, and
told it to find "SPBBC ", found 2 entries. All these i deleted.
On next boot, a msg said "Cant find system32\config.sys" (or close to
that) windows cannot boot. Try using the "r" option from the original winXP CD.
HA! Nogo! The "r" didnt work. I started a re-install of windows (while running
through my head all the changes\settings i've done). After installing all the
startup files - it told me to insert the OEM recovery CD. I did and it reinstalled
everything (even those things i didnt want). Anyway, once i got the system
to actually start, I was able to run a MSBackup file that was only 2 days old.
So everything was put back with a few changes, like it re-assigned all the HD
letters (except "C "), which worked out for the better, a simple problem to fix.
And it put back all the junk software from the dealer.

Moral(s) Learned:

0. MSBackup does work.
1. Be very careful about regseeker.
2. There is no way an end user can completely remove norton or symantec!

Lesson learned: Dont $%^&* with it.
But, at least i learned something.
savagcl

 

Hi Clif,

Another lesson should be not to remove 655 entries all at once

I've found TotalUninstall to be very effective even with Symantec.

http://www.martau.com/ Can't find the free version any longer on Snapfiles or anywhere else, I think it was removed by the Author.

Regards - Charles

 

charlesvar,

True. I carefully reviewed them and they were all from old uninstalled
software or unused file extensions. Nothing there about norton\symantec tho.

But, still, a good thought.

savagcl

 

I should be ready for persons that are always just so perfect and right all of the time.If Pete.C uses Regseeker? In a proper way { No one else should } Really JAMES!!!!!!!

 

Who is to blame for this?

There is absolutely no reason to be using these types of programs. We've argued this sort of thing before. Granted, I'm giving you my opinion but it is backed up 100% by all the MVP's on the Windows XP General forum. Seldom does a day go by that someone asks for a recommendation for a registry cleaner and he always receives the same response: Don't do it. If you do not have the ability to go into the Registry and manually remove files that you KNOW are problematic (and most aren't) then why on earth would you entrust your registry to a program such as RegSeeker? Very few testimonials other than a handful here will attest to vastly improved boxes having run RegSeeker BUT the horror stories of computers that will no longer boot so that they can use the Undo or Backup features are countless... and should be warning enough.

Anyway... I know that no one will listen and just as in the case of the advice of running multiple firewalls was unheeded... so too the advice to use a registry cleaning program will also go unheeded. So... when you mess up your computer having used this program (and failed to fully understand [as if anyone here actually fully understands] the program's idiosyncrasies) why come back here to complain? You've only yourself to blame for not listening.

 

Hey Lenny, how are are? Long time no "see ", welcome back.

Hi James

Regards - Charles

 

Back in the Win9x/ME days I always told folks that before they tried to edit the registry they should first go to file / export in regedit and export a full registry . Then save it with a name like PETE to a folder you made C:Rescueme so you have a file C:Rescueme\PETE
Then if you messed up , all you had to do was boot to a floppy , at the A:_> prompt type C: and hit enter , then type C:Rescueme\PETE and hit enter. This would restore the registry you exported and was a lot easier than explaining about scanreg /restore (especially if they had already rebooted so many times they had overwritten the registry backups).

How to back up and restore your registry in windows XP

In XP it is more complex. You have to backup the .hiv files themselves and then if you mess up , use the recovery console to copy them back.



How to recover from a corrupt registry which prevents windows from loading


Installing your recovery console


How to launch system restore from a command prompt

 

oshwyn5, good point about being able to backtrack.

Part of the problem with Reg Cleaners is the way they're used - someone confronted with a lot of entries (I've seen hundreds reffered to) decides to to fix them all at once, not a very smart way to handle this.

Even someone experienced should take a "digestable" portion, "fix" and see what the effects are.

This goes for any change to a system - MS updates is a classic, I've seen too many posts about updates causing problems and the user can't pinpoint the update that may have caused it.

Regards - Charles

 

Agreed, other than on a clean install which you have a nice ghost image of , it is often unwise to try to do everything all at once.