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May help w/registry problems

Discussion in 'Legacy Windows' started by oldntryn, 2011/04/20.

  1. 2011/04/20
    oldntryn

    oldntryn Inactive Thread Starter

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    This may help others or maybe you'al already are aware of this.
    While trying to get entries out of the registry that were not
    used any longer, I used RegMech to cleanup the registry and
    compack it. I noticed that it found 20 entries but only fixed
    12 ? Why not the other 8 ?. At the time i was having problems
    with my CDr/w's (E & F), but having added a Firewire usb drive
    which was usually assigned as G:drive, but it was assigned as
    the F:drive this time. I had just done a format/s on it, to
    create a backup of my C:drive with Ghost the only files on my
    F:drive were system files. After uninstalling an old application
    I ran Regmech and just before i clicked on repair to fix the
    bad registry keys, i noticed that there several entries
    pointing to the F:\ ?????. Not wanting to, nor understanding
    why the entries were pointing to the F:\, since i had just
    ran Regmech and fixed the problems it found and did a restart
    with a compact the registry. After drinking a beer and staring
    at the screen for a half hour, it dawned on me that maybe when
    installing from a CD the system is unable to resolve some
    tempary keys that got created at installation time. So closing
    RegMech without repairing the bad entries. I shutdown the system
    and disconnected both CD's and re-booted with the Firewire USB
    now being assigned as the E:\ drive(which when you boot from
    a bootDiskette the system creates a RAM E:drive in memory).
    So now I ran RegMech again, **** 37 errors !!! all to the
    E:\ drive (but NO errors for the F:\ drive) and the first
    error was E:\WIN98 from the installion date way back in 2001!
    Anyway clicked repair and all were repaired, I looked at the
    Firewire HD E:\ drive and it now had a RECYCLE folder on it ?
    I opened the folder, but there were no entries. So rebooted and
    did a quick scandisk and ran defrag !!!! (I had just done a
    defrag before turning on the Firewire HD to do a backup of C:\)
    and i couldn't believe how fragmented C: was, it looked like a
    jigsaw puzzle! There must have been hundreds of FAT entries
    attached to the 37 errors from the reg keys. Well anyway i went
    thru the same process for the F:\ entries after formatting E:
    again and had 15 error with RegMech and again the defrag had a
    bunch of cleanup to do again also there was another RECYCLE
    folder on the Firewire HD F:\ drive again after RegMech.
    It appears win needs a way to create a recycle folder after
    installing from the CD drives. Hope this helps someone.

    Oldntryn
     
    oldntryn,
    #1
  2. 2011/04/20
    rsinfo

    rsinfo SuperGeek Alumni

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    Sorry Oldntryn, coludn't read through your l-o-n-g post.

    If you want proper & fast reply, please break up the post in proper paragraphs.

    From whatever little I could gather from your post, you are worried about some program not able to clean all of your supposedly registry problem. Leave the registry alone - that's my sincere advice. Don't poke around it untill & unless you know what you are doing.
     
    rsinfo,
    #2


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  4. 2011/04/20
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    To add to reinfo's sound advice - from our Malware Analyst ......

    Registry cleaners/optimizers are not recommended for several reasons:

    • Registry cleaners are extremely powerful applications that can damage the registry by using aggressive cleaning routines and cause your computer to become unbootable.

      The Windows registry is a central repository (database) for storing configuration data, user settings and machine-dependent settings, and options for the operating system. It contains information and settings for all hardware, software, users, and preferences. Whenever a user makes changes to settings, file associations, system policies, or installed software, the changes are reflected and stored in this repository. The registry is a crucial component because it is where Windows "remembers" all this information, how it works together, how Windows boots the system and what files it uses when it does. The registry is also a vulnerable subsystem, in that relatively small changes done incorrectly can render the system inoperable. For a more detailed explanation, read Understanding The Registry.
    • Not all registry cleaners are created equal. There are a number of them available but they do not all work entirely the same way. Each vendor uses different criteria as to what constitutes a "bad entry ". One cleaner may find entries on your system that will not cause problems when removed, another may not find the same entries, and still another may want to remove entries required for a program to work.
    • Not all registry cleaners create a backup of the registry before making changes. If the changes prevent the system from booting up, then there is no backup available to restore it in order to regain functionality. A backup of the registry is essential BEFORE making any changes to the registry.
    • Improperly removing registry entries can hamper malware disinfection and make the removal process more difficult if your computer becomes infected. For example, removing malware related registry entries before the infection is properly identified can contribute to system instability and even make the malware undetectable to removal tools.
    • The usefulness of cleaning the registry is highly overrated and can be dangerous. In most cases, using a cleaner to remove obsolete, invalid, and erroneous entries does not affect system performance but it can result in "unpredictable results ".
    Unless you have a particular problem that requires a registry edit to correct it, I would suggest you leave the registry alone. Using registry cleaning tools unnecessarily or incorrectly could lead to disastrous effects on your operating system such as preventing it from ever starting again. For routine use, the benefits to your computer are negligible while the potential risks are great.

     
    PeteC,
    #3
  5. 2011/04/20
    MrBill

    MrBill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    I agree. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I am by far no expert, but don't remember to many post about problems with the registry unless somebody was in there fooling around. The registry is one of the easiest ways to make a PC not work.
     
    MrBill,
    #4

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