Registry and # of Network Connections

I looked in the Registry and found on 2 of my computers, 9 and 10 Network Connections respectively. One is running XP Pro, the other Home, both with SP 2 installed.

These happened as the computers were changed from hard wired LAN to Wireless. Along the way, wireless cards were changed and new utilities and device drivers had to be installed. Looks like a new Network Connection was created for each install, the old one was not re-used.

The basic question is not why 9 or 10 entries, but *can* they be removed? If so, how? All Registry compression and dead link removal programs do not touch these?

On each machine only a single Network Connection is used in the Registry it seems (although there are some 1394 ones that would still be needed). Just wondering as no need to keep unused entries in the Registry, it is big enough as it is. It doesn't seem as simple as removing a single entry out of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network either I suspect? I also see 3 other controlset entries which I also suspect are not used.

Suggestions and/or comments?

Irv Spalten

 

Suggestion - if it is working, leave the entrie(s) alone.

Comment - the XP registry can tolerate lots of bloat without any effect on performance.