What!?  Read the book?  :)  Thanks for pointing me to the specific pages.
I tried reading about this stuff in the help for the registry wizard and it
was less helpful than the book.  With that said, I'll still have to say
that the book does not help a lot either.  It does give a bit more detail,
but still leaves me unsatisfied.  I'll have to try playing around with it a
bit more and see if I can make sense (to me) out of it.

In effect, what it appeared to do was to delete entries without asking me
explicitly if I wanted them deleted.  The orphan entries did disappear and
I did not have to confirm any deletions that I can remember.  This set of
utilities seems to be aimed toward the novice or less-experienced user but
I really don't see how a novice user could feel safe using this program.
It seems a bit too magical in its workings to me.  One thing I often need
to do is explain how programs work to novices.  At this point, I don't feel
like I know enough about the program to do this with comfort.

----------
> From: Jim Meagher <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [PCSOFT] Nuts & Bolts Registry Wizard
> Date: Friday, June 05, 1998 2:35 PM
>
> Pages 2-15 through 2-19 in the book will give you a pretty good idea
> of what goes on, but there is some detail missing.
>
> Repair attempts to fix pathing problems due to moved files.  Clicking
> on the REPAIR ALL button will perform a system wide search for the
missing
> file.  If it can locate the file in a new directory, then it will put it
> on the list of repairable links.  Once you FIX all the links it found,
> then you must manually work with each one that is left.  Click on the
> link in the top window and then use the REPAIR button.  At this point,
> you can: click into the white box and manually fix it, BROWSE to find
> it yourself, DELETE the whole link, SAVE it as is, CANCEL the whole
process,
> or get more HELP.
>
> NONE of the options in the Nuts & Bolts program will delete a registry
entry
> without asking you first.
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: PCSOFT - Personal Computer software discussion list
> > [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Earl Truss
> > Sent: Friday, June 05, 1998 5:31 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: [PCSOFT] Nuts & Bolts Registry Wizard
> >
> >
> > I'm trying out Nuts & Bolts.  I had a lot of entries in my Registry
from
> > old software that I've uninstalled.  I ran the Registry Wizard
> > and used the
> > options in order ... Backup, Clean, Repair, Tuneup.  Clean appears to
just
> > delete lists like the recent documents and run lists.  Repair listed
363
> > orphans, most of which were old programs.  I told it to "repair"
> > them since
> > I could not find any way to delete then even though that was really
what I
> > wanted to do.  I tried running Repair again and got 350-some orphans so
I
> > guess a few were fixed but most of the ones due to missing programs
were
> > still there.  So I tried running Tuneup.  When it finished, System.dat
had
> > been reduced from 2.5MB to under 2MB.  I went through Registry
> > Wizard again
> > and all the orphans were gone ... or at least not listed.
> >
> > The question:  Everything seems to have worked OK but I'm curious about
> > where the entries got deleted.  The way this program works is not
obvious
> > to me since I could not find the operation I wanted to perform but it
> > appears to have done it without my knowing exactly when it was done.
I'm
> > not sure I like that.
> >