Buddy wrote:
>I feel I need a good registry cleaner>>

There's little to chose between the numerous free registry
cleaners===Microsoft's Regclean is probably as safe as any.  The JV16
Powertools Regcleaner is excellent, within the above limitations. It has
semi-manual facilities for software removal.

Registry cleaners are generally pretty superficial, and it's unlikely that
you'll notice any real difference after using any of them.  I've tried
numerous ones, but they all leave a lot of crud behind, only removing the
more obvious things like orphaned entries etc.  Removing these doesn't
usually have much real effect on performance.

By far the best solution is to do regular registry restorations, using
ERUNT (assuming you have XP). It's an old Microsoft utility ("Emergency
Recovery Utility"), updated and available here:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt

Also download his Registry optimizer--this defrags the registry, which is
useful. Both are free.

Run a normal registry cleaner first, then the Optimizer, so that you have
as good a registry as you can get.  Then (optionally) manually go through
the registry hives and remove any redundant software entries.

Then make a registry backup using ERUNT and use this to restore back to
your current registry in future. You may have to reinstall some of your
later software, but this is by far the best way to maintain a nice clean
registry.

Ideally, it would be nice to make a registry backup immediately after
installing Windows and the basic software.  Then you have a new registry
you can always go back to in a matter of a few seconds, instead of having
to reinstall Windows to recover that sparkling performance you once had
when everything was shiny new.

And, no, System Restore won't do that.  It's liable to be flaky, for one
thing, and it deletes old backups as it goes, so you can't go back very
far. And if you ever have to disable System Restore for troubleshooting or
an online virus scan, you'll lose all restore points.  Then you're really
up the creek without any paddles.

Don Penlington


 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html

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