Roger Griffiths wrote:
>
> If I back up my registry for Win98 SE whilst the system is well behaved and then later when things turn to custard resulting in me restoring the Registry, what happens exactly?

   Sometimes the saved .dat files will restore your system to working
condition. Yet in my experience if a machine has serious Windows
corruption the Registry is only a small cog in the overall scheme. It is
the brains, but if the heart is sick (corrupt DLLs and other files) then
the patient may be terminal.

>If I have software that was installed since the last backup of Registry, is it therefore lost when restoration >is actioned?

   If it requires Registry entries to work properly then it will need
reinstalling over the top. Software is not lost...only how it works with
the OS.

>If so does this mean that although the data might exist on the disk, it will be useless, since it's registry >entries are no longer present?

   Usually this will be the case.


>Can I assume in such cases that I can remove these unregistered programs at this point safely?

   Safely yes...clean, no. You will still have orphan files you won't be
able to locate in Windows\System and elsewhere.

>I assume drivers are included in the registry backup.

   No...they are not included...only how the program interacts with the
OS.


> So if a program installs that hooks into Windows, and I've had a few in the past, that won't uninstall, then >I can safely restore the Registry and clean the disk of the unwanted application that way - yes?

   Once again, no. Orphan files will remain from a manual un-install.
Deleting the mother folder of a Windows program that did not have an
uninstall routine will not clear the hard drive of all files. Restoring
the registry will fix those two files to their pre-program status.


Later,

Russell Smith
Edtech Consultant, Journalist
Region 14 ESC Abilene
http://camalott.com/~rssmith
mailto:[log in to unmask]

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