ASP.NET, SQL Server, WPF, C#, VB.NET

Are they any good?  
  
What are the impacts of having incorrect entries in the registry? Do they  
  
make windows slower?  
  
I ran Registry Mechanic on my Windows 2000 machine and it finds "136  
  
problems"!  
  
Are they really problems?  
  
Thanks,  
  
S.

Hi S. - In my experience all of these Reg cleaners, even the best, are  
  
fraught with danger.  I advise against using them except in one specific  
  
instance, that is when you have one that is capable of doing specific Reg  
  
searches, and you NEED (not just WANT) to remove the remaining traces of  
  
something that didn't get uninstalled correctly.  (and you didn't have  
  
foresight enough to install it using Total Uninstall,  
  
http://www.martau.com/tu.html or free direct dwnld here:  
  
http://digilander.libero.it/molearchive3/tun235.zip or here:  
  
http://freeware4u.com/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=234, in the  
  
first place.)  (As an aside, there are, however, some third party Registry  
  
Editors which can be of great help with both the incorrect uninstall and  
  
with certain malware problems, especially some of theCoolWebSearch types  
  
such as the AppInit_DLLs variant of the about:blank version of CWS, for  
  
example.  I can recommend Registrar Lite, here:  
  
http://www.resplendence.com/reglite .)  
  
There are a couple of specific bugs that can cause abnormal growth in either  
  
the System or Software hives; however, they are rare, and unless these hives  
  
in %SystemRoot%\System32\config are very, very large (in the hundreds of  
  
megabytes), then I would council you to leave your Registry alone except for  
  
the special circumstances I mentioned above.  
  
I and most other MVP's that I know believe that Registry modifications of  
  
any type are probably best done manually, very carefully, with a thorough  
  
knowledge of what's installed on your machine, and what you're doing, and  
  
then only when necessary.  There's very little (if any!) noticeable benefit  
  
in either space saving or speed achievable by cleaning out the Registry  
  
except in those few cases where there's a specific problem the client is  
  
experiencing (usually uninstall or malware related in my experience) that  
  
needs to be fixed.  
  
Lastly, if you must screw around with your Registry, then at least get  
  
Erunt/Erdnt, and run it before you do the Reg clean.  You'll then have a  
  
true restore available to you.  Read below to see why you might not just  
  
using the Reg cleaner's restore:  
  
Get Erunt here for all NT-based computers including XP:  
  
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/index.htm  I've set it up to  
  
take a scheduled backup each night at 12:01AM on a weekly round-robin basis,  
  
and a Monthly on the 1st of each month.  See here for how to set that up:  
  
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/erunt.txt, and for some  
  
useful information about this subject.  
  
This program is one of the best things around - saved my butt on many  
  
occasions, and will also run very nicely from a DOS prompt (in case you've  
  
done something that won't let you boot any more and need to revert to a  
  
previous Registry) IF you're FAT32 OR have a DOS startup disk with NTFS  
  
write drivers in an NTFS system.  (There is also a way using the Recovery  
  
Console to get back to being "bootable" even without separate DOS write NTFS  
  
drivers, after which you can do a "normal" Erdnt restore.)  (BTW, it also  
  
includes a Registry defragger program).  Free, and very, very highly  
  
recommended.  
  
FYI, quoting from the above document:  
  
"Note: The "Export registry" function in Regedit is USELESS (!) to make a  
  
complete backup of the registry. Neither does it export the whole registry  
  
(for example, no information from the "SECURITY" hive is saved), nor can the  
  
exported file be used later to replace the current registry with the old  
  
one. Instead, if you re-import the file, it is merged with the current  
  
registry, leaving you with an absolute mess of old and new registry keys.  
  
--  
  
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP  
  
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:  
  
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/  
  
"S." <my@ddress.com> wrote in message  
  
news:OBI436FuFHA.3400@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl

Thanks for the info Jim,  
  
I ran Regestry Mechanic (demo version) just because I was curious. I don't  
  
trust registry cleaners. Never the less it found 136 errors. Entries I would  
  
have never known they were there; Invalid values, wrong path, invalid help  
  
items, invalid file extention, etc.  
  
My computer runs just fine and I have no problems with it but I must ask  
  
again; what are the impacts of having incorrect entries in the registry?  
  
Do/can they make windows slower over time?  
  
Thanks,  
  
S.  
  
"Jim Byrd" <jrbyrd@spamlessadelphia.net> wrote in message  
  
news:%23fUWoZIuFHA.1028@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...  
  
either  
  
hives  
  
for  
  
benefit  
  
to  
  
basis,  
  
NTFS  
  
the  
  
they

Hi S. - Well, if your "computer runs just fine" and you "have no problems  
  
with it", then I suggest that in your specific case there are no "impacts of  
  
having incorrect entries in the registry" (to the extend that you actually  
  
do have some!).   :)  
  
If you experience problems with some specific program that you _know_ are  
  
caused by some "incorrect" Registry entry associated with it, then a likely  
  
better way of correcting them would be to first backup any data and then try  
  
a re-install of the program in question if possible, preferably from a  
  
"Clean Boot" (see below) so as to avoid the interference that probably  
  
created the Registry error(s) in the first place.  (Non-commercial Norton  
  
c**p is noted for this, for example, although it's by no means the only  
  
thing that will do so.)  As a general rule I recommend doing any  
  
major/important install using a Clean Boot, since it eliminates most  
  
interference while retaining necessary system services such as the Windows  
  
Installer.  
  
Failing that for some reason, if you _know_ you have a Registry error that's  
  
causing a specific problem (most of those reported by most Reg Cleaners are  
  
usually innocuous, BTW), then use Erunt as I previously recommended so that  
  
you can recover if something goes wrong (and get some help from someone  
  
really knowledgable if you're not totally comfortable with dealing with the  
  
Registry) and start manually debug the issue.  (In my experience you won't  
  
find that running a Reg Cleaner as an alternative to this helps at all with  
  
your problem.)  
  
FWIW, the second question I ask clients is whether they've used a Registry  
  
Cleaner of any sort recently.  (The first is if they have any  
  
Norton/Symantec software installed.)  
  
From my Blog, Defending Your Machine, addy in my Signature below:  
  
Show hidden files and run all of the following removal tools from Safe mode  
  
or a "Clean Boot" when possible, logged on as an Administrator. BEFORE  
  
running these tools, be sure to clear all Temp files and your Temporary Inte  
  
rnet Files (TIF) (including offline content.) Reboot and test if the malware  
  
is fixed after using each tool.  
  
HOW TO Enable Hidden Files  
  
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2002092715262339  
  
Clean Boot - General Win2k/XP procedure, but see below for links for other  
  
OS's (This for Win2k w/msconfig - you can obtain msconfig for Win2k here:  
  
http://www.3feetunder.com/files/win2K_msconfig_setup.exe ):  
  
1. StartRun enter msconfig.  
  
2. On the General tab, click Selective Startup, and then clear the 'Process  
  
System.ini File', 'Process Win.ini File', and 'Load Startup Items' check  
  
boxes. Leave the 'boot.ini' boxes however they are currently set.  
  
3. In the Services tab, check the "Hide All Microsoft Services" checkbox,  
  
and then click the "Disable All" button. If you use a third party firewall  
  
then re-check (enable) it. For example, if you use Zone Alarm, re-check the  
  
True Vector Internet Monitor service (and you may also want to re-check  
  
(enable) the zlclient on the Startup tab.) Equivalent services exist for  
  
other third party firewalls. An alternative to this for XP users is to  
  
enable at this time the XP native firewall (Internet Connection Firewall -  
  
ICF). Be sure to turn it back off when you re-enable your non-MS services  
  
and Startup tab programs and restore your normal msconfig configuration  
  
after cleaning your machine.  
  
4. Click OK and then reboot.  
  
For additional information about how to clean boot your operating system,  
  
click the following article links to view the articles in the Microsoft  
  
Knowledge Base:  
  
310353 How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP  
  
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353  
  
281770 How to Perform Clean-Boot Troubleshooting for Windows 2000  
  
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/281770/EN-US/  
  
267288 How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows Millennium Edition  
  
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/267288/EN-US/  
  
192926 How to Perform Clean-Boot Troubleshooting for Windows 98  
  
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192926/EN-US/  
  
243039 How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 95  
  
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243039/EN-US/  
  
--  
  
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP  
  
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:  
  
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/  
  
"S." <my@ddress.com> wrote in message  
  
news:%23HkBJ3IuFHA.2792@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl  
  
would  
  
Registry  
  
either  
  
hives  
  
for  
  
benefit  
  
to  
  
basis,  
  
you've  
  
NTFS  
  
registry  
  
the  
  
they

S - have you checked all the basic stuff? You probably have, but it's  
  
worth asking. I've not heard of registry garbage having a noticeable effect:  
  
- if corp W2k image created via NT4 upgrade (not clean install),  
  
probably a bad idea.  
  
- standard pagefile size/placement OK?  
  
- firewall settings, other security function settings crippling traffic?  
  
- process priorities?  
  
You might try on a spare machine a fresh W2k install, do the necessaries  
  
to compare apples-apples with standard image machine, observe any  
  
noticeable differences...?  
  
S. wrote:

Hi Dan,  
  
The process of changing an NT4 image to win2K or XP, here any ways, wipe  
  
everything and installs fresh.  
  
Everything is clean on our images. We know since its installed on thousands  
  
of machines without complaints. This particular group however went from an  
  
NT4 platform to 2K. They were used to work in that environment for years  
  
until the change to win2k.  Everybody noticed a change in performance.  
  
What's puzzeling is that they all have the same basic image but don't use  
  
the same apps. The majority of them uses a home application, wich we  
  
suspected was the culprit, but the other half or so don't. So what next? We  
  
looked at everything on their machines from the firewall to anti virus to  
  
remote control tools to network printers to video drivers, etc, etc, etc and  
  
find nothing relevent to the slow performance. The only thing left would be  
  
the network itself... even though they had no problems under NT4. Could it  
  
be the card drivers? they were updated and even downgraded without any  
  
change in performance. If you think about something that could be done we  
  
probably did it!  
  
They are in a location fairly far from downtown and it could be the network  
  
itself that's in fault. We'll see. There are unfortunatly no funding for a  
  
test machine so it's not an option.  
  
Thanks!  
  
S.  
  
"Dan Seur" <click@casta.net> wrote in message  
  
news:eQCQ5JTuFHA.3452@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...  
  
effect:  
  
problems  
  
are  
  
a  
  
probably  
  
Norton  
  
only  
  
someone  
  
BEFORE  
  
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2002092715262339  
  
here:  
  
check  
  
checkbox,  
  
re-check  
  
for  
  
to  
  
services  
  
configuration  
  
system,  
  
Microsoft  
  
Entries I  
  
are  
  
have  
  
in  
  
these  
  
noticeable  
  
get  
  
round-robin  
  
many  
  
case  
  
highly  
  
current  
  
Do  
  
"136