Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up

Subject: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: Steve in Sidmouth
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 07:42 AM

Technical Two questions.

On every Windows PC I have used, including this one originally, the START button is in the bottom left of the screen and the clock and collection of icons for 'running' programs is in the bottom right. You get them to appear by moving the mouse pointer down to the bottom of the screen. However, some time ago, I pressed some combination of keys or dropped the mouse, and looked up to see the horizontal 'bar' of information fly upwards to take up a new 'vertical' position at the left side of the screen. So now the START button is in the top left corner. The clock and collection of icons is in the bottom left, where the START button used to be. To get them all to appear you move the mouse over to the extreme left of the screen, not to the bottom of the screen. So, what did I do, and how do I get it back to normal if I ever wish to do so?

Next question:

I have an old hard drive running W98(first ed) which must have had hundreds of programs added and deleted (maybe not properly) and I think the Registry is severely cluttered. The machine takes a long time to boot up and settle down and the 2.5 GB hard drive works furiously during this initial period. The disc is half full (1200 MB free) The disc has also been moved around various machines in its time. I know enough to get into the Registry (regedit.exe) and see folders for programs that I can do without, but what is the best way of deleting unwanted entries - screwing up the Registry is not something that I wish to do. Is there a well written idiots guide to how this obscure part of Windows actually works??

If I go into the Registry and HKEY-LOCAL-MACHINE and SOFTWARE there is a list of programs folders many of which are no longer installed programs - including Norton Antivirus. I suspect the machine is starting up a lot of programs I don't need.

Under system information\ Software environment \ start-up programs\   you can view the programs that are started automatically. These include:

Norton Auto-Protect        Registry (Machine Run)        C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\NAVAPW32.EXE /LOADQUIET

C-Media Mixer        Registry (Machine Run)        Mixer.exe /startup

QuickTime Task        Registry (Machine Run)        "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\QTTASK.EXE" -atboottime

Three things that I believe I could do without! Can I just delete the registry entries?

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 08:04 AM

You could try using regclean rather than editting the register directly which is never recommended. Here's a link http://www.createwindow.com/wininfo/regclean.htm or use the ones now at the bottom of the page

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: Abby Sale
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 08:44 AM

AS to the task bar. Just click on a non program part of it and drag it wherever you want. Right the same spot for Properties set any bits as you like (hide/don't hide or show clocl or not, etc.)

RegClean is very good but it sounds like much too much glitch built up to really help.

ABSOLUTELY do not delete the registry item. Unless you can track all the parts of these programs. That is, they certainly did not Uninstall cleanly and the still-remaining library files (dll) are likely what's clogging up memory and boot-up. I wouldn't even think of this one without real expert help.

You don't mention how up-to-date you are with anti-virus and AdAware protection. You might try one of those "Clean Up Your Computer - $50" places but sadly, the best thing you can do is the abomnible formar and reload everything. You haven't cleaned out the dust from the closet in 10 years & there's no paliative.

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: mooman
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 08:51 AM

I have used a suite of programs called Fix-It Utilities from VCom successfully several times on different computers for this type of problem.

moo

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: HuwG
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 09:05 AM

Editing the registry is something I often did when writing such items as installation packages.

It is possible to save any part of, or even all the registry, to a text file, which by default has the extension, ".reg". You may use these to restore deleted parts of the registry if things have gone wrong. (Backing up the entire registry is a time-consuming process, and results in an enormous .reg file).

Note by the way, that importing a .reg or other file, will restore deleted entries or overwrite changed entries, but not delete entries added since the file was created.

Deleting items in the registry will usually leave widowed and orphaned entries, in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID and/or HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Software\Classes\CLSID keys. These may sometimes come back to haunt you if you manually delete entries relating to imperfectly deleted software, which you then reinstall. Manually chasing widows and orphans, and ensuring that they truly have no dependants, is usually a whole morning's work. (As in real life, I suppose...)

(Purely as an experiment, I once wrote myself a scatter-gun application to clear all widows and orphans from the registry. Many applications hide their licensing features in encrypted entries in the registry. Running my blunderbuss, I found that some applications refused to run; no license detected. Good marks to their writers. Others suddenly ran with no end-of-license date, or restriction on number of users etc. Bad marks.)

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 10:21 AM

My last computer started with Windows ME and I used a dual platform for a while with Win2000, then got rid of the ME because it was so unstable. That machine, whatever the OS, used to take a long time to start from the accumulation of stuff. I found a nifty little free program (but note: there is a tip jar and he takes PayPal) called Startup Control Panel (get it here). I use it now in my new computer as programs accumulate and start to fill up that start menu again. Every so often I go see what's there (I see QuickTime crept back in. You'll find that sometimes a file appears twice in the list, and if you try to turn off the redundant one, the program tells you to delete one then uncheck the remaining one. These programs work hard to stay in your start menu, but they simply don't need to be there.)

This program is downloaded and it installs into your Control Panel. Open it and it has a series of tabs for types of programs--and it includes easy access to the startup settings. You can boot out the programs you don't want to fool with. I don't need Real Audio or QuickTime or any number of other things taking my time to start up when I rarely use them. I'm perfectly happy to click on a desktop icon and start it myself if I need it. Once you see how much crud is in there and that you can simply remove it from your Starup menu I think you'll be a lot happier.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 10:25 AM

P.S. There are lots of little batch scripts that run every time you start the computer and they show up in this program, and many of them aren't all needed either. If you simply cut and paste the names of any of them into Google you'll find lots of sites where techies are happy to tell you exactly what those programs do and if you need it or not in your start menu or anywhere else.

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 11:13 AM

I, personally, prefer the task bar with the icons to be at the top of the screen (I just like all my menus to drop DOWN, I guess)....but, as mentioned, you can drag it anywhere you want. You can also drag the edge to give you double or triple width, you can set it to hide itself until you 'mouse over' it. (start->settings->task bar & start menu).

In truth, you can control 'almost' everything about the color, display, positioning, font, etc...etc... You just need to like to mess with it..*grin*

and yes, there are registry editors/clean-up programs which will find 'orphaned' settings and ask you what to delete.

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 02:32 PM

Re the Start Bar location. As mentioned, you can just click on any blank space on the bar and drag it to any side of the screen - unless the bar location has been locked.

If you right click on a blank part of the bar, one of the options that should be there is "Lock Toolbar." If it has a check mark beside it, you'll need to click to remove the check in order to be able to move the bar. Once you get it where you want it, you can right-click again and click to lock it where you put it.

Another "trick" that prompts questions occasionally is the "disappearing Start Bar." If you hover over the top edge of the bar and get a "two headed arrow" you can drag the bar off of the screen at it's nearest edge. This is sometimes handy if you need all the screen space. To get it back just hover over the edge where it disappeared, get the arrow, and drag back up. If you drag the "screen-side" edge of the Start bar away from the edge while you have the double arrow you also can make it a two-row (or two column) bar in some Win versions - with some settings, although this one is a bit less likely to work.

Re the dirty Registry:

If you use the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs to remove programs, the Registry entries associated with the program should be removed, since this "runs the installation script backwards" and undoes everything that was done at installation.

Not all programs "register" when they install, and for some of them, the program itself should have an uninstall in the program folder that will clean the registry when you run it. The "uninstall" is often given a "cute" name so it may be a trick to find it. At least one program maker uses "unwise.exe" - just as an example.

If the program does not appear when you go to the Control Panel Add/Remove section AND IF there is no uninstall file in the program folder, it should mean that there were no Registry entries associated with it and you can just delete the folder if it's from an ethical maker. Unfortunately quite a few programs deliberately attempt to make uninstalling their stuff difficult, and don't provide standard installations - especially DRM (digital rights management a. la. Sony) components in "media" programs and the Spyware embedded in file sharing programs (see Kazaa).

John

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: Steve in Sidmouth
Date: 12 Feb 06 - 03:16 PM

Thanks for all the advice; as for the toolbar - why didn't I try that? I tried most other things... Has anyone written a definitive guide to how the Windows Registry works? It seems to have been made deliberately difficult. I know programs should uninstall properly but some don't and this hard disc has been in a university environment at some time, so who knows what went on.

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 Feb 06 - 05:23 PM

Many programs, when un-installed, leave some 'breadcrumbs' in the registry so that a 'trial version' cannot be endlessly installed, used till run out of trial period, un-installed, re-installed, etc.

I don't know how you clean this space wasting rubbish out. If a trial runs out on me and I haven't bought it, I rarely would bother with the above conniptions anyway. Most trials don't even last one day with me - so now I don't even bother trialing many things at all.

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Feb 06 - 01:24 PM

Steve -

For your Win98 (or for WinME), you might find Q183887 Description of the Windows Registry Checker Tool (Scanreg.exe) helpful. The information there is a bit obsolete for modern versions.

I'd have to check around a bit to find a general description of the Registry for obsolete systems, but in current (WinXP) I think I've seen a description that describes the Registry of consisting of 5 main files that are scattered around in various places. Since any registry changes should be done in Regedit (or for some changes, in Regedt32 in new Win versions) you shouldn't really need to know where the changes go to when you save them.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Feb 06 - 01:51 PM

It might be worth biting the bullet and reinstalling Windows, if you've got the relevant disc. It's not as drastic as it sounds.

Les Barker's "Reinstalling Windows" might not help with the practical bit, but it could make you feel a bit more cheerful about it. There's a link to Les telling us about it on this page. I used WinAmp to play it.

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: steve_harris
Date: 13 Feb 06 - 07:28 PM

I would leave Registry alone.

It could be safe to play with it if you are able to get inside the head of every programmer whose software is on your machine.

In practice, VERY few Registry entries will actually be slowing your machine down.

The most common reasons for old systems to be "slow" on start up are:

1. Old systems have slow hardware
2. Modern software is often designed and tested on state of the art macines using tools that produce load of bloat. If you showed the programmers how slow it was on your machine, they'd probably giggle.

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: hesperis
Date: 13 Feb 06 - 10:43 PM

Is there any really good registry cleaning program for winxp? I had a good one for 98 that actually searched the entire hdd and built a database of program links and dll files then cleaned every mention of a program that wasn't in it's database. I haven't seen anything like that for xp though.

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Feb 06 - 01:45 AM

hesperis -

WinXP largely does all that for you without the need for any separate program. When you boot up, it automatically looks for any missing pieces in the Registry, and supplies them from a prior Registry backup or attempts to fix things from .cab files on your machine if there's no backup. If "empty" keys exceed a certain number, it compacts the registry to remove them.

About the only way to get any real "Registry bloat" is if you make a habit of deleting program folders instead of properly uninstalling the programs. "WinXP compatible" programs should use a script to install, and the script is executed backwards to to properly uninstall them, so there should be no (unintended) traces in the Registry after a proper uninstall. Any program from an ethical source that doesn't use Windows Add/Remove programs should produce it's own uninstall script to do the same. (Sony and Kazaa obviously are exceptions.)

If you don't use proper uninstall methods, Windows usually will give you some notice about "program/file not found" that will let you go back and do it right. WinXP even has an automated utility to "remove unused programs" if don't use them within a particlar time and you choose to let it do the removal. (Don't worry about it. You have to choose to let it remove them.)

WinXP has a lot of automated management built in, and provides bunches of management tools for your use that make most "add on" utilities that you needed(?) with earlier Win versions simply unnecessary.

Unless you've been naughty (sloppy), or have some other reason to think you have a particular need to clean out your Registry, I'd suggest you just leave it alone.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: windows registry - how to clean it up
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 14 Feb 06 - 10:24 AM

I have, use often, and have had good results with Registry Mechanic. Great results.

Dave Oesterreich