If you read my pasts posts on this issue you would
remember that I agree to the point that a good
registry tool (not a cleaner) is needed.

As others have mentioned the registry is a database
and as such any database administrator be it Oracle,
Mumps and other products have such utilities available
to them to help optimize large databases (non of which
are called cleaners). Windows does not have anything
and registry cleaners only provided a limited solution.

As for my knowledge of the registry I do OK and have
made a number of .reg files to highly customize
applications for end users.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com



"Twayne" wrote in message
...
JS wrote:
"You do not fully comprehend how that system is managed and this
nameless registry cleaner sounds like a purposely pulled piece of
SH_T you hand picked anyway."

No I did not, the cleaner suggested the fix and the suggested fix
(if I let it do it automatically) was clearly wrong! Along with a
number of other suggested fixes.

Something's wrong there because all the decent cleaners out there make
more than one "suggested" action for a repair, including to do nothing.
That said however, I tend not to believe you based on your past actions
and posts.

Twayne



"Twayne" wrote in message
...
JS wrote:
Not a good idea.
The only good registry cleaner is one that will list what it finds
by grouping them into categories.
The gives you the option to manually make a change after
investigating any information provided
by the cleaner. If you can determine the cause for what it found and
decide on a fix then in effect
you are the registry cleaner and not some automated vacuum cleaner.

And programs are the automation of that; good ones are invaluable in
some instances.


Example #1
Ran a scan to count the number of entries in my PC's registry
Total was over 260,000
So if a registry cleaner (if it worked properly) removed say 1,000
entries that would be less than one half of one percent space
savings.

A single program can have tens of thousands of registry entries. Those
"lost" entries can occasionally even be picked up by new
installs of other programs and used; creating installation problems.
I've only seen it once, but that means it's possible. The numbers
aren't the complete issue; lots more to it.

Example #2
I while back I ran a registry cleaner knowing in advance what some
of the fixes the cleaner should find and the suggested changes.
This was based on the fact I had uninstalled an application (knowing
it would leave some orphaned registry entries) and then reinstalled
the same application to a different directory location.

The cleaner's default suggested fix for the application's old
directory location (the orphaned entries) was to change these
entries to the new location, which was not necessary as you would
have to entries point to the same location, so I manually deleted
these entries.

Should have let the cleaner do it; you wasted time and effort, if it
was a decent cleaner.

Now here is where a registry cleaner could cause a real problem!
A few months ago I removed a large number but not all of the
$NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$ folders
(these are the folders and associated files left behind each time
you install the latest Windows Updates each month)
The cleaner reported the broken (orphaned) registry entries but the
suggested fix was to point the broken entries to more recent
$NtUninstall files still on the hard drive (on a random basis), thus
royally screwing up the registry pointers. By that I mean: if you
go to uninstall (in rare cases) a MS KB patch that may be giving you
problems and due to the screwed up registry entry it may instead
removes the wrong patch.

You do not fully comprehend how that system is managed and this
nameless registry cleaner sounds like a purposely pulled piece of
SH_T you hand picked anyway.

If the above isn't enough to convince you then read this:
AUMHA Discussion: Should I Use a Registry Cleaner?
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099

Ah yes, go to the infamous um,ha site, with the responses written by
the SAME people who started all the myths and misinformation about
registry cleaners right here in the MS groups! Yup, that's sure to
be an unbiased look and full of excellent detailed, information to
support their myths, right? !

HTH,

Twayne`




"Bill Ridgeway" wrote in message
...
Ken Blake wrote (in response to another thread) -
Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil. Cleaning of the
registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the registry alone
and don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many people
think, and what vendors of registry cleaning software try to
convince you of, having unused registry entries doesn't really
hurt you. The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner
erroneously removing an entry you need is far greater than any
potential benefit it may
have.

I would agree with the warning of the possibility of (serious)
damage to the
Registry and the consequence that the computer may not boot up. I
would also agree that it may not be necessary to clean the Registry
very regularly. However, the Registry does become bloated with
calls to uninstalled software which does increase the time needed
to boot up - at the
very least. However, the additional space requirement of a bloated
Registry
may not be significant. I would suggest, say, an annual tidy-up.

I have used two Registry cleaners over the years (Max Registry
Cleaner and Registry Mechanic) both without any problem. Mind you,
my backup system includes a cloned hard disk drive and separate
copy of all key files (as at
the previous day). I have recently proved that I can get a system
with a failed hard disk drive up and running in the time it takes
to swap a hard disk, copy key files and update Windows and NIS:
About 30 minutes. Bill Ridgeway