Mystery Of The "Registry Clean'.

I have three programs that are used to clean the Registry. One of
them, jv16 I've used for years and it has been very reliable. The
problem I've been having for a couple of days is that when I use them,
the start up the process and suddenly the computer crashes. It is so
fast that I can't tell which found entry might be the cause. Even
RegEdit freezes when checking. Other than that the computer is
running normally. Any ideas?

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 10:14:22 -0500, Barry Bruyea
wrote:

I have three programs that are used to clean the Registry.


That's three too many!


One of
them, jv16 I've used for years and it has been very reliable.


See below, and note the sentences "Many people have used a registry
cleaner and never had a problem with it. Rather, the problem with a
registry cleaner is that it carries with it the substantial *risk* of
having a problem. And since there is no benefit to using a registry
cleaner, running that risk is a very bad bargain."


The
problem I've been having for a couple of days is that when I use them,
the start up the process and suddenly the computer crashes. It is so
fast that I can't tell which found entry might be the cause. Even
RegEdit freezes when checking. Other than that the computer is
running normally. Any ideas?


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.

Read http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html
and http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099
and also
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussino...t-of-life.aspx

Let me point out that neither I nor anyone else who warns against the
use of registry cleaners has ever said that they always cause
problems. If they always caused problems, they would disappear from
the market almost immediately. Many people have used a registry
cleaner and never had a problem with it.

Rather, the problem with a registry cleaner is that it carries with it
the substantial *risk* of having a problem. And since there is no
benefit to using a registry cleaner, running that risk is a very bad
bargain.


You can try to do a system restore to a day before the problem
started. If it works, consider yourself lucky. And stop using the
registry cleaners.

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 08:38:36 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 10:14:22 -0500, Barry Bruyea
wrote:

I have three programs that are used to clean the Registry.


That's three too many!


One of
them, jv16 I've used for years and it has been very reliable.


See below, and note the sentences "Many people have used a registry
cleaner and never had a problem with it. Rather, the problem with a
registry cleaner is that it carries with it the substantial *risk* of
having a problem. And since there is no benefit to using a registry
cleaner, running that risk is a very bad bargain."


The
problem I've been having for a couple of days is that when I use them,
the start up the process and suddenly the computer crashes. It is so
fast that I can't tell which found entry might be the cause. Even
RegEdit freezes when checking. Other than that the computer is
running normally. Any ideas?


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.

Read http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html
and http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099
and also
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussino...t-of-life.aspx

Let me point out that neither I nor anyone else who warns against the
use of registry cleaners has ever said that they always cause
problems. If they always caused problems, they would disappear from
the market almost immediately. Many people have used a registry
cleaner and never had a problem with it.

Rather, the problem with a registry cleaner is that it carries with it
the substantial *risk* of having a problem. And since there is no
benefit to using a registry cleaner, running that risk is a very bad
bargain.


You can try to do a system restore to a day before the problem
started. If it works, consider yourself lucky. And stop using the
registry cleaners.

I appreciate the advice. I just wish that those that produce software
and include an 'Uninstall' feature would have been honest and just
said, "We'll remove some of the crap, but sure as hell not all of it."

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 10:52:05 -0500, Barry Bruyea
wrote:

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 08:38:36 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 10:14:22 -0500, Barry Bruyea
wrote:

I have three programs that are used to clean the Registry.


That's three too many!


One of
them, jv16 I've used for years and it has been very reliable.


See below, and note the sentences "Many people have used a registry
cleaner and never had a problem with it. Rather, the problem with a
registry cleaner is that it carries with it the substantial *risk* of
having a problem. And since there is no benefit to using a registry
cleaner, running that risk is a very bad bargain."


The
problem I've been having for a couple of days is that when I use them,
the start up the process and suddenly the computer crashes. It is so
fast that I can't tell which found entry might be the cause. Even
RegEdit freezes when checking. Other than that the computer is
running normally. Any ideas?


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.

Read http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html
and http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099
and also
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussino...t-of-life.aspx

Let me point out that neither I nor anyone else who warns against the
use of registry cleaners has ever said that they always cause
problems. If they always caused problems, they would disappear from
the market almost immediately. Many people have used a registry
cleaner and never had a problem with it.

Rather, the problem with a registry cleaner is that it carries with it
the substantial *risk* of having a problem. And since there is no
benefit to using a registry cleaner, running that risk is a very bad
bargain.


You can try to do a system restore to a day before the problem
started. If it works, consider yourself lucky. And stop using the
registry cleaners.

I appreciate the advice. I just wish that those that produce software
and include an 'Uninstall' feature would have been honest and just
said, "We'll remove some of the crap, but sure as hell not all of it."



You're welcome. Glad to help.

Barry Bruyea wrote:

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 08:38:36 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 10:14:22 -0500, Barry Bruyea
wrote:

I have three programs that are used to clean the Registry.


That's three too many!


One of
them, jv16 I've used for years and it has been very reliable.


See below, and note the sentences "Many people have used a registry
cleaner and never had a problem with it. Rather, the problem with a
registry cleaner is that it carries with it the substantial *risk* of
having a problem. And since there is no benefit to using a registry
cleaner, running that risk is a very bad bargain."


The
problem I've been having for a couple of days is that when I use them,
the start up the process and suddenly the computer crashes. It is so
fast that I can't tell which found entry might be the cause. Even
RegEdit freezes when checking. Other than that the computer is
running normally. Any ideas?


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.

Read http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html
and http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099
and also
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussino...t-of-life.aspx

Let me point out that neither I nor anyone else who warns against the
use of registry cleaners has ever said that they always cause
problems. If they always caused problems, they would disappear from
the market almost immediately. Many people have used a registry
cleaner and never had a problem with it.

Rather, the problem with a registry cleaner is that it carries with it
the substantial *risk* of having a problem. And since there is no
benefit to using a registry cleaner, running that risk is a very bad
bargain.


You can try to do a system restore to a day before the problem
started. If it works, consider yourself lucky. And stop using the
registry cleaners.

I appreciate the advice. I just wish that those that produce software
and include an 'Uninstall' feature would have been honest and just
said, "We'll remove some of the crap, but sure as hell not all of it."

They cannot remove all the crap. Some is created and logged during the
installation. They know what their installer did. That's all. They
don't know what additional entries are created by Windows for simply
loading or during use of the program.

There is also a bent in programmers that you really do want to keep
their software and that an uninstall is just a prelude to a subsequent
reinstall. By leaving behind the config remnants (files and registry),
the reinstall begins with all your old settings so you don't lose them.
Some programmers are more polite (or less possessive) and ask during the
uninstall if you also want to remove all those externally established
(outside the installation) configuration settings left in files or in
the registry. You can opt to wipe them, too, or leave them because a
fix has you reinstalling the product. However, this will still not wipe
entries made solely by Windows for USING the program.

If you think Microsoft is deficient in their uninstall, it's not their
fault. They don't create the logfile that is used during the uninstall.
The software author who wrote the installer decides what to log during
the installation. They cannot uninstall anything outside that log
unless they consider external to the installer what the program does
after the installation process. You should see the crap that Mozilla
allows left behind. When you uninstall an add-on, they just get rid of
the linkage and the subfolder where the add-on got stored. They do not
clean out entries for the add-on that it added into the prefs.js file
(where preferences are stored, including those for add-ons) and they
don't know about files the add-ons saved outside the subfolders where
the add-on was stored when it got installed (but then Mozilla shouldn't
be allowing add-ons to store files outside the add-on's subfolder).

The more you use any OS, the more it gets polluted over time. I usually
do a fresh build every 2 years, or so, while deciding what apps to
reinstall based on whether they really got used before the new build.
Plus I *never* upgrade to a new version of Windows which ends up
dragging along all that old pollution. I do a fresh install of the
upgrade version to start anew. The time to reinstall the apps that I do
want to keep is less time then it takes later to troubleshoot and fix
problems with the old pollution dragged in with a migration.

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 08:38:36 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:


Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil. Cleaning of the
registry isn't needed and is dangerous.

BULL ****ING ****!!!!!

If you dont clean the reg. it gets overloaded with all the **** that was
installed and deleted. Not just programs, but even files you may have
created, such as a .DOC file, then deleted, are still noted in the reg.

Cleaning the reg. is like emptying the garbage in your house. If you
dont empty the garbage, the whole house will get filled with garbage
over time. The key to cleaning the reg. is to selectively remove the
trash. Dont let it remove anything it wants. YOU make the final
decision what is removed.

I use Regseeker. It has the option to allow me to remove or save what I
want. I will remove all entries from programs and files that no longer
exist. But I dont allow it to remove anything I am not sure about.
This program allows whatever is removed, to be replaced if here are
problems after the cleaning.

I have three programs that are used to clean the Registry. One of
them, jv16 I've used for years and it has been very reliable. The
problem I've been having for a couple of days is that when I use them,
the start up the process and suddenly the computer crashes. It is so
fast that I can't tell which found entry might be the cause. Even
RegEdit freezes when checking. Other than that the computer is
running normally. Any ideas?

I would recommend CCleaner.
Why?
1) it has many features other than reg clean
2) it is free
3) it is updated regularly
4) it gives you a list of reg itmes it wants to clean and you can
uncheck to not clean any or all items.
5) I have used it on all my 5 PCs running XP Pro, Vista(crap) and Win 7
Pro with never a problem for several years.
6) it runs only when you tell it to.


Get it from the maker's website. piriform.com
The free version is just fine but send them some money if you want.

On 09 Mar 2013, wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

BULL ****ING ****!!!!!

If you dont clean the reg. it gets overloaded with all the ****
that was installed and deleted. Not just programs, but even files
you may have created, such as a .DOC file, then deleted, are still
noted in the reg.

None of that affects performance to any meaningful degree. I challenge
you to test it. Then let us know where the BULL ****ING ****!!!!! lies.

Cleaning the reg. is like emptying the garbage in your house. If
you dont empty the garbage, the whole house will get filled with
garbage over time. The key to cleaning the reg. is to selectively
remove the trash. Dont let it remove anything it wants. YOU make
the final decision what is removed.

Garbage is physical stuff that gets in your way. The registry is an
efficient, indexed database. It takes no time for Windows to find what
it wants in the registry, no matter what else is there.

But I dont allow it to remove anything I am
not sure about.

That's a good policy.

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 14:39:00 -0500, Nil
wrote:

On 09 Mar 2013, wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

BULL ****ING ****!!!!!

If you dont clean the reg. it gets overloaded with all the ****
that was installed and deleted. Not just programs, but even files
you may have created, such as a .DOC file, then deleted, are still
noted in the reg.

None of that affects performance to any meaningful degree. I challenge
you to test it. Then let us know where the BULL ****ING ****!!!!! lies.


WRONG!!!!
All the garbage makes the reg. get larger and larger. There is a limit
on registry size. And even if you dont reach the limit, the bigger the
reg. is, the longer it takes for Windows to find what is needed. This
may be an insignificant amount of time, but every task windows performs,
takes up time. Combined all the useless tasks and sorting thru garbage
will slow down performance. Over time, people ask why their computer is
slow. That is why! You can reinstall Windows every year or two, or
simply keep it clean. Reg cleaners clean the reg. Browser cache is
another thing that should be cleaned often. Why waste drive space and
system resources on garbage?

Cleaning the reg. is like emptying the garbage in your house. If
you dont empty the garbage, the whole house will get filled with
garbage over time. The key to cleaning the reg. is to selectively
remove the trash. Dont let it remove anything it wants. YOU make
the final decision what is removed.

Garbage is physical stuff that gets in your way. The registry is an
efficient, indexed database. It takes no time for Windows to find what
it wants in the registry, no matter what else is there.


Why would you NOT want peak performance. Sure the registry is
efficient, but the bigger it is, the longer it takes to find the needed
info. What's the point of having things such as "letter to Sue.doc"
"train-picture.jpg", and "former-browser.exe" listed in your reg. when
all of these have been deleted.

But I dont allow it to remove anything I am
not sure about.

That's a good policy.

Yes, that is good policy, but at the same time, when I uninstall a
program or delete files, why leave remnants in the registry. I use
these cleaners and I allow the removal of everything that I know has
been uninstalled or deleted. I run my cleaner about once a week, and I
know what I deleted in the past week. At least half the worthless
enteries in the reg are from my "Download" folder. I save stuff from
the web, like save a funny picture to email to a friend, and delete it
afterwards. Or I save a music sample, listen to it and delete it.
These are the things that need to be removed from the reg.

I never understood why Windows does not remove these entries from the
reg. when the files are deleted from the folder, but I guess that MS has
never fixed this flaw in Windows. It did this in Windows95, 98, 2000,
and XP. Whether they solved this problem in the newer versions I dont
know. I only use XP and older Windows. I have no interest in all the
latest MS bloated OSs.

On 09 Mar 2013, wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

All the garbage makes the reg. get larger and larger. There is a
limit on registry size.

What is that limit? A quick search finds some reports that the USER
registry file can't be more than 200 MB. I installed XP about 6
years ago on this computer. I've installed and removed hundreds of
software packages. I use it heavily every day. My USER file is 6 MB.
My SOFTWARE file is 40 MB. from what I gather, any limit will only be
approached by systems with many, many accounts, such a Terminal Server.
No personal home computer is likely to come anywhere close to a limit.

In any case, the only way to reduce the registry size is by
compacting it. Registry "cleaners" don't do that.

And even if you dont reach the limit, the bigger the reg. is, the
longer it takes for Windows to find what is needed. This may be
an insignificant amount of time, but every task windows performs,
takes up time. Combined all the useless tasks and sorting thru
garbage will slow down performance. Over time, people ask why
their computer is slow. That is why!

No, I don't think so. Any slowdown by the registry is minuscule and
insignificant. If your computer is slow, there are other problems.
"Cleaning" the registry will not make your computer seem faster. You
will never be able to detect the difference. It's a waste of time.

You can reinstall Windows every year or two, or simply keep it
clean.

I do neither.

Reg cleaners clean the reg. Browser cache is another thing that
should be cleaned often. Why waste drive space and system
resources on garbage?

Those are two different things. Browser cache takes up disk space
that can be better used elsewhere. Registry "cleaning" doesn't
change the size of the file; even compacting it won't make much
difference.

Why would you NOT want peak performance. Sure the registry is
efficient, but the bigger it is, the longer it takes to find the
needed info.

No, it doesn't, not in any perceivable way.

What's the point of having things such as "letter to Sue.doc"
"train-picture.jpg", and "former-browser.exe" listed in your reg.
when all of these have been deleted.

No point in having them, but removing them doesn't improve anything,
either.

Barry Bruyea wrote:
I have three programs that are used to clean the Registry. One of
them, jv16 I've used for years and it has been very reliable. The
problem I've been having for a couple of days is that when I use them,
the start up the process and suddenly the computer crashes. It is so
fast that I can't tell which found entry might be the cause. Even
RegEdit freezes when checking. Other than that the computer is
running normally. Any ideas?

A restore point, from System Restore, keeps copies of the
registry.

All you need to do, is use a restore point from a few days
ago, to get out of your bind. And then, stop using
registry cleaners. Unless you like doing System Restore
of course.

Don't use really ancient restore points. Use one that is only
a few days old. System Restore does more than it needs
to, on WinXP, and you can lose data files (if they're
stored outside My Documents).

*******

On a system where you cannot manage to run System Restore immediately,
you can follow this procedure.

"How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

What that does, is repair the registry in two steps.
The first step, removes the corrupt registry, and replaces
the corrupt registry, with empty registry files. The purpose
of that step, is so you can get the computer to boot again.

Once the computer is booting, the second step (using System Restore),
and going back in time a couple days, puts back a "fully populated"
registry. You can't really run the computer with the
empty registry files in any practical way. And that's why
the second step is important. The fully populated
registry files, contain all the preferences for your
currently loaded set of programs.

If you're careful, you should be able to get back up
and running again. Using several day old registry files.

*******

You could also look at booting "Last Known Good..."
if you can manage it. That's a Safe Mode option.
If you want to go back a day or two before that,
you can use a restore point. If the computer
won't boot under any circumstances, then try
KB307545 above.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000626.htm

HTH,
Paul

Nil wrote:

sam.walker38 wrote:

BULL ****ING ****!!!!!

Now that's something I NEVER want to see. No scat perversions for me.

If you dont clean the reg. it gets overloaded with all the **** that
was installed and deleted. Not just programs, but even files you
may have created, such as a .DOC file, then deleted, are still noted
in the reg.

None of that affects performance to any meaningful degree. I
challenge you to test it. Then let us know where the BULL ****ING
****!!!!! lies.

The time to load the physical registry files off the hard disk and load
them into memory would be so trivially insigificant that sam wouldn't be
able to measure the difference. While the load time is trivial, a
larger registry containing lots of orphaned entries would still consume
more memory. Whether you are sensitive to a loss of, say, 35MB for the
larger polluted registry files depends on how little memory you have or
how severely you consume what you have.

Cleaning the reg. is like emptying the garbage in your house. If you
dont empty the garbage, the whole house will get filled with garbage
over time. The key to cleaning the reg. is to selectively remove
the trash. Dont let it remove anything it wants. YOU make the final
decision what is removed.

Garbage is physical stuff that gets in your way. The registry is an
efficient, indexed database. It takes no time for Windows to find
what it wants in the registry, no matter what else is there.

The registry is never accessed from its disk files. Even when you use
regedit.exe, you are looking at the memory copy. It's the memory copy
that gets access through the registry API. Orphaned entries aren't
accessed so they don't slow down access to any other part of the
registry. Bloating of the memory consumed by a registry with orphaned
entries does not effect the time to access any part of that memory hence
why it's called RAM for system memory. Defragmenting the registry files
on the hard disk has no effect on the image of the registry that gets
loaded into memory.

But I dont allow it to remove anything I am not sure about.

That's a good policy.

I've never used or even heard of the "jv16" registry cleaner mentioned
by the OP. He says he uses 3 registry cleaners but didn't identify the
others. You can only make choices as to what a registry cleaner
proposes to alter in the registry if it actually halts after analysis
and presents you with a list from which you can select/deselect items in
that list. I've seen registry cleaners that operate in dumb mode: they
figure the user is too dumb to understand anything presented to them
about the changes so they just go ahead and make those changes without
overt permission from the user. I don't remember which ones I trialed
(inside a virtual machine where I test unknown, untrusted, or suspect
software) but a couple got me by surprise by, in their default config,
just zipping right along and completing the cleanup without ever asking
*me* what I wanted it to do.

sam.walker38 wrote:

Nil wrote:

sam.walker38 wrote:

If you dont clean the reg. it gets overloaded with all the **** that
was installed and deleted. Not just programs, but even files you
may have created, such as a .DOC file, then deleted, are still
noted in the reg.

None of that affects performance to any meaningful degree. I
challenge you to test it. Then let us know where the BULL ****ING
****!!!!! lies.

WRONG!!!! All the garbage makes the reg. get larger and larger. There
is a limit on registry size. And even if you dont reach the limit,
the bigger the reg. is, the longer it takes for Windows to find what
is needed.

You don't know how the registry works or from where it is read. If you
are truly interested in learning about the Windows registry, I recall
there was a good book on it that I found at my local library (although
there was like only 1 copy so I had to wait my turn to get it and sent
to my library branch), called:

Microsoft Windows Registry Guide

There's another one called "Windows Registry Forensics" but I've not had
the chance or time to look at it yet. Those books will dispel your
myths on how the registry works but they will also tell you a lot more
about the registry than you probably want to know.

skipped the rest

Barry Bruyea wrote:
I have three programs that are used to clean the Registry. One of
them, jv16 I've used for years and it has been very reliable. The
problem I've been having for a couple of days is that when I use them,
the start up the process and suddenly the computer crashes. It is so
fast that I can't tell which found entry might be the cause. Even
RegEdit freezes when checking. Other than that the computer is
running normally. Any ideas?

As Paul said, you can get out of this mess by using System Restore to
restore back to an earlier restore point preceding the date this started
happening. And then stop using registry cleaners, as others have pointed
out, because you're really taking unnecessary risks, as you've just
witnessed firsthand.

Paul wrote:

Barry Bruyea wrote:

I have three programs that are used to clean the Registry. One of
them, jv16 I've used for years and it has been very reliable. The
problem I've been having for a couple of days is that when I use them,
the start up the process and suddenly the computer crashes. It is so
fast that I can't tell which found entry might be the cause. Even
RegEdit freezes when checking. Other than that the computer is
running normally. Any ideas?

A restore point, from System Restore, keeps copies of the
registry.

All you need to do, is use a restore point from a few days
ago, to get out of your bind.

*IF* the OS still loads after the registry cleanup. For the prevalent
majority type of users of this type of cleanup tool, they won't
understand how to insert registry files into an inactive copy of the OS.
Remember that these type of users don't understand the registry and why
they're blindly relying on software to do it for them (versus use as an
automatic tool to show an expert who is still responsible for making
educated decisions).

Reminds me of going to the gun range. I go there for practice to
improve my proficiency and accuracy: get my groupings down to a dime
size and reduce my firing time. While I'm there, I see the bozos that
party, don't focus, and go squirt a bunch of bullets at maybe 20 feet
away and feel happy they manage to get a few to hit a man-sized target.
I dismantle my semi-auto handguns to thoroughly clean and properly lube
them. They might run a swab down the barrel and consider that cleaning
their firearm, or they don't bother to clean at all and wonder why they
start experience problems with shell ejects. Yeah, like me, they can
buy firearms, too, but there are gun owners and gun experts. I
certainly wouldn't want those bozos dismantling my firearms. Let them
treat theirs as disposable toys. I like mine in top operating
condition. Yep, I'm equating the vast majority of users of registry
cleaners with those jerks almost blindly squirting out bullets and not
knowing how to proper cleanup.

Those that know how to do manual cleanup of the registry use good
registry cleaners as a convenience. Those that don't understand the
registry should be touching registry cleaners. The benefits of registry
cleanup are tiny. The hazards are great.

Most problems I've seen caused by registry cleaners are not immediately
effected after the cleanup. The OS or apps don't immediately blow up
with behavioral defects, like not loading, won't perform a function, the
video goes haywire when later running a game (old one that hasn't been
played in a while or after installing a new one). Immediately blowing
up in their face right after performing a registry cleanup would be far
better than the effects showing up long after the user has any
remembrance of the cleanup. The user won't make a connection between
their blind use of a registry cleaner and problems that show up later.
The restore point might be long gone by then.

Don't use really ancient restore points. Use one that is only
a few days old. System Restore does more than it needs
to, on WinXP, and you can lose data files (if they're
stored outside My Documents).

As for system restores (remember this is for Windows XP), I wouldn't
trust any other than the most recent one. That is, I'd trust only one,
the last one, to get back to a stable state before the registry cleanup.
To be honest, I don't rely on (trust) restore points. It's one of those
"see if it works but probably not."