Guest slick1 Posted September 28, 2007 Posted September 28, 2007 > I have downloaded a freeware RegCleaner 4.3 by Jouni Vuorio. > Has this RegCleaner been tested or is it obsolete for Windows XP Home Edition SP2 operating systems? > Also, on this RegCleaner under : Options>Registry Cleanup>Method> Automatic or Manual. Does this mean it will just do a cleanup for you Automatically and is it safe to do so; or will it wipe-out a whole lot of everything? > Please excuse my ignorance about alot of this. As a Newuser I am just trying to learn all this exe, dll, and all the abbreviated things about systems,folders.etc. >My system: Acer 2450 laptop Windows Explorer 7 Windows XP Home Edition SP2 > Thank-you !!
Guest Shenan Stanley Posted September 28, 2007 Posted September 28, 2007 Re: Unsure about RegCleaner 4.3 slick1 wrote: >> I have downloaded a freeware RegCleaner 4.3 by Jouni Vuorio. >> Has this RegCleaner been tested or is it obsolete for Windows XP > Home Edition SP2 operating systems? > >> Also, on this RegCleaner under : Options>Registry Cleanup>Method> > Automatic or Manual. Does this mean it will just do a cleanup > for you Automatically and is it safe to do so; or will it wipe-out > a whole lot of everything? >> Please excuse my ignorance about alot of this. As a Newuser I am >> just trying to > learn all this exe, dll, and all the abbreviated things about > systems,folders.etc. >> My system: Acer 2450 laptop > Windows Explorer 7 > Windows XP Home Edition SP2 >> Thank-you !! If you are not comfortable in the registry already - I recommend NOT using a cleaner tool.... -- Shenan Stanley MS-MVP -- How To Ask Questions The Smart Way http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
Guest slick1 Posted September 28, 2007 Posted September 28, 2007 Re: Unsure about RegCleaner 4.3 > Thanks Shenan for the advice. > Is there any sites out there somewhere I can go to and learn more about Registries, what they do and the do's and don'ts? "Shenan Stanley" wrote: > slick1 wrote: > >> I have downloaded a freeware RegCleaner 4.3 by Jouni Vuorio. > >> Has this RegCleaner been tested or is it obsolete for Windows XP > > Home Edition SP2 operating systems? > > > >> Also, on this RegCleaner under : Options>Registry Cleanup>Method> > > Automatic or Manual. Does this mean it will just do a cleanup > > for you Automatically and is it safe to do so; or will it wipe-out > > a whole lot of everything? > >> Please excuse my ignorance about alot of this. As a Newuser I am > >> just trying to > > learn all this exe, dll, and all the abbreviated things about > > systems,folders.etc. > >> My system: Acer 2450 laptop > > Windows Explorer 7 > > Windows XP Home Edition SP2 > >> Thank-you !! > > If you are not comfortable in the registry already - I recommend NOT using a > cleaner tool.... > > -- > Shenan Stanley > MS-MVP > -- > How To Ask Questions The Smart Way > http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html > > >
Guest HeyBub Posted September 28, 2007 Posted September 28, 2007 Re: Unsure about RegCleaner 4.3 slick1 wrote: >> I have downloaded a freeware RegCleaner 4.3 by Jouni Vuorio. >> Has this RegCleaner been tested or is it obsolete for Windows XP > Home Edition SP2 operating systems? > >> Also, on this RegCleaner under : Options>Registry Cleanup>Method> > Automatic or Manual. Does this mean it will just do a cleanup for > you Automatically and is it safe to do so; or will it wipe-out a > whole lot of everything? >> Please excuse my ignorance about alot of this. As a Newuser I am >> just trying to > learn all this exe, dll, and all the abbreviated things about > systems,folders.etc. >> My system: Acer 2450 laptop > Windows Explorer 7 > Windows XP Home Edition SP2 >> Thank-you !! The almost universal advice is to NOT use a registry cleaner at all, for any reason. Virtually nothing good can come from using a registry cleaner while the number of bad things that can happen are too many to list.
Guest Daave Posted September 28, 2007 Posted September 28, 2007 Re: Unsure about RegCleaner 4.3 slick1 wrote: > Is there any sites out there somewhere I can go to and learn > more about Registries, what they do and the do's and don'ts? First off, you should use ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT) to backup the registry: http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ This way, if you ever screw up your registry, you can easily undo the changes. To learn about the registry and regedit, see: "Windows Registry Tutorial": http://www.akadia.com/services/windows_registry_tutorial.html "What is the Registry?": http://www.pctools.com/guides/article/id/1/ "Description of the Microsoft Windows registry": http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986 Regarding RegCleaner 4.3, this is the only registry cleaner I would ever recommend. Out of the box, it's in the manual mode, and I would keep it there. Use it sparingly because cleaning orphaned registry settings is seldom necessary.
Guest Bruce Chambers Posted September 28, 2007 Posted September 28, 2007 Re: Unsure about RegCleaner 4.3 slick1 wrote: >> I have downloaded a freeware RegCleaner 4.3 by Jouni Vuorio. >> Has this RegCleaner been tested or is it obsolete for Windows XP > Home Edition SP2 operating systems? > >> Also, on this RegCleaner under : Options>Registry Cleanup>Method> > Automatic or Manual. Does this mean it will just do a cleanup for you > Automatically and is it safe to do so; or will it wipe-out a whole lot of > everything? >> Please excuse my ignorance about alot of this. As a Newuser I am just trying to > learn all this exe, dll, and all the abbreviated things about > systems,folders.etc. >> My system: Acer 2450 laptop > Windows Explorer 7 > Windows XP Home Edition SP2 >> Thank-you !! Why do you think you'd ever need to clean your registry? What specific *problems* are you actually experiencing (not some program's bogus listing of imaginary problems) that you think can be fixed by using a registry cleaner? If you do have a problem that is rooted in the registry, it would be far better to simply edit (after backing up, of course) only the specific key(s) and/or value(s) that are causing the problem. After all, why use a chainsaw when a scalpel will do the job? Additionally, the manually changing of one or two registry entries is far less likely to have the dire consequences of allowing an automated product to make multiple changes simultaneously. The only thing needed to safely clean your registry is knowledge and Regedit.exe. The registry contains all of the operating system's "knowledge" of the computer's hardware devices, installed software, the location of the device drivers, and the computer's configuration. A misstep in the registry can have severe consequences. One should not even turning loose a poorly understood automated "cleaner," unless he is fully confident that he knows *exactly* what is going to happen as a result of each and every change. Having repeatedly seen the results of inexperienced people using automated registry "cleaners," I can only advise all but the most experienced computer technicians (and/or hobbyists) to avoid them all. Experience has shown me that such tools simply are not safe in the hands of the inexperienced user. If you lack the knowledge and experience to maintain your registry by yourself, then you also lack the knowledge and experience to safely configure and use any automated registry cleaner, no matter how safe they claim to be. More importantly, no one has ever demonstrated that the use of an automated registry cleaner, particularly by an untrained, inexperienced computer user, does any real good, whatsoever. There's certainly been no empirical evidence offered to demonstrate that the use of such products to "clean" WinXP's registry improves a computer's performance or stability. Given the potential for harm, it's just not worth the risk. Granted, most registry "cleaners" won't cause problems each and every time they're used, but the potential for harm is always there. And, since no registry "cleaner" has ever been demonstrated to do any good (think of them like treating the flu with chicken soup - there's no real medicinal value, but it sometimes provides a warming placebo effect), I always tell people that the risks far out-weigh the non-existent benefits. I will concede that a good registry *scanning* tool, in the hands of an experienced and knowledgeable technician or hobbyist can be a useful time-saving diagnostic tool, as long as it's not allowed to make any changes automatically. But I really don't think that there are any registry cleaners that are truly safe for the general public to use. Experience has proven just the opposite: such tools simply are not safe in the hands of the inexperienced user. -- Bruce Chambers Help us help you: http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers. ~ Denis Diderot
Guest Bruce Chambers Posted September 28, 2007 Posted September 28, 2007 Re: Unsure about RegCleaner 4.3 Daave wrote: > slick1 wrote: > >> Is there any sites out there somewhere I can go to and learn >> more about Registries, what they do and the do's and don'ts? > > First off, you should use ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT) to > backup the registry: > http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ > > This way, if you ever screw up your registry, you can easily undo the > changes. > Provided those "changes" didn't render the computer unbootable, as is often the case, that is..... -- Bruce Chambers Help us help you: http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers. ~ Denis Diderot
Guest Daave Posted September 28, 2007 Posted September 28, 2007 Re: Unsure about RegCleaner 4.3 Bruce Chambers wrote: > Daave wrote: >> slick1 wrote: >> >>> Is there any sites out there somewhere I can go to and learn >>> more about Registries, what they do and the do's and don'ts? >> >> First off, you should use ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT) to >> backup the registry: >> http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ >> >> This way, if you ever screw up your registry, you can easily undo the >> changes. >> > > > Provided those "changes" didn't render the computer unbootable, as is > often the case, that is..... True, in that case, it might not be as easy. But at least if you back up the registry properly, you should be able to undo any damage: http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt What to do if Windows does not boot anymore? -------------------------------------------- If Windows refuses to boot normally it can be for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the registry is damaged, or you installed a program or driver which is somewhat incompatible with the system or buggy, in which case restoring a registry backup from a point where everything was running smoothly should also help. The first thing to try is to reboot and press the F8 key immediately before the first Windows screen appears, then select the "Last Known Good" option from the menu and see if Windows boots up with this option. If it does, you're all set. If it does not, reboot again with F8, and select the option "Safe Mode". If Windows boots up in safe mode, you can restore a registry backup just as you would in normal mode, as described above. If safe mode also fails, read on... Restoring the registry with ERDNT - Emergency Scenario I -------------------------------------------------------- Situation: Windows fails to boot up in normal and safe mode, but you have a DOS boot disk or another (working) operating system installed on your PC which is supported by the ERDNT restoration program, and from which you have full access to the drive(s) containing the corrupt Windows installation and the registry backup. Boot up to the working OS, and open the folder containing the registry backup you want to restore. If the drive letters are different to as they were in the Windows where you created the registry backup, you need to edit the ERDNT.INF file now to reflect the new drive letters, before trying to restore the registry backup. For example, if the drive with the corrupt Windows installation is now available as D: instead of C:, then you would change all C:\... references in the INF file to D:\... . Editing the file can be done in Windows with the Notepad program, and in DOS with the EDIT command. Now run the ERDNT.EXE file to start the restoration program. Select which registry components to restore (just the system registry will do in most cases), then start restoration. When the process is complete, reboot the computer and check if the other Windows installation is repaired now. Restoring the registry with ERDNT - Emergency Scenario II --------------------------------------------------------- Situation: Windows fails to boot up in normal and safe mode, and you have no other working operating system installed on your PC. The following two rescue methods require that your PC is configured so that it can boot from CD. See your BIOS documentation for more information. 1. Bart's PE Builder Use another computer with Internet access and CD burning capabilities to download this free program from the Internet (do a Google search for it), which will create a bootable Windows CD with full access to all drives (including NTFS). Boot from this CD, open the File Management Utility and follow the directions in "Emergency Scenario I" to run ERDNT and restore the registry. 2. The Windows Recovery Console (Windows 2000 and higher) Note that you can use this method only if you saved the registry backup inside the Windows folder, and that using this procedure only the system registry is restored. This should however get you back into Windows, from where you can run the ERDNT program to restore user registries, if necessary. - Boot your system from the Windows 2000/2003/XP CD-ROM. - At the welcome screen, press "R" (Windows 2000: "R" then "C"). - Type in the number of the Windows installation you want to repair (usually 1), then press ENTER. - Type in the Administrator password (leave blank if you are unsure what it is) and press ENTER. - At the command prompt type cd erdnt or whatever you named your restore folder, then press ENTER. - If you enabled automatic registry backup on system boot during ERUNT installation and want to restore one of these backups, type cd autobackup <ENTER> - If you created subfolders for different registry backups (for example, with the different creation dates), type dir <ENTER> to see a list of available folders, then type cd foldername <ENTER> where foldername is the name of a folder listed by the dir command, to open that folder. - Now type batch erdnt.con <ENTER> to restore the system registry from that folder. - Type exit <ENTER> and remove the CD from the CD-ROM drive. The system will now reboot with the restored registry.
Guest Ken Blake, MVP Posted September 28, 2007 Posted September 28, 2007 Re: Unsure about RegCleaner 4.3 On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:46:00 -0700, slick1 <slick1@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > > I have downloaded a freeware RegCleaner 4.3 by Jouni Vuorio. > > Has this RegCleaner been tested or is it obsolete for Windows XP > Home Edition SP2 operating systems? > > > Also, on this RegCleaner under : Options>Registry Cleanup>Method> > Automatic or Manual. Does this mean it will just do a cleanup for you > Automatically and is it safe to do so; or will it wipe-out a whole lot of > everything? > > Please excuse my ignorance about alot of this. As a Newuser I am just trying to > learn all this exe, dll, and all the abbreviated things about > systems,folders.etc. I strongly suggest you avoid using any registry cleaning program. 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. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Guest slick1 Posted September 28, 2007 Posted September 28, 2007 Re: Unsure about RegCleaner 4.3 > RegCleaner 4.3 has not been used and has now been deleted from my computer as per the advice from the MVP's. > However, I still have a downloaded game,(WWII Tank Commander from Merscom) which will not delete to the recycle bin. This game unfortunately came with-out an uninstall. I contacted Merscon and they told me to install RegCleaner to delete the registry keys for the game. > I guess I'm stuck with it, but I have learned one valuable lesson. Don't download something unless you are sure you can ununstall it if you do not need it any more. > Thanks to all for your help. "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote: > On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:46:00 -0700, slick1 > <slick1@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > > > > I have downloaded a freeware RegCleaner 4.3 by Jouni Vuorio. > > > Has this RegCleaner been tested or is it obsolete for Windows XP > > Home Edition SP2 operating systems? > > > > > Also, on this RegCleaner under : Options>Registry Cleanup>Method> > > Automatic or Manual. Does this mean it will just do a cleanup for you > > Automatically and is it safe to do so; or will it wipe-out a whole lot of > > everything? > > > Please excuse my ignorance about alot of this. As a Newuser I am just trying to > > learn all this exe, dll, and all the abbreviated things about > > systems,folders.etc. > > > > I strongly suggest you avoid using any registry cleaning program. > 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. > > -- > Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User > Please Reply to the Newsgroup >
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