1472 errors - registry reviver

[Quacker]

Is this possible? - the free scan said this laptop is in bad health. Re there any other ways to clean up a machine for free or low cost as I notice there are plenty of downloads which promise to keep a machine healthy.

 

How do you decide what is necessary and what is not?

[BeeCeeBee]

Is this possible? - the free scan said this laptop is in bad health. Re there any other ways to clean up a machine for free or low cost as I notice there are plenty of downloads which promise to keep a machine healthy.

 

How do you decide what is necessary and what is not?

 

What free scan are you talking about? There are many so-called FREE diagnostic programs that are designed to infect your computer and and then seek to sell you a cure. I get the feeling that you have been a victim of one of those.

 

Give us a run down on exactly what security programs and scanners you have on the machine.

[Quacker]

On this here laptop I have Avast for AV and use XP's own Firewall (I think). The machine had very little use in recent times. I downloaded the programme Registry Reviver (advert linked from this site) and did the scan. As I say it found all those errors and I could hve them fixed etc. for a fee of course.

 

Difficult to tell which of these are better than others to "clean up" machines.

 

see below for specifics;

 

com/active X - 144

Application paths - 6

windows stratup items - 12

File/Path references -489

Program shortcuts - 7

Empty regstry keys - 288

File associations - 3

Invlalid class keys - 219

Sound and app events - 27

CLSID/type lib/interface entries - 277

 

Now they don't mean a lot to me, but they look bad! the general health of the laptop was also described as bad.

 

Do they mean anything, how critical are they and how do I even begin to put things right?

[BeeCeeBee]

Registry Reviver (advert linked from this site)

 

One thing that this site has no or little control over are the ads that are placed through google.

 

I don't know about this particular program other than it appears to be the standard scam where it "finds" things and then charges you to fix them. Your best hope is that it did not create the things it "found." Your first step is to try a system restore to a point before you ever installed the "Registry Reviver" (If it hasn't disabled your ability to do that.

 

Possibly that will undo the damage. Otherwise you will need to go through the malware removal process with one of the Security Team.

[Match]

Do they mean anything, how critical are they and how do I even begin to put things right?

 

By not using a registry Cleaner or Mechanic :)

 

the problems with your OS are caused when a program is uninstalled, It will quite often have shared files and registry entries to different programs, that are not removed because they are needed by the other program to work correctly.

 

You will also get some registry entries and files left behind that are simply not needed, unfortunately to work out which is which manually would take hours of reading and comparing, over time these entries build up and that's why it's recommended that every now and again when you start to have noticeable problems that a clean install is called for.

 

or you can use a registry Cleaner/Mechanic to remove and delete the ones it thinks are obsolete, Unfortunately more often than not they will remove needed files and registry entries, or by removing some obsolete registry entries it will create another registry entry that is needed to flagged as obsolete. (False Positives)

 

So basically the more you try to repair the registry the more damage long term you will do until windows is no longer able to run, and you have to do a clean re-install, or a repair re-install, which just happens in my opinion to be the best way to repair a registry.

 

(advert linked from this site)

 

Unfortunately the way the adverts work the site owner doesn't have much control over what is actually advertised, and just because it's been advertised on this site doesn't mean that the site endorses the product. just means it creats revenue to help keep the site open, well that's the theory, the site owner is probably now rolling round on the floor laughing at the amount he gets paid for the adverts.

[Quacker]

Thanks both - yes, I made the (wrong) assumption they were bona-fide paid for and recommended ads:(

 

I just realised how old this machine is and poor spec. 1.99 celeron, 30gb hdd and 256gb ram - shared with graphics. No wonder it runs slow and takes forever to boot etc. - It isn't even wifi as I have to plug in a wireless dongle - it even has the old USB ports:eek:

 

On the plus side, it does have a comms port good for interfacing my ham radio gear as newer machines require an adaptor for this.

 

Replace rather than repair methinks ;)