To clean or not to clean the Registry: that be the question

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I know this topic will generate about 50,000 replies with varied opinions but the following is what I did..

I have never used a registry cleaner until the other day…

I have XP on another drive since I upgraded from ME and NEVER cleaned the registry.
Years and years of installs, UN-installs, system crashes, different printers, scanners, hard drives, video cars, sound cards, USB devices and power outages etc…

XP took a long time to fully boot, probably 5 minutes or longer.

Soooo, the other day I made an image of XP and then ran Ccleaner registry cleaner.
You have no idea the stuff I found in the registry from programs etc that I have forgotten about until seeing the leftovers in the registry…

After a couple of beers I got up enough courage to hit the “FIX ALL SELECTED ISSUES NOW” button.

Then I shut down, did a cold boot, and XP booted up taking the usual 5 or more minutes to fully boot.

After which, I came to the conclusion cleaning the registry does absolutely nothing to enhance performance or speed the boot up process…

The only good thing I got from it was enjoyment of the two beers!!

Thatttts all Folks…

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I think registry tinkering is only justified if you have leftovers from previous installs that actually affect new installs or similar problems. Other than that, I believe Fred Langa’s experience with cleanmgr, in a recent newsletter, which scored only slightly worse than the “best” cleaners, without touching the registry, points in the same direction as your current findings.

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I remember reading Fred’s letter…
But, I didn’t remember it until you just mentioned it so that wasn’t what prompted me to try it..

I never had any problems with similar programs and registry conflicts and I have installed dozens of similar graphics programs to try them out.

But, I can see where there could be a conflict under the right conditions.

I only started using REVO over the past year or two and let that remove registry leftovers..

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Well I never use registry cleaners. I have tried CCleaner a couple times and I associate it with the disappearance of some stuff that shouldn’t have disappeared. That was enough for me.

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I just use Revo to uninstall programs and do a daily cleanup. Like temp files, cookies etc..

I like it for that purpose and never had any problems using it that way.

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XP seems quite happy running with a bloated registry. Whatever’s slowing your system down, I’d bet it wasn’t that.

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The Registry is a database. It does not work like most people imagine by having to read through all the old junk to get to a relevant entry it needs. It is much more like an indexed sequence of steps to get to the final destinations and how much junk is logically between each step does not influence the performance.

My experience has taught me that “cleaning” the registry does not shorten boot time or program load time at all. It may help to eliminate conflicts in case you have to re-install the same piece of software if the uninstaller of that software does not really clean out the registry.

Ccleaner is my favorite multi-purpose secret weapon to eliminate excess start-up junk, old junk files and to uninstall gunk. BUT it is a tool for grown-ups because if you just delete everything you see in Start-Ups you may render your machine unusable.

Your problem are five minutes boot time and I admire you patience to even live with a machine like this! Your problem likely has nothing to do with the registry!

Clean out the tons and tons of junk your poor computer has to run starting up. If you have the machine overly full with start-ups it gets tight in RAM Windows begins to shovel stuff back and forth between RAM and the page file; disk I/O is thousands of times slower than RAM.

If Ccleaner and common sense don’t do it then I recommend AutoRuns from SysInternals. You will be astonished what you’ll find in there. BUT you have to be VERY careful with AutoRuns, this really is a tool for someone who knows well what they are doing.

What AV are you running?
If it is WebRoot SpySweeper the five minutes may be due to that!

How much RAM?
What model/speed CPU?
How full (in %) is your C: drive?
How much space (in GB) is free on C:?
What size parameters for your page file?

Should you reply be assured I will have more questions but maybe a suggestion or two. On the other hand if the machine does get faster you don’t have time for the beer anymore. Trade offs wherever you look :^_^:

Update 12-02:

I am exactly going where DrWho already went, thanks DrWho. Personally I just use different tools but I do similar steps at my customer’s machines and have the same experience.

Re. Ccleaner: I use it for years and years but NEVER had an un-bootable machine after using it. Everybody’s mileage varies.

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My experience has taught me that “cleaning” the registry does not shorten boot time or program load time at all.

Oh be fair Eikelein, it can take at least 100 milliseconds off the boot time in a bad case. :^_^:

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There are several reliable registry cleaners, but if a person is not 100% convinced that they should use one…..then don’t!
There is very little downside, either way.
Some people never clean out their car either, but it still runs.

Even Microsoft put out a program to clean Dead Links out of the registry, years ago.
I still use it occasionally and it still works great.

Happy Holidays Everyone!
The Doctor 😎

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Re Message #29

There are several reliable registry cleaners, but if a person is not 100% convinced that they should use one…..then don’t!
There is very little downside, either way.
Some people never clean out their car either, but it still runs.

Even Microsoft put out a program to clean Dead Links out of the registry, years ago.
I still use it occasionally and it still works great. . . . The Doctor 😎

DrWho:

Is your Microsoft “program to clean Dead Links out of the registry” RegClean.exe version 4.1.7364.1? I have been using it on Win2kSp4 for many years, and cleaning dead links out of the registry is exactly what it does. I use it after uninstalling software, and as part of my preparatory routine prior to making backup images of my laptop’s partition C: (and also my data partition D:, although of course RegClean isn’t relevant to that because the registry, along with the rest of Windows and my applications software, is in partition C:).

But as of today I have “upgraded” to WinXP Sp3, and I am wondering if RegClean.exe (which the “upgrade” did not remove) would work on XP Sp3 in the same way that it has worked on Win2kSp4 (or instead would trash the XP registry).

So thanks for your post, DrWho, and thanks to anyone who has used MS RegClean on WinXP sp3 and tells me their experience in doing so.

Roger Folsom

P.S. Some background: I had expected to be able to continue with Win2kSp4 as long as my security software (Eset’s NOD32) continued to support Win2kSp4. But then the Schwab financial website got redesigned, and Win2kSp4 no long works on it. So after a multi-hour search on eBay, I got lucky and was able to buy from one supplier his only two CDs (one for my computer and one for my wife’s) which were “upgrade” versions of WinXP Sp2. (I had discovered that the two brand new OEM XP Sp3 versions I had bought several years ago won’t upgrade; they apparently require a clean install). I have spent this weekend doing the “upgrade” to XP Sp2, and then installing Sp3 from Microsoft’s website. These two CDs were not new, but somehow they hadn’t been used on another computer (or had been used but somehow their activation info got cleared out of Microsoft’s records), and the Adtivation worked with no problem.

In MS Regclean 4.1.7364.1, the version number apparently is important, because when I first started using Win2k (and Regclean) 10 years or so ago, I read somewhere that older Regclean versions from Win9x apparently don’t work on Win2k.

In addition to Regclean, I occasionally use a registry compaction utility from Lar Shederer’s website at http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/. The program is “NTREGOPT, an NT Registry Optimizer, Registry Optimization for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP.”

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There are several reliable registry cleaners, but if a person is not 100% convinced that they should use one…..then don’t!
There is very little downside, either way.
Some people never clean out their car either, but it still runs.

Even Microsoft put out a program to clean Dead Links out of the registry, years ago.
I still use it occasionally and it still works great. . . . The Doctor 😎

Dr. Who:

Is your Microsoft “program to clean Dead Links out of the registry” RegClean.exe version 4.1.7364.1? I have been using it on Win2kSp4 for many years, and have recently “upgraded” to WinXP Sp3 (using an upgrade CD, which did not remove RegClean.exe), and I am wondering whether my RegClean will work on WinXP Sp3.

A longer version of this question (with a “Background” P.S.) is in this thread at message #43, but I’m a New Lounger and I think I didn’t see and use the “Reply with quote” button, so I don’t know if you got any message that I had responded to your post.

If you do get a message about this reply to your post #29, and can answer my RegClean question, I would very much appreciate your advice.

Incidentally, in your very useful post #8, I appreciated your recommendation of “‘Easy Cleaner’ or ‘Easy Cleaner II'”.

Thank you.

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

________________________________________________________________
06 July 2012:

Dr. Who never answered my question, “Is your Microsoft “program to clean Dead Links out of the registry” RegClean.exe version 4.1.7364.1?” (probably because he never saw it). But I guessed that the answer to my question was “Yes.”

I asked my question in early March 2012. Since then, on my WinXPsp3 computer — upgraded from Win2kSp4 using a Microsoft upgrade CD designed for that purpose — over the past few months I have used RegClean.exe version 4.1.7364.1 many times, and it works just fine.

Roger Folsom

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Cleaning the registry may help solve problems or future corruptions based on conflicts between new apps and leftover junk. As stated your slow boot is more likely caused by apps booting with Windows, lack of resources, and who knows what other problems. Use What’s In Startupto check and delete all the un-needed junk starting with Windows.

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Ted or anyone !!
Can someone tell me about this in “whatsinstartup” list?

KernelFaultCheck Registry -> Machine Run %systemroot%system32dumprep 0 -k Yes
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun %systemroot%system32dumprep 0 -k

===============================================

Cleaning the registry may help solve problems or future corruptions based on conflicts between new apps and leftover junk. As stated your slow boot is more likely caused by apps booting with Windows, lack of resources, and who knows what other problems. Use What’s In Startupto check and delete all the un-needed junk starting with Windows.

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Can someone tell me about this in “whatsinstartup” list?

“Jag”,
Hello… It’s a free program that allows you to select what runs at “Start up” . Most programs that you use will set themselves to run at boot time by default …Whether you want to run them in the background or not… With this program you can selectively choose what runs at boot, and what doesn’t.(speeds up booting)..Until you click on it to run.:cheers: Regards Fred

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The one way that cleaning all the garbage out of the registry can impact overall performance, is
that the registry is a part of the OS that loads entirely into ram memory during boot up. The
smaller and more compact the registry is, the less space it will take up and the more ram you’ll
have for your programs to use.

Going all the way back to ’98, I’ve use a program called “Easy Cleaner” from Toni Arts. It has many
apps, like removing MRU’s, removing unnecessary files, uninstalling programs, and,,,,,, cleaning the registry.
It can also remove I.E. History and Cookies, if you ask it to. (separate app’s)

But, if you clean the registry, by removing dead links, etc. and you don’t re-compress the registry, you
have not effectively reduced the size of the registry. So, when I clean my own registry, I then run a
little program “NTREGOPT” to re-compress the registry to reduce its size. Once when I removed Office 2007
from my PC, I cleaned the registry and then ran NTREGOPT and reduced the size of the registry by 30%.

I have never had one single problem using “Easy Cleaner” or “Easy Cleaner II”, after running it on literally
hundreds of PC’s. It’s now been upgraded to run on Vista, Win-7 and Win-8. I’ve made it a part of my
Win-7 tune-up package, on my web site.

However I do test a lot of programs that I read about on the internet. Several years ago now, I tried a
program being highly touted, called “CCleaner” (Crap Cleaner). After doing the default cleaning I rebooted
my PC and it was DEAD….. would not reboot.
So I used my last Ghost Backup Image File to get back up and running.
A couple of years later, I tried CCleaner again, after making a fresh Backup. Sure nuff, it trashed my PC
again. Enough is enough! I’ll never let that program anywhere near my PC, ever again.
The ‘Defraggler’ was another program that trashed my PC.

I’m a PC technician and I’ve never fixed a slow boot condition by cleaning the registry. However I do fix
the slow boot condition on just about every computer I work on, for the first time. There are several
programs I use to clean the junk files out of a PC. The first is my own Cleanup.bat, batch file.
Then Windows own “Disk Cleanup” run in extended mode, which I’ve talked about many times in this very
forum. Then I might install and run “Easy Cleaner II“. It looks in every folder in the HD, for junk files and
will find and remove files that other programs are not set up to remove.

Then I will go into the Startup folder and shut off every Startup program that’s not 100% necessary to
run the PC, printer, etc. Also reset the boot delay time, from 30 seconds to 3 sec’s.
Then run “Spybot Search & Destroy”, to scan for and remove Adware, Spyware and some trojans.
Then Install and run “Malware Bytes” and again get the latest update and run a full scan.
By now, in the process I’ve got the boot time down to around a minute, give or take a few seconds.

If either Norton AV or McAfee AV is installed, , , I uninstall it and replace it with AVG 2012, FREE.
It’s a far superior AV program and it’s FREE. I also UN-Install any other programs that are not being
used and are not needed. Most new PC’s today, come with a Game Pack of over twenty games.
They are put out by a well known spyware company, “Wild Tangent”. I Un-install them whenever I
find them. Also, take out any Trials or Demo’s.

Net gain on the cleanup of a PC is usually in the neighborhood of 100,000 files, or more. (removed)

I encourage my customer to sit there with me and see the stuff I’m cleaning out and give their
approval to any programs that I have to un-install. When I’m done, I regularly get a comment
something like, “WOW! It didn’t run that fast when it was new!”. I know, that’s the idea.

There are a few little tweaks to improve performance that I’ve not mentioned here, but are a part
of my Tune-up package, on my web page.

I’m sorry this response ran so long, but it’s a fairly complex subject.

Good Luck and Happy Holidays!
The Doctor 😎

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Never ever ever had problems NOT using a registry cleaner.
Have had some issues occasionally using a registry cleaner.

Conclusion; neither I nor the program’s authors are brain surgeons!
The title of my movie is “How I learned to stop worrying about leftover registry entries and lived happily ever after.”

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IMO, registry cleaning should only be done if you have a serious problem with your system such as mentioned above by Rui in post #2 & Eike in paragraph 2 post #9. Routine registry cleaning gives you too much of a chance of removing something important.

I have not routinely used a registry cleaner since I first installed the original XP release in 2001. As long as I am vigilant about monitoring what is started during the boot sequence I’m fine with the boot time. Especially with Windows 7 the number of boots that I do is dramatically less than with XP (& prior OSes) so even boot time is not a huge deal for me.

The processing of the registry has changed considerably since the Win9x/ME days. Parts of it are virtualized. It is not all read in at once during boot. Different parts are read at different times.

Joe

--Joe

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All good opinions —- so i’ll post mine 🙂

I’ve also went though the reg cleaning arena from time to time with “Nothing” special ever happening. I believe (like others) that if one knew what he/she was doing then some things could be fixed going into the reg.

IMHO, the vast majority should just think of system image “Backup’s” 🙂

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Well guys, all of you have made some valid points..

I can never recall having any problems and never cleaned the registry until just recently as I mentioned in my original post here in the forum and my first computer was bought in 1985.

Like I said, I didn’t notice any difference at all so I think I will refrain from cleaning it in the future because it seems that having a registry cleaned is more likely to give you problems then not cleaning it and leaving it alone.

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I didn’t notice any difference at all so I think I will refrain from cleaning it in the future because it seems that having a registry cleaned is more likely to give you problems then not cleaning it and leaving it alone.

Banyarola,
Hello… Just like to give a slightly different approach .. I use jv-16 and CCleaner, as well as most …and they are correct in what they are saying… Little or no difference, with the opportunity for disaster. However..what i do is this… When i want to remove some program after using an “Un-installer” i launch the registry editor and click “Edit” then “Find” Input the name of the offending program and hit “enter” …After it (Registry Editor) finds the entry , i delete it ( you could export it if you want ) Then hit F-3 …and repeat the process until nothing is left … This way your usually only dealing with one thing at a time… other than spilling a beer on your keyboard:lol: Regards Fred

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Banyarola,
Hello… Just like to give a slightly different approach .. I use jv-16 and CCleaner, as well as most …and they are correct in what they are saying… Little or no difference, with the opportunity for disaster. However..what i do is this… When i want to remove some program after using an “Un-installer” i launch the registry editor and click “Edit” then “Find” Input the name of the offending program and hit “enter” …After it (Registry Editor) finds the entry , i delete it ( you could export it if you want ) Then hit F-3 …and repeat the process until nothing is left … This way your usually only dealing with one thing at a time… other than spilling a beer on your keyboard:lol: Regards Fred

What you do manually is basically what Revo uninstaller does automatically. You are given the choice of what to actually delete or what to save before the uninstaller moves on to actually cleaning up the Registry.

And as for the general case of Registry cleaning, I have only one reason to clean my Registry in either Windows XP or Windows 7. That is to avoid boot time conflicts in the case of failed driver updates, program removals or updates, failed installs, or spyware cleanups. In other words, about once a month after MS Updates and software checking. Otherwise, there is no discernible benefit to cleaning the Registry — it is not read line by line during boot up, and the amount of RAM used by loading it is insignificant on modern PCs with adequate system RAM to begin with. Compacting or defragmenting the Registry can cause irreparable harm and offers no benefit on a modern PC.

-- rc primak

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If you do decide to use a registry cleaner (I do) I check what entries are going to be cleaned if I let it. If something you need is checked, simply uncheck it.

I use CCleaner much more often to help with cleaning temp file locations. You have to watch what you clean, for example if you clean the MSE logs then your PC will not realize it just did a scan and will request you to scan again. I believe most agree that cleaning these temp file locations regularly does stop problems, and does speed things up. If you choose to use the registry cleaning section as well, just look at what you are cleaning before blindly clicking OK.

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That’s why I’ve always loved “Easy Cleaner II”….. if it’s ever going to error, it will error on the side of caution, by leaving something that could possibly cause a problem if removed. I don’t have to go through the hundreds of lines of registry keys, because I trust the program.

I fully agree on NOT deleting logs. Unless you know exactly what logs you want to delete. If not, then just leave them all alone.

I can understand a person saying “I’ve, done this, or I’ve done that without any problems”. But how many actual computers are we talking about? Maybe one, six or less than a dozen? (I own more than that)
When I advocate anything, I’m speaking from many years of experience with literally HUNDREDS of PC’s, of all different makes, models and ages.

But I won’t criticize anyone who’s not willing to take a chance with their registry. If they are in error, at least they are in error on the side of caution and there’s Nothing wrong with that. How many times have we heard about someone who took a chance, doing something iffy and lost.
Like . . . Every day?

I just had to rebuild a computer for someone who took a chance and decided to NOT have their computer maintained for over two years. That was one of those chances that didn’t turn out so well. It was so infected and infested with Virus, Trojans, Spyware and one Fraud, that it couldn’t even run. Windows Explorer was totally DEFUNCT.
But thankfully, when I set that PC up for them 2+ years ago, I made a Ghost backup for them. So after salvaging all their data, it took only ten minutes to have the computer back up and running normally again.

I want to wish Everyone, a Very Happy Holiday Season

😎

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Clean your system at regular times!
Junk slows down your system and caused crashes!!!
I lead help desk and have 30 years of experience!:o:

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Fascinating thread, and it proves what most of us know…all computer setups are unique and there is no one size fits all solution.

I for one have not had much success with Easy Cleaner. When I have tried to do a reg clean, the program locks up and I have to use task manager to free things up.

I do like CC…and have good success. Whether the reg cleaner has actually done anything, I will leave to the real techies to decide.

I am surprised that no one has mentioned WinPatrol as an overall system checker. I have that set in my startups, so every time any new program attempts to install an active X or new startup, I can deal with it on a one by one basis. I am not at my home computer now, and cannot list what is there, but I have only a handful of programs on auto start.

As for virus protection I uninstalled AVG in favor of MSSE…small footprint, very efficient, imo.

Sherm

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A good general-purpose cleaner for several areas is Glary Utilities, also recommended by F. Langa (as memory serves me). I’ve used it on several computers and decreased the boot time. You can use the one-click checks all option — used it on my sister’s comp. a few weeks ago and it took about 15 mins. to run the first time.

Of course, taking out all the unnecessary boot-up junk by using MSCONFIG will also decrease this boot-up time. Most of the add-ons will also want to start an update program every time you boot up your comp. Have fun — BTW — Glary Utilities is freeware.

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IMHO, no, registry cleaning won’t improve boot-up time, but I do like to keep a ‘clean house’ … so I do use CCleaner’s Registry Cleaner on occasion and only delete those entries that reference programs I know I have already deleted (hence the orphan). CCleaner’s power is cleaning the more common repositories of ‘junk’ in Windows and Applications with just one utility (and you can exclude some of those ‘log file’ locations that are your preferences, as mentioned above). It’s fairly thorough and you can review what it will delete and ‘deselect’ any entry of your choice. THEN, follow that up with a good defrag using MyDefrag‘System Disk Monthly’ script (which places all files used when booting at the beginning of the disk, followed by ‘most used programs’, then ‘regular files’, and finally spacehogs) with files sorted by their ‘fullpath’, keeping it all in contiguous order. This can take hours to complete depending on your system set-up, and is best done as a ‘scheduled task’ when you are ‘logged off’ (not shut down) so additional files are available to the defragger. THAT will improve efficiency immensely. Also, like others have suggested, review your ‘startups’ with SysInternals Autoruns ‘Logon’ category and deselect any ‘update’ and ‘loading of third party software’ that you may not want in your boot-up sequence. This would surely get the results you are looking for in optimizing your PC. I have also found Revo Uninstaller (free) to do a better job at ‘housekeeping’ than the manufacturers ‘Uninstall’ alone, keeping your system in better shape (now that you have done a thorough cleaning). This, again, is just ‘my’ experience in cleaning up and optimizing PCs at our company. I won’t throw stones at anyone whose opinions are of a different path. I just thank you for considering my experiences in your evaluation of this topic.

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I am running XP Home SP3 and have used CCleaner for years with no issues. I do run jv16 Power Tools weekly and check what it finds in the Registry. I have had an issue or two, but have gone back and looked at what was removed that hosed an application and added it to the ignore list. I too use Revo Uninstaller Pro to rid myself of software as I go. By far the biggest improvement to performance has been not that I defrag, but as one other post mentioned, how it is done. I use Ultimate Defrag 3 and arrange the data very similar to the other poster. I check for updates to all applications weekly…when done I reboot, run CCleaner, jv16 Power Tools clean & fix and then run a Malware Bytes scan. After this (assuming a clean machine), I run thru Event Viewer to check on any issues. Next is Chkdsk (the results of which I check in Event Viewer) then run Ultimate Defrag. I then use True Image to make a full backup image to a dedicated drive.

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everybody’s right – the sloooow boot isn’t the registry.

i skimmed and maybe missed this, but i don’t think anyone’s described this process to remove unwanted programs from starting up during boot. go to Run and typ in MSConfig. that will open up Windows’ own configuration utility and you can look at start-up programs and services. start with programs ( i think it’s programs on XP, it’s Boot on Win7), uncheck all those you do not REALLY need to run at start up. then you can go to services; there you put a check in the box lower left that says “Hide all Microsoft services” – you don’t want to mess with those. then, again, uncheck any services you don’t need to run at start-up.

if every one’s right, not starting all that junk at start-up should be a boon to your boot time.

good luck.

Michael

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But I won’t criticize anyone who’s not willing to take a chance with their registry. I just had to rebuild a computer for someone who took a chance and decided to NOT have their computer maintained for over two years. That was one of those chances that didn’t turn out so well.

I think that’s like apples and oranges (comparison-wise); there’s maintenance; and then there’s cleaning the registry. Lets not get the Captain of the Titantic confused with a good one!! :p

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We read on a regular basis about someone who has developed a difficult to T/S problem that ultimately resulted from a poor uninstaller not doing a good job. These problems are often ultimately resolved by removing the offending culprits in the registry. Hmmm, isn’t this exactly what is being discussed here? When doing a registry cleanup you have to be dilligent in checking what is being removed. When I uninstall an app using Revo Uninstaller Pro, I always then use CCleaner to look for leftover junk from that uninstall. I think this is the best use of these tools in registry cleaning. As stated previously I use CCleaner more often for general cleanup of temp. files.

As Bob has just stated, failed installs can also cause these type problems, and CCleaner can assist with this removal. You just have to watch what CCleaner finds and only remove the items that you truly want gone.

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IMHO, no, registry cleaning won’t improve boot-up time, but I do like to keep a ‘clean house’

To me, that’s what it all boils down to; can the individual user stand the knowledge that there are useless or otherwise dead end registry entries, and leave them alone, or have to go after them at the risk of removing an entry or two that should not have been. Looking for particular entries associated with a program that one knows has been removed is a separate issue. Its the social aspect…the mindset we’re dealing with here…and the reason that RAM managers still sell as well; why almost any “optimization” software still exists–to appeal to the human user, not the comptuer. :p

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If I am called upon to help someone out with a slow or dysfunctional computer, there will be a better than average chance that a registry cleaning tool will be used.
Registry tools should never be used willy nilly on a daily basis and the user should always be looking closely at what is being done.

If you don’t believe in registry cleaning tools then don’t use them, this topic has been done to death already and it will never be resolved.

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LOL, yep—- kind of used up on this registry thing.

I think (for the most part) we know that all serious registry guru’s know that jv power tools is the holy grail of reggie tools and the last free download is @if interested;

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I have used cleaners since XP days. Most recently I used it on my wifes (“our”) laptop (Win7) And then “we” started getting Microsoft Activation messages. Now, it may have been coincidence. We might have had a virus. I’m dead certain she, sorry, we didn’t intentionally change any settings. I backed everything up. Thankfully its an HP with a recovery centre. I figure 6 hours minimum plus a troubled nights sleep. I won’t be using a cleaner on Win 7.

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this topic has been done to death already and it will never be resolved

Of course not :p , humans usually only understand things on their terms, even when they don’t; and why my tongue is firmly in cheek at all times on this subject.
I get quite a good kick out of comments like, well if you’re not 100% convinced, or I’m not going to judge anyone who doesn’t use one, or not going to throw stones at anyone who’s opinions are different…very passive aggressive trying to convince the rest of use that we’re the ones in danger if we don’t get after them dead entries.
Only problem is I have to stop laughing so much since my asthma is kicking up right now and that agitates it!

Like 98% of human DNA is seemingly unused…dead end entries from a bygone era maybe…can the registry cleaners of the world stand the knowledge they have genes for growing scales and a tail and gills and god knows what else? When one thinks about it on a molecular level of interaction….its amazing most of us turn out as well as we do!! Maybe even astounding!

Computers are just many logs (at least) faster and more precise about ignoring what isn’t used.

Whew! I got it down to a wheezy giggle now so please, just do what you’re going to do and don’t try and convince (even passively) we atheists, we live and let livers…oh no! Making myself cough again!! Adieu! (wow short word for 4 vowels, never realized that before!).

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My post #7 I included a link to an app that works very nicely for this chore. I have used msconfig in the past, but at times if you change the boot configuration this apps may start again. With What’s In Startup, these can be disabled or deleted completely with little fuss or muss.

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Many programs will offer the option of not starting at start-up burried somewhere in their properties.
One can configure such options first prior to having to use MSCONFIG or any other 3rd party tool.

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Microsoft has a free registry defragging tool called PageDefrag (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426). PageDefrag combined with CCleaner performs for free a similar function as jv16. Although defragging the registry doesn’t need to be done very often, if at all, I’ve used CCleaner weekly for a few years without any trouble. Attached is a screenshot of the CCleaner registry settings I use for Windows XP Professional.

29623-CCleaner-Registry-Settings

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Microsoft has a free registry defragging tool called PageDefrag (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426). PageDefrag combined with CCleaner performs for free a similar function as jv16. Although defragging the registry doesn’t need to be done very often, if at all, I’ve used CCleaner weekly for a few years without any trouble. Attached is a screenshot of the CCleaner registry settings I use for Windows XP Professional.

29623-CCleaner-Registry-Settings

Registry defragmenting does no good whatsoever in terms of startup times. It is dangerous and can leave a system unbootable.

-- rc primak

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@cloudsandskye;
I’ve always been scared of using that shared dll option.

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My registry export file is about 90,000kb so I find no need to worry about space. If your concerned about boot times, look at what’s starting up and services that load on boot-up.

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Miss-understood, not a problem, i’ll explain:

1) I use the whatsinstartup program.

2) my question;
in the list, I have this and was wondering if anyone has knowledge of what it is and whether I should keep it?

“KernelFaultCheck Registry -> Machine Run %systemroot%system32dumprep 0 -k Yes
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurr entVersionRun %systemroot%system32dumprep 0 -k ”

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Dump Reporting Tool
It’s part of the operating system, but it may also have become currupt or damaged.

What is Dumprep.exe?

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