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[ Installations Plus+ PC Forum ] [ Archive 061298 ] Posted by: Louis Bruno (Forum HOST) on July 25, 1998 at 11:17:41
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In Reply to: WINDOWS REGISTRY posted by akat on July 25, 1998 at 07:23:14Subject: Re: WINDOWS REGISTRY
You say:
"Please E-mail me,as I never go around forums checking my notices."You seem to be confused about the nature of a Forum. The idea is to post notices so that the maximum number of people will be available to RESPOND and, more importantly, so that the maximum number of people will be able to LEARN from the exchange.
Fortunately, for you, we've set up this Forum so that the replies are posted for all to see and emailed for the convenience of the originator.Now to your question:
Windows has always had a registry, which is a small database used to keep track of the your PC's settings. In Windows 95/98/NT the database tracks user specific settings for both the operating system and the applications that run it. Windows 95 will not operate if this database is corrupt or missing. It can be viewed and edited by running RegEdit.exe, an application in the Windows directory. Don't do this until you've learned more about the Windows Registry and have made a backup of the registry!
For more information about the Windows Registry download this FAQ from ZDNet:
http://www6.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/info.html?fcode=000BD3The application you mention -- RegClean 4.1a -- is one of several which will clean or groom the registry to remove extraneous entries left behind when software is installed/uninstalled by hand or by some programs which simply don't bother to "clean up the environment". This one, which is written by Microsoft, is conservative and generally safe to use.
In our experience:
(1) If Windows is operating satisfactorily, there is no reason to tinker with the registry. "Let it be."
(2) If Windows is not operating satisfactorily, "cleaning" the registry isn't likely to make it better.
(3) The best thing you can do with regard to the registry is to learn how to restore it in case it becomes corrupt (unreadable, usually because of a disk drive error).