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Registry editing
This is how your programs and settings work in Windows. Editing the keys
in the Registry is the key to tweaking Windows. Any configuration utility
you install just gives you a friendly front end to editing the most useful
keys, but if you know what you’re doing it’s faster
If you’re making changes to the Registry, take a backup yourself first: click Start, Run and type SCANREGW to run the Windows Registry Checker. This checks the Registry for errors and assuming there aren’t any asks if you want to back up the Registry again.
If there’s a problem with the Registry when you boot up Windows, the Registry Checker replaces it with the most recent back-up copy. You can also force it to use an older version of the Registry by pressing [F8] while Windows is booting, choosing Safe Mode Command Prompt and running SCANREG/RESTORE to choose which backup to use.
With Windows 2000 and XP, the Registry files become more complicated and
a lot harder to back up. In XP the files are scattered around the hard
drive because there’s a different set for each user and for the
system itself, with SECURITY, SOFTWARE, DEFAULT, SAM and USERCLASS files
joining various versions of SYSTEM and NTUSER.DAT: get the definitive
list from the Registry itself at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet
\ Control \ HiveList. There are also .LOG files that store changes to
the Registry that are in memory but haven’t yet been saved to the
Registry files. If your PC crashes while the keys are being changed Windows
can roll back to the original file or copy the changes from the .LOG file
as necessary.
You can’t just copy the files yourself any more because they’ll
be in use by Windows. You can export a key, a branch or the whole Registry
from File, Export but the Registry has to be running for you to import
those settings so you have to be able to boot. Furthermore, it merges
the keys rather than overwriting them so if the problem is extra keys
and values they’ll still be in
the Registry. If you don’t want to rely on the Registry Backup taken
by System Restore or using
command-line REG utility in the Recovery Console, get a copy of ERUNT
(http://home.t-online.de) to take a complete Registry backup in XP.
Cleaning the Registry
It’s not unusual for one program to create 100 or more keys in the
Registry, and Windows has plenty of keys of its own. The Registry ends
up as a large set of files. That leaves you with a huge file filling system
memory and as you install and uninstall applications the Registry becomes
fragmented, Never delete a Registry key unless you know what it
does, and always take a backup of the key first, just in case.
Rather than looking for old keys yourself, download a Registry cleaner
like the excellent Registry First Aid.
Not all software un-installations do a complete job leaving behind numerous nagging file references in the Windows registry pointing to files that no longer exist. In time, you can end up with hundreds of these files that may slow down your computer and cause software to lock up, requiring a hard reboot of your computer.
Also, if you've moved your programs from one drive to another, you can break the file links that a program needs. Registry First Aid will find these files and folders that you've moved on your hard drive and help you correct the registry entries that point to them.
Registry First Aid scans registry for orphan file/folder references, finds these files or folders on your drives that may have been moved from their initial locations, and then corrects your registry entries to match the located files or folders. In addition, if your registry has links to files of deleted applications, Registry First Aid will find these invalid entries and remove them from your registry. With Registry First Aid, your Windows registry will be always clean and correct, helping your programs load faster and speeding up your computer.
Registry First Aid allows you to:
- find invalid file/folder references in Windows 98/NT/2000/ME/XP registry;
- select drives and paths where to search registry referenced files/folders;
- select found matches to make corrections to invalid registry entries;
- delete incorrect registry references to previously un-installed files
or folders;
- create undo files in RegEdit4 format, so you always can restore Windows
registry to the original state.
Registry First Aid - Keep it clean and keep it fast!
