Registry

[Peter Jason]

In message <KB%[email protected]>, Wolf K

I'm glad to read the above. It's the first time I've read any personal,
rather than hearsay, report of problems caused by _not_ cleaning the
registry. (Though of course the hordes will say that registry cleaners
are not the way to clean the registry.)

It'd be interesting to read what problems you have had with such debris.

Do you know of any registry cleaner that will
delete (or alter) selected keys and/or entries
when run?

I use CCleaner and it lacks this facility.

Peter

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

In message <[email protected]>, Wolf K

download. Revo cleans the registry of all the keys associated with the
program you're deleting.

[]
How (does it know which ones to remove)?

You install the program using Revo monitoring. It tracks the
changes made during the installation. When you want to uninstall, it
reverses this. There are probably other details I am missing here.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, Wolf K

download. Revo cleans the registry of all the keys associated with the
program you're deleting.

[]
How (does it know which ones to remove)?

You install the program using Revo monitoring. It tracks the
changes made during the installation. When you want to uninstall, it
reverses this. There are probably other details I am missing here.

[]
Ah, so it only does it for things that were installed after it was (and
only if they were done with it watching, though maybe it defaults to
doing so all the time). Thanks for explaining.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent upon it, can
still ripen a bunch of grapes as it if had nothing else in the universe to do.
-Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, Peter Jason

Do you know of any registry cleaner that will
delete (or alter) selected keys and/or entries
when run?

I use CCleaner and it lacks this facility.

Peter

A simple .reg file will do that (so you could call the .reg file from a
batch file that then called CCleaner). Though I suspect I'm not quite
grasping what you want to do.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent upon it, can
still ripen a bunch of grapes as it if had nothing else in the universe to do.
-Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)

 

[Philip Herlihy]

In message <[email protected]>, Wolf K
[]
download. Revo cleans the registry of all the keys associated with the
program you're deleting.
[]
How (does it know which ones to remove)?

You install the program using Revo monitoring. It tracks the
changes made during the installation. When you want to uninstall, it
reverses this. There are probably other details I am missing here.

[]
Ah, so it only does it for things that were installed after it was (and
only if they were done with it watching, though maybe it defaults to
doing so all the time). Thanks for explaining.

I use Revo Uninstaller (free version) regularly. It "analyses" an
installation before running the provided uninstaller, then re-scans for
stuff it would have expected the uninstaller to remove. Then it
displays it to you (what Norton can leave behind is flabbergasting) and
invites you to delete it. I always select-all, and delete. Never had a
problem across scores of machines.

I also run CCleaner (from piriform) which has a registry cleaner. Never
had a problem with that, either. Piriform's Defraggler has an option
(fairly well-hidden) to do a boot-time defrag which takes in the
registry files. The latest version has a bug which is preventing that
option from working, but they say it will be fixed in the next release.

 

[Wolf K]

On 07/07/2012 6:06 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
[...]

Blame MS for properly executing a third party program or script?
Bizarre.

No, not that, I blame MS for
a) using lame APIs etc that encourage lazy programming, which amongst
other things scatters files and registry keys all over the place; and
b) not providing an applet that can find all of a program's bits and
pieces etc and delete them.

Mind you, it's not serious blame. ;-) Besides, it makes a market for 3rd
party uninstallers, which is OK for them and their kith and kin. ;-)

[...]

 

[mechanic]

Ah, so it only does it for things that were installed after it was
(and only if they were done with it watching, though maybe it
defaults to doing so all the time). Thanks for explaining.

Not even the paid version does that! Check their website for
details, don't rely on heresay here. The free version often misses
related files on the scan so I suppose it misses registry keys as
well.

 

[Stan Brown]

Just as note: As I understand things -- and someone correct me if
I'm wrong -- Windows uninstall doesn't decide what to remote and what
to leave behind. That's decided by the application program's
installer, which writes an uninstall script to be called from Control
Panel when the user requests an uninstall. If registry entries or
files are left behind, as I understand things that's the fault of the
writer of the application, not of Windows.

Good grief! The first two lines should have been:

Just a note: As I understand things -- and someone correct me
if I'm wrong -- Windows uninstall doesn't decide what to remove
and what

Sorry -- lousy proofreading on my part.

 

[Stan Brown]

I've never ever had a problem with registry cleaners. OTOH, I have had
problems with left-over and out-dated keys.

I'm curious. Can you tell us specifically of any problem you have
had in the operation of Windows or any application program that was
traceable to "left-over and outdated keys"?

I'd be very much surprised if the answer is yes. I have never, in
all the time I've been using Windows 3 and later, seen a case where a
left-behind registry key was a problem.

And that is why registry "cleaners" are snake oil: they try to sell
you on solving a problem that isn't actually a problem. So they
can't possibly make things better -- and that's the best case. The
worst case is that they remove or alter something they shouldn't
have, and create a problem where there wasn't one before.

 

[Stan Brown]

In message <KB%[email protected]>, Wolf K

I'm glad to read the above. It's the first time I've read any personal,
rather than hearsay, report of problems caused by _not_ cleaning the
registry.

Read it again, John. He didn't say there was a problem fixed by
"registry cleaners" -- he said there were keys left behind. While
that's undoubtedly true, by the way the Registry is constructed those
are not a problem, except in the minds of people who are being sold
snake oil.

(Though of course the hordes will say that registry cleaners
are not the way to clean the registry.)

Actually, no. We say there is no need to "clean the registry", so
the question of the best way to do it does not arise.

It'd be interesting to read what problems you have had with such
debris.

Precisely. And I doubt mightily that he has had any such problem.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Good grief! The first two lines should have been:

Just a note: As I understand things -- and someone correct me
if I'm wrong -- Windows uninstall doesn't decide what to remove
and what

Sorry -- lousy proofreading on my part.

It's just as well you didn't ask me to proofread for you - I read it as
"remove" in the first post

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

In message <[email protected]>, Wolf K
[]
download. Revo cleans the registry of all the keys associated with the
program you're deleting.
[]
How (does it know which ones to remove)?

You install the program using Revo monitoring. It tracks the
changes made during the installation. When you want to uninstall, it
reverses this. There are probably other details I am missing here.

[]
Ah, so it only does it for things that were installed after it was (and
only if they were done with it watching, though maybe it defaults to
doing so all the time). Thanks for explaining.

Not so.

Revo finds & removes Registry keys even when you don't set it to monitor
installations. I'm not even sure the free version *can* monitor the
installation process.

Maybe in the latter case it would find more, but I have used it without
ever monitoring installations, and it has found and removed plenty of
Registry entries.

I've also used IObits the same way with similar results.

Maybe these programs do automatically what I have done manually.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2012 00:50:00 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"

In message <[email protected]>, Wolf K
[]
download. Revo cleans the registry of all the keys associated with the
program you're deleting.
[]
How (does it know which ones to remove)?

You install the program using Revo monitoring. It tracks the
changes made during the installation. When you want to uninstall, it
reverses this. There are probably other details I am missing here.

[]
Ah, so it only does it for things that were installed after it was (and
only if they were done with it watching, though maybe it defaults to
doing so all the time). Thanks for explaining.

Not so.

Revo finds & removes Registry keys even when you don't set it to monitor
installations. I'm not even sure the free version *can* monitor the
installation process.

Maybe in the latter case it would find more, but I have used it without
ever monitoring installations, and it has found and removed plenty of
Registry entries.

I've also used IObits the same way with similar results.

Maybe these programs do automatically what I have done manually.

Sorry for the redundancy - I neglected to read the other posts first.

Or I guess you could just take my post as a +1.

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2012 15:47:12 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"

[snip]

Revo finds & removes Registry keys even when you don't set it to monitor
installations. I'm not even sure the free version *can* monitor the
installation process.

It can. I have used it.

[snip]

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

In message <[email protected]>, Wolf K
[]
download. Revo cleans the registry of all the keys associated with the
program you're deleting.
[]
How (does it know which ones to remove)?

You install the program using Revo monitoring. It tracks the
changes made during the installation. When you want to uninstall, it
reverses this. There are probably other details I am missing here.

[]
Ah, so it only does it for things that were installed after it was (and
only if they were done with it watching, though maybe it defaults to
doing so all the time). Thanks for explaining.

No, you have to specify that it watch. You are advised not to do
anything else with your system while the installation is occurring.
Presumably, any other registry changes would also be undone if you
uninstalled through Revo.

It can also deal with software not installed through it. THis is
more problematic though.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

I'm curious. Can you tell us specifically of any problem you have
had in the operation of Windows or any application program that was
traceable to "left-over and outdated keys"?

Yes, but only one.

Office 97 had a nasty little bug. If you installed it to run off
CD and then changed your mind, even uninstalling did not get rid of
the registry entries. Install it again to have it run off the hard
drive, and for whatever reason, those previous registry entries were
still in force.

[snip]

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[mechanic]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2012 15:47:12 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"

[snip]

Revo finds & removes Registry keys even when you don't set it to
monitor installations. I'm not even sure the free version *can*
monitor the installation process.

It can. I have used it.

What tests did you do to verify this?

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2012 15:47:12 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"

[snip]

Revo finds & removes Registry keys even when you don't set it to
monitor installations. I'm not even sure the free version *can*
monitor the installation process.

It can. I have used it.

What tests did you do to verify this?

I did some uninstallations. It seemed to work. The only thing
that I had trouble with was SQL Server 2008 Express, but that one has
issues about installs.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2012 15:47:12 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"

[snip]

Revo finds & removes Registry keys even when you don't set it to monitor
installations. I'm not even sure the free version *can* monitor the
installation process.

It can. I have used it.

If you look here,
http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html

you can see a feature comparison table.

The table shows that the feature "Real-Time monitoring of system changes
- during install of programs" exists in the paid (Pro) version only.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, Gene Wirchenko

You install the program using Revo monitoring. It tracks the
changes made during the installation. When you want to uninstall, it
reverses this. There are probably other details I am missing here.

[]
Ah, so it only does it for things that were installed after it was (and
only if they were done with it watching, though maybe it defaults to
doing so all the time). Thanks for explaining.

Not so.

Revo finds & removes Registry keys even when you don't set it to monitor
installations. I'm not even sure the free version *can* monitor the
installation process.

Maybe in the latter case it would find more, but I have used it without
ever monitoring installations, and it has found and removed plenty of
Registry entries.

How does it know what to remove?