GaryG,
I bumped into your question - looking for the official MS registry crap
cleaner.

My background: SW Developer since 1979 and freelance consultant.

I agree:
- Most people should NOT muck with there registry

I DO NOT agree:
- "A "bloated registry" does not affect your system performance (except in
your head)"

Windows 98SE, ME, XP SR1-3, Vista all need to have the registry cleaned
under certain circumstances!
Why?
1) Registry Corruption
Installing and uninstalling programs leaves residue in your registry - in
fact MOST well-behaved programs DO NOT clean up after themselves on an
install.
This "crap" - registry entries pointing to non-existent software, etc. DO
slow down windows and in some cases make re-installing software fail. Many
Microsoft Betas software won't even try to uninstall themselves - subjugating
the user to "fix" themselves or deal with “support organizations�...

Aka: My current dilemma, I ran Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 (note had to run
in IE7 compatibility mode because of IE8b1 crashing and failing to display
the web pages that I use – ebay, google groups, …). I received my Explorer 8
Beta 2 notice and decided to replace IE8b1 – however on my HP DV9700T Vista
Home Premium, IE8b2 won’t install because IE8b1 IS installed, Microsoft has
apparently chosen not to give you an installed (sorry long story – but my
point). I have to figure out how to de-install IE8b1 myself. Which unless I
can find an uninstaller will involve:
- removing ie8 software by deletion (harder in VISTA because of the
protections – easier in XP)
- running “ccleaner� or “glary utilities� or whatever free registry cleaner
to remove junk fro registry
- reboot your computer- to make a registry backup so if your computer
crashes you won’t go back to the corrupt registry. This also used to be
easier pre-VISTA – you can just run a command to create the registry backup…

2) Registry Defrag
Reduce the physical size of the registry to optimize performance (this
possibly is what my other esteemed colleges are referring to). I agree that
any performance gains in this arena our “in our heads�. Unfortunately the
utilities to fix are usually called ‘defrag�.

I cite a Microsoft beta however in my experience this will happen and you
need to be able to fix yourself.

Reference:
- Microsoft registry defrag tool (I always thought that they discontinued
because the free registry tools are far superior)
- the one’s I use: ccleaner (free), Uniblue (paid) free to try
- Registry: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986

Recommend:
1. If you don’t have any problems leave well enough alone
2. If you have problems (can’t install a program, unexplained slowness,
crashing)– run Ccleaner to “fix� your registry as part of the process which
is:

Windows Problems do the following (do NOT skip steps, although steps 2 and 3
can be reversed):
1. run disk error check: maybe your disk information is corrupt or your disk
is failing. NOTE: DELL support could not diagnose this problem after 7 hours
on the phone with my sister who called me in tears – my first step.
2. run virus checker.
NOTE: All virus checkers are NOT equal, find one that you trust (AVG is free
for personnel use, reference rootkit revealer also for the Windows Pro)
3. uninstall software that may be there even though you think it should not
be.
NOTE: some websites cannot be trusted, and purposely install annoying or
malicious software (I find this stuff on my kids computers; six toolbars,
autostarting). When the windows uninstaller won’t work use ccleaner tools (or
equivalent) to expunge the offending junk-ware.
4. run spyware check.
NOTE: Superspyware is free for personnel use - to remove any any all
spyware (real time protection disabled)
5. Reboot (once minimum, twice or more if paranoid)

Hope this helps…

H “Ed� Lake Jr
helakejr@gmail.com
--------------------------

"GaryG" wrote:

> Hi,
> I run Windows XP Home SP2. In an attempt to keep a bloated registry from
> affecting system performance, I've been using Registry Repair Pro for a
> couple of years. It repairs/deletes invalid registry entries and defrags the
> registry by doing something to "hives" that I don't think I need to get into.
>
> I haven't caused any obvious registry problems so apparently I've been doing
> this safely (backing up the registry before making changes). I'm trying a new
> app, RegCure, and it seems more effective in cleaning up the registry, but
> doesn't have a defrag function.
>
> Do I need to defrag? Or does simply deleting or correcting invalid/unused
> registry entries also result in a reduction of the total size of the registry
> files?
> --
> Gary