Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support,microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (
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Hi Bruce,
I'm just giving my personal experience. The first time that I ever ran a
registry cleaner, speed difference was quite noticable, and the actual size
of registry files after compacting the registry went down by about 15%. The
computer seemed to boot faster and was definitely snappier. I'm not sure
what test would measure this sort of thing, but it was definitely not
"placebo effect". I'm assuming that the time savings amounts to the smaller
size of the registry resulting in faster searches for info within. If you
know of a test that would be appropriate to measure this, please advise and
I'll glady run it the next time I've done a lot of installing/uninstalling
and feel like cleaning and compacting the registry. I'm not looking to
start a big debate or get into a "show me the test" contest --- just adding
my personal observations.
So, I'll add a few more observatios while I'm here...
I definitely agree with your earlier observation and remarks about the
dangers of registry cleaners. Unless the user knows what is being
changed/deleted and why, it's best left alone. That's why, in general, I
leave the ActiveX portion alone with WinDoctor, since it "finds" a lot of
"errors" and it's usually just not worth the time it would take to trace
them all back and make a decision. Just for the heck of it, and after
backing up the registry first, I went ahead with the default action without
checking each first, and it really messed up the machine. So, if I do
delete an entry in ActiveX, I always trace it back first to make sure that
it is safe.
One exception to leaving ActiveX alone and a potential benefit of registry
cleaners is found when uninstalling. If I'm about to uninstall something, I
run Windoctor and Registry Mechanic FIRST. I then tell them to ignore all
findings in ActiveX and carefully trace out the others and delete what I
find safe. I then uninstall the program(s)/game(s) and rerun Windoctor and
Registry Mechanic. At that point, anything that points off into the void is
likely due to an incomplete uninstall and probably serving no purpose. I
suppose that it might be a result of the uninstall doing a bad job of
pointing a reference back to where it was pre-install, but that's less
likely. When I trace these things out, they really do seem to be useless
MOST of the time, but not always. If I'm feeling brave (and lucky), I then
nuke those entries that appear to be useless. All of this is too much for
the average user and is bordering on too much for me (as a
hobbyist/enthusiast) to handle, which is why when people at work ask me to
recommend a "good" registry cleaner, I first advise them to leave it alone.
If they persist, though, I always steer them to Registry Mechanic, since it
seems to avoid almost all of the ActiveX "findings" that other more
agressive cleaners report. I'm not convinced that the old fashioned way of
doing a manual cleaning of individual programs by going in with Regedit is
better or worse. The plus with the registry cleaners is that they flag what
you should/could be looking at, so you don't have to find it all yourself,
so it becomes a matter of semantics. I suppose that I'm an advocate of
using regedit and only deleting or fixing what you know to be problems --- I
just use the various registry cleaners to "cheat" by marking the entries for
me to look at with Regedit !!!
Another way to get around the registry bloat when there is a lot of
installing/uninstalling going on is to simply do a fresh restore of a basic
working image. I've burned to DVD an image of WinXP with MSOffice Pro 2003
and some specialized programs for work, all with the most recent battery of
patches and updates that are available at the time. I just recently
restored that image and only had to reinstall the current version of
firewall and antivirus, etc, plus the one or two games that I'm currently
playing with my kids (Myst fans). This really is less timeconsuming than it
sounds. If it gets to the point that there are just too many patches to
reapply, then I do another fresh install and base image. Building a base
image can be done a few CD's at a time on a spare partition, while keeping
the active partition intact and running. There are more partition managers,
boot managers, and disk imagers out there than you shake the proverbial
stick at, so I'll avoid mentioning any by name, since the differences are
really minor. I also keep a weekly, rotating, full disk image of all my
computers. I put these on USB2 Hard Disks. I have one dedicated to each
computer, plus one hooked to the wireless LAN/internet connection, with
appropriate password protection, etc. The LAN disk allows everyone to sync
and backup their My Documents folder on a daily basis so that they are
covered in between the weekly image. Of note, it's important to power down
the USB disk dedicated to each machine when not actively doing an image,
since a virus strike could otherwise wipe both your hard drive and the
backup image!!! If the USB disk is powered down, then the image is safe.
But I think that the bottom line is to leave the registry alone unless you
know what you are doing (or like to experiment and have the time on your
hands to fix what you mess up). If you do have the knowledge and time to
trace out and confirm the findings of the various cleaners and only
implement those that you can confirm to be safe, then there appears to be a
speed and stability benefit if you do a lot of installing/uninstalling. (I'm
not sure of how to measure this, though, but in a system that has not been
"maintained", the difference IMHO is so big that you can't miss it). If all
of the checking, confirming, and cleaning is too much technically and
time-wise for the end user, then restoring a working base image, or simply a
manual install from the CDs, every couple of years is likely of benefit.
Windows has come a long way since Win95 and a good install/configuration
will remain stable and usuable for years, but WinXP may benefit from
maintanence every so often, but in a conservative manner.
Thanks.
Regards,
Mark
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