Delete Registry Entries

[mercury]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Dear Sir/Madam:

I have entries in my Windows XP Professional Registry that are no longer
needed. When I try to delete these entries the registry editor will not
allow me to delete the entries.

Is there a way that I can delete/remove these registry entries? Any help
would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Mercury

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

In news:9A63FD73-1D5D-4191-A347-3D569C18DE02@microsoft.com,
Mercury <Mercury@discussions.microsoft.com> typed:

> Dear Sir/Madam:
>
> I have entries in my Windows XP Professional Registry that are
> no
> longer needed. When I try to delete these entries the registry
> editor will not allow me to delete the entries.
>
> Is there a way that I can delete/remove these registry entries?
> Any
> help would be greatly appreciated.


Specifically what are these entries, and why do you think they
are no longer needed?

There's normally no reason to delete unneeded entries, and the
risk of accidentally deleting something you *do* need is usually
greatly than any slim potential benefit you might achieve by
deleting them.

My advice is to delete only things that actively hurt you and
leave alone those you think you don't need.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Hi,

Why do you think they need to be deleted? Whether or not they are used, it
is not usually necessary to delete entries outside of those created by a
virus or other malware. If you are getting an 'access denied' warning, your
account may not have the right level or sufficient privileges to alter that
entry. Right click the key and choose permissions to check.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Mercury" <Mercury@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9A63FD73-1D5D-4191-A347-3D569C18DE02@microsoft.com...
> Dear Sir/Madam:
>
> I have entries in my Windows XP Professional Registry that are no longer
> needed. When I try to delete these entries the registry editor will not
> allow me to delete the entries.
>
> Is there a way that I can delete/remove these registry entries? Any help
> would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mercury

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

> My advice is to delete only things that actively hurt you and
> leave alone those you think you don't need.
>

Are you saying that an occasional registry cleanup is not a good thing? My
understanding is that registries get full of unused entries, e.g. from progs
that have been removed, and that it is as well to keep these down. No?

Rob Graham

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Rob graham" <rttgrahamwow@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:df643b$jdu$1@nwrdmz02.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
>
>> My advice is to delete only things that actively hurt you and
>> leave alone those you think you don't need.
>>
>
> Are you saying that an occasional registry cleanup is not a good thing? My
> understanding is that registries get full of unused entries, e.g. from
> progs that have been removed, and that it is as well to keep these down.
> No?
>
> Rob Graham

More problems are caused by people who delete things that shouldn't be
deleted than by leaving a little clutter around.

If you really know what you're doing, you can certainly delete keys, but
it's also darned easy to get a little click-happy and delete the wrong
thing.

I get an awful lot of calls for help that begin with, "I was cleaning up my
computer..."

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Rob graham wrote:
>
> > My advice is to delete only things that actively hurt you and
> > leave alone those you think you don't need.
>
> Are you saying that an occasional registry cleanup is not a good thing? My
> understanding is that registries get full of unused entries, e.g. from progs
> that have been removed, and that it is as well to keep these down. No?

Personally, I use a registry cleaner to get rid of unused entries every
now and then to keep things organized and tidy. However, I only use them
on customers computers after doing a major tuneup and/or during the
process of ridding a box of malware. I use the most conservative cleaner
and have yet to have a problem in either instance.

Malware, viruses, trojans, spyware and such are harder and harder to get
rid of. For example, one may find that when booting in standard mode the
registry calls malware files that may be created/recreated during boot.
But in safe mode they may not be created so the registry call may fail,
which is good if you then run the cleaner in safe mode to find/delete
the key(s), thus preventing the creation of the nasty in a standard
boot.




--
http://www.bootdisk.com/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

D.Currie wrote:
>
> I get an awful lot of calls for help that begin with, "I was cleaning up my
> computer..."

That's most often when folks delete files and folders tho.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On 2005-09-01, D.Currie <dmbcurrie.nospam@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> "Rob graham" <rttgrahamwow@btinternet.com> wrote in message
> news:df643b$jdu$1@nwrdmz02.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
>>
>>> My advice is to delete only things that actively hurt you and
>>> leave alone those you think you don't need.
>>>
>>
>> Are you saying that an occasional registry cleanup is not a good thing? My
>> understanding is that registries get full of unused entries, e.g. from
>> progs that have been removed, and that it is as well to keep these down.
>> No?
>>
>> Rob Graham
>
> More problems are caused by people who delete things that shouldn't be
> deleted than by leaving a little clutter around.
>
> If you really know what you're doing, you can certainly delete keys, but
> it's also darned easy to get a little click-happy and delete the wrong
> thing.
>
> I get an awful lot of calls for help that begin with, "I was cleaning up my
> computer..."
>
>

Is there unlimited space allocated/to-be-used by/for the registry?

It looks to me that many apps installed stuff onto the "C:"/root
partition even when instructed to install the app in another partition
thereby using more & more of the root partition.

The other theory is that ms expects people to update to a new version
of windows before the registry uses up all space available....

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Plato" <|@|.|> wrote in message
news:4316b499$0$183$bb4e3ad8@newscene.com...
> D.Currie wrote:
>>
>> I get an awful lot of calls for help that begin with, "I was cleaning up
>> my
>> computer..."
>
> That's most often when folks delete files and folders tho.
>

The most infamous being the fellow who decided he didn't know what .dll
files were, and deleted all of them. This being Win98, it let him. Sigh.

Cleaning the registry is one of those things that is fine if the person
doing the cleaning knows what they're doing or can follow very explicit
directions. And it's the sort of thing where one wrong click can render the
computer useless as far as the "normal user" is concerned. So I don't
usually recommend that people muck around in the registry unless they're
reasonably computer savvy, and they're willing to bear the consequences if
they delete the wrong thing.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

He would not be able to delete ALL his dll files in 98. And in XP you can delete the same ones as you can in 98. You can't delete open executables. On any windows system incl 3.1.

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archives/_comment/001075.html
=================================================
"D.Currie" <dmbcurrie.nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:3nov0qF2jv5tU1@individual.net...
>
> "Plato" <|@|.|> wrote in message
> news:4316b499$0$183$bb4e3ad8@newscene.com...
>> D.Currie wrote:
>>>
>>> I get an awful lot of calls for help that begin with, "I was cleaning up
>>> my
>>> computer..."
>>
>> That's most often when folks delete files and folders tho.
>>
>
> The most infamous being the fellow who decided he didn't know what ..dll
> files were, and deleted all of them. This being Win98, it let him. Sigh.
>
> Cleaning the registry is one of those things that is fine if the person
> doing the cleaning knows what they're doing or can follow very explicit
> directions. And it's the sort of thing where one wrong click can render the
> computer useless as far as the "normal user" is concerned. So I don't
> usually recommend that people muck around in the registry unless they're
> reasonably computer savvy, and they're willing to bear the consequences if
> they delete the wrong thing.
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"David Candy" <.> wrote in message
news:evdyKIyrFHA.1788@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
He would not be able to delete ALL his dll files in 98. And in XP you can
delete the same ones as you can in 98. You can't delete open executables. On
any windows system incl 3.1.

I don't know if he deleted all of them, but he deleted enough that it was no
longer bootable. And who knows what else he deleted before he got to the
dlls. All I know is what is told me upon bringing the computer in for
repair, and that was that he found all these .dll files all over the place
and he didn't create them and he never used them for anything, so he dragged
'em all to the recycling bin.

I see a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people, and I forget a lot of
them. But some stick n my mind. That's one.

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archives/_comment/001075.html
=================================================
"D.Currie" <dmbcurrie.nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3nov0qF2jv5tU1@individual.net...
>
> "Plato" <|@|.|> wrote in message
> news:4316b499$0$183$bb4e3ad8@newscene.com...
>> D.Currie wrote:
>>>
>>> I get an awful lot of calls for help that begin with, "I was cleaning up
>>> my
>>> computer..."
>>
>> That's most often when folks delete files and folders tho.
>>
>
> The most infamous being the fellow who decided he didn't know what .dll
> files were, and deleted all of them. This being Win98, it let him. Sigh.
>
> Cleaning the registry is one of those things that is fine if the person
> doing the cleaning knows what they're doing or can follow very explicit
> directions. And it's the sort of thing where one wrong click can render
> the
> computer useless as far as the "normal user" is concerned. So I don't
> usually recommend that people muck around in the registry unless they're
> reasonably computer savvy, and they're willing to bear the consequences if
> they delete the wrong thing.
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

>This being Win98, it let him.

This was the only part i was commenting on.

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archives/_comment/001075.html
=================================================
"D.Currie" <dmbcurrie.nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:3nphdgF2ns8dU1@individual.net...
>
> "David Candy" <.> wrote in message
> news:evdyKIyrFHA.1788@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> He would not be able to delete ALL his dll files in 98. And in XP you can
> delete the same ones as you can in 98. You can't delete open executables. On
> any windows system incl 3.1.
>
> I don't know if he deleted all of them, but he deleted enough that it was no
> longer bootable. And who knows what else he deleted before he got to the
> dlls. All I know is what is told me upon bringing the computer in for
> repair, and that was that he found all these .dll files all over the place
> and he didn't create them and he never used them for anything, so he dragged
> 'em all to the recycling bin.
>
> I see a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people, and I forget a lot of
> them. But some stick n my mind. That's one.
>
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archives/_comment/001075.html
> =================================================
> "D.Currie" <dmbcurrie.nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:3nov0qF2jv5tU1@individual.net...
>>
>> "Plato" <|@|.|> wrote in message
>> news:4316b499$0$183$bb4e3ad8@newscene.com...
>>> D.Currie wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I get an awful lot of calls for help that begin with, "I was cleaning up
>>>> my
>>>> computer..."
>>>
>>> That's most often when folks delete files and folders tho.
>>>
>>
>> The most infamous being the fellow who decided he didn't know what ..dll
>> files were, and deleted all of them. This being Win98, it let him. Sigh.
>>
>> Cleaning the registry is one of those things that is fine if the person
>> doing the cleaning knows what they're doing or can follow very explicit
>> directions. And it's the sort of thing where one wrong click can render
>> the
>> computer useless as far as the "normal user" is concerned. So I don't
>> usually recommend that people muck around in the registry unless they're
>> reasonably computer savvy, and they're willing to bear the consequences if
>> they delete the wrong thing.
>>
>>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"David Candy" <.> wrote in message
news:OEi1l40rFHA.2996@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>This being Win98, it let him.

This was the only part i was commenting on.

Ah. Seems to me Win98 was a little more willing to let you delete system
files than XP, though. That file protection thing that replaces deleted
system files came with XP right? Seems to me I went to some launch event
where that was announced, and there were geeks with tears of joy over that
innovation. Might have been Win2K, but I don't think it was earlier.

<wanders off, muttering...>



--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archives/_comment/001075.html
=================================================
"D.Currie" <dmbcurrie.nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3nphdgF2ns8dU1@individual.net...
>
> "David Candy" <.> wrote in message
> news:evdyKIyrFHA.1788@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> He would not be able to delete ALL his dll files in 98. And in XP you can
> delete the same ones as you can in 98. You can't delete open executables.
> On
> any windows system incl 3.1.
>
> I don't know if he deleted all of them, but he deleted enough that it was
> no
> longer bootable. And who knows what else he deleted before he got to the
> dlls. All I know is what is told me upon bringing the computer in for
> repair, and that was that he found all these .dll files all over the place
> and he didn't create them and he never used them for anything, so he
> dragged
> 'em all to the recycling bin.
>
> I see a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people, and I forget a lot of
> them. But some stick n my mind. That's one.
>
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archives/_comment/001075.html
> =================================================
> "D.Currie" <dmbcurrie.nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:3nov0qF2jv5tU1@individual.net...
>>
>> "Plato" <|@|.|> wrote in message
>> news:4316b499$0$183$bb4e3ad8@newscene.com...
>>> D.Currie wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I get an awful lot of calls for help that begin with, "I was cleaning
>>>> up
>>>> my
>>>> computer..."
>>>
>>> That's most often when folks delete files and folders tho.
>>>
>>
>> The most infamous being the fellow who decided he didn't know what .dll
>> files were, and deleted all of them. This being Win98, it let him. Sigh.
>>
>> Cleaning the registry is one of those things that is fine if the person
>> doing the cleaning knows what they're doing or can follow very explicit
>> directions. And it's the sort of thing where one wrong click can render
>> the
>> computer useless as far as the "normal user" is concerned. So I don't
>> usually recommend that people muck around in the registry unless they're
>> reasonably computer savvy, and they're willing to bear the consequences
>> if
>> they delete the wrong thing.
>>
>>
>
>