(Approx. 2,251 words)

My Registry Adventures
Written by Al Gruber, a member of the SouthEastern Michigan Computer Organization, Inc. (SEMCO)
http://www.semco.org 
AlGruber( at )Comcast.net

Suppose you try to delete a file on your Desktop, but instead the system starts to install a program. You furiously click cancel a dozen times, and it stops. So, you try the delete again, and it happens again, and again, even after rebooting. Evidently, some wires are crossed in your computer: the delete key is now assigned to installing a program called ScanSoft PDF Create. That’s what made me delve into the registry. 

By way of background, I’ve had problems with ScanSoft ever since their last upgrade, so I knew enough to demand that they remove their setup program, and hallelujah, that did give me back my delete key. But it made sense to me that this fixed only the symptom. Somewhere in there, the wires were still crossed. And that somewhere must be in the registry. Unfortunately, I didn’t know enough about the registry—and though I know a little more now, I still haven’t fixed the problem. 

To start, I pulled down my copy of Windows XP Registry Guide, (Jerry Honeycutt), which I had always planned to read “one of these days.” It’s a good book, but at over 450 pages, my mind wandered to the registry-cleaning program (System Mechanic 6) I had recently bought from ZoneAlarm. Their general idea is that they scan your computer for errors and then fix them. Not being that trusting, I finally found out how to stop them from making the fixes before I could review and approve them. Then I ran the program. Surprise, they had no proposed fixes. My Registry was perfect!

But I knew that was wrong. As I was following the Honeycutt book and inspecting the registry, I had discovered many out-of-date entries involving the Start > All Programs menu, some for programs I had uninstalled and others perhaps caused by my habit of combining programs under suitable headings. For example, I have a heading called Graphics that holds 10 different graphics-related programs.

When I asked the System Mechanic techie why their program might not find known registry errors, he explained that they must be shared programs, which I could pin down by running System Mechanic in protected mode. I did, and now found a grand total of 1 error. 

I now decided to try some other registry cleaners. Here’s a partial list of the commercial offerings: Error Nuker, Free Registry Fix, PC On Point, RegCure, Registry Fix, RegistryHealer, Registry Mechanic, Registry Medic, System Mechanic. 

Unfortunately, most of these programs give off a bad smell. These are inexpensive programs; most in the range of $20 to $30, but they all try to give the impression that they’re free: e.g., “free download,” “free scan,” but to fix your registry, you must pay. The most egregious is “Free Registry Fix,” which claims on its opening screen: “the world’s only FREE registry cleaning software on the market today.” Their price is $29.95! Mind you, I understand their problem. Since I don’t need registry cleanings very often, I might take my free cleaning without ever buying. But still, it’s a shell game. And frankly, I am reluctant to give them my credit card. (Actually, there are at least 4 genuinely free programs, but they are a bit harder to find: CCleaner, EasyCleaner, RegScrubXp, Eusing Free Registry Cleaner.)

Another point is that the commercial product information is more hard sell than information. “Statistics show that over 93.7% of pc’s have corrupted registries;” “Don’t compromise with second best;” “100% guaranteed.” If there are product differences, and there clearly are, I couldn’t find them in their literature. And of course, their documentation is weak. This was especially disappointing because I was hoping their documentation would give me a clue about my problem. 

These programs all use about the same approach. They offer to scan your registry (Free! Free! Free!). These scans invariably find lots of “dangerous” errors. To fix these, you must register the program, which is when you find out that it isn’t free after all. The programs do give you one or two free fixes. But since all of them find hundreds of errors, you invariably have too many for their free offer. Incidentally, the program that claims to be the only freebie in the universe does give you 50 free fixes, but I don’t think you qualify if you have over 50 errors. 

After the scan, these programs go automatically into their repair phase, unless you have figured out how to opt out, which again took me quite some time. (The problem here is that they never tell you if choosing “fix errors” will still let you back out.)

So, after System Mechanic had said I had an error-free registry, here’s the number of errors I found in the various programs:
Errors Found	#	
CCleaner (really free)	1000*	
EasyCleaner (really free)	251	
Error Nuker	267	
Free Registry Cleaner (really free)	1651	
Free Registry Fix	740	
PC On Point	739	
RegCure	2374	
Registry Fix	714	
Registry Mechanic	430	
Registry Medic	1575	
RegistryHealer	3777	
RegScrubXp (really free)	339	
System Mechanic	0	
* Estimate, no total supplied.		

Now, I knew System Mechanic was wrong when they said I had no errors. But when Registry Healer says 3,777 there must be some grade-inflation going on. After all, my computer boots and runs ok. The ScanSoft problem is a suspicion at this point, not a blue screen emergency. So why should I let Registry Healer repair these errors. I suppose it would speed boot-up and shutdown. Would it actually run faster? The sales pitch says yes, but as I said, I’m not that trusting.

To give you a little more feel, here are the warnings from “Free Registry Fix”: 
274	high severity problems—apps won’t run, system may crash.
121	medium severity—app errors or won’t run.
345	low severity—computer will run slow.

This seems like a good time to tell what little I have found out about the registry. First, it is loaded into memory when the computer starts. The part we are interested in resembles a Rolodex, a list of programs and their addresses. Entries are added when you install a program, and removed when you uninstall. 

Apparently, not all programs uninstall properly; some entries are not removed from the registry—outdated cards left in the Rolodex. This may create a junky registry, but should not automatically cause problems. Another factor is that programs often involve multiple parts, hence multiple entries in the registry. So, if each improperly uninstalled program had 10 parts, the amount of junk might be that much greater. But aside from the wasted time riffling through left-behind cards, no real harm should ensue. Even if you call a contact whose number has been disconnected, all that happens is a no-answer, i.e., the program won’t run because you uninstalled it.

Finally, there are other ways to cause registry junk. If you occasionally reorganize your Start button > All Programs menu, it turns out that old entries are not deleted from the registry. Example: I moved Word from its old category called MsWord to a new one called Microsoft. In terms of the Rolodex analogy, this is like adding a card when a contact changes her name. If she keeps her phone both cards are usable, but the old one becomes superfluous as you switch to using her new name. 

Are we getting any closer to understanding how a group of registry cleaners can be so far apart in the number of errors they find? Hold on. Registry cleaners conduct their scans by problem categories that they describe with names that are suggestive but by no means clear. I think that the differences in their results are caused by which categories they pick, and perhaps how tight their rules are. (Though it seems likely that System Mechanic contains some programming errors.) Here are my guesses as to what their categories mean: 

Typical Registry Errors Categories
The first 5 items below are written into the registry at the time of program installation, but not always fully deleted at un-installation. Many registry cleaners offer to delete the useless left‑behind entries.
1.	Software Locations: At installation, applications enter their location in the registry. 
2.	Controls/ActiveX files/Shared Dlls, Browser Helper Objects: Applications enter the location of their *.dll and *.ocx files in the registry. 
3.	Help Files: Some applications enter the location of their help files in the registry. 
4.	Installers/Add/Remove Programs: Applications enter the location of their install and uninstall programs files in the registry.
5.	Start Menu and Startup (boot up) entries: At installation, applications enter the location of both of these items in the registry.

The following items are written into the registry at various other times. The cleaners check to see if they represent real addresses. If not, they are useless and can be deleted. 
6.	Windows Services: This tells the location of various Windows services.
7.	Windows Fonts and Sounds: These sections tell the location of installed Windows font and sound files.
8.	File Extensions: This lists file extensions (e.g.: *.txt) and tells which if any applications may open them. If an extension lists no programs, or only nonexistent programs, the entry is useless. 
9.	History List: This section is scanned for invalid history files paths.
10.	Invalid Paths and Folders: this section is scanned for any other non‑existent files and folders.
11.	Hardware Drivers

To summarize, I am guessing that looking for somewhat different errors causes cleaners to get different problem counts. This is only a guess because their product descriptions aren’t that specific. Surprisingly, nobody claims to look for more problems than their competitors. I suppose, on these grounds, I should pick Registry Healer because it finds (and fixes) the most errors. 

But then, I must face the question; should I let Registry Healer delete the “problems” it reports, so that my system won’t crash (which it doesn’t do anyway) and will run faster (which I suppose is possible)? I admit that part of my reluctance is fear. Whenever anybody mentions editing the registry, they first warn that you could cripple your computer for life, so back up first. And the registry cleaners themselves, of course, say that their software is not created for any useful legal purpose and that users cannot rely on them working. 

Part of my problem is with the concept of backups. If my computer won’t start after deleting the “problems,” and if I had a backup, and, if I had a boot disk, and, if I could get into restore mode, I should be able to rescue the situation. But with my luck, the computer will start fine. Then three weeks later, some program I haven’t run since the “cleanup” will not run. And three weeks is long enough (for someone with senior moments) that I probably won’t connect it with the cleanup. And if I did, would I want to lose whatever new stuff I had done since then? No!

This brings to the fore one missing feature of all the cleaner programs. My specific problem is a possible registry error involving ScanSoft. But the cleaner programs don’t let me search for ScanSoft errors. They just report what they want to report, and on top of that, they all want to report something different. 

Speaking of features, here are some of the differences I noticed between programs: As you know, the cleaners find and delete calls to missing programs. A couple however, also search for the missing programs, so they can correct the call if they find it. I don’t know how successful this is, but it makes sense to me. Registry Healer is one of these. For the rest, when they say repair, they really mean delete.

Another feature I like, is the ability to send a list of the errors to disk or printer. This caters to my cautious nature; it lets me think about the “problems” before agreeing to delete them. Registry Healer and EasyCleaner both offer this.

Another feature I found useful is that one click takes you from the error to the actual registry entry. Again, this reflects the fact that I was trying to investigate a specific problem, rather than running a housecleaning operation. About half the programs, including Registry Healer, offer this feature. 

Finally, most but not all have some form of online documentation, though most of it is pretty amateurish. Their general rule is to explain the obvious (click scan to do a scan) (click cancel scan to cancel scan) but gloss over the mysterious, such as the purpose and implications of selecting certain registry categories. 

Over the years, I have downloaded many trial versions of small-time programs, usually without knowing exactly what they are supposed to do, and why. If the documentation tells me why they made the program, that’s a big plus in my purchase decision. And if it then explains logically and coherently how it works, I get confidence. If the documentation sounds smart, I believe the program is smart. By contrast, my problem with the registry cleaners is that they do lots of shouting but not much explaining.

Finally, as you know, I still have lots of questions. I am leaning toward Registry Healer, but haven’t bought it yet. E-mail me if you have answers. Who knows, maybe we can do a sequel based on your expertise. 
Al Gruber is a member of SouthEastern Michigan Computer Organization, Inc. (SEMCO).

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.