Windows Registry Clean Utility?

[mark4man]

People,

On my box at home, I have Norton System Works, which contains a registry diagnostic/sweeper.

At work, where I run Windows 2000 Pro, I was wondering...I know there are various registry diagnostic & cleaner utilities out there on the web, but I thought I had heard that Windows itself either includes one on the OS disc or makes one available for download.

Is there such a thing as an official Windows Registry utility?

If so...how do I get it?

Thanks,

mark4man

[KenGr]

I use RegClean. It is written by Microsoft but no longer supported.

You can get it here:
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,4666,00.asp

[mark4man]

KenGR,

Thanks,

mark4man

[alex666]

Regclean was for win98. I read somewhere that it works with XP to some extent, and it tends to be fairly benign.

I've been using registry first aid now for about 6 months and love it. I'd always been wary of these sorts of programs, but on a hunch I tried rfa and I've had luck with it now on 3 different machines. At the very least, I've learned how many registry entries are created in simple day to day computing.

marty

[jabarnutcase]

I occasionally use "RegSeeker" and like it a lot. Nice looking interface but not much documentation.

http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

Keep in mind that cleaning out the registry is a lot like sweeping out one parking space in a parking lot the size of Montana.

A good basic working knowledge of the registry is really better than just "cleaning" for the sake of cleaning.

Often a tweak here and there or a little manual cleanup after removing a pest of a Program is necessary, but you need to always have a good back-up and be fully aware of just what it is you are "cleaning" out. ;)

Tweaking the registry improperly can leave you with a computer that won't Boot at all, so just be careful.

[Donn]

RegSeeker is good because it makes a back up before it deletes, there is a check box for that, lower left, and because you can look at each item it finds and it will tell you whether it is a . . .

'Open with" entry unused

Invalid (type) entry

File Path does not exist

.stf (or whatever) extension not used

so you know exactly what it is picking out. I'm using it also just before Defrag.

Edit:

Actually your NSW reg cleaner is pertty good, that's about all that I would say is good about NSW as a whole. It is a resource hog, and Norton Utilities--particularly Clean Sweep-- are famous (voice 'o' experience here) for interferring with downloads, even if you disable it. I wound up having to uninstall (not just disable--uninstall) the Utilities when I did a download, and never renewed when it ran out because of that. Others may have a different experience--I'm Win Me.

Of course, after download, before you click that "Install" icon--, log off the net first, then disable NAV (rt click task bar icon), ctrl-alt-delete to end task it in Close Programs, and then click the install icon. Then reboot and it all comes back up.