Re: Cleaning and maintaining the registry

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance


"NoStop" <nostop@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:h2ree.1234280$6l.364155@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Kerry Brown wrote:
>
>> You are lumping all versions of Windows together. This assumption is not
>
> I'm aware of that and I wasn't lumping all versions together.
>
>> correct. Windows 2000 and XP store the registry in several files (hives).
>> It is rebuilt each time a user logs in. Many of the settings are user
>> specific. That's how group policy is able to work.
>>
>>
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/registry_hives.asp
>>
>> Your other assumption about programming an install routine is
>> theoretically correct but in the real world not that much of a worry,
>> unless of course you are installing Symantec products :-) Most
>> programmers
>> don't like reinventing the wheel and use well known libraries or scripted
>> installers.
>>
> Yes, "most" is the key to whether or not an installation will go correctly
> or not. :-) But I was also talking about storing configurations generally
> into the registry from an application. Not just installing it. The
> programmer can essentially store anything he wants wherever he wants. The
> only benefit I can see of the use of a cryptic registry that doesn't allow
> for helpful comments, like a INI file can provide, is that it's just
> another way to keep everything proprietary and hidden from the user.
> Fulfills the mission of protecting property rights for the big boys I
> guess.
>
>> In the days of Windows 3.x and earlier many people complained about all
>> the .ini files and how hard they were to manage. A common problem was a
>> corrupted or bloated system.ini bringing down the system. I prefer the
>> registry to that solution but that's personal preference. I spend most of
>> my day working on pc's. It's much easier to track down something in the
>> registry than hunt the hard drive for several .ini files and trying to
>> figure out which one has the setting you are looking for. Perhaps if
>
> Something like the /etc directory on a *NIX system, where all
> configuration
> files are stored in plain text would alleviate your concerns, no?
>

I like the /etc idea but the files themselves need to be better documented.
.. I don't know linux well enough but when I have played with it I have found
that it can be very confusing trying to figure out which file out of
hundreds I need to edit. When I do figure it out then sometimes the
switches/commands are not documented that well. It is a great idea, on the
whole better than windows, but with so many programmers thinking their way
is the best it needs some standards, or least better documentation. I'm not
saying Windows programmers do this better. I just wish all programmers and
programs used a standard method or documented why and how they are
different.


>> Microsoft would have forced a common directory and structure for .ini
>> files that would have been a better solution.
>>
> Or forced applications to only be able to write to the registry in some
> sort
> of organized fashion. We're totally at the whim of the programmers as to
> how cryptic their entries in the registry are and I know there is all
> sorts
> of stuff in there that no individual could possibly weed out. I've written
> commercial Windows apps and know what I can do in terms of registry
> entries.
>
>>
>> It's not possible for a generic cleaner program to know what is needed
>> and
>> what isn't. Your last paragraph admits this but you say this is why
>> cleaners are needed. That doesn't make sense to me. Sooner or later it
>
> Please read again. I never suggested cleaners are needed. I can't imagine
> anyone being able to write a cleaner that could possibly parse through the
> registry and figure out what should be removed considering the haphazard
> ability of programmers to write to the registry.
>
>> will screw up and cause more problems that it will ever solve because it
>> deleted some cryptic entry that it didn't understand.
>>
>
> And you and I could just as easily delete a cryptic entry or if uncertain,
> be prone to leave it alone and never really know what impact it has on the
> whole system. That's the fundamental problem with the registry. If
> configuration files are plain text and commented and placed where they can
> all be found, problematic applications can be easily disconnected. Try
> disconnecting within the registry where data can be inserted all over the
> place and sometimes in a very cryptic fashion. The Norton Suite, as you
> point out, is a case in point. It can become a nightmare to administer.
> Others like Real Player can leave so much junk within a system that
> finding
> it all to remove it is a major undertaking and there are other examples
> where this also applies.

Forgot about Real Player. I removed it over a year ago from my personal pc
and I still find the odd entry when I'm looking for something else.

>
>> Kerry
>
> Cheers. Good discussion.
>
> --
>
> ø¤º°`°ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°øø¤º°`°ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°ø
> Windows is *NOT* a virus. Viruses are small and efficient.
> Tired of the insecurity of your Wintendo box? Update to GNU/Linux
> STOP the dummying down of America - Move to a REAL o/s.
>

I guess as long as we have programmers someone will always think they have a
better idea and do things their own way. It is human nature and without it
we would have no innovation. At least it allows some of us who have a small
inkling of how it works to make a living :-)

Kerry


.

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