How do I use regclean to keep my registry clean?

I currently run Windows 98. Previously, under Windows 95, I periodically ran Microsoft's RegClean to help keep the Registry cleaned up. My question is, is it safe to run under Windows 98 and does it clean up items that Win98's Registry Checker does not? Thank you in advance for your help

This question was answered on July 14, 1999. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

---

This information was found on the microsoft web site:

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 98

When you install, uninstall, and reinstall programs on your computer, registry keys are created, modified, or deleted Over time, your computer's registry may begin to contain corrupted, unused, and unnecessary registry keys, especially if keys are not removed when you uninstall a program As a result, you may begin to experience problems when using OLE to embed objects or Automation to control other programs.

The RegClean utility is designed to clean up unnecessary registry entries in your registry.

The RegClean utility that was originally supplied with Microsoft Visual Basic, version 4.0 for Windows The Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit has been updated The current version is 4.1a

MORE INFORMATION

How To Install RegClean

Copy version 4.1a build 7364.1 of RegClean.exe to any folder on your machine

How To Run RegClean

Double-click the RegClean icon RegClean displays a progress dialog box While the progress dialog box is shown, RegClean loads a copy of the parts of the registry that it is going to check and then performs the actual scanning Depending on how much information is in the registry and the speed of your CPU, this will take anywhere from about 30 seconds to 30 minutes.

If you have many entries in your registry, sometimes RegClean might appear to have stopped working In fact, RegClean might appear completely halted whenever it is checking remote or removable drives.

Once these progress meters have disappeared, you will be prompted for the next action You can do two things at this point:

Exit RegClean If RegClean did not find any errors in your registry or if you do not want RegClean to fix the errors that it found, click Cancel

Allow RegClean to fix the errors that it found Click Fix Errors to prompt RegClean to remove the entries containing errors that RegClean found in the registry A progress meter is displayed while RegClean does this Sometimes the progress meter stops momentarily, but it should resume after a few seconds When the meter is gone, RegClean is done Click Exit to end RegClean

Clicking Fix Errors also creates an Undo.reg file in the folder where you ran RegClean The file will have the following title:

UNDO computer yyyymmddhhmmss.REG

where computer is the name of your computer, yyyymmdd is the date, and hhmmss is the time If at any point you would like to "undo" or put back what RegClean removed from your registry, double-click the Undo.reg file

The RegClean utility is available for downloading free of charge from the Microsoft Software Library:

~ RegClean.exe

What RegClean Does

RegClean analyzes Windows Registry keys that are stored in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT in the Windows Registry It finds keys that contain erroneous values, and after recording those entries in an Undo.reg file, it removes them from the Windows Registry

What RegClean Does Not Do

RegClean does not fix every known problem with the registry It does not fix a "corrupt" registry; it is limited to fixing problems with normal Windows Registry entries located in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

It is very possible that RegClean will not correct a problem that you have encountered RegClean will leave any entries in the registry that it does not understand or that could possibly be correct

Hope you find this information useful.

About the author

Posted by Ken Colburn of Data Doctors on July 14, 1999

Need Help with this Issue?

We help people with technology! It's what we do.
Contact or Schedule an Appointment with a location for help!