Registry First Aid fixes possible registry errors.
Not long after Christmas, I downloaded version 5.0.2 from the Internet and ran it. Its claim to fame is that it will check the registry for errors, defragment the registry, take snapshots, create a full registry backup, restore the registry from a full backup, and restore from a .reg backup file. Did you want to know from where one can download it? Google search will help.
Does it work? You bet!
You're presented with the opening screen:
Since installation I've let it have its way without much user intervention, but I do a full system scan once each week. Each time I've done that, it finds items. I run it live fairly regularly.
Today it found the following:
| Invalid Paths | 16 of 21 |
| Invalid File Associations | 0 of 0 |
| Invalid Fonts | 0 of 0 |
| Obsolete Start Menu Items | 0 of 0 |
| Invalid Application Paths Selected | 1 of 2 |
| Invalid Help Files | 0 of 0 |
| Auto Run Programs | 0 of 17 |
| Unused Software Entries | 3 of 3 |
| Invalid Known DLLs | 0 of 0 |
The choices one is presented with are on this screen:
I didn't notice that I can scan ALL the user registry files until I began writing this article, so it's off to do the whole thing.
I'll soon be left with a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Given current weather, warm is probably not a good choice of words...
I was slightly amused to be presented with the message that Google Desktop Search had no useful data. I wonder what it might have told me about Symantec / Norton. An application with an opinion! What next?
Trevor Frew 13 Jan 2007
Free Registry Cleaner:
If you don't have sufficient funds, you might try Eusing for free:
Home Page: http://www.eusing.com/
Program description; download v 1.1 (2006-07-17) [ EFRCSetup.exe (860 KB)] http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm (desc. rev.: 2006-10-03)
It seems from the description that it's dated 3 October 2006.
