Re: Windows registry cleanup

[Flash flash@xxxxxxxx]

Jordan wrote:
≪ identifying all the unnecessary files that can
safely be deleted, and removing them. That would be
some other product -- perhaps something akin to Norton
CleanSweep, which I used some years ago. But it was
an "as you go" rather than an after-the-fact sort of
program. It needed to monitor all your installs, in
order to do its best job. The built-in Uninstaller
for W2K or NT already provide some of this
functionality, though they are far from comprehensive.
 There is a lot of accumulated file junk that it does
not track at all.≫
I too have tried the Norton Clean Sweep and found that it still leaves
a good deal of useless stuff on the HD. Norton (Symantec) is also one
of the worst for leaving its own traces on the Registry even after it
has been ostensibly uninstalled.
In fairness to Microsoft, I don't think it is really Windows' fault
that the Reg tends to get cluttered; it is probably more the fault of
sloppy applications programmers who can't be bothered to clean up after
themselves. I have seen very few uninstall routines which actually show
you on screen what they are uninstalling, with complete file names and
paths.
Ultimately, there is probably no substitute for Patricia's method of
familiarizing yourself with your Reg and culling it by hand every so
often. Time-limited free demo software often leaves traces there; this
is to prevent people from re-installing the same demo every time the
previous installation expires. That sort of stuff can certainly be
deleted (by hand, if necessary).
re: NTVDM error message--the Windows event viewer is essential reading
for any Windows user, whether or not you think you are having problems.
You'll be astonished at what all is going on! Even after a clean
re-install of W2K, no apps installed yet, the event viewer may tip you
off to all sorts of anomalies. Just copy-paste the error message from
the event viewer (often the hex value alone is sufficent) into google,
and you can usually find out pretty quickly whether the error is worth
correcting and if so how.