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Greetings and WELCOME to another Computer Clinic. Part
of keeping your computer healthy is to clean up the junk that accumulates.
From previous Clinics you already know how to clean up out-dated
e-mails and how to get rid of an astonishing amount of junk files
using the excellent Disk Cleaner (all this in Clinic
15) You also know how to get rid of Spyware (Clinic
17)
Now
it's time to learn how to clean up the Registry.
THE REGISTRY
is the "brains" of your PC. And, like the brain, it contains
thousands of "codes and instructions" that influence virtually
every aspect of your PC and all the programs on it.
The Registry
can accumulate "junk" - cleaning out the Registry can
lead to your computer running better and faster - even having less
"crashes" and freeze-ups
Later on, you can download the FREE Reg Cleaner
program. But first, this is how to install and use it correctly.
DOWNLOAD
AND INSTALL REG CLEANER
- As
always, create a special sub-folder under your main "Downloads"
folder. Call it ... Reg Cleaner. For those of you who need reminding,
full details on how to create special folders and download correctly
INTO these folders can be found in Clinics
4 and 5
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When ready, click the link (at the end of this Clinic) and download
the Reg Cleaner program.
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Download this into the new sub-folder you created.
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When ready to install, close down all running programs using
End It All (full details in Clinics 5,
6 and 7)
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Now, go to the Reg Cleaner folder, open it, and double-click
on the file you downloaded - RegCleaner.exe. The following box
appear :
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Leave the setting
as Normal ...
No need to click any
of these ...
Click on Next |
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- The program will install. When complete - REBOOT your
computer.
- When your computer reboots, you will see that Reg Cleaner
has placed a short-cut on your desktop
CONFIGURE
REG CLEANER
- Double-click the RegCleaner shortcut on your desktop.
- Now, click on Options ... Preferences ... Columns ...
Manually Resizel
- Then, click on Options ... Registry Cleanup ... Method
... Manual
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- Now
click Options ... Registry Cleanup ... Backups
... Create only one backup file
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It's
CRITICALLY IMPORTANT
to make sure this option
is ticked ! |
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- Then click
Registry Cleanup ... OLE Cleaner ... Extra Powerful
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Don't worry! If things
are TOO powerful, you
will have made a
backup |
AND
THAT'S IT ! You do NOT need to make these settings again. Each
time you do a Registry Scan, the settings will remain as you configured
them.
THE IGNORE LIST
If
you want to be a little extra careful to start off with, leave
the Ignore List alone. When you want to do a more thorough clean-up,
you can DELETE items from this list.
Q : What has your PC Doctor done with his list ?
A : He's deleted the whole list completely!
 SCAN
YOUR REGISTRY
- After
making the settings as detailed above, you are ready to scan
your registry.
- Click
on Tools ... Registry Cleanup ... Do them All
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Yes!
Go for it !
Click on Do them All. |
The
scan will now take place and you can see the progress :
Click
on Close when scan completes |
You can see the
progress of the scan
When the scan has completed
the Close button will "light up" |
- You can now see the full list of registry items that RegCleaner
believes to be redundant!
- You can manually resize the columns by holding your mouse
over the dividing lines
- When the mouse cursor turns to a double-pointing arrow,
"drag" the column to the right
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You
can resize all the
columns manually |
- You can EITHER tick each item you want removed OR click
on Select ... All
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Clicking
Select ... All will
highlight (select) all the registry
items in the list |
AND FINALLY ... when the items that you want removed are selected
... look at the bottom, right of the RegCleaner screen and
click on the REMOVE SELECTED
button.
When all the items have been removed, click CLOSE.
And that's it. A cleaner, and hopefully faster and problem-free
Registry!
HOW TO RESTORE IF THERE ARE PROBLEMS
In
most cases, everything should be fine. BUT, if you notice problems
with your PC, or programs not working right after using RegCleaner,
you can easily restore your Registry to the way it was just
BEFORE you did your clean up.
- Open
up Windows Explorer
- Navigate
to this folder : C:\Program Files\RegCleaner\Backups
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This
is in the LEFT panel of
Windows Explorer
Left-click just ONCE on the
Backups folder |
- Left-click
only once on the Backups folder.
- Now,
on the right side of Windows Explorer, you will see your backups.
- NOTE
: There are DATA files (.dat) and REGISTRY files (.reg)
- Also
note that these are usually NOT in Alphabetical order. SO
...
- Look
for the date of the most recent Registry Cleanup you
did :
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Look
for the most recent
date. In this case it is the
27th March, 2002
(27.03.02)
You want the .reg file
(Not the .dat file) |
AND NOW ... DOUBLE-CLICK ON THE MOST RECENT
.REG FILE
You will
be asked if you want to add this information to the registry?
Click on YES.
Now ... REBOOT YOUR COMPUTER.
And hopefully, all will be fine again.
Before
you download RegCleaner ... a question :
How often should one clean out the Registry? Your PC Doctor advises
a regular visit to the Registry Clinic about once a month. However,
if you have just uninstalled a large program, RegCleaner can get
rid of a lot of the junk that "Add/Remove" programs
often leaves behind!
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RIGHT
... do you understand ALL the above ???
Ready to download ???
Connect to the internet and click this link :
www.jv16.org
When
you get to the home page, look at the TOP, LEFT
under "My Programs" and click "RegCleaner"
When you get to that page, you can read more about RegCleaner.
Now, look at the bottom of the page and click the link
which says : "RegCleaner WITH INSTALLER"
File downloaded will be called "RegCleaner.exe"
PLEASE
NOTE : RegCleaner is a more powerful and thorough program
than Microsoft's "Reg Clean"
Go for it ... and good luck!
Thank you for joining me at my Clinic.
Take care ... Happy and HEALTHY Computing!
Dr. Mac |
Dr. Mac's Computer Clinic
LIBRARY
All
the Computer Clinics that have appeared on the idf50
web-site are HERE
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