The point is that a lot of people ask for something to clean the registry once programs are installed. The solution is to use a snapshot tool which takes "pictures" of your registry and disk before and after you install something. Amazing to see the garbage which is written by a lot of programs and left when you uninstall.
Norton has a tool for monitoring registry changes but I recommend 3 freeware : Regshot or Total Uninstall which has an uninstall option or Inctrl5 (from Zdnet) which produces a html report with all modifications.
1) Regshot : 34 Kb (
http://regshot.yeah.net/ ). Reports in HTML format.
2) Total Uninstall : same as Regshot. Has a "Undo" function and a "regedit" look to show new/modified keys. Cares for the SharedDLLs. Reports in txt format. Able to uninstall an application.
http://www.geocities.com/ggmartau/do.../download.html (homepage)
http://www.simtel.net/pub/dl/61416.shtml
3) Inctrl5 :
ftp://ftp.zdnet.com/acq/downloads/pu...ag/inctrl5.zip (780 Kb)
My experience with such tools is that a lot of programs don't uninstall all the keys created and all entries may not be readily apparent.
I use sometimes FlashGet to download and here are some keys found by Inctrl5 during FlashGet installation :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Aureate
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stilesoft\NetCaptor
You see that FlashGet is ADWARE and that they create a key linked to the NetCaptor browser (???). NetCaptor is not installed on my PC and when I remove the key, it comes back the first time I run FlashGet. BTW, the key is hardcoded in the JetCar.exe (the real program name of FlashGet).
I was using MetaEditor (to edit RealPlayer files). After uninstalling, a lot of keys were still present :
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ccrpCommonDialogs.ccrpFileDialog s
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{379DBB0C-1A2D-11D2-B30A-444553540000} and so on
No mention of MetaEditor in the keys or the values !
To be honest, I must say that some applications create keys when you use them for the first time and even later, depending on the options you use. It's maybe interesting to record the second snapshot after a while, not just after installation has ended. So it's very difficult to track everything but with such tools, you have more control on your system and (almost) all the "garbage" left by applications can be wiped.
The best for you is maybe to format and restart from scratch with Windows and then, track everything you install with a snapshot tool. I don't *hate* my Registry but I'm not ready to allow programs to leave garbage in my registry and my disk when I uninstall them.
Even if you have nothing to install, you can try one of this tool. Take the first "picture" when you start Windows and take the second just before the shutdown. You will see a lot of modifications in the registry and in your files. I do it since my last format and I keep the daily reports in an archive, so I know exactly when a key/file has been added/created/removed.
HTH and sorry for the basic English
Pierre.
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