OK, so i posted a bit ago about some problems and got a few things i think straightened out or at least they seemed to work better...

Now, i have (and knew i did) some DLL errors and such. I did a scan with RegCure to see what was up and it found 184 errors!!! YIKES! The thing is you cant fix them until you register and pay the fee, so im wondering if there is some place that you cand do this for free?

Im running Windows ME. Thanks so much
Kelly

Well Kelly I treading on thin ice for what I'm about to say. This forum doesn't like any mension of registry checkers/editors. I've been using RegClean for about 10 years and CCleaner for 2 years and there registry cleaner works perfect and doesn't cost anything, do a web search. Other than that you pay RegCure to use their program, the choice is yours.

Sorry, lol! I guess i didnt realize that! Forget i asked!!! Thanks!

Yes you are. However, lets be completely accurate about why we here at Bleeping Computer avoid recommending Registry Cleaners. Registry cleaners are a high risk, low reward tool in the hands of those who are not knowledgeable about the workings of registries. If they are to be recommended the one posting about them is 'strongly encouraged' to post warnings about possible damage and rendering the computer inoperable. As well as mentioning that use of a registry tool should ALWAYS be preceded by backing up the registry before proceeding. Which you often neglect to do. And which I have advised you to mention in your repeated advocacy of registry tools.

Couple of thoughts by way of postscript (and maybe raise a few eyebrows!):

(1) Assuming what you did was a full registry scan, and this was the first time, 184 is a surprisingly low number and implies a healthy registry.
(2) If you do decide to carry out registry scans, you may as well run at least two or three different scanners each time to get a proper cleaning job. This is because they search by widely different parameters, and find surprisingly few hits in common. Just before writing this, I ran 5 programs on my pc and found 379 redundant entries, only 140 of which were detected by more than one program!
(3) Don't use just any old shareware or freeware. Stick with professional-grade scanners which are written for a corporate market but free for personal use (eg Advanced Windows Care, or Glary Utilities).
(4) Do not use any options which offer to "optimise" your modem settings, "dramatically cut" bootup time, etc. These really can be dangerous.

(If your problems really relate to missing DLL files, and you know which ones they are, you can download free replacements from www.dlldll.com).

I respect the forum's views in the matter, but I think registry cleaning does have a value. Not by removing bloat, as is so often claimed - redundant entries seldom or never exceed 1% of the total anyway - but by removing the occasional toxic entry which might be preventing clean shutdowns, provoking spurious error messages, or worse.

Let me throw in that I have seen several systems destroyed by that particular program (RegCure).... it might not be such a good idea to use it.

In this respect I agree with Animal

Billy3

Hello, alan1000


That's not how registry cleaners operate. Registry cleaners typically only remove "orphaned" entries from the registry. Such entries don't do anything at all. The "Occasional toxic entry" is not going to be affected by registry cleaners. Also, how does such an entry get there in the first place?

Billy3

If you respect the forum's view of registry cleaners, then we should not be seeing a post such as the one you just posted
Seeing how the OP has not responded in a few weeks, this topic is closed. If the OP wants it reopened, they can PM a moderator