Technical Support? WARNING!!!

Please be forewarned that neither Microsoft or the author of this FAQ is offering end-user technical support on the Registry at this time. Don't waste your breath calling Microsoft Technical Support with questions regarding the Registry, they will REFUSE to offer assistance OF ANY KIND.

YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!

Please save yourself the time and effort, and DO NOT send any e-mail to the author of this FAQ asking for advice concerning technical support issues regarding the Registry and the editing thereof. Any such e-mail will more than likely go unanswered, and will be immediately discarded if it does not use the Keyword REGISTRY in the subject header.

Having said that; I will say that if you insist on venturing into the uncharted waters of the Windows 95 Registry Editor, please have the common sense to do the following before you begin each one of your editing sessions:

Take two formatted 3.5 floppies, and make floppy-based back-ups of the Registry files:

SYSTEM.DAT SYSTEM.DA0 USER.DAT USER.DA0

It is a good idea to update these back-ups immediately preceding each and every Registry editing session. That way, if a problem occurs, you have a safe back-up.

DO NOT USE BACKUP.EXE TO MAKE THESE BACK-UPS!!! Simply copy these files to a floppy directly from Explorer. That way, you can quickly and SAFELY return to the configuration that was last working properly.

If you have the Windows 95 Resource Kit, make sure you have the Configuration Backup installed in your system, and that it is used on a regular basis prior to each editing session.

Lastly, you are completely on your own!

Be careful and best of luck to you!

Enjoy!

After all that why do it???

John Lundy wrote (on cleaning the registry):

I'm very curious. Why do you feel it's necessary to 'clean up' the registry like this? You run the risk of an edit mistake and making the system unbootable or making the system or an app unusable. Unless the registry is causing a problem (and this clutter you refer to is NOT a problem) I would recommend to everyone, "Leave the registry alone!" Period...

Date:    Sat, 21 Dec 1996 21:22:07 +0000
From:    Harondel Sibble <sibble@INFOMATCH.COM>
Subject: Re: REGISTRY

Well, if you're willing to accept mediocore rather than have your system fly, then I guess that's okay....

In otherwords, if you are like me and are continually upgrading/changing hardware/software, you'll typically find that even though the registry is not causing a problem "pe se," it may be impeding the efficiency of your system. Personally I am one of those people who is not willing to put up with second best, or just 'okay' performance. I have found that cleaning up the registry on a regular basis keeps the system running optimally, kinda like a tune up for your car.

Folks, lets face it here, the registry is nothing to be scared/worried about. To go back to the car tuneup analogy.... tuning up ones car/registry is an easy task IF

You have the information/knowledge (much of which is available on this list, and in various publications eg "Windows95 Secrets" by Brian Livingston and Davis Straub (IDG Books), "Windows 95 Registry Troubleshooting" by Rob Tidrow (New Riders Publishing) and many others

You have the right tools (BACKUP!!!!BACKUP!!!BACKUP!!!!use the bat file that was posted previously in this thread, it really works well), you could use M$ configuration backup program, a tape drive what have you. Then use one of the many registry editors out there (NU2.0,M$ Regedit,M$ Policy Editor, plus a host of other sharware and freeware editors.

Now you go and do it and reap the rewards of a clean,smooth running vehicle or computer system...

Personally I encourage people to get used to the registry IF they at least meet the above criteria. Remember when Windows 3.0 and 3.1 first came out? It was the same sort of situation, but then it was the dreaded INI file.... then with the right groundwork and tools and practice many peoiple jumped right in and were quite gratified with the results.

Coolest Quote from Cliff Gregory, on 21 Dec 96 at 17:09

I tell my wife to leave the closets and cupboards alone, but she insists on cleaning them out periodically anyway. I feel the same way about the registry.

Cliff Gregory <cgregory@lrbcg.com>

Conventions used in this FAQ

In the creation of this document, certain abbreviations and symbols are used in place of the long form name. You should have little problem figuring all of this out. However, there are a couple commands which pertain to the mouse and keyboard where I have used an alternate form to save space:

Abbreviation What it means

d.click Double click the mouse

r.click click the right mouse button

shift+click Press the shift while clicking the mouse

shift+r.click Shift and clicking right mouse button

Right-Shift Shift and right mouse again

CTRL+D/r.click Press CTRL, D, and r.mouse all at once

r.mouse Right Mouse button

l.mouse Left Mouse button

keypad Refers to the numeric keypad on the side of the keys, not across the top of them.

ARROW keys These are the directional arrow keys

parent The main window or folder in a group

child The window within a window in a group

Registry Editing Powertip - Quit & Restart Windows in a flash!

Because of the Registry, Windows 95 is extremely methodical about shutting itself down. To make sure that it is done right, the GODS of GUI have even included the "soon to be infamous" Shut Down on the Start Menu. You have to click on the Start button and select Shut Down from the menu.

A dialog box appears, giving the user the choice of either; shutting down completely, restarting the PC, exiting to MS-DOS "mode" or, if you have a network configured, to log on as a different user.

The "restart your PC" option cycles completely through the boot process; self test, memory countdown, anti-virus scanning, CD-ROM drive configuration, well, you get the idea. You may as well go get a cup of coffee, with some systems you actually may have enough time to do so.

Well, fortunately, we have discovered some shortcuts for shutting down Windows quickly:

Hold down the SHIFT key when selecting the OK button to restart your PC, when selecting that choice from the Shut Down dialog.

This next one works even better (and FASTER!):

Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to bring up the Close Program dialog box. In this dialog, select "Explorer" and click on End Task. Explorer is the Windows 95 "Shell" so the system assumes you are trying to quit and displays the Shut Down dialog. Click on NO. Then, another box will pop up, and there you select End Task. This will shut down the Explorer "Shell". But, what actually will happen is you will see your Desktop rebuild itself in a matter of a handful of seconds (literally). Windows 95 cannot properly run without Explorer, so it automatically restarts Explorer, rereading the entire Registry in the process.

So, this last "quickie" you may use especially if you are in the middle of a hot n' heavy Registry editing session, and would rather not waste an eternity waiting for the changes to take effect during all those endless reboots.

Disclaimer

This article and web site listing is provided without any express or implied warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this article, the author, faq maintainers and contributors assume no responsibility for errors or ommissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information herin. This document respects all owners of their repected trademarks and or copyrights, Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT are the sole copyright of Microsoft Corporation and thus belongs to Bill.

Permission is granted freely to distribute this article in electronic form as long as it is posted in its entirety including this copyright statement. This article may not be distributed for financial gain. This article may not be included in any commerical collections or compilations without the express permision of the author, Hans Klarenbeek(hansie@wantree.com.au)

Disclaimer

Copyright Notice ©

Windows95 (Win95-L) FAQ © 1996 PERMISSION: