"REGSHOT" 2 questions re: new installs?

[mrlewp]

I often use "RegShot" to monitor changes to regsitry following a new program install. Curious to see items / values deleted?

Aside from that....If I uninstall an app. , can I feel safe to then go into registry and delete the trainloads of added items added?. Prime example would be all the CLSID items, which I would never identify as pertaining to removed program since there is no name to in the data/value fields.

Wont even get into the "values changed" question. (tells me registry key existed already , but was altered?)

 

[Inaris]

ok, on the CLSID thing, it's a location for COM registration. It's houses the inforamtion for shared DLL and files. Don't delete anythign from there. You risk the chance of screwing up something. The information is loaded so that you don't delete a file by acident that is needed by another application. It's called reference counting and is very important in MSI based installers. They will remove the reference when the application is removed, but as long as the value existed before hand it won't delete it.
You best bet is to simply leave the registry stuff behind.
I find it funny that people thing it will help speed up their machine by removing a few little entries in the registry. It's really not going to help you unless you have a corrupt hive.
anyway, values in HKLM\software\classes and HKCR shouldn't be messed with unless you know what you are doing. trust me on this, it's part of what I do for my job, so I know a little about it.

Good luck...

 

[mrlewp]

If I can brain-pic just a bit more , then:
Since you mentioned "hives", there is at least one utility out there that supposedly de-frags the registry......fewer hives in the end, I think. Safe or not? Useful?

>New area: File associations. CCleaner points to a bunch of unused file types. If I were to get rid of some of them, of what harm would that do. (just have to re-direct a file to an app. later on , perhaps?) I think these are left-overs from un-installs.