[LarryCore]

The method below worked wonders for me - it cut out over a megabyte from my SYSTEM.DAT file and almost 150K from my USER.DAT file. I wish I knew who had written in, but I don't. I picked it up a while ago...

If someone knows where it came from, let us know so proper credit can be given.
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This method is virtually foolproof for cleaning the registry, without the dreaded crashes associated with editing it.
Follow the instructions exactly!
Beware, this may take some hours to complete, depending on fragmentation of your HD, size of your vcache, size of HD, number of programs you have.

Shut down everything in the taskbar.
Do a thorough scandisk.
Do a thorough defrag.
Copy SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT to your root C: drive. (they're in
the c:\windows directory)
START > RUN > REGEDIT.EXE
Select REGISTRY > EXPORT REGISTRY
At the flashing cursor, type: C:\TEMP.REG and hit Enter.
START > SHUTDOWN > RESTART in DOS MODE
At the C:\Windows prompt, type: REGEDIT /C C:\TEMP.REG
Wait several hours.
When it completes, type EXIT to return to windows.

Remember this could take several hours to complete. Even if it seems to
hang, leave it and walk away, it will work.
It seems to hang around 20%, and again at about 80%, this is normal, and
it will continue!

Providing your system does not overheat, and crash, it will work.

When it's done, compare the size of your old user.dat and system.dat files (in root C to the new ones in the C:\windows dir). Remember that this is pure text, and a 2k difference is a lot of data.

If everything is working fine, delete user.dat, system.dat, and temp.reg from the root c dir.

Cheers, and good luck.

p.s. There is no software anywhere that will clean out the registry of invalid references like this method, and this is free!

[Alexiyies]

What are the user.dat and system.dat files for?

My user.dat file is 445k, my system.dat is 2.5 megs...

[LarryCore]

They are your Registry. They contain all sorts of information about your hardware and software.

[Ratboy]

Larry,

Could you explain what the "REGEDIT /C C:\TEMP.REG" command does?

How does running the command "REGEDIT /C" on a copy of the registry effect the actual registry?

Just curious.

[LarryCore]

Well, like I said, I didn't write the article...

But, if I understand it correctly /C stands for compress. What it does is take the .REG file that you specify and search through it for references to things that no longer exist. It removes those entries while creating new SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files.

Again, this is just my understanding of the command - I am not 100% sure about this.

The longer you have used windows and the more things you have added/removed, the more bad entries you will have. There was a BIG difference in mine because the machine had been using 95 since 1995 with lots of installs and removals of programs.

[Ari]

I tried it on mine. THANKFULLY it only took about 20 minutes.

System.dat and User.dat went from 4233K/677K to 4073K/649K.

Just for the heck of it I exported another copy of the registry, wierd thing the first one was 4992K and the one I JUST did was up to 4994K.

------------------
To err is human, to really foul things up you need a computer.

[Ratboy]

Thanks for the info Larry. Always good to learn something new.

[LarryCore]

Ari - yeah, that isn't too surprising. The first time through it does a great job - doing it a second time right away is a waste of time, and much like ZIPping a file that is already ZIPped it can add overhead.

[mike private]

Hi, just a couple of extra bits of info re compacting the registry.
It compacts by exporting the registry in its entirety,empty lines where previous settings were,included.
When imported back, it imports only the lines of text/data. (no empty spaces).
1.Run regclean several times (or your prefered regcleaner) prior to compacting to remove unwanted entries.
2.When in real dos mode (F8 | Command Prompt only) type :
Smartdrv (befor typing in regedit commands)
This will speed up the process considerably.
You can add: C+10240 (or any multiple of RAM) :

Smartdrv C+10240 (if C is your windows drive)

3.Reimporting the compacted file in DOS can sometimes cause an error if it is too large for avaible conventional memory. (Article Q132064 at MS.)
4.Also win95 and win95a, should have an updated version of REGEDIT.exe ver 4.00.111 .
This is win95b version. This updated version can stop a possible crash on importing.
(I have 95b and have no errors.)
You may have to do an FTP search at MS for it.
6.In win 95 or 95a , move the old regedit.exe
from the windows folder and move the new regedit.exe in.
Restart | F8 | Command Prompt only and type

SETVER REGEDIT.EXE 7.10

Restart computer, and you are ready to regclean,smartdrv and compact.

I got a good tip from here last week,so I thought I should put one back,before someone misses it.
HIH,cheers.

[Kristi]

Larry,

I'm not sure where you found this tip, but it was posted on PC Mechanic University web site on 9-15-99 by "Computer Professor" and was nominated and added to their hall of fame. This is a direct quote by Computer Professor:

"Here's the credit I promised.
This process is due to the hard work of Shane Chen, whose web page is no longer available."

Kristi

[LarryCore]

mike private - good additions that make perfect sense.

Kristi - Thanks! It was PC Mechanic! I couldn't for the life of me remember where it had come from.

And Shane, if you are out there somewhere THANK YOU!

[Wishing Bubble]

Thanks Larry

Your advice about "cleaning the registry with stuff I already have," was great. I follwed your instructions to the letter and benefited from a difference in the user.dat of 88kb and in the system.dat of 136kb.

But I do have one question. What I would like to know is why do I still have folders listed in the registry (seemingly empty ones at that) that relate to software that I have deleted many moons ago, also I still have odd references to programs in the add/remove dialogue box that I can't delete.
Can you please advise? I know it may only be nip-picking but it irritates the hell out of me. *grins!
Your further advice would be greatly appreciated.

[PC_DISK1]

Is there something like this for NT\2000?