Thread: "registry" what is it and what does it do?

Originally Posted by El Gibbon

Where did all these "errors" come from and what to do next?

From program that created entires in the registry but didn't remove them when you uninstalled the program.
Or you removing program without using the uninstall feature.
Or you removing folders (often empty folders) or files which looks like they are not in use, but which are registered in the registry.

There is not very much to gain by clearing those registry errors so keep it as it is, the chance is that you make it worser if you don't know what you are doing.
I don't trust any of the registry cleaner programs I've seen to run in automatic mode.

I never understood why the designers of Windows decided to put all their eggs in one basket....

Install and run TuneUp 2007

It will fix all those errors.
I have been using it every week since TuneUp 2005 and never had a problem with it.

Originally Posted by buad hai

I never understood why the designers of Windows decided to put all their eggs in one basket....

It's the same (more or less) in OSX now. I remember the days of when a corrupt desktop folder in System 6-7-8 would hose an install of the MacOS as well.

The less stuff you install/uninstall the happier the Windows registry performs. It's really more to blame on lazy developers that don't uninstall all the crap that their programs install (not implying that the Windows doesn't just crap on itself once in awhile for no good reason).

Originally Posted by surasak

It's the same (more or less) in OSX now. I remember the days of when a corrupt desktop folder in System 6-7-8 would hose an install of the MacOS as well.

What's the equivalent of the registry in OSX?

I believe if you combine the .plist files along with the various UNIX permissions files it approaches the same. Have to look it all up again to explain it better.

I guess that's what I meant by "one basket". In Windows everything goes in one file, in OS/X each program and each category of setting has it's own .plst file.

So, to answer th OP's question in a more technical way:
The registry is a database of information important to the system (actually 3 databases) and index files to search quickly in the databases.

Microsoft is providing system functions for reading and writing to these databases so a lot of lazy programmers prefer to record user settings in the registry instead of in a .ini or .xml file in the programs folder.

It must be very important for other programs to know that in program A , the user preferred cyan colour on a button...

Anyway, it's not as bad as many people, Frankie included, wants you to believe. These indexed databases usually stays below 1Mb and the time it takes for a program to search for an item is negligible.
There is much much more to gain in response time by running a good and reliable disk defragmenter once monthly..

Originally Posted by buad hai

I guess that's what I meant by "one basket". In Windows everything goes in one file, in OS/X each program and each category of setting has it's own .plst file.

The danger here, though, is that a corrupt PLIST can cause issues with stuff totally unrelated to it.

Of course, just as with Windows, there are utilities to help with these issues:

Jon Nathan Software - Preferential Treatment

Many thanks to all of you folks. Now I'm only slightly less an IdJiot.

I did the 'fix' thingy and lordy lordy was my machine flocked or what. Even lost my music, (all sound actually even the windows chimes)...

All those "errors" can stay there for all I care now. Luckily the program had an automatic backup that I corrected to.

I do run a defrag quite often along with an optimizer that works pretty well. This ole laptop is getting abused considerably... BTW I'm a great fan of Toshiba laptops, or I was that is. This latest one is shit. Bad disk and bad monitor board that I can't find in Bangers... not at the same time but none-the-less Toshiba's rep for being tough and rugged has taken a major hit with me. This is my third machine since 2000, the first two were given away when I upgraded. Never again.

E. G.