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Why does the registry store unimportant file locations



 
 
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  #11  
Old March 8th 12, 10:33 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
Bill in Co
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 701
Default Why does the registry store unimportant file locations

Lostgallifreyan wrote:
"Bill in Co" wrote in
m:

Yes, but that's you. :-)
For those who are unaware, it's best to follow those "No Trespassing"
signs posted in regedit, and stay away. :-)



I used to break stuff as a kid. Once you're in (and he's in) there's only
one
way out. Get familiar so you can come and go without breaking stuff.

Think of the registry as like a museum. Imagine fat blue ropes keeping
the
fragile glass cases safe from close approach. Looking is usually harmless,
just got to resist the temptation to touch. Or get a method of reliable
backup/restore. Seriously. it wasn't because I wanted to explore that I
got
Ghost, registry backups, etc. it was because I knew there'd be times when
I
didn't, and just wanted a safe way to go. Either way, not looking makes no
sense. We might see stuff that scares us but we won't get bitten in the
arse.


I think some of us techies don't mind playing in there, but I still wouldn't
recommend it for the newbies. Plus we all have backups, and know how and
when to use them, which is not so for the newbies. Plus if I remember this
thread right, the OP was only talking about removing some leftover (and
harmless) spurious entries, which have no impact anyway. (yes, I know there
are exceptions to that, but they are the exceptions).


  #12  
Old March 8th 12, 11:38 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
Lostgallifreyan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,562
Default Why does the registry store unimportant file locations

"Bill in Co" wrote in
m:

I think some of us techies don't mind playing in there, but I still
wouldn't recommend it for the newbies. Plus we all have backups, and
know how and when to use them, which is not so for the newbies. Plus if
I remember this thread right, the OP was only talking about removing
some leftover (and harmless) spurious entries, which have no impact
anyway. (yes, I know there are exceptions to that, but they are the
exceptions).




He's in there. No stopping him. So what do we do? Stand and watch him
sink, or throw him a float? One thing's for sure, if he didn't want to be
in there, he wouldn't be. The suggestions I made would not arise in a case
where someone was totally unfamiliar, and showed no signs of going in for any
reason.

I'd still recommend Ghost in that case though, because if they can backup the
whole OS, they'll never have to endure a breakage for long because they will
always have that easy way out, losing nothing but a few recent configs, so
long as they know where their files are.

Re the files, I know a lot of those who are that bew to an OS don't know
where they are. Microsoft hide file extensions and locations, people are
encouraged to imaging the file has no existence outside the program that
handles it! But this is just irresponsible lunacy, making people beleive
that. As kids we don't want to beleive that our food COSTS something, but no-
one would argue that kids should reach adolescense still beleiving that.
  #13  
Old March 9th 12, 01:17 AM posted to microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
Bill in Co
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 701
Default Why does the registry store unimportant file locations

Lostgallifreyan wrote:
"Bill in Co" wrote in
m:

I think some of us techies don't mind playing in there, but I still
wouldn't recommend it for the newbies. Plus we all have backups, and
know how and when to use them, which is not so for the newbies. Plus if
I remember this thread right, the OP was only talking about removing
some leftover (and harmless) spurious entries, which have no impact
anyway. (yes, I know there are exceptions to that, but they are the
exceptions).




He's in there. No stopping him. So what do we do? Stand and watch him
sink, or throw him a float? One thing's for sure, if he didn't want to
be
in there, he wouldn't be. The suggestions I made would not arise in a case
where someone was totally unfamiliar, and showed no signs of going in for
any
reason.


I'd say if he's just going in to remove some spurious entries he doesn't
like seeing, and he's not all that familiar with regedit to begin with, to
skip it. It's not worth the potential risk, IMHO. Removing some traces of
leftover entries isn't a good reason to mess with the registry, UNLESS it is
causing issues, which it isn't. I know what can happen when you don't know
what you're doing in there. :-)

I'd still recommend Ghost in that case though, because if they can backup
the
whole OS, they'll never have to endure a breakage for long because they
will
always have that easy way out, losing nothing but a few recent configs, so
long as they know where their files are.


If he's just messing with the registry, ERUNT might be enough, but a backup
image or clone of C: would probably be the best.

Re the files, I know a lot of those who are that bew to an OS don't know
where they are. Microsoft hide file extensions and locations, people are
encouraged to imaging the file has no existence outside the program that
handles it! But this is just irresponsible lunacy, making people beleive
that. As kids we don't want to beleive that our food COSTS something, but
no-
one would argue that kids should reach adolescense still beleiving that.


The world is full of lunacy. The question becomes, at what point do we
enter Don Quixote land. :-)


  #14  
Old March 9th 12, 01:41 AM posted to microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
Lostgallifreyan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,562
Default Why does the registry store unimportant file locations

"Bill in Co" wrote in
:

I'd say if he's just going in to remove some spurious entries he doesn't
like seeing, and he's not all that familiar with regedit to begin with,
to skip it. It's not worth the potential risk, IMHO. Removing some
traces of leftover entries isn't a good reason to mess with the
registry, UNLESS it is causing issues, which it isn't. I know what can
happen when you don't know what you're doing in there. :-)


I just think he should check back, and post back. He obviously wanted advice,
and got some, but I don't have a clue if it helped or not. We all have a
fairly good idea of what he saw, but we could still be wrong. He's doing
better asking than not, anyway, even if he just asks himself and starts
trawling. Ignorance is fine, but willful ignorance causes more trouble than
anything short of panic and over-reaction (the main reason people advise
againmst going into the registry). He saw something that made him alarmed. I
still want to know if he managed to avoid over-reacting to it.

Judging by various reg cleaners I've seen, I'd rather trust my own judgement.
That's not because I think that judgement is especially good, it's because
reg-cleaners are almost always very bad.
  #15  
Old March 9th 12, 01:49 AM posted to microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
Lostgallifreyan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,562
Default Why does the registry store unimportant file locations

"Hot-Text" wrote in -
privat.org:

I remember my first day as a bull in a Windows-1.0 china shop ..


Nice. I get that feeling whenever I look at compilers and header files...
 




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