Introduction

The registry is a database like system used to store data and system settings in the modern, 32 bit versions of Microsoft Windows. These versions include Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000 and XP. The registry basically contains information and settings
about the hardware and the software installed to the computer, as well as their preferences and settings. 

The registry replaces most of the text-based configuration files used in the age of Windows 3.x and DOS, these files include Autoexec.bat and Config.sys. The registry is common to all modern Windows operating systems, however, there are some
structural differences among them. But thanks to the database like structure of the registry the differences do not usually affect the user or the applications that use the registry.

The physical files that make up the registry

are stored differently depending on your
version of Windows, but that doesn't cause
any problems since the registry cannot be
edited directly (i.e. by opening the files
containing the registry data) but always
using some registry editing program.
Actually, neither any program can directly
edit the registry, only the Windows
operating system core can edit the registry,
this is why the registry is often called a
database since this kind of approach is
widely used with databases.

Structure 

The registry is organized in a hierarchical structure (see the picture on the right), the basic terms are root key, key, entry and
value.

This is what a typical registry entry could look like: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion. 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE is the root key of this registry entry, the root keys always start with "HKEY_" and are usually written in
upper case characters. The structure of the registry isn't, however, case sensitive, in other words "hkey_local_machine" would
mean the same as "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE".

All the common root keys and their tasks are

Root key Purpose

HKEY_CURRENT_USER Contains per-user data, such as user's preferences and settings.

Contains data about all the users of the computer, the data of HKEY_CURRENT_USER can
HKEY_USERS
also be found from here.

Contains information that affects all the users, such as general operating system settings
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
and preferences of installed software.

Contains information for the Windows operating system and to third party applications on
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT how to handle certain file types. For example, instructions to use Notepad to open all text
(.txt) files are found here (by default).

Contains information about the hardware installed to the computer, the way user wishes to
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG
use the hardware and other such settings.

The actual number of available root keys can vary depending on which version of the Windows you are using, but these five
are the most common one and they are currently in the registry of all versions of Windows.

Cleaning the registry

The registry can, by default, be accessed by all the applications which are used in the computer and man applications use the registry to save its settings and other data. However, when the program is removed, either by removing its files or by using its
uninstallation feature some or all the data can be left behind to the registry.

A pretty normal registry contains roughly 100 000 - 200 000 registry entries, the registry of an old computer or the registry of a power user can even have more than 400 000 entries. This shows it is rather impossible to clean the registry manually, instead
a tool such as jv16 PowerTools or RegSupreme must be used.

Questions related to the installation of RegSupreme Pro

Q: What kind of registry entries RegSupreme Pro adds to the registry during the installation?
A: The program doesn't create any registry entries to your registry, it also doesn't modify any existing entries.

Questions related to the general usage

Q: Registry cleaner X scans the registry for ten minutes while RegSupreme Pro analyses the registry only for under a minute. Doesn't this mean that it doesn't go as deep as the other cleaner?
A: Absolutely not. The RegSupreme Pro's incredible speed is the result of its new advanced registry cleaner engine and it does go through the whole registry, not only some parts of it.

Q: Can I ignore some drives from the initial cache creation?

A: Yes you can. Open the Settings.dat with e.g. Notepad, the file is located at the Data folder of RegSupreme Pro, i.e. usually at C:\Program Files\RegSupreme Pro\Data\Settings.dat. And add the following lines at the end of the file:
[DontCacheDrives]
0=

Then add the drives you want to ignore after the "0=", e.g. if you want to ignore the drive C:\ and D:\, the end of your Settings.dat should look like:
[DontCacheDrives]
0=C,D

Q: Registry cleaner X scans for 100.000 entries while RegSupreme Pro says it only analysed 80.000. Doesn't this mean the other registry cleaner looks deeper?
A: No it doesn't mean that. The procedure to scan the registry for invalid entries is very complex and takes many steps. There are many different ways how you can calculate the amount of the analysed registry keys during the scan. The number of
analysed registry keys and entries shown by RegSupreme Pro is only a rough estimate and is only shown to present some information about the progress of the procedure to the user. It cannot be used for any kind of comparisons.

Q: Does the Deep scan option also contain the Normal scan option, i.e. Do I have to run all the scan options for the best performance?
A: No. The deep scan method contains everything from the normal scan, also the extra deep scan method does everything as the deep scan and the normal scan but also looks a bit more deeper to the registry.

Q: With what command line parameter I can automate the registry cleaner?
A: RegSupreme Pro doesn't support any kind of automation features, if you wish to be able to automate the registry cleaning procedure you should usejv16 PowerTools which supports many advanced automation methods.

Q: Are all the found items really safe to remove?

A: They should be. RegSupreme Pro has passed our own most strict safety test with synthetic test data but also real life testing environments, it has also been tested by many highly skilled testers and there hasn't been any serious problems. Of course,
such situations are possible, and in such cases Macecraft Software cannot be held responsible for any kind of damages. See the License Agreement for further details. Do not use the RegSupreme Pro if you do not agree to this policy.

Q: RegSupreme Pro reports many invalid items as "File doesn't exist", however, the item is in fact a directory and not a file at all. Doesn't RegSupreme Pro check that?
A: Of course it does. The user interface only reports "File doesn't exist" simply because "File or directory doesn't exist" would be much longer and thus require much more space from the screen.

Miscellaneous questions

Q: I can see the file \Data\FileCache.dat contains the list of my programs and other files? What is the purpose of this file?
A: It is used to speed up and improve procedure of fixing the found registry problems.

Q: Can I manually update the \Data\FileCache.dat file?

A: Yes. Or just remove the file and RegSupreme Pro will recreate it.

Q: The program always removes certain entries I would like to keep. Is there a way to ignore entries?
A: Yes. You can edit the \Data\Default IgnoreList.dat file. RegSupreme Pro will ignore all found entries which contain some of the keywords found from this file.

Q: Does RegSupreme Pro contain spyware?

A: Absolutely not. See the License Agreement for more details.