RegCleaner Readme

Note: this file is old version of the official readme, which is readme.html, ple
ase
use it insted. This file is just for those who dont have a browser.

RegCleaner
WARNING: This computer program is protected by copyright law and international t
reaties. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this program, or any porti
on of it, may result in severe criminal and civil penalties, and will be prosecu
ted to the maximum extent possible under law. You are allowed to distribute RegC
leaner in the Internet only if you distribute it in its original package. You mu
st have the authors written permission to distribute RegCleaner in CD-ROM or in
any other media than the Internet. An E-Mail is acceptable as a written permissi
on.
DISCLAIMER: This product is provided "as is" without any warranty of any kind. T
o the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Jouni Vuorio further disclaims

all warranties, including without limitation any implied or stated warranties o

f merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement. The en
tire risk arising out of the use or performance of this product and documentatio
n remains with recipient. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in
no event shall Jouni Vuorio or his suppliers be liable for any consequential, in
cidental, direct, indirect, special, punitive, recursive, or other damages whats
oever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, busi
ness interruption, loss of business information, personal injury, disruption of
family life, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of this agreement or the use o
f or inability to use the product, even if Jouni Vuorio have been advised of the
possibility of such damages. Because some states/jurisdictions do not allow the
exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, t
he above limitation may not apply to the recipient.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: This program is called "RegCleaner". Microsofts registry clean
er is called "RegClean". My program has nothing to do with "RegClean" nor with M
icrosoft.
I am ready to change my programs name if Microsoft requests it.
Microsoft is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation.
All other trademarks belongs to their respective owners.
Copyright 1999-2000 Jouni Vuorio
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
Introduction
What RegCleaner does ?
Why to use RegCleaner ?
Very Important to know
About the Features:
Remove software's registry entries
StartUp list
UnInstall menu
FileTypes
New file
Shell Extensions
Shared DLLs
Backups
Remove .Reg files
Command-line
Registry Cleanup
Options
FAQ
Keyboard shortcuts
Tips & Tricks
Info for Experts
Introduction
With RegCleaner, you can easily remove obsolete registry entries from software
that you may have deleted ages ago.
What RegCleaner does ?

RegCleaner deletes registry entries.

You can delete DLLs with the Shared DLLs feature,
and shortcut files with the StartUp feature.
You dont even have to know what registry actually is to be able
to use RegCleaner.
Why to use RegCleaner ?
Because it's a good idea to keep the registry as clean as possible. Here are s
ome examples to help you to understand how RegCleaner can truly help you:
1. Say you've accidentally destroyed a nice shareware program what has a 30-da
y trial period. Later on, when you notice that it's been destroyed, you try rein
stalling it, only to find out that you can't, because the program thinks that yo
u're just trying to get another 30 days. If you first remove the program's regis
try entries, however, you may very well be able to reinstall the software and re
cover your trial period again.
2. You've found that your favorite program is an older version, and you want t
o download the latest whiz-bang version. The program, however, doesn't provide a
ny uninstall utility, so you simply destroy its files and cross your fingers. Bu
t, as fate would have it, when you try to install the latest version, you see a
dialog box such as this:
"Please uninstall the old version of this program before attempting to run thi
s installation".
Great, now what?
Hang on, you simply remove the old program's registry entries with RegCleaner!
Now you can continue installing the newer program version that you wanted to ha
ve originally (I'm using the word "programs", but most of these examples will ap
ply equally to games and other software as well.)
Note: Some programs register filetypes (such as: '.Txt'), so when you've delet
ed the program, Windows reports an error when you try to run files that are regi
stered to that program. RegCleaner removes (when possible) all of the registrati
ons done by that program. Now when you try to run files that were registered to
it, Windows will bring up a dialog box and ask what program you now want to use
with this particular filetype. You can then select a new association.
Note that in some cases, which programs have made particular filetype registra
tions isn't written into the registry. In those cases, RegCleaner won't help, bu
t it's not RegCleaner's fault, it's simply the way the programs were written.
Very Important to know
If you are not 100% sure that you have the original disk(s) for all items of s
oftware on your computer, then don't remove anything. In theory at least, it's n
ot dangerous if you remove registry entries of most software that you may be usi
ng, since likely you'll just lose your settings and some options, but there's al
ways the risk that the software won't work at all any more as well.
Also, if you see some 'product' or 'author' like '!"#WFDSf"!4e2e2', and you kn
ow that it's in the software section by accident, DO NOT remove it Its most likel
y some (stupid) programs (stupid) copy protection.
E.g. Re-Volt and F-Secures virus scanners do these.
Note: You must agree to the Disclaimer on the top of this page to use RegClean
er.
If you disagree delete the software immediately.
Remove softwares registry entries

RegCleaner will search the whole registry and remove every entry that
is created by the software you wish to remove.
Of course, its impossible to remove all the entries, but RegCleaner
removes all entries possible. The main theme is security, theres
no risk whatsoever to use RegCleaner. That is, if you use it right.
And I would like to point out that if you somehow manage to
break your computer with RegCleaner, Its not my fault.
Read the Disclaimer for more info.
Note: You can't remove any Microsoft entries, since you would have to be real co
mputer guru to you know if an item was an intregal part of the Windows Graphic I
nterface and if Windows could possibly operate without it.
StartUp list
Heres listed every program that is started from the registry and from start me
nu at the
same time as windows starts. These program can easily use
many percents of your computers memory and decrease performance.
Keep this list as empty as possible.
UnInstall menu
Heres listed all the program that are available for uninstallation through Win
dows.
You can access this list also from Control Panel > Add/Remove programs.
The main idea behind this feature is that you can remove the junk
from the Add/Remove programs list. Like if you have deleted
some program rather than really uninstalling it. Its uninstal
stuff is still in that Add/Remove programs list. So with
RegCleaner you can remove them from there.
And you can also Uninstall programs with the 'uninstall' button.
FileTypes
Heres listed every file type or file extension. If you E.g. have tried some
program and it have registered some filetypes (That means that you
can access those files with a double click. I.e., you can view .Txt files
with notepad by double clicking such file).
If you have found that program useless and uninstalled it, but
some files are still marked like "Some programs some file".
With this feature of RegCleaner you can remove those unneeded file extensions.
Note: This feature should not work under Windows95. I.e. I have been reported th
at it doesnt work,
but I havent been able to confirm this myself. Try it.
New files
Try to click you Desktop with the right mouse button, select 'New'.
There a few files that you can create. Now, with RegCleaner you
can remove some filetypes from that list.
Note: E.g. WinZip and Adobe Photoshop add their files ('Winzip file' and 'Adob
e Photoshop image')
to that list automatically. If you remove them, they add them in there again.
Note 2: This feature should not work under Windows95. I.e. I have been reported
that it doesnt work,
but I havent been able to confirm this myself. Try it.
Shell Extensions
Heres a list of all the file associations. E.g. If you right-click a mp3 file,
theres some special
items on the popup menu, with RegCleaner you can remove those extra commands y

ou dont need.
E.g. If you dont even have a printer you dont need ability to print some files
with a right-click.
Shared DLLs
With this feature you can delete unused shared files. Heres only listed those fi
les that are not used
by windows or another programs, so they should be safe to delete. And note, Re
gCleaner will
delete the file and the registry entrie and them both are backed up
Backups
Heres the list of current backups.
If you cant see the sections of text i.e. the lines are too long, you can righ
t-click the
item you want to see better and a popup will show it. Click the popup to hide
it.
This works also in other sections, but there you have to only move the mouse o
ver
the popup to make it go away.
Note: The backups aint removed even after you have restored them, if you
want to delete some backups, you will have to delete them by clicking the 'Rem
ove selected'
button. Its safer this way.
Remove .Reg files
You can remove .Reg files from the registry with this feature.
This can be done within the RegCleaner (File>Remove .Regs>Remove...)
or by enabling the shell extension (File>Remove .Regs>Enable shell extension).
If you choose to enable the shell extension, you can remove .Reg files from th
e registry
with right-click menu. Just right-click a .Reg file and select 'remove from re
gistry'.
You can afterwards remove the shell extension.
Command-line
RegCleaner supports these command-line parameters: 'Automatic clean', 'Manual c
lean', 'no backups' and 'one backup file'.
E.g. RegCleanr.exe /automatic clean /one backup file starts automatic cleaning
and RegCleaner makes only one backup file.
Note: you can use 'no backups' only with 'manual clean'.
Registry Cleanup
This feature does basically the same as those expensive 'automatic'
registry cleaners. That is, this feature automatically removes
all kinds of junk from the registry.
You can lose some programs options or such if you use this feature.
In such case try to add the programs name (not the filename) to the Ignore L
ist.
(Options>Registry Cleanup>Ignore list...)
If that solved the problem, please report to me what you had to add to the I
gnore List.
Please note: This feature is only one small thing in RegCleaner. You cant auto
matically clean the registry totally.
Thats sad but true. Its just impossible. RegCleaner supports this trendy metho
d just so you dont have to
use any expensive program. This feature does not do the same as the other clea
ning features of RegCleaner!

Options
Marking as old:
-Automatic: All entries are marked as old when you exit the program
-Manual: You can manually mark entries as old
Registry Cleanup:
-Automatic: RegCleaner will do an automated registry cleaning when you click t
he Registry Cleanup button.
-Manual: RegCleaner will show you a list of all entries that are found to be i
nvalid and they can be removed,
You can then remove them if you like to. One by one or many entries at the sam
e time. When youre done,
click the Done button on the lower left corner.
UnInstall Menu:
-Show all software: all software are shown in the uninstall menu
-Show only hidden software: only hidden software are shown, by hidden I mean s
oftware
that are not listed in the Windows Add/Remove software list.
-Dont show hidden software: All the same items as in the Windows Add/Remove so
ftware
list are shown in the uninstall menu.
FAQ
Q: How do I remove the entries that I want to delete using RegCleaner?
A: Simply highlight those entries that you wish to delete (with your mouse "se
lect" key), and then click with your mouse on the "Remove Selected" button in th
e lower right corner next to the "Exit" button. The entries you've selected will
automatically be deleted.
Q: What does the age-thing mean?
A: Its just a way to point out the new entries.
And by new, I mean entries that you havent seen before.
So you dont have to read the whole list, because the age-thing
makes the new entries appear on the top of the list.
Q: Does the registry cleanup work with every Operating System?
A: Yes. It supports every OSs as the RegCleaner itself (Win95, 98, 98SE, NT4,
2000)
Q: Whats the difference between 'Uninstall' and 'Remove selected' button in th
e uninstallation screen?
A: Uninstall button uninstalls the program but the' Remove selected' button on
ly removes the program from the list.
Q: What are those "unknown entries" ?
A: They can be anything. Might be some copy protection stuff or just some prog
rams settings or something.
You see, some programs just adds their stuff to the registry but doesnt bother
to actually mark
what program added them. Actually quite stupid, but some programs just work th
at way.
Q: Eventhou I have restored a backup it still is in the backup section, why?
A: If you dont need that backup again, then just delete it.
Q: Do I have to delete the old version of RegCleaner before I can install a ne
w one?
A: No. You can delete it, but theres no need to.

Q: How do I uninstall RegCleaner?

A: Just delete it. RegCleaner doesnt make any entries to the registry nor to a
ny other files in your computer.
Q: Is RegCleaner free?
A: Yes, 100% free. No sponsor banners, nothing. A true freeware.
Q: Whats the catch, why would you do hours
A: RegCleaner as well as my other programs
my programming capabilities. My goal is to
(about 4 years to go), and I think this is

and hours of work for free?

are like commercials about
get good job after I graduate
a good way to get a good reputation

.
And of course, its fun!
Keyboard
ctrl +
ctrl +
ctrl +
ctrl +
ctrl +
ctrl +
F1
F2
F3
F4

:
:
:
:

shortcuts
s : Save the list as a text file
q : Exit the program
a : Select all items
d : Select none
i : Inverse selection
f : Open the find dialog

Open this Readme

Open the old readme
Visit my homepage to check for a new version of RegCleaner
Show the about dialog

Tips & Tricks

* If you cant see everything on RegCleaner, you can use the MoreInfo feature by
right-clicking the item you
cant see entirely. When you have seen what you want, you can make the MoreInfo
to disappear by
moving the cursor over it. In the backup section it disappears when you click
it.
* If you cant see all the tabs you can double click the caption bar above it and
a two navigation buttons apear. You can hide them by double clicking the bar ag
ain
Info for Experts
* You can view the contents of backup files by
ant see.

right clicking the backup you w

* If you have chosen to mark entries as old manually,

by selecting none and clicking 'mark as old'.
Copyright 1999-2000 Jouni Vuorio
All right reserved

you can mark all as old