How to track and remove registry entries and other junk?

[Moonbeam]

If you try to install an HP printer as usb and have the cable plugged in, the drivers will not load properly, but will leave registry entiies that tell the software it's in and it won't reinstall. HP has a program to undo the entries. In other cases you may want to try demos and remove them as well as the junk they leave. Is there a way (software especially free) that will record or note every change a program makes so you can remove all of it, not just what the install will remove, if there even is one. I guess if you knew you would have problems you can back up the registry, but sometimes you want to get rid of something after you have made many other changes. WinXP has a go back, but you loose all changes not just the ones of a single program. How about something that can compare two registries and tell you what is different so you cuold manually remove those files. I have seen uninstaller programs, and had one for win 95 they go out of date pretty quick. Anyway thanks for any help.

 

[singh]

I don't know of any software that will work 100% of the time in these situations. It's easy enough to detect new files and remove them, but if the software you installed has modified system files, then you cannot simply remove them.

One safe way is to store multiple system-wide snashots (registry + system files) and then restore them using the snapshots. There are problems with this technique as well, so it will also not work 100% of the time.

The Registry offers many benifits, but it is also quite a mess

 

[c0rv1d43]

InCtrl5 is what you want. I use it to get a comprehensive list of every change made to the registry, the startup ini files, and the file complement on my systems when I perform software and / or driver installations. The logs are detailed enough that you can undo everything that the installation did to the system. The only thing you've got to watch for is undoing something (a registry setting or file complement change) that a subsequent installation of another piece of software or another driver depends upon. Doesn't happen commonly, but it does happen. It's one of those PC Magazine / ZDNet freebies. Only purpose for their continuing existence, AFAIK. Some of the programs they've produced are truly useful and well-written.

- Collin

Saw the above comment that appeared while I was writing my message. I wanted to make clear that InCtrl5 actually lists the changes in the text inside files like win.ini and system.ini so that you can undo those changes. Me likes.

 

[Moonbeam]

c0rv1d43, thanks, that utility seems to be really great.

 

[c0rv1d43]

You're welcome, Moonbeam! I hope it does the job for you. I don't bother with it on my personal notebook any more, but I use the utility religiously on several of our most critical Windows systems.

- Collin