I have three questions that I would like some help with, please.

In my registry (OS Windows XP) there are many references (or however they are called) to what seem to be websites that I don’t want to go to and, as far as I am aware, never want to. For instance, there’s “burgerking.com”, “SidneyChong co”, and “Skunkstudios” (I haven’t a clue what the last two are!) – and there are many for on-line casinos.

How did they get there, how can I get rid of them, and can I stop them appearing again? Surely, they must be affecting my computer in some way.

My second question is that there are programs listed that I uninstalled years ago but for some reason no registry cleaner seems to have noticed them – why and do I have to delete all these by hand or is there a software program that will really clean my registry?

My third question is, in looking on the Internet for a software program to properly clean my registry, various forums talked about how good “Free Registry Fix” was. I downloaded and installed this and it claimed to have found roughly 1900 errors in my registry. I didn’t go ahead with “fixing” these, as I didn’t really know what it does and whether it’s safe to trust it. Can anyone tell me if this program is safe to use or are there others, better (hopefully free!), please? It sounded as though it would do exactly what I wanted but I just don’t know and don't want to cause any problems with my computer.

I’d be grateful for any help.

I will try to help you out.

These entries that you are talking about in your registry where are they located in the registry?

Example on my computer I have a lot of website links in my
registry located at
"Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Int ernet Explorer\TypedURLs"

This is ok as these are the websites that I have typed into the address bar.



For your second question, I will not say that it should happen but finding a entry for something that has been uninstalled isn't abnormal and most of the time these old entry don't hurt anything. I personal use a program call CCleaner you can do a google search and will get you there home page. However unless you are having problems I wouldn't worry to much about old entries. But it doesn't hurt to run CCleaner.

CCleaner I trust, I have used it for a long time without problem. However as with most of the software out there I have found that if I go looking through my registry even after I have run a cleaner there are still a few old entries there.


Now if I may why are you wanted to remove these things, normally if there are no problems with the pc you don't have to really worry about the registry.

__________________
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

Hi Pcxgamer,

Sorry for the delay in replying but I've had problems with my computer - nothing to do with the registry! I've lost all my old emails, addresses, telephone numbers and several programs including all my registry cleaners!!!!

I had three registry cleaners - CCleaner is not one of those but I'll have a look at it. Mine are "Registry Mechanic", JV16, and Tune-up Utilities.I have tried others at times but I tend to stick with these.

It's not necessarily that these old entries, and the unwanted ones, are causing any problems but they irritate me; I just want to get rid of them - and I certainly don't want the "casino.net" entry. I don't know how they got on my computer but I certainly don't want them. If there are too many of these, surely it must affect the computer - slow it down, perhaps?

From what you say, however, I'll just have to hand-delete everything because the cleaners I've used haven't. You're right, I found that when I use three cleaners each one finds something that the others didn't.

I use the cleaners in a different order each time just to check that one doesn't find all the errors - which would mean that I don't need the others - but it seems I do.

Anyway, thanks for your reply; sorry for the delay.

It certianly would not hurt to remove the ones that you don't need, however I will tell you to be careful as deleting a needed entry will cause problems. But as far as slow down it normally will not get that bad and if it does come to a point were the registry is so bad that it is slowing the computer down I would just suggest a fresh install.

__________________
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

Thanks pcxgamer. I'll be very careful and probably leave well alone!