registry errors

Hello all.  I just got here today...Just as well.  I was going to ask  about "good" cleaners.   Thanks to Mr. doneganw, and the helpful souls on this thread, I have my answer, and thank you.So,How 'bout a good source of info, for learning my way around the Regestry?A good tutorial, or solid referance site? I've started sorting through search clutter,  but so far, they all seem to be adds in discuise. Thanks, again.    


Post Originated from Vista Support Forums

Dear RC,

Well, I didn't get PCs in school like today's kids. I have to pick it up as
I go along. Unfortunately, I do have other personal pressing priorities
which preclude more intensive study of the PC.

Yes, OOBE means out of the box experience. My ACER desktop has a provision
to reinstall the original settings and applications. Tedious process but
I've done it before. I occasionally get this annoying pop-up in the
notification area that says I can't connect tot he internet. But I can. I
don't know where this pop-up comes from. PC seems to work ok.

What do people call the little spinning circle that indicates process
underway?

Bye,
Will

"R. C. White" <> wrote in message
news:%23$...
> Hi, Will.
>
>> Your patience is appreciated as I'm an old geezer who just turned 60 and
>> only started PCing about a year ago.
>
> DO NOT use age as an excuse!
>
> I'm 74 and Ken is not far behind. (But, to be fair, we both got into
> computers more than 30 years ago.) By the time you get to be "an old
> geezer" of my age, you will have about 15 years experience with computers.
> You'll be 15 years older then. If you use the "old geezer" excuse now,
> what will you say then? ;^}
>
>> It may be time to go OOBE anyway.
>
> What does OOBE mean in this case? Microsoft developers use that to mean
> "Out Of the Box Experience", which means what happens when the new
> computer is first taken out of the box and put to use.
>
> I agree with the others: Registry cleaners are snake oil. Of course they
> found "problems", lots of them! And the demand for money for a fix ("It
> won't remove them without a payment though.") reeks of extortion, doesn't
> it?
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
>
> Microsoft Windows MVP
> Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64
>
> "doneganw" <> wrote in message
> news0DA8210-E269-40CB-BE86-...
>> Dear Camper, Rick Rogers and Ken Blake,
>>
>> Thanks for the advice on the registry cleaners. I have uninstalled the
>> two that I tried and it does seem like they caused a problem after
>> installing them.
>>
>> Right now, I can't open the AT&T Self Support Tool that I use. The tool
>> tells me that I have no internet connection but that's wrong, I can
>> connect to the internet either through Windows Mail or AT&T powered by
>> Yahoo. I'll call AT&T later tonight and see what they say. I began
>> getting a "You are not connected to the internet" notice in my
>> notification area after installing these registry cleaners. But always
>> I've been able to connect.
>>
>> The reason that I was suspicious of my OS was that the little spinning
>> circle (WHAT DO YA CALL THAT LITTLE SPINNING THING?) always seems to spin
>> in the task bar endlessly before I click on the internet explorer icon
>> there. I still can connect as said.
>>
>> Your patience is appreciated as I'm an old geezer who just turned 60 and
>> only started PCing about a year ago. It may be time to go OOBE anyway.
>> I've successfully done it before and can download my hard drive to my
>> flash drive.
>>
>> Bye,
>> Will
>>
>> "Ken Blake, MVP" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> On Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:02:39 -0500, "doneganw" <>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear All,
>>>>
>>>> Would this be the right place to ask questions about registry errors?
>>>>
>>>> I recently downloaded a free registry error scanner that said my PC has
>>>> lots
>>>> of these registry error? It won't remove them without a payment though.
>>>
>>>
>>> Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil. Cleaning of the
>>> registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the registry alone and
>>> don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many people think, and
>>> what vendors of registry cleaning software try to convince you of,
>>> having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt you.
>>>
>>> The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
>>> removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit
>>> it may have.
>>>
>>> Read http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
>