Hi, i get an error message when booting up pointing to a rogue entry in the registry that needs deleting. As i cannot find this entry and dont exactly know what im doing in the registry i thought maybe downloading a registry cleaner would be a better idea. Ive downloaded one called Reg Supreme Pro by Macecraft which is the only one i could find that will actually fix ALL problems it finds in the 30 day trial. Its found 714 problems within the registry. Now im wary as to whether i should go ahead and fix these incase it completely messes something up, its like taking a leap of faith. Ive read about one person that says after they had run Reg Cure they could no longer boot their system and they got a BSOD instead!

The error message that im trying to get rid of does not affect my system, its just a pain in the butt to have to keep canceling the error everytime i boot up. Im reluctant to risk possibly ruining my system just to (hopefully) get rid of this minor error. I have created a backup of the registry but in the event i couldnt boot the computer into Windows how would i restore it? Also, when i bought the computer years ago from a high street retailer it didnt come with the Windows XP setup CD so if i would need that to fix the computer or restore the registry in the case of a system failure i would be stuck.

The cleaner im using says that the problems its found SHOULD (not will) be ok to delete which doesnt exactly fill me with confidence! Also the option in the settings menu to automatically fix the problems as it goes along has got "not recommended" in brackets by it which suggests that its preferable to manually delete the problems, but i wouldnt know what to delete and not to delete anyway (which is why im using this program in the first place!)

I know that messing with the registry can be dodgy, but should i be so concerned using a proper reg cleaner?

Thanks in advance for any info / advice

I vote you post the exact error message...Are you sure the entry can't be found in msconfig - startup tab.

Reg cleaners can easily make things work..You either do the blind faith deal or you spend the next six weeks researcing all 714 entries...

Hi Steve thanks for your reply.

The problem started when i went into msconfig and selected diagnostic startup (I had a problem with my display and was wondering if this would have any effect). The computer rebooted into diagnostic mode but didnt have any effect on the problem (it ended up being monitor settings). Then i went into msconfig and put it back into normal startup and rebooted the computer. Now everytime i boot i get 2 error messages. One says "Windows cannot find" and then 4 squares (this is the filename its looking for) "Make sure you typed the name correctly etc., etc. When you cancel that you get another error saying "Could not load or run" and then the 4 squares again "specified in the registry. Make sure the file exists or remove the reference to it in the registry"

I looked in the startup tab of msconfig and there are indeed 2 entries at the end showing squares as filenames. They are located in the registry at HKCU/Software/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/Windows.

I deselected these 2 files in the startup tab in msconfig and rebooted the computer and the only message i got was to say that the computer had started up in diagnostic or selective startup mode (because id deselected the items in the startup tab), but no error messages. I checked the registry and sure enough the entries in the key mentioned above had gone.

So i assume that its safe to permanently remove them from the registry or should i just leave them deselected in the startup tab and not mess!

Sounds like you fixed it....If you get really bored and run out of things to do, you can look for the method to remove the items from msconfig;)

In response to your original question,NO registry cleaner can ever be considered truly safe. Most cause more harm than good, especially if users just blindly click yes without checking what is listed. Things can be as serious as a trashed system requiring a complete reinstall.

the only way registry cleaners can be considered safe is if there's a recent backup available.