Empty Registry Keys

donut · 12-17-08, 04:23 AM

Hi! Just so you know, my computer experience is limited. I have read that the Registry holds all of the information necessary for running the various operations on a computer. I have recently had problems with a slow start up on my PC. I should tell you that I am running Windows XP on a Dell computer/ Memory 253MB/Intel Pentium 4CPU 3.00GHZ. Reading that Registry problems could be responsible for slow start ups I subscribed some time ago to something called RegCure. On first running this it appeared to remove a large number of Registry problems. What I have noticed though quite recently is that a large number of the problems seem to return immediately. One evening on shutdown I ran RegCure and it notified me that the problems included 9 File Path References and 142 Empty Registry Keys. After "removing" these problems (if such they are) I ran the program again. This time there were no File Path References and 51 Empty Registry Keys. Following a third run there were no File Path References but still apparently 29 Empty Registry Keys. The following morning upon startup I ran RegCure once again to discover that the "problems" again included 9 File Path References and 84 Empty Registry Keys. A couple of weeks ago I subscribed to Advanced Windows Care Professional from10bit. This checks out several areas one of which is the Registry. To date it has found zero problems in this area. I am puzzled. I realise that my confusion is due to the fact that I don't know enough about the workings of computers and in particular about what goes on in the Registry. Does it matter if a Registry Key is empty? In any case what does it mean? My previous attempts to gain info from websites have invariably led to ads for software guaranteed to "clean up your Registry". I am not saying that anything is wrong with either RegCure or the Windows Professional software-I would just like to know enough about the subject to understand what is going on in the little black box. Please keep any explanations reasonably simple!

12-17-08, 04:23 AM	#1
donut The Old Man Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: The Shifting, Whispering Sands, NM Posts: 1,463 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	Empty Registry Keys Hi! Just so you know, my computer experience is limited. I have read that the Registry holds all of the information necessary for running the various operations on a computer. I have recently had problems with a slow start up on my PC. I should tell you that I am running Windows XP on a Dell computer/ Memory 253MB/Intel Pentium 4CPU 3.00GHZ. Reading that Registry problems could be responsible for slow start ups I subscribed some time ago to something called RegCure. On first running this it appeared to remove a large number of Registry problems. What I have noticed though quite recently is that a large number of the problems seem to return immediately. One evening on shutdown I ran RegCure and it notified me that the problems included 9 File Path References and 142 Empty Registry Keys. After "removing" these problems (if such they are) I ran the program again. This time there were no File Path References and 51 Empty Registry Keys. Following a third run there were no File Path References but still apparently 29 Empty Registry Keys. The following morning upon startup I ran RegCure once again to discover that the "problems" again included 9 File Path References and 84 Empty Registry Keys. A couple of weeks ago I subscribed to Advanced Windows Care Professional from10bit. This checks out several areas one of which is the Registry. To date it has found zero problems in this area. I am puzzled. I realise that my confusion is due to the fact that I don't know enough about the workings of computers and in particular about what goes on in the Registry. Does it matter if a Registry Key is empty? In any case what does it mean? My previous attempts to gain info from websites have invariably led to ads for software guaranteed to "clean up your Registry". I am not saying that anything is wrong with either RegCure or the Windows Professional software-I would just like to know enough about the subject to understand what is going on in the little black box. Please keep any explanations reasonably simple!