I was running MSFT's free online safety scanner, doing a full scan, and it mentioned that there are 25 issues in my registry that it could repair. I declined to have it repair them because I have heard horror stories about registry cleaners doing more harm than good. But since this is a scanner directly from MSFT, should I run it again and go ahead and have it fix the registry issues? check it out, see how many issues it finds on your machine(you have to choose the full scan, not quick scan, to inspect the registry): http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm It only runs using Internet Explorer
Here's an article criticizing registry cleaners http://www.slate.com/id/2213254 It's ironic that it's published on a website owned by Microsoft, when it is the Microsoft online saftey scanner itself that is offering to clean my registry.
My advice would be to go to one of the good free help sites like the bullguard forum, and have them take a look at some of your files under the diagnostics they require. Or just pose the same question there. It usually helps to have a lot of experience in evaluating which keys are critical.
I ran it. It found 924 registry errors. I fixed the lot and my PC still works. It says it creates a system restore point, so I wasn't too worried.
wow, 924 errors. well that makes me feel better. Let me know if you notice any side effects from fixing the registry errors.
by the way, is it best to uninstall programs using the program's own uninstaller, or should you always use the add/remove programs control panel?
I would recommend using a programs uninstaller first then removing any instances from the add/remove program utility. Physically remove any files or folders remaning last.
Get rid of that garbage Dell and buy a Mac Pro. It is a much better system. Windows is shit, unstable and prone to viruses etc..
unfortunately a lot of software is not available for Macs, and using Windows emulators slows things down too much