I use Registry Mechanic (currently v 8.0.0.900) to check and tidy my laptop’s Vista Home Premium registry. Since my move to Norton Internet Security version 16.5.0.135, however,it ( Registry Mechanic) has shown a ‘High Priority: Highlighted value is missing or invalid’ error for both
Registry Mechanic normally repairs any registry errors it finds but it reports that it is unable to repair either of these. Can anyone please shed any light here? In particular, should I be worried about these errors?
The following Vista snipping tool images show the contents of the two HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE entries.
Re: Norton registry errors (according to Registry Mechanic)
I've seen more computers put out of action -- including reported here in the Norton Forums -- by people using tools like cleanups or registry cleaners to tidy up their computer or to get rid of unnecessary files.
What makes these utilities think they know just what every application in your computer needs to have in the Registry and why they are there? As often or not they will pick some feature like a registry item points to somewhere or something that is not there and on that basis says it should remove it; that it's a fault.
But it has no way of knowing that that line may be put there by the application for example as a place holder so that some file needed temporarily has a link to it and if that link is not there then the application will stop working.
It's marketing fiction that removing entries from the registry will speed up your computer! It's not the way to begin.
If you want to speed up the way your computer boots up for example you do not want to start deleting things in the registry. You want to run a utility built into Windows called msconfig and with advice remove entries there that start up functions when you start the computer and which you may or may not need until later if at all. Deal with it there and the registry will be taken care of, the right way round.
So I'd do what Compumind suggests and get rid of that application by uninstalling it in Remove Programs and by resisting tempation to improve anything unless you know more than the utility does -- if you don't know more than it does how can you select what to do when it gives you a list of actions!
Thanks, Compumind. I hear what you and huwyngr say but, then, I heard what people said about msconfig when I posted a query elsewhere about that
I originally wanted to raise this problem with Symantec but their 'contact us' facility doesn't seem to have the capacity to contain the key names involved and details about what was happening with Registry Mechanic.
Meanwhile, I have ATI v 10 and have even recreated a hard drive from one of its backups; I do need to splash out on a much larger external drive soon, though
The only negative things people say about msconfig are the people that don't know how to use msconfig. It's a tool built into Windows, it's not some third party toy. It's extremely powerful in the right hands.
So, whatever you "heard" other people say about it, take it with a grain of salt, because most likely they don't know what the hell they're talking about.
If you MUST use a system "cleaner" might I suggest looking at Tune-up Utilities 2009, at www.tune-up.com they've come a long way and it appears to be the safest I've seen in terms of cleaning.
"If you MUST use a system "cleaner" might I suggest looking at Tune-up Utilities 2009, at www.tune-up.com they've come a long way and it appears to be the safest I've seen in terms of cleaning."
Agree with Floating_Red; in my experience Norton knows Norton best. However, look at MS Tech sites on how to fully back up and restore your registry (especially from a non-bootable machine) BEFORE doing any registry cleaning / editing / etc. This will save you endless hours of fixing what worked already.
Run Registry Mechanic scan and repair. Those troublesome Norton entries will be removed. >>
And when your computer won't start up again or Norton is not running properly (and maybe you don't know) what then?
The only thing troublesome about those Norton entries is the thought that anyone outside Norton knows enough to blindly delete them just because some third party utility says to do so.
I do support on Windows and on Computers elsewhere and I can't tell you how many times we get a message --
I cleaned up my unnecessary files and cleaned the registry and now it doesn't work
Now above all is not the time to mess with your security software
All I can see is I think you have been lucky .... or you meet the criteria I stated earlier of knowing more than the tool does so that you can answer the questions it raises!
I'm prepared to be dogmatic on their dangers and to continue to advise not using them -- it seems absolutely pointless to take a risk of editing the registry when you have no evidence that it is doing any harm.
I have in the past reported a different registry entry, which Registry Mechanic would not delete, to PC Tools and they advised me how to stop the entry showing in their end-of-run analysis. I’ll probably follow that route with these two as well; they will still not be repaired but at least I wont have to keep looking at them. In a way, I suppose it possibly shows that Registry Mechanic does not repair invalid links willy nilly. meanwhile, as Compumind says, there isnt really a problem here.
That’s what I did with Malwarebytes – told it to IGNORE those two entries since I knew absolutely that they were not infected. I might safely been able to allow MWB to DELETE them but I had no way of knowing that.
huwyngr wrote: That's what I did with Malwarebytes -- told it to IGNORE those two entries since I knew absolutely that they were not infected. I might safely been able to allow MWB to DELETE them but I had no way of knowing that.
I hadn't realised that you had experienced those two links being reported yourself. I run Malwarebytes occasionally but haven't done so since this problem cropped up. I'll have another look.
huwyngr wrote: That's what I did with Malwarebytes -- told it to IGNORE those two entries since I knew absolutely that they were not infected. I might safely been able to allow MWB to DELETE them but I had no way of knowing that.
I hadn't realised that you had experienced those two links being reported yourself. I run Malwarebytes occasionally but haven't done so since this problem cropped up. I'll have another look.
Sorry if I was not completely clear. I did not mean to imply I had seen the entries you listed; merely that I had seen two entries flagged by MWB as "Infected" that I chose to ignore.
I can't copy/paste them from the Ignore List in MWB but both referred to Microsoft's Security Center being "bad". Since I have had the Security Center turned OFF in favor of protection by Norton this did not particularly bother me, perhaps mistakenly.
But I've not seen the entries you refer to in your first message.
