Norton Utilities and registry cleaner: option on what to do and view history

Archive
1

Hello;

 

I just installed Norton Utilities (v 14.5.0.116) on a laptop running Windows 7 32-bit and I ran the registry cleaner and had a bunch of problems. I chose repair which NU did, but I did not get an option to choose what to do (eg delete the entry or replace it with something else), and there is no history of what was done. I had Norton Systemworks 2007 installed on an older computer and these options were available to me whenever I ran WinDr.

 

My questions:

1) Do I have an option as to what the registry cleaner does in NU (ie delete or replace)?

2) Can I view a history of what NU did to the registry?

 

Thanks in advance to those who take the time to reply.

Tonia

2

Hi Allen;

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply and for your advice.  I am new to these forums, and so will respond to your advice with some additional questions related to my original post (I’m hoping this falls within the rules and does not require a new post).

 

1) Given that I cannot change what Registry Cleaner does, is there at least an option to see what it will do (ie delete the entry or replace it with something else) before it actually does it? I found this was quite a useful feature of the old Systemworks.

 

2) Thanks for letting me know where I can find the log of the problems found, but I don’t quite understand the format in the log file. It tells me the location in the registry  where the problem was found, but I don’t easily see what it did to fix it. Is this information available somewhere (ie I’d like to know if the registry entry was replaced or deleted)? Also, is there an “undo” option (as there was in the old Systemworks)?

 

3) After I run Registry Cleaner and see the results of the scan (and before I repair them), I notice that if I double click on any of the problems I get some blue text that appears underneath (they look like paths). Is this the path the current (faulty) registry key points to?

 

 4) I also notice that I can scan the registry, fix all problems, restart the computer without running any applications or changing anything, re-scanning the registry, and finding more problems (maybe even ones that were just fixed, but it is difficult to tell because there is no “history” button). Why would it find more problems after fixing everything?

 

Thanks again for your wonderful help and advice (and for the tip that I needed to update to the newer version), and thanks in advance to those who take the time to reply.

 

Tonia

3
Panzer-88 wrote:

Hi Allen;

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply and for your advice.  I am new to these forums, and so will respond to your advice with some additional questions related to my original post (I’m hoping this falls within the rules and does not require a new post).

 

1) Given that I cannot change what Registry Cleaner does, is there at least an option to see what it will do (ie delete the entry or replace it with something else) before it actually does it? I found this was quite a useful feature of the old Systemworks.

>> I don't know of any case so far where the registry cleaner has "changed" an entry. The entries that it flags are typically errors which can be safely removed. I would expect that if it detected any error which required a modification (vs deletion) it should be noted in the scan.log file.

 

2) Thanks for letting me know where I can find the log of the problems found, but I don’t quite understand the format in the log file. It tells me the location in the registry  where the problem was found, but I don’t easily see what it did to fix it. Is this information available somewhere (ie I’d like to know if the registry entry was replaced or deleted)? Also, is there an “undo” option (as there was in the old Systemworks)?

>> As indicated in #1, unless indicated otherwise the entry was deleted. The "undo" option is that Noton Utilities should be configured to create an automatic System Restore point. This is configured in Administer > Settings > General. Ensure that there is a checkmark on Create a System Restore Point before repair. If there were to be a problem you can use Windows system restore to restore to the pre-repair state. One can also export the registry key from Regedit and be able to restore individual keys if desired.

 

3) After I run Registry Cleaner and see the results of the scan (and before I repair them), I notice that if I double click on any of the problems I get some blue text that appears underneath (they look like paths). Is this the path the current (faulty) registry key points to?

>> Yes this is correct and is also where you would tell Norton Utilities to ignore the key or file if desired. Right clicking on the entry will give you these options.

 

 4) I also notice that I can scan the registry, fix all problems, restart the computer without running any applications or changing anything, re-scanning the registry, and finding more problems (maybe even ones that were just fixed, but it is difficult to tell because there is no “history” button). Why would it find more problems after fixing everything?

>> You should make note of any problems found so that you can compare the results of the next scan. The easiest way is to make a copy of the Scan.log (or print it out) and use those results to compare to your next scan. There are times (as noted in the link I referenced previously) where the same error can be found repeatedly. It does not happen often but sometimes it does. The best option in this case is to add this key or file to Norton Utilities ignore list as previously discussed.

 

Thanks again for your wonderful help and advice (and for the tip that I needed to update to the newer version), and thanks in advance to those who take the time to reply.

 

Tonia

Hi Tonia,

 

You are most welcome and no problem, I will answer your questions the best I can. :smileyhappy:

 

Please see responses inline above.

 

A little history on myself. I used Sytemworks for probably 10 years or so and had always loved Win Dr. I finally switched to a combination NIS (Norton Internet Security) and Norton Utilities a year and a half or so ago because I knew Symantec was set to discontinue Systemworks. But about two years before that I also started using Registry Mechanic (as I mentioned before this was made by PC Tools which Symantec took over and added into Norton Utilities). I found Registry Mechanic FAR better and it was immediately able to find many dozens of registry errors which Win Dr. had not found.

 

The new registry tools also include a registry defrag (similar to hard drive defrag) which I have run quite a few times. Both of these resulted in a significant reduction in Windows boot up time.

 

The registry defrag is where one serious bug was fixed (mainly affecting 64 bit Windows) with version 118. So please make sure you do this Smart Update before using the registry defrag. :smileywink:

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best wishes.

Allen

 

4

Hi Allen;

 

Thanks again for your superlative help and advice. These are much appreciated.

 

I have one more follow-up question related to the Registry Cleaner: NU automatically creates a backup of the registry before making any changes, but there is also the option to create a restore point prior to fixing problems (according to the manual this is not enabled by default for systems running Vista and, I assume by extension, Windows 7).

 

My question: Is there a need to create a restore point before any changes are made, or is the registry backup sufficient protection in case a mistake is made?

 

By the way, at the time of my writing the original post, I had just run Smart Update for NU and it updated me to v 14.5.0.116, so I was a little surprised when you wrote that I needed to update again. Was the newer version relatively recently released? I did the update this morning and see that I now have v14.5.0.118. I have not yet run the registry defrag option and am running a 32-bit version of Windows so I assume the previous version was safe to use for the registry cleanup?

 

Thanks again for your wonderful help in these matters.

 

Kind regards,

Tonia

5

Hello;

 

I just installed Norton Utilities (v 14.5.0.116) on a laptop running Windows 7 32-bit and I ran the registry cleaner and had a bunch of problems. I chose repair which NU did, but I did not get an option to choose what to do (eg delete the entry or replace it with something else), and there is no history of what was done. I had Norton Systemworks 2007 installed on an older computer and these options were available to me whenever I ran WinDr.

 

My questions:

1) Do I have an option as to what the registry cleaner does in NU (ie delete or replace)?

2) Can I view a history of what NU did to the registry?

 

Thanks in advance to those who take the time to reply.

Tonia

6
Panzer-88 wrote:

Hi Allen;

 

Thanks again for your superlative help and advice. These are much appreciated.

 

I have one more follow-up question related to the Registry Cleaner: NU automatically creates a backup of the registry before making any changes, but there is also the option to create a restore point prior to fixing problems (according to the manual this is not enabled by default for systems running Vista and, I assume by extension, Windows 7).

>> Are you referring to page 26 of the Norton Utilities user guide? There was a problem with Vista where if you had system restore disabled in Windows, then Norton Utilities might not give you a warning message when selecting the Repair option in registry clean. I don't believe this applies to Windows 7. You can check that Windows System Restore is enabled by right clicking on My Computer either from your desktop (if the icon is present) or from Windows Explorer and select Properties. Then select System Protection and ensure that system restore is ON for each drive, especially the system drive (C). It is recommended to leave it enabled for all drives.

 

To confirm to your satisfaction that Norton Utilities is creating a Windows system restore point prior to doing a registry clean you can check this by accessing Start menu > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore. Here you will be able to see that a new restore point is being created prior to the registry clean repair action. Under the Type column you will see System which means the restore point was created by Norton Utilities. Any restore point you create yourself will say Manual in this column.

 

My question: Is there a need to create a restore point before any changes are made, or is the registry backup sufficient protection in case a mistake is made?

>> As noted above.

 

By the way, at the time of my writing the original post, I had just run Smart Update for NU and it updated me to v 14.5.0.116, so I was a little surprised when you wrote that I needed to update again. Was the newer version relatively recently released? I did the update this morning and see that I now have v14.5.0.118. I have not yet run the registry defrag option and am running a 32-bit version of Windows so I assume the previous version was safe to use for the registry cleanup?

>> The bug fix was specific to a registry defrag (not registry clean). From the main window this is in Optimize > Defragment Your Registry. The 118 update was released approx. a couple of months ago.

 

Thanks again for your wonderful help in these matters.

 

Kind regards,

Tonia

Hi Tonia,

 

Please see responses above.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best wishes.

Allen

7

Wonderful. Thank you once again for your wonderfully concise and clear answers, Allen. I think Norton/Symantec lost a good one when you left!

 

Hugely appreciated.

 

Kind regards,

Tonia

8

Hi Tonia,

 

You are very welcome. :smileyvery-happy:

 

But you know, everything stayed within the family since Norton Utilities is the replacement for Systemworks. :smileywink:

 

Best wishes.

Allen

9

Thanks for posting this thread. It's really very informative.



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