Windows XP Registry Woe’s

Ever since the Explorer 8 Fiasco a few weeks ago I have been having “quirky” problems with other applications so I decide to check my registry and “bingo” it was a mess. So I sent my buddy Marty, the Cabana Geek an email asking about how he “fixes” his registry or if he had a recommendation for some software that would clean up my registry. He got back to me and said “I manually remove unwanted applications from the registry and would assist me in doing the same if I wanted.” Well, I know one thing and that is if you make a mistake manually changing your registry you can cause BIG problems, problems I don’t even want to thing about. So I answered that I will pass on that and go looking for a registry clean up program on the web. I checked several; and found “Regcure” to be ranked one of the best and found that if I bought now I could get some extras for free. So I bought it and it came with “Launch Data Recovery”, “Drivercure”, and “XoftSpySE”.

So once it was installed and registered I ran the registry clean up and it worked great. It fixed all the current problems, but I found that an immediate fix did not fix everything. What it did was brought to my attention some applications that needed additional attention. As I “fixed” each application I reran the registry clean up and now my P/C had picked up speed and most everything seems to be working.

Then I ran “Drivercure” and to my amazement found several applications that had out of date versions installed. Because this application allows the user to update only the selected “out of date” versions I began going through the list and updating the selections. I did not do one and that was going from Explorer 7 to 8 for reasons already explained.

Then I ran “XoftSpySE” which is an Anti-Spyware program and I did not think it would find anything because I have “AVG Anti-Virus” installed and have not had a problem with any viruses. Well, guess what, it found five “high risk” and several “low-risk” files, all of which I removed with the application. I guess “AVG” does not do everything, but I will keep it anyway.

So now I am feeling good about my new full time job compliments of Microsoft.

Then I see a Java update is required so I go ahead and run the update. I get an error in the middle of the run. Well, you would think you can just go ahead and run it again, but you would be mistaken. I tried to run it again and began receiving and error 25099. So off to the web I go and found that the best way to “fix” this was to remove the entire “Java” directory and its contents. When I attempt to do this I found that I could not use the “Add/Remove” in the control panel because “Java” was not on the list. Ok, I do know how to manually remove directories and there contents so I did that and found that everything except one file could be removed. When I attempted the one last file I received a message that it was in use. A simple CTL + Alt + Delete showed that the file was on the list of applications under the “Process” Tab. I highlighted the task and clicked the “end Process” Tab. Then I went back and the file was manually removed without a problem. Finally I could now go to “Java.com” and do the install, which went fine and is now working without any problems.

I ran “Regcure” again and fixed a few minor registry problems, but nothing like when I started.

One interesting thing I found when addressing the “Add/Remove” problem with applications not showing up on the list is there is a Windows program named “Windows Install Clean Up” that is suppose to clean up this problem. I installed this program, but after reading all the warnings, did not use it. I might in the future, but for now, I will wait until it becomes absolutely necessary and at that time I will confer with The Cabana Geek before I do.

If you’re having registry problems I would strongly recommend purchasing “RegCure” and using it to “fix” your problems. Other than that I have nothing else to say except I can hardly wait until Google comes up with a new Operating System so I can start gaggling.

The Dark Side of Google continued...

Today I went searching for a “Google.com” mailing address and I used “Google.com” to search for the address. What I found were many other folks who with the same problem, “I can’t find a Google email address to ask a question.”

I found one that had an address was where Google sent some one and email and the return address was accounts-noreply@google.com, which the person could not respond too.

There some others but nothing specific. Then a friend told me that you can send an email to “Google” Support, but after an hour looking for where it was, I gave up.

On most sites when you go to a “Support” Tab or “Contact Us” and click, they give you the option to send an email with a question. Also on these sites these tabs are usually on the link you are in. You don’t have to go searching like you do on Google.

The other day I went to Google to look for a problem I was having with a Google Toolbar. I started with a link that led to another link that led to another link and so on for five more links. At the fifth link I found I needed to go back to where I started and try a different selection. This after reading every link I came to before continuing. “What a pain!” So I went back and tried again following more links with NOTHING getting accomplished. I spent a good hour looking and this is exactly what I am talking about. I don’t want to “waste” an hour looking for a “fix”. I want to send an email, wait for and answer, and while I am waiting move on to other tasks.

Now I am drawing the conclusion that Google is creating technology for an “Exclusive Community”. This community is all “techies”. The average user has been forgotten, lost in the corporate spaghetti of links on “Google.com”. I consider myself an average user and I know may folks who are far less as technical as me. I wonder what they do when they go to Google looking for a fix of a problem. My guess is they get frustrated much quicker than I do and end up calling some one like the “Geek Squad” and paying for something that should be free and easy.

Here is one suggestion for Google. When some one who is obviously a “non-technical” user starts to look for a “fix” on “Google.com” add a new page that simply says “May God be with you in your search for a solution. (Last time God was here looking he/she found NOTHING.) Good luck!”

Now you might ask how Google would know when a user is a “non-techie”. The answer is easy. Since Google tracks everything a user does when they use “Google.com”, they could write a script to analyze the contents and in the script create a formula that make decisions based on the results. They are technology leaders aren’t they?

Another suggestion is to survey “non-techies”. I see ads for Google surveys all the time around here. What they could do is gather up about 200 “non-techie” users and get some feed back on the Google.com site. An even bigger leap for Google would be “non-techie” users over fifty years old. I doubt if this leap would ever happen because based on the age of the “Exclusive Community” at corporate headquarters they may not be able to talk to older people. (Of course, they could bring in interpreters.)