Copyright: KsL Software (c) 2001-2002


Overview

After a number of software installations and un-installations, the registry becomes full of nagging file references pointing to where the files used to reside but no longer exist. Registry First Aid will find any files and folders that may have been moved on your hard drive and help you correct the registry entries that point to them.

Registry First Aid scans the registry for orphan file/folder references, invalid font references, obsolete Start Menu items, and invalid shared DLLs.

Registry First Aid finds invalid paths to referenced files, folders or fonts on your drives (if they're moved from their initial locations) and corrects these registry entries to actual located objects. Also, if your registry still retains links to file(s) of deleted applications, Registry First Aid will find these invalid entries and you can delete them. With this powerful tool, your Windows registry will be always clean and correct.

Warning!

Be extremely careful when removing registry entries. Some entries may look like invalid references, but may in fact may be used for some other purpose. Always make backup files of your original registry entries when you are prompted by Registry First Aid.

Also, sometimes it would be better to delete not only the string value but also the whole key. An example like this would be when a program that used a registry entry value is gone from your computer.

See next:

Getting started


Registering the software

This software is released as SHAREWARE. You may use this software for evaluation purposes without charge for a period of 30 days. Some restrictions present in the non-registered version. For a fully functional version you are expected to register this software.

To register Registry First Aid, simply log online to make your payment via the online order page at http://www.RoseCitySoftware.com/Reg1Aid/

If you do not have access to the Internet, you can register the software via phone, fax or postal mail. Please see the ORDER.TXT file provided with the program.

Registration gains access to the some advanced features:

•	Unlimited technical support;

•	Fixing more than 10 invalid registry entries for "Invalid paths" and more that 1 for each of other categories at once;

•	No nag-screens;

•	No fee for all future minor versions.

•	Upon receipt of your registration fee with the completed registration form you will receive an e-mail with the registration key which will correspond to the registration name given in the registration form.

•	Upon receipt of your registration key you should start the program, click the Info button, select Registration from the menu and the "Registration" window will appear. Enter the registration information. Press the Register button. If the registration information is correct, the registration will pass successfully. All limitations of the unregistered copy will be removed. Otherwise it will be necessary to verify the information and repeat the registration. It is a good idea to save the registration information in a safe place to avoid loss of your registration (if you reinstall your system the registration key may be lost).

Note: If you haven't received a confirmation letter with your registration code within a reasonable amount of time (two business days for credit card payments or two weeks for other payments), please notify us! It may mean that the e-mail address in your order form was invalid. We're very sorry for any inconvenience caused by those delays.


Technical support

Please read carefully the FAQ section of this help before e-mailing for technical support. Perhaps you find an answer there.

Please send all questions and suggestions to reg1_support@infinisource.com

To help us to figure out a problem faster you can send us a Registry First Aid bug-report file.

To create a bug-report file:

1. Go to the Start Menu -> Programs -> Registry First Aid -> Send bugreport.

2. A small utility will run and create bug-report file "RFA_bugreport.txt" on your desktop.

3. Send us that file by e-mail.

Please refer to your email program (Outlook, Netscape, etc.) on how to attach a file to an e-mail message.

Also, you can provide us with a screenshot of error that you see.

To create a screeshot, press the "Print Scrn" key (above the "Insert" key on your keyboard). Then go to the Start Menu, Programs, Accessories and run Paint. Go to the Edit menu and select Paste command. This will create an image with your desktop in Paint. Save image as JPEG file and attach it to a bug-report e-mail.


Starting

Quick Tour: Step 1

Registry First Aid is designed like a wizard. It will guide you through the entire process of fixing invalid registry entries.

Screenshot.

The wizard consists of two parts:

•	checking the registry for errors,

•	searching the registry for unwanted entries.

Each part has three steps:

•	Selecting error types (or keywords to search in the registry);

•	Verifying found invalid (or unwanted) entries;

•	Fixing the registry.

Also, there can be two additional steps by clicking on the Advanced settings button on the Starting page:

•	Setting excluded drive letters and search paths;

•	Setting entries excluded from the registry scan;

Each step requires the completion of the previous process as listed above. If you want to repeat a step, you can use the Back button. For each step there are information tips that briefly describe what you can do on that particular step. Until you become familiar with Registry First Aid it is highly recommended that you read the tips.

On the Starting page you can select action you want to do: check the registry for errors or search the registry for unwanted entries. Then click on the Next button to move to the next wizard page. Depending on the action you select on the next page you can either select errors to scan the registry or enter keywords to search.

Press the Start button at the bottom of the wizard to process.

You can stop the scanning by pressing the Stop button at any time during the scan.

Next step >>

See also:

Advanced settings

Selecting the registry errors to scan

Entering keywords to search in the registry


Verifying found invalid (or unwanted) entries

Quick Tour: Step 2

While scanning the registry for invalid entries, the wizard opens the found entries page. After the registry scanning process has finished, all located entries appear on this page of the wizard.

Screenshot

The screen is divided on two parts: the navigation bar at left side and the entries list at right side. The navigation bar contains selected scan categories. Clicking on an item (like Invalid fonts or Invalid paths) will open a corresponding list with found invalid registry entries.

At this point, you need to decide which entries need to be fixed. Carefully look through the list and deselect the items that you do not want to correct. You may use the right mouse click pop-up menu to assist in your selections. By default all entries that can be safely corrected are selected. Also, you may choose a correction for selected invalid entry from the drop-down list of available corrections.

Refer also to Select corrections for found invalid entries topic.

After looking through all found registry keys and selecting the most appropriate corrections for them, you may apply registry changes by pushing the Next button. The wizard will advance to the fixing the registry page.

<< Previous step | Next step >>

See also:

Selecting corrections for found invalid entries

Fixing the registry


Fixing the registry

Quick Tour: Step 3

On this last wizard page, you have to confirm the deletion or modification of registry keys, and choose a backup file name. You may browse the file system for the folder where you want to save the backup file. The backup files are of REGEDIT4 format and can help you later to restore the modified registry keys to initial state. See the How to restore modified entries topic.

Screenshot

By default the checkbox "Save the undo file (regedit4 format)" is checked. Enter the full path and file name to the edit field below. An example is: "C:\Program Files\RFA\Backups\2001_04_27.reg". You may or may not type the filename with the file extension. If file extension is absent, then the ".reg" extension will be automatically added. It is possible to use the Browse button to locate a path and file name as well. By default the program offers to save backup file into the "Backups" folder at the program home folder (e.g. "C:\Program Files\RFA\Backups").

If you do not want to save a backup of the registry entries then clear the "Save the undo file (regedit4 format)" checkbox.

Note:

•	We do not recommend that you skip saving the backup file as you will not be able to restore the modified registry keys if needed.

•	Give different names to backups each time you clean the registry. By default backup names contain current date like as "C:\Program Files\RFA\2001_04_27_1026.reg". Usually, you do not need to change them.

To apply changes to the registry, press the Fix it! button. If the operation will be successful you will receive an information message. Registry First Aid's wizard will jump back to the found registry entries page where you can select other entries for correction.

<< Previous step

See also:

Make backups when deleting/changing registry entries

Found invalid entries listview


Select the registry errors to scan

On this wizard page you can select what error types you want to scan in the registry.

Screenshot.

Options available:

•	Invalid paths;

•	Invalid fonts;

•	Obsolete Start Menu items;

•	Invalid application paths;

•	Invalid help files;

•	Invalid shared DLLs;

•	Auto run registry keys;

•	Unused software entries.

Select error categories you want to scan for in the registry.

The registry scan process will begin when you press the Start button at the bottom of the wizard. To return to the previous page press the Back button.

The program scans HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKEY_USERS\.Default, HKEY_USERS\Software and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry entries and checks them for selected registry errors. Scanning may take a few minutes depending on your processor and available RAM. Found entries are displayed in the list view on the found registry entries page. Note that the hive HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT is the subkey \Software\Classes of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive. So, it is scanned by Registry First Aid too.

You can stop the scanning by pressing the Stop button at any time during the scan.

See also:

Found invalid entries listview

Select corrections for found invalid entries


Enter keywords to search in the registry

On this wizard page you can enter or select keywords to search in the registry.

Caution!

The Search tool is NOT to find "BAD" entries, but "ALL" entries that contain a word. Its use is to see if entries are left in your registry after uninstalling a program say like Norton Utilities where you could search for words like Symantec and Norton to see what is left behind and then delete WHAT YOU WANT not all that are displayed.

Screenshot.

To add keyword enter a string of one or more words into the box and press the Add button. String will be added into the list and will have "checked" status. Only items with "checked" status will be searched in the registry.

All items in the list are saved and will appear on next program run.

To remove an item simply click on it to select and press the Remove button.

To search a phrase in the registry you can enter more than one word. For example, if you enter "Norton Antivirus" then registry entries containing this phrase exactly (with one space between words) will be found. If you don't know if there are any other words between "Norton" and "Antivirus" then you should add these two words separately and select the Search for ALL strings option (see below).

There are some searching options on this wizard page:

Search for ANY of strings - registry keys containing any of selected keywords in the list will be found (OR operation);

Search for ALL strings - registry keys containing all selected keywords in the list will be found (AND operation).

Case sensitive -  searching can be case sensitive or not.

Look the strings at:

Keys - search in registry keys;

Values - search in registry key values;

Data - search in registry value data (only in values of string type).

The registry search process will begin when you press the Start button at the bottom of the wizard. To retunt to the previous page press the Back button.

The program searches HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKEY_USERS\.Default, HKEY_USERS\Software and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry entries for selected strings. Scanning may take a few minutes depending on your processor and available RAM. Found entries are displayed in the list view on the found registry entries page. Note that HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT hive is the subkey \Software\Classes of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive. So, it is scanned by Registry First Aid too.

See also:

Found registry entries listview


Select corrections for found registry entries

When Registry First Aid completes the registry scanning it will begin to search for matches on drives or paths that are listed in the list of searching paths. After finishing the searching the program will show all found entries with suggested corrections in the found invalid entries listview.

Screenshot

The listview can display found invalid registry entries. Clicking on a corresponding item (like Invalid fonts or Invalid paths) within the navigation bar at left side of the window, will open a list with found invalid registry entries.

There you can select entries that you want to correct.

Click here to read how every entry is displayed in the list.

•	To validate found invalid registry entry you can use the right-click context menu. This menu allows you to see the value in the registry using the "REGEDIT"  funciton. Registry First Aid will run regedit.exe and open the selected registry key. For information on how to edit an entry using regedit.exe please refer to the Windows help.

•	To verify the existence of an invalid file/folder registry reference you can use the Open the destination folder command from the pop-up menu. Registry First Aid will open a folder that corresponds to the path where an entry should exist.

•	The Select option from the pop-up menu allows you select/deselect items in the listview.

The entries that are checked (selected) in the listview are the only items that will be corrected. They have a cross at the left side.

•	The Highlight option from the pop-up menu allows you to operate with "Highlight" flag.

To highlight entries in the listview hold the left mouse button while dragging over the list. The CTRL or SHIFT keys can be used to highlight items in the listview, in the manner like in the Windows explorer (please refer to the "To select multiple files and folders" Windows help topic).

•	The Set corrections for highlighted items to... option from the pop-up menu allows you to set correction for all highlighted items.

Please read the Using the pop-up menu topic for more information about context pop-up menu commands.

After looking through all invalid registry keys and choosing your (most suitable) corrections, you can commence to apply the registry changes by clicking the Next button. In the fixing registry page the Fix It button will commit your changes and if you want, an "Undo" file can be created for recovery purposes.

See also:

Selecting applicable matches with the invalid entries

Fixing the registry

Make backups when deleting/changing registry entries

Using the pop-up menu


How every found entry is displayed in the list

Each item under the Invalid paths consists of three lines (parts):

- the registry key;

- the parameter's name and value;

- the suggested correction.

Each item under the Invalid fonts consists of three lines (parts):

- the registry key;

- the font name and referenced file name;

- the suggested correction.

Each item under the Obsolete Start Menu items consists of two lines (parts):

- the registry key with obsolete menu item;

- the suggested correction.

Each item under the Invalid application paths consists of three lines (parts):

- the registry key with the application exe name;

- the problem description;

- the suggested correction.

Each item under the Invalid help files consists of three lines (parts):

- the registry key;

- the help file name and path;

- the suggested correction.

Each item under the Invalid shared DLLs consists of three lines (parts):

- the registry key;

- the invalid shared DLL file path;

- the suggested correction.

Each item under the Auto run programs consists of three lines (parts):

- the registry key;

- the name, description and path of a program in auto start registry key;

- the suggested correction.

Each item under the Unused software entries consists of two lines (parts):

- the registry key with obsolete software entry;

- the suggested correction.

Different parts of an item can have different font colors:

Registry key and simple text - black font color;

Registry parameter - blue font color;

Invalid value - red font color;

Suggested correction - font color depends on the type of correction (see below).

If you click on an item in the listview a drop-down list will appear with all available suggested corrections for the invalid registry entry described by the item. If there aren't any overt corrections to be made, you will have the choice to "Leave the entry without changes" or to "Delete the entry (no matches found)". If there are corrections, then the list will specify the most correct change (default) and others that apply. Select the most appropriate choice by clicking the entry. The choices for the item in the listview have a font color associated with the type of correction as described below:

Available corrections can be highlighted in the following manner:

Leave the entry without changes - black font color;

Delete the entry - olive font color;

Found correction 1 - green font color;

Found correction 2 - green font color;

and etc.


Using the pop-up menu

You have access to many additional options and commands from the context pop-up menu.

Screenshot

From the right-click pop-up menu you can validate the existence of a selected entry in the registry. To run regedit.exe and open a selected registry key select the Open the registry key with RegEdit menu command. For information on how to edit an entry using regedit.exe please refer to the Windows help.

To verify the existence of an invalid file/folder registry reference you can use the Open the destination folder command. Registry First Aid will open a folder that corresponds to the path where an entry should exist.

The Select option from the pop-up menu allows you make choices in several ways. With this option you can:

•	select/deselect all of the items in the listview;

•	select/deselect only highlighted items in the listview;

•	invert selection flag for all items in the listview.

The entries that are checked (selected) in the listview are the only items that will be corrected. They have a cross at the left side.

The Highlight option from the pop-up menu allows you to operate with "Highlight" flag. With this option you can:

•	highlight/de-highlight all of the items in the listview;

•	highlight/de-highlight only selected items in the listview;

•	invert "highlight" flag for all items in the listview.

To highlight entries in the listview hold the left mouse button while dragging over the list. The CTRL or SHIFT keys can be used to select and highlight items in the listview, in the manner like in Windows explorer (please refer to the "To select multiple files and folders" Windows help topic).

The Set corrections for highlighted items to... option from the pop-up menu allows you to set correction for all highlighted items. With this option you can set correction for every entry:

•	to the most suggested;

•	to "Leave the entry without change";

•	to "Delete the entry".

The Save found entries into a text file... command allows to save all found entries as text. Please refer to the Save found entries into a text file topic.

The Print all found entries command allows to print all found entries. Please refer to the Print all found entries topic.

The Add highlighted entries into excluded list command will add registry keys of the highlighted items into an excluded list. This will avoid finding those registry entries as invalid in the future scans. Please refer to the Add/Remove registry entries into excluded lists topic for more information.


Advanced settings

After pressing on the Advanced settings button on the Start Page you will be able to check and modify the following settings:

•	Adding drive letters to the excluded drives list;

•	Adding folders/drives to the list of searched paths for file/folder/font matches; (Screenshot)

And

•	Adding registry entries into excluded lists. (Screenshot)

The excluded drive list contains drive letters that will be excluded from the registry scanning. This means that if a registry entry contains a path like "F:\autorun\auto.exe" and the letter "F" is in the excluded drives list, then Registry First Aid will not check this file for existence (will skip this entry). For more information please refer to the How to add drive letters to the excluded drives list topic.

The list of paths contains paths where to search for file/folder matches. To scan hard drives for registry corrections specify the paths you want to search. Refer also to the How to add paths where to search for matches' topic.

On the second Advanced settings page you may exclude some registry entries from the registry scanning by adding these entries into one of excluded lists. More information is in the Adding/Removing excluded registry entries topic.

See also:

Adding drive letters to excluded drives list

Adding paths where to search for matches

Adding/Removing excluded registry entries


Add drive letters to the excluded drives list

At this window user can set drive letters of paths to ignore when scanning the registry.

Screenshot.

On the top of the window there is the list of drive letters that will be excluded from the registry search for invalid file/folder references. This feature is useful for CD-ROMs, network and removable drives. For example, if your registry contains some references to files on a CD-ROM that currently is not in a drive and you do not want to remove those references then add CD-ROM drive letter to the list. You may also add to the list, all your removable media drive letters. By default the excluded list is empty. So all links to files or folders on your removable drives will be found.

To add a drive letter to the list, enter it in the edit box and press the Add button. To remove a letter from the list, select it and press the Remove button.

See also:

Advanced settings


Add paths where to search for matches

To scan hard drives for registry corrections specify the paths you want to search.

Screenshot.

At the bottom of the window the list of searched paths is displayed.

Adding paths or local hard drives to the search list is very easy. If you don't know where files might be located, just add all of your hard drives - C, D, etc. By default the list already contains all fixed drives. Note that depending on the size of the drives and number of files, scanning may take more time. Registry First Aid always scans selected folders including their subfolders. In most cases to speed up the process you might only add the Windows folder (e.g. "C:\Windows") and "C:\Program Files" folder. An overwhelming majority of invalid entries reside in these folders or directory paths.

Note: if the list contains upper-level folder path then you won't be able to add a subfolder (for example if the "C:\Windows\" folder is in the list, the subfolder "C:\Windows\Subfolder\" can not be added in the list). The reason for this is because the program always scans folders with their subfolder paths automatically.

See also:

Advanced settings


Add/Remove registry entries into excluded lists

Registry First Aid has several lists of registry entries that will be excluded from the registry scanning.

Screenshot

Entries that are in the Invalid path entries excluded list will be excluded from analyzing registry for invalid paths. The program will skip these registry entries. Entries from the Invalid font entries excluded list will be skipped while analyzing registry for invalid font references. And so on. Every registry problem category has own excluded list. Some lists contain several default excluded entries.

User can add new registry keys to these lists. If the program finds repeatedly the same entry as invalid or empty then user can add it to the one of excluded lists. If you want to exclude some program entries from to be found as invalid you can also add these entries into the excluded list. Usually you don't know exactly all programs' registry entries that can be found as invalid. So, scan the registry and add to the excluded list those entries that belong to the program you want to exclude (using the right mouse click pop-up menu).

To add or remove an entry you have to select a list from the drop-down box and press the Add button, or select an item in the list and press the Remove button. It is possible to edit user-added entries using the Edit button. Default excluded entries can't be removed or edited.

It is always possible to restore default excluded lists using the Restore default button. Note that then all user added entries will be lost.

Adding a new registry entry into the excluded list is also available just after registry scanning. To add an entry please do the registry scan, then select the entry to be excluded and add it to the list using the right mouse click pop-up menu.

The default excluded entries are stored in the excluded.def file located in the program home folder. It is not recommended to edit it manually using notepad or other text editors. User should add or remove user-defined excluded entries from the program dialog only.

See also:

Advanced settings


Make backups before modifying registry entries

On the last page of the wizard, you are prompted to save a backup of the registry file. Only the modified registry entries are backed up. The backup file is a text file of REGEDIT4 format (used primary in Windows 95, 98, NT4 and supported by Windows 2000/XP) and has the ".reg" extension.

Screenshot

To roll back all changes that were made to the registry you have to run (by double-clicking in the explorer window) each created backup file. Refer to the How to restore registry entries from a backup file topic.

By default all backup files are saved in the folder "C:\Program Files\RFA\Backups\". Although user can select folder where backup files are saved and change backup filenames, doing so is not recommended. Default backup folder can be opened from the Start menu -> Programs -> Registry First Aid group -> Open Backup folder and used in Registry First Aid restoration wizard.

If you do not want to backup the registry, then uncheck the Save the undo file checkbox. Note that then you will not be able to restore modified registry keys.

It is highly recommended to always create a registry backup file. Otherwise you will not be able to restore the modified registry keys if needed.

See also:

Fixing registry

How to restore registry entries from a backup file


Create full registry backup

Before the scan Registry First Aid will create a full registry backup. It will show to the user an information dialog, and user have to click the OK button to continue. To view the help on how to restore the registry from a full backup, user can click on the Help button. The Cancel will close the dialog and prevent the registry scan with the program. So, making a full registry backup is required. Registry First Aid calls Windows registry backup tools.

Windows 98/ME

The program will launch Windows' Registry scanner and backup utility SCANREGW.EXE. This utility will check the registry integrity. Once complete you will see a Registry Scan Results dialog box informing you of the scan results (it will tell you whether there were errors or not) and asking if you'd like to create a backup. Click the Yes button and Scanreg will create a full registry backup with the label "Reg1Aid_backup". You can use this label later to restore the registry.

Windows 2000

User should have administrator's privileges on the system.

The program will launch the Windows 2000 Backup utility. You can find the Backup utility on the System Tools menu. For registry backup you need to backup the System State. This item can be found on the Backup tab under My Computer. Or you can use the Backup Wizard and choose the "Only back up the System State data" option. After choosing to back up the System State, you can select the media to which you want to back up. You can choose a disk file or tape. The Win2K Registry backup utility backs up all of the hives of interest in %systemroot%\system32\config, including Default, Software, System, SAM, and Security. However, it also backs up system files, user profiles, and any part of your system required to do a complete system restoration.

As such, you can easily back up the Registry by clicking the Start Backup button.

Windows XP Professional and Home Edition

User should have administrator's privileges on the system.

The program will launch System Restore Wizard that can be found manually from the Start menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore. When System Restore Wizard opens, click "Create a Restore Point" then click Next.  Enter a name for this Restore Point (for instance, "Before Registry First Aid scan"), and click Create. The utility will then take a snapshot of your system so that you can restore to that point sometime in the future.

For additional information about System Restore in Windows XP, click Help and Support on the Start menu. In the Search box, type "system restore", and then press ENTER.

See also:

  Make a backup before deleting/changing registry entries

  Restore a full registry backup in Windows 98

  Restore a full registry backup in Windows ME

  Restore a full registry backup in Windows XP


What restore option choose

If you have a problem with your system after running Registry First Aid corrections you can restore the initial registry state. Registry First Aid makes two types of the registry backups: full registry backup made before the scan and backups of modified registry entries made just before modifying the registry.

You can restore the registry using the Start Menu -> Registry First Aid group -> Registry Restore shortcut. Restoration Wizard will run and you will see two options: Restore the registry from .reg files or Full registry restore from system backup. See a screenshot.

If you have found a problem with your system then first try to restore the most recent .reg backup file. Select the Restore the registry from .reg files option and click Next. You will see a list of available backups. See a screenshot. Select the most recent backup and click the Restore button. Then you have to restart Windows to be sure that registry was restored. After reboot check if a problem still exists. If a problem persists then you can restore all of .reg backup files created after date when you sure the system was OK. More information about restore window.

If none of .reg backup files solved a problem then you can restore the registry from a most recent system backup. Such backups are created by Registry First Aid on daily basis before scanning the registry. I.e. if you scanned the registry twice yesterday then only one system backup was created.

Run the Restoration Wizard from the Start Menu -> Registry First Aid group -> Registry restore shortcut and select the Full registry restore from system backup option. Follow the instructions.

For more information about restoring the registry from full backup or if your system doesn't start, please see one of the next topics:

Restore a full registry backup in Windows 98

Restore a full registry backup in Windows ME

Restore a full registry backup in Windows 2000

Restore a full registry backup in Windows XP

Registry First Aid uses Windows restoration tool to create full registry backups and restore. So, it is as safe as Microsoft can guarantee.

If a problem still exists after full registry restoration from a valid system backup then that problem caused by something other than Registry First Aid and doesn't deal with RFA's registry correction.


Restore registry from .reg backup files

On this page of Restoration Wizard you can see the list of available backups. See a screenshot.

This list shows all .reg backup files created in the last selected backup folder. If you did not change backup folder then it is "C:\Program Files\RFA\Backups\" by default. You can view list of .reg backup files in any other folder pointing there with the Browse button.

To view or edit any of backup files from the list select a file and click the View button.

To restore any of backup files from the list select a file and pick the related checkbox. Then click the Restore button. Please restart Windows and check if a problem still exists. If a problem persists then you can restore all of .reg backup files created after a date when you sure the system was OK.

Although you can select more than one backup file to restore, it is recommended to restore only one backup per reboot.

By default backup files have the following name format "yyyy_mm_dd_mmss.reg". Here yyyy is year, mm is month, dd is day and mmss are minutes and seconds of date file created. Backup files are saved by default in the folder "C:\Program Files\RFA\Backups\". User can browse this folder with explorer or quick open it from the Start menu -> Programs -> Registry First Aid group -> Open Backup Folder. To manually restore registry entries from a .reg backup file open backup folder, find a backup file that you want to restore and double-click on it. It will run regedit.exe - the standard Windows program - that will ask you if you really want to add this information into the registry. If you answer "Yes" then registry entries from this backup file will be restored.


Full registry backup restore in Windows 98

You can read before:

  Create full registry backup

In order to restore one of your copies of the registry you must boot into DOS. There are three basic ways to boot into pure DOS.

Windows 98 does start

To restore the registry you can use two ways: automatic and manual.

•	Automatic method:

To restore the registry to one of it's previous states, you can use the Start Menu -> Registry First Aid group -> Registry restore shortcut. You will be prompted to restart Windows. After restarting you will see a restore screen with all registry backups you have.

•	Manual method:

Boot computer into pure DOS using one of the methods described in the "Windows 98 does not start" topic, or if you are in Windows you can go to Start/Shut Down... and select Restart in MS-DOS mode. The computer will restart in pure DOS (not a DOS box in Windows - very important distinction).

Once you've restarted the computer in MS-DOS mode, type SCANREG.EXE /RESTORE command. This utility will ask you what backup file you want to restore. You will see a list of backups like the following:

04/02/02    rb004.cab    Not Started     Reg1Aid_backup

04/02/02    rb003.cab    Not Started

04/02/02    rb002.cab    Not Started     Reg1Aid_backup

04/02/02    rb001.cab    Started

Using the arrow keys, select the CAB (the CABs you will see are archived copies of the Registry) you want. The CAB files are listed by date with the most recent copy at the top. The CABs with the "Reg1Aid_backup" labels were created by Registry First Aid before the registry scans. You can restore either the latest Registry First Aid's CAB or the most recent CAB created at the system startup (it has the "Started" label).

Once you've restored the Registry, use the arrow keys to highlight Exit and then reboot. You should now be able to boot back into Windows 98 normally, just as before you edited the Registry or had a problem.

Windows 98 does not start

You should start computer into pure DOS by holding down the Ctrl key as soon as the BIOS information clears the screen. As soon as the menu appears, press the Space Bar (or any other key) once. This will keep the menu active and allow you the time to read over the selections available. Choose Command Prompt Only from the menu. You will then be in Pure DOS.

OR

If you are having trouble booting your computer, you can use a Windows 98 boot floppy disk. It can be created from the Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Windows -> Create boot disk. Of course, this should be done before any problems can appear. Insert the disk into the floppy drive and reboot the computer.

Warning! Make sure that your backups are current. If you restore an old backup it could be fatal if you've made major changes to the operating system or hardware since the backups were created. For example, if you've installed Internet Explorer 6 and restore your registry from a backup predating that, expect that your computer won't boot properly.


Full registry backup restore in Windows ME

You can read before:

  Create full registry backup

In Windows ME user doesn't need to reboot in DOS mode manually.

To restore the registry you can use two ways: automatic and manual.

•	Automatic method:

To restore the registry to one of it's previous states, you can use either the Start Menu -> Registry First Aid group -> Registry restore shortcut.

•	Manual method:

Point to the Start menu -> Run... command and type "scanregw /restore" into the prompt.

Backup utility will ask you what backup file you want to restore.

Using the arrow keys, select the CAB (the CABs you will see are archived copies of the Registry) you want. The CAB files are listed by date with the most recent copy at the top. The CABs with the "Reg1Aid_backup" labels were created by Registry First Aid before the registry scans. You can restore either the latest Registry First Aid's CAB or the most recent CAB created at the system startup (it has the "Started" label).

Once you've selected the backup file to restore, the system will reboot and restore registry files.

Warning! Make sure that your backups are current. If you restore an old backup it could be fatal if you've made major changes to the operating system or hardware since the backups were created. For example, if you've installed Internet Explorer 6 and restore your registry from a backup predating that, expect that your computer won't boot properly.


Full registry backup restore in Windows 2000

You can read before:

  Create full registry backup

Windows 2000 Professional and Server

Windows 2000 does start

Log on to Windows as Administrator.

To restore the registry to one of it's previous states, you can use either the Start Menu -> Registry First Aid group -> Registry restore shortcut or run the Backup utility from the Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools menu.

In the Backup utility select the Restore tab, choose the backup media, and then select the System State check box. Keep in mind that Backup will not only restore the registry, but it will also restore all of the system state data.

Note that after the System State restoration process is completed, you need to shut down and restart the system. You won't see the results of the restoration immediately.

Wizard Tip: When you start Windows 2000, you can instantly restore the most recent copy of the registry. To do so, restart your system and when you see the "Please Select the Operating System to Start" message, press [F8] and then use arrow keys to select the "Last Known Good Configuration" option and press [Enter]. You can also use this quick restore technique in Windows NT.

Windows 2000 does not start

If Windows does not start, restart Windows by using the "Last Known Good Configuration feature": start the computer and then press the F8 key when Windows begins to start. The Windows Advanced Options menu appears.

Use the ARROW keys to select "Last Known Good Configuration" (your most recent settings that worked), and then press ENTER. Windows will restore the computer to the most recent restore point.

Warning! Make sure that your backups are current. If you restore an old backup it could be fatal if you've made major changes to the operating system or hardware since the backups were created. For example, if you've installed Internet Explorer 6 and restore your registry from a backup predating that, expect that your computer won't boot properly.


Full registry backup restore in Windows XP

You can read before:

  Create full registry backup

Windows XP Professional and Home Edition

Windows XP does start

Log on to Windows as Administrator.

To restore the registry to one of it's previous states, you can use either the Start Menu -> Registry First Aid group -> Registry restore shortcut or run the System Restore utility from the All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools menu.

System Restore starts. On the Welcome to System Restore page, click "Restore my computer to an earlier time" (if it is not already selected), and then click Next.

On the Select a Restore Point page, pick a date on the calendar, select in the restore point list the most recent system checkpoint created with the program, and then click Next. A System Restore message may appear that lists configuration changes that System Restore will make. Click OK.

On the Confirm Restore Point Selection page, click Next. System Restore restores the previous Windows XP configuration, and then restarts the computer.

Log on to the computer as Administrator. The System Restore Restoration Complete page appears.

Click OK.

For additional information about System Restore in Windows XP, click Help and Support on the Start menu. In the Search box, type "system restore", and then press ENTER.

Windows XP does not start

If Windows does not start, restart Windows by using the "Last Known Good Configuration feature": start the computer and then press the [F8] key when Windows begins to start. The Windows Advanced Options menu appears.

Use the ARROW keys to select "Last Known Good Configuration" (your most recent settings that worked), and then press [ENTER].

If a boot menu appears, use the ARROW keys to select Microsoft Windows XP, and then press [ENTER]. Windows XP restores the computer to the most recent restore point.

Warning! Make sure that your backups are current. If you restore an old backup it could be fatal if you've made major changes to the operating system or hardware since the backups were created. For example, if you've installed Internet Explorer 6 and restore your registry from a backup predating that, expect that your computer won't boot properly.


Compacting the registry

After a short while of deleting, adding and updating the registry data, the data becomes fragmented, with data and free space intermingled. This makes registry access slow. Registry First Aid allows you compact the registry with easy.

Option Compact the Registry is available on Windows 98/ME systems only. After successful registry correction the program automatically offers to the user to compact the registry.

Registry First Aid calls Windows registry tool scanreg.exe with "opt" parameter for compacting, so this operation is as safe as Microsoft can guarantee.


Run registry editor at the selected Registry key

It is possible to run the registry editor and make it open one of the found invalid registry keys. To do so just select any registry reference at the main listview, right mouse click on it and select the Open the registry key with RegEdit menu item.

See a screenshot


Open a folder where the Registry entry points

It is possible to open an explorer window at the folder that is referenced from an invalid registry entry. It is useful when you want to be sure whether a file actually does exist or not.

To open explorer window at the referenced folder, right-click on the selected registry entry and choose the Open the destination folder menu item.

See a screenshot


Save found entries into a text file

User can save list of found entries into a text file.

To save entries as text right mouse click on the found entries list to pop-up menu and select the Save found entries into a text file... command. See a screenshot. The "file save" dialog will appear. Browse for a folder where you want to save a file and type in a filename and click OK.

Created file will contain all entries that you can see under the all of categories. You can open it Notepad, Wordpad or any text editor program supporting the TXT file format.

See also:

  Printing all found entries


Print all found entries

The program allows you to print all found invalid entries.

To print entries right mouse click on the found entries list and select the Print all found entries command. See a screenshot.

Note that your system may contain a huge list of invalid entries, so printing may take a lot of paper. We recommend to save large lists as text files and then edit them in a text processor (decrease font size, split into columns, etc.) before printing.

See also:

  Saving list of found entries


Check the Web for updates

To check for new Registry First Aid versions press the "i" (information) button, then click on the Check website for new version menu command. See a screenshot. The program will connect to the home website and get information about latest version. If a new version will be detected then user will be prompted to open the webpage for downloading.

No private information will be sent out. The program retrieves only a latest available program version number from the home website.


Multilanguage Support

Registry First Aid has a multilanguage support.

Switching between languages.

First of all, in the application home folder should be one or more language files. The Language file always has the .lan  extension. The default language file, english.lan, is distributed with the program and is always in the program home folder. You can also create your own language file. See below on how to create your own file.

If the application home folder contains more than one language file, it is possible to switch between languages. Select language on the fisrt page of the program wizard and interface will be changed.

See a screenshot.

How to translate the program interface to your language:

Copy the english.lan  file at the home application folder to your language name (like the "spanish.lan" or "dutch.lan"), open it with any text editor (please do not use Microsoft Word for these purposes! Notepad is the best for that operation). Replace the right side of the string "Language=English" with your language (like "Language=Spanish") and translate all texts in this file.

Please note that each string in the file that should be translated has the identifier=some text  structure. You should translate ONLY some text  part of each string since identifier  part is used by the program to identify text entries. Also do not translate text in the brackets [..].

Check your translation by running the program and selecting your language. If you have problems with testing your language with the program do not hesitate to contact the program support.


FAQ contents

"How-to" questions

If I get an error relating to some deleted Registry item, how do I locate this in the backup, and restore it?

"Why" questions

Why does a second run the program still finds a few dozen invalid entries?

Why does RFA find less invalid registry entries than some other registry cleaners?

Why RFA does not scan HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT hive? Is there a reason for this?

Why it does not recognize all my removable drives in the "excluded" list?

Why does RFA initially show entries as "Delete Entry" and then change to "Leave the entry without change"?

Why after running RFA, the program asks whether I want to compact the registry? Do I want to do that?

Problem-related questions

Some Windows 98 SE systems hung up after running the program. Sometimes a Kernel32.dll error appears.

I have multiprocessor machine and the program raises "Access Violation" error while running the scan.

After cleaning the registry by Registry First Aid, a program does not function correctly. What do I do?

"Error reading REG_MULTI_SZ registry key : "Counter"" appears during the registry scan.

Questions related to installation

What is the proper procedure for installing updates? Should I uninstall the previous version?

How do I uninstall Registry First Aid?

Questions about registering

What is the limitation of unregistered version?


Why does RFA initially show entries as "Delete Entry" and then change to "Leave the entry without change"?

Initially, all found invalid entries are marked as "Delete the entry". Then RFA searches the hard drives for corrections and decides what correction is the most appropriate for each entry. RFA makes the decision about which entry can be deleted or not after all available corrections have been found.

If they are then unchecked, it's because they are too complex to be determined what you need to do and they require you to analyze what to do with them. If they look like some sort of system item, it is recommended to add them to the excluded list to leave them intact and not check them in the future.


What is the limitation of unregistered version?

The unregistered version is limited to fix only up to 10 entries for the "Invalid paths" category and up to 1 entry for each of other categories per scan. To fix next portion of invalid entries you have to re-scan the registry. Or you need to register the program.


Why does RFA find less invalid registry entries than some other registry cleaners?

The hive [HKEY_CURRENT_USER] is subset of [HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-xxxx] that details out the profile of the current user;

The hive [HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG] is a subset of [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Config] that details the current configuration;

The hive [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT] is subset of [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes] with class definitions.

Registry First Aid scans only one hive of these doubled keys. For instance, it scans [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes] and doesn't [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT]. All corrections applied to only one set will be reflected to another set too.

To avoid deleting of registry entries that are necessary for some programs Registry First Aid has several excluded lists. These excluded lists contain registry entries that should not be deleted or changed. Other registry cleaners may not have that and will find and remove important registry keys.

Registry First Aid has the excluded drives list. Into this list, the user can add drive letters of paths to ignore when scanning the registry. For example, if you do not want to remove registry references to files on a CD-ROM that currently is not in a drive or on a removable drive then you can add their drive letters into the this excluded list. Many registry cleaners do not have this type of list and look for all references to all drives. And while scanning you may even see the "Please insert a disk into drive X: (Abort, Retry, Ignore)" message.


Why it does not recognize all my removable drives in the "excluded" list?

Earlier versions put my C drive into "include" and correctly put my A, D and E drives into the "exclude".

The Excluded Drives List is empty by default. This is because a lot of registry entries contain file references to removable drives that will never be used again. We have to give users the ability to view all invalid entries by default. If a user needs to leave some entries unchanged then he/she will have to add removable drive letters to the Excluded Drives List (or add entries to the Excluded Entries List). This is a once-only operation. The program saves excluded lists for next runs.


Why does a second run the program still finds a few dozen invalid entries?

Some programs save working information in the Windows registry every time they are run. That information may be information such as paths to currently nonexistent files. For example, you've created a new file in WordPad, saved it into a temporary folder and then moved it to your documents folder. But WordPad has the saved link to the file in the temporary folder as a recently used file. So if you have successfully cleaned the registry and then were working with your computer, after restarting you may get some invalid registry references again. It is normal situation and there's no reason to worry. The main thing is that you get many fewer of invalid references than before a first clean. For example, 5-10 instead of 700 invalid entries. To avoid invalid references' accumulation in the registry we would like to advise you to clean registry with Registry First Aid regularly.


"Error reading REG_MULTI_SZ registry key : "Counter"" appears during the registry scan.

Probably there is something wrong with the data in the registry...

Please resize the program window to view full registry key name (at the bottom status line) that is scanned when the error appears. For instance this is "[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Perflib\006".

Open this key in RegEdit.exe, click on the key, then go to the "Registry" main menu, "Export Registry File..", save the key into a .reg file and send us (rfa@zoneutils.com) that file. Also, you can try to fix integrity error in the registry yourself by importing that file back to the registry. To do this simply double-click on file. This will rewrite data for "Counter" value. After this please run Registry Healer and check for the "REG_MULTI_SZ" error again. Send us your results.

Anyway, contact our support team - we will try to figure out the problem.

Thank you for your help.


After cleaning the registry by Registry First Aid, a program does not function correctly. What do I do?

First of all restore your latest backup file of empty entries. For example file "2002_10_21.reg". Then run the program. If it fails then restore the previous backup file, for example "2002_10_20.reg". Run the program. If it will fail again then restore all backup files one by one and keep trying to run the program after each backup file to figure out the problem.

After you have restored your program functionality please scan the registry and try to find within found invalid entries a registry key that corresponds to the problem program. Usually it looks like "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\your_problem_program_name\....". Unpick the all found entries, pick this only entry and clean the registry (with creating an individual backup file like "C:\Program Files\Reg1Atd\Backups\trouble_1.reg"). Then run your program and check if it function properly. If it is running OK then restore that corrected entry and try to find another problem entry using the previous method. When you will found the problem entry (after correcting it your favorite program will not work), add the entry to the excluded list.

Then make healing the registry (the problem entry will be excluded from the registry scanning) and be sure that your program works now.

This problem finding algorithm is usefull for all faultiness appeared after healing the registry using Registry First Aid.

Please send developers (rfa@zoneutils.com) the found problem entry and you'll help other users to avoid this problem in the future.


How do I uninstall Registry First Aid?

To uninstall the software, do the following steps:

     * Click the 'Start' button;

     * Select 'Settings' -> 'Control Panel';

     * Double-click on 'Add/Remove Programs' icon;

     * Select the software name from the list and press 'Add/Remove...' button.

     OR

     * Click the 'Start' button;

     * Select 'Programs', find the software group;

     * Select 'Uninstall' from submenu.


What is the proper procedure for installing updates? Should I uninstall the previous version?

If you want to keep all settings of a previous version (like customized excluded registry entries, excluded drives, paths to search for matches), then you should install each new version over old version without uninstalling into the same folder.

If you have no special settings then there is no matter how you do install a new version.


If I get an error relating to some deleted Registry item, how do I locate this in the backup, and restore it?

You can search every backup file for some keywords from an error message or name of failed software. Then create another .reg file and copy there found data (do not forget to insert "REGEDIT4" at the top of file) and import it into the registry.


Why RFA does not scan HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT hive? Is there a reason for this?

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT is the "Software\Classes" subkey of "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" hive.

When Registry First Aid scans HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE it scans all keys that are in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT too.


Why after running RFA, the program asks whether I want to compact the registry? Do I want to do that?

After a short while of deleting, adding and updating the registry data, the data becomes fragmented, with data and free space intermingled. This makes registry access slow. Registry First Aid allows you to compact the registry with ease. It calls Windows registry tool "scanreg.exe" for compacting, so this operation is safe.


I have multiprocessor machine and the program raises "Access Violation" error while running the scan.

First of all please try to disable threads in the registry scan routine (click the button and answer "Yes" on prompt to add settings to the registry):

Now run the program and test it for errors.

If the above step didn't solve the problem you can try to disable progressbar appearing while the registry scan is runnning:

If this doesn't help too, feel free to contact the program support. Probably, we have a solution for you.


Some Windows 98 SE systems hung up after running the program. Sometimes a Kernel32.dll error appears.

This means that some of anti-virus or fire-wall software have replaced one or more of system DLLs that prevents the program from correctly using some system functions. It is very hard to find out what software changed system libraries. We keep working to find all incompatibilities with other programs.

If the program does not run on your Windows 98 SE machine then you can download another program build compiled with different libraries:

    http://www.registry-first-aid.com/first/rfasetup-c.exe

Note that this build may not run on normal systems where the original program runs fine.