Introduction

RegVac has several tools to clean and tidy up your Registry.  The Automated Scans will do many of these processes with one click of a button.

The expert mode gives access to all of the tools.  Use the buttons on the left hand side to navigate through the tools of RegVac.

The novice mode runs only the safe tools with one click of the button.

RegVac is shareware and may be used free for 30 days.  Go to the Registration section to learn more about purchasing RegVac.


How to Register RegVac

Order Information - there are many ways to order RegVac (also known as registering).  The easiest way is to go to our website and order from there.

Our website - http://regvac.com/regvac.htm.  Order using our secure order form and a credit card.

You may send a check (USA only) or postal money order to:

Super Win Software, Inc.

719 E. 3rd. St.

Ellsworth, KS  67439

USA

The price for RegVac is $29.95 plus one of the following shipping and handling charges:

+$0 - I will email the location of the registered version to you, you then would download it.

+$4 - I will mail the latest registered version of RegVac in the USA.

+$6 - I will mail the latest registered version of RegVac outside of the USA.

The latest registered version of RegVac may be downloaded from our website.  The location will be sent to you after we process your order.


Robo Scrubber
Automated Scans

The checkboxes may be checked to perform each function when the Run Automated Scans button is clicked at the bottom.  When clicked, Automated Scans will go through each of the checked fuctions and perform them one at a time.

You may also select or unselect each of these checkboxes at the bottom of their corresponding pages.  Checking the checkbox at the bottom of the corresponding page will check the checkbox on the Automated Scans page and unchecking it will uncheck it here.

The "Remove All Suspect Keys (not recommended)" checkbox is only enabled if the "Clean Software Section" checkbox is checked.  The "Remove All Suspect keys" checkbox runs the function of the "Remove All Suspect Keys Listed Above" button on the Software Vac Results page.  It is recommended that you check each item individually and not use this option.

Automated Scans may be run by a scheduler by passing the parameter, "schedule".  So the command to run RegVac would look like this:  "c:\regvac\regvac.exe schedule" (without the quotes).


Add/Remove Editor

One of the problems of Windows is the Add/Remove Programs list.  This list is kept in the Registry.  This list often becomes filled with bad links, because people do not uninstall program using this list when they remove a program.

Several years ago, I wrote a program called, Add/Remove Pro that corrected this problem.  It is here in it's entirety.

The list shows the status of the link (whether it is good or not), the Display Name (what it is called in the Add/Remove Programs list), the Key Name (its other name), and the Uninstall String (the command that is run to uninstall this item).

Below the list are three buttons:  Refresh List (reloads the list and rechecks each item), Uninstall Program (runs the uninstall string thus removing the program from your computer), and Remove Entry (this just removes the item from the Add/Remove Programs list, it does not uninstall the program).

Below these buttons are some tabs.  These give some good information about this page and how to use it.

The Finder tab provides a means by which you can easily check the validity of the status icon and the uninstall string.  When you select an item from the Add/Remove list, it's uninstall string will be put in the Uninstall String textbox of the Finder.  To check, highlight the filename starting with the drive letter.  Press the "Paste Highlighted Text below" button and the highlighted text will be put in the bottom textbox.  Then press the Find button, and the Finder will tell you if it could find that file.  If a file cannot be found, that is a good indicator that that program has been deleted, but the Add/Remove link remains.  You can use the Remove Entry button to remove the selected entry from the list.

The Change Uninstall String tab allows you to change the uninstall string.  The uninstall string was placed in the registry when its program was installed on your computer.  Sometimes people move the program or it points to a temp directory which has been deleted.  This makes the uninstall string bad and will keep the program from being uninstalled.  If you know where the uninstall information is, you can change the uninstall string to point to the known location.  It is important that you only change the part of the uninstall string that has the location of the uninstall information in it.  The uninstall string often consists of additional commands and parameters which must be there for the uninstall to work.  If you do not know what you are doing with this, please do not mess with it.  Once you have the string changed, click on the Save Changes button to save the changes in the registry.  The old uninstall string will be put in the VacBag.

The All Entries tab shows all of the entries in this section of the registry.  This is given because some entries may be hidden.  Usually hidden entries are hidden for a reason, so be careful before removing.


Classes Vac

If you are familiar with RegClean, the Classes Vac will do about the same thing.  It will find bad keys in the Classes section of the Registry and remove them.

To use the Classes Vac, you must first click on the Find Bad Entries button.  A flashlight will appear in the upper right hand corner and the Classes Vac will begin to find bad keys and list them in the listbox.  When the flashlight disappears, the search is finished.  Up to this point, nothing has been removed from the Registry.

You can use the buttons below the listbox to check all and uncheck all items (Check All or Uncheck All), to print out the list (Print List), or to open up RegEdit and show where the selected key is in the Registry (Show Key).

To remove a bad key in the list from the Registry, click on the Clean Checked Items Above button.  The entries will be removed from the Registry and put in Undo.

The "Find and Delete Bad Entries as part of Automated Scans" checkbox lets you include the Classes Vac in the automated scans.


Registry Stash
Stash Vac

Windows and programs keep many entries in the registry that are not important and you may never use, things, like, Most Recently Used lists and History lists.

This tool will empty the most common stashes.  You may also add any entries that you wish by clicking on the Add button.  This displays another window that explains how to add an entry.

To remove an entry from the registry, check it and press the Remove button.  To show the individual items click on the plus symbol next to the section heading.  To check or uncheck all of the items in a section, check or uncheck the checkbox of section heading.  Most of the MRU and History Lists items will be replaced when you use the corresponding program.  Most of the entries in the other sections can only be replaced by reinstalling Windows, so know what you are doing before removing.  If there is any chance that you will use one of them, don't remove it.

The "Clean Stash as part of Automated Scans" checkbox lets you include the Stash Vac in the automated scans.


Suspect Software
Software Vac

Often programs are deleted or uninstalled and they leave behind entries in the Software section of the registry.  These entries can be detected by looking for keys with filenames in them that do not exist.

When you press the Find Suspect Keys button, it will search through the many software sections of the registry and find any filenames whose files do not exist on your harddrive.  This may or may not mean that that entry is bad.

Please take care when removing entries in this section.

Software Vac Results

When the search is finished, all of the suspect keys are listed in a listbox.  The listbox has two columns: Key Branch and Suspect Keys.  We suggest that you first look down the Key Branch column and see if any of them are programs which you have uninstalled.  If so, select it, click on the "More Options" button, and click on the "Delete Key Branch" button (see instructions below).

There are two buttons under the listbox.  The first button will remove all of the suspect keys.  We do not recommend using this unless you know that all of the suspect keys should be removed.

The second button is the "More Options" button.  In order to use the "More Options" button, you must first select an item from the listbox.  A window will be opened with many options in it.  Please see the section below for more information.

It is better to use the "More Options" button on each listbox item than to use the "Remove All Suspect Keys Listed Above" button.

More Options

Clicking the "More Options" button opens a dialog box which shows the key and provides several options of what to do.

The key is actually divided in three parts.  The first part is in red and is the general location in the registry.  The second part is in purple and is the Key Branch.  The Key Branch should be the name of a software company or program that is or has been on your computer.  The third part is in blue and is the name of the actual key that is a bad link.

The Options available are:

Add to Stash List - if it seems that the key is a list of filenames, History list, or MRU (Most Recently Used) list and you want to clean it from the registry, you can add it to the Stash list by clicking on this button.  The Add to Stash List dialog will open up.

Remove Suspect Key Only - if it seems that the key is a list of filenames, History list, or MRU (Most Recently Used) list but you do not want to add it to the Stash list, you can delete the suspect key or skip it.

Delete Key Branch - if it seems that the Key Branch is a program that you have uninstalled, you can use this button to remove it.  The Key Branch will be deleted and all of its subkeys.  So if the Key Branch is "SuperWin" and the Key is "\WinRescue\98\directory=C:\winrescue98\", the SuperWin key and all of its subkeys will be removed.  This would not be good if you had other programs from SuperWin listed under this key that you were still using or if you were using a different version of WinRescue, for example, NT, that was also a subkey of WinRescue.  In this case, you should click on the next button, Open RegEdit and only remove the 98 key and all of its subkeys.  So please be careful with this.

Open RegEdit - this will open RegEdit and show the key.  You can then see all of the subkeys that are involved and decide what to do with them.

Keys that you remove in RegEdit are not backed up before removing as in RegVac.  It is a good idea to use the Registry Backup part of RegVac to back up the registry before making any of these type of changes.

Always Skip Key - this will put the current key on a list and then always skip that key in the future.  The list is kept in the regvac.ini file under [SkippedFiles].

Always Skip Branch - this will put the current branch on a list and then always skip anything found in that branch in the future.  The list is kept in the regvac.ini file under [SkippedFiles].

Cancel - this will close the dialog.

The "Search the Software Section as part of Automated Scans" checkbox lets you include the Software Vac in the automated scans.


Recent Documents

Whenever you use a file, Windows puts a shortcut to it in the Windows\Recent directory.  Windows never remove these files, even if the target of the shortcut has already been deleted.  Granted these shortcuts are not very big, but through the years you can collect thousands of them.

Using this tool you can delete all of them or just the ones that you select.

The << Back button will take you back to the Desktop menu page.


Recycle Bin

This tool shows how many files are in the Recycle Bin, the total size of those files, and allows you to empty the Recycle Bin.

If the "Do not back up contents of Recycle Bin to Undo" checkbox is not checked, the files in the Recycle Bin will first be put in Undo, then deleted from the Recycle Bin.

The << Back button will take you back to the Desktop menu page.


Start Menu

This tool shows the contents of the top half of the Start Menu including the Programs folder.

Use the Add button to add items to the Start Menu.

Use the Delete button to remove the selected item.  The items that may be removed are those that are in the Windows\Start Menu\ directory.

The << Back button will take you back to the Desktop menu page.


Favorites

This tool allows you to delete entries from the Internet Explorer Favorites list.  Just select an item and press the Delete button.

The << Back button will take you back to the Desktop menu page.


Temporary Files

Windows and programs have a habit of producing temporary files and not removing them.  Once a program is finished using a temporary file, it is usually of no use.

This tool finds the most common temporary files and removes them.  It also finds and removes empty files and files that have not been used since 1996, 1997, and 1998.  You may also use the User Defined Files box to define other temporary files to look for.

To use the User Defined part, select the checkbox that you want to replace by selecting it in the dropdown box.  Then type in the wildcard to use.  * stands for any character and any amount of characters.  ? stands for any one character.

To find and remove temporary files, check the ones to remove and click on the Delete button.

The << Back button will take you back to the HardDrive menu page.


Duplicate Files

This tool will look through any number of drives and find duplicates.  Big drives may take a lot of time.

Select the drives to use on the Drives To Search tab.  Hold down on the Ctrl button to choose more than one drive.

The Options tab has many options to use in comparing the files.  Compare all files or use a wildcard to compare certain files.  Specify to require same name, same size, and/or same date.  Treat floppy as Master only looks for the files on the floppy on the harddrive.  It does not compare the files on the harddrive with each other.  Some directories can be skipped:  Sysbckup and directories with the hidden file, desktop.ini.  At the end of each option it tells which ones are recommended and which ones are faster when checked.

You can start the comparing process by clicking on the Find Duplicates button.  While comparing, this button's caption changes to Stop.  Pressing it when it says Stop will stop the comparing process.

To delete an item on the list from the harddrive, select it and press the Delete button.  Even though the item will not be removed from the list, it will be removed from the harddrive.

The << Back button will take you back to the HardDrive menu page.


Broken Shortcuts

Shortcuts are small files that point to another file.  Shortcuts are indicated in Windows by a little box with an arrow in it in the lower left corner of the file's icon.

Often the target of a shortcut gets deleted but the shortcut remains.  When you click on one of these broken shortcuts, you get an error message.

This tool will search through the harddrive and find the broken shortcuts and remove them.  Just click on the Remove Broken Shortcuts button.  Links to websites and removeable drives, like, diskettes and CDs, are normally skipped.  If you do not want to skip these, then check the checkbox.  It is recommended not to check these.

The << Back button will take you back to the HardDrive menu page.


Cache

Internet Explorer and Netscape (these are internet browsers) keep caches of cookies, visited sites, and histories.  This tool will empty them.

The << Back button will take you back to the HardDrive menu page.


Undo List
Undo

Whenever RegVac removes an entry from the registry, it puts it in a special Undo REG file.  The entries in this Undo REG file can be viewed on the Undo page.  The Undo section will display different Undo REG files and restore all entries in that file.  If an Undo REG file is double clicked outside of RegVac all of the entries in that file will be restored to the registry.

Above the Undo List is a checkbox called Check / Uncheck All.  Checking or unchecking this checkbox will check or uncheck all items in the Undo List.

There are four buttons below the check listbox.

The Print List button allows you to Print a list of the entries.

The Show Key button allows you to view the selected key in RegEdit.  To view, select an entry and then click on the Show Key button.

The Restore All button restores all of the items in the undo list.

The Restore Checked button restores only the items which are checked.

It is recommended to keep an Undo REG file for a week and then delete it if you have had no problems.  The Undo REG files can be deleted by selecting it in the dropdown box and then clicking on the Delete Current Undo File.

The checkbox at the bottom of the page allows for the automatic deletion of Undo REG files that are older than a week.  If checked, Undo REG files which are older than a week will be deleted.


File Lists Vac

There are many lists of files in the registry.  Often filenames get added to these lists and then when their programs are deleted, the entries remain, entries that point to nowhere.  File Lists Vac searches through these lists and compares the filenames to the actual files on your harddrive.  If a file does not exist, the entry in the registry is deleted.

You can check which catagories of File Lists to clean:  Known Drivers, Static VxD, Open GL Drivers, Shared Drivers, Startup, Help, Fonts, AppPaths, Extensions, HTML Help, and Installed Files.

Click on the "Clean the File Lists" button to clean the checked catagories.

The "Clean the File Lists as part of Automated Scans" checkbox lets you include the File Lists Vac in the automated scans.


System Configuration Utility

Windows 98, ME, XP, and 2003 have a program for changing settings in Windows.  It is called the System Configuration Utility, or msconfig.  The top button will run this program.

If these buttons are disabled, RegVac could not find the System Configuration Utility on your computer.  This is because you have Windows 95, NT, or 2000, or it is not in the proper place.  It will run in these other versions of Windows, so if you want to use it, you should be able to find it on the internet.  The System Configuration Utility allows you to disable settings to troubleshoot problems.

The second button in this section will delete the disabled settings, removing them to Undo.

The "Clean Disabled Keys as part of Automated Scans" checkbox lets you include the cleaning of System Configuration Utility keys in the automated scans.


OpenWith Editor

Windows does not offer an easy way to get rid of the OpenWith associations.  These are associations made when you double click on a file that has nothing associated with it.  This will open up Windows' OpenWith dialog box.  If you do not uncheck the "Always use this program to open these files" checkbox or click on Cancel, the selected program will forever be associated with that file type.

There are other ways that items get in the OpenWith list.  One is that programs can put them there.  Another is that some versions of Windows put every file run by another file in it.

This Editor will list those associations and allow you to undo them.  The entries that have (FileExts) on them are listed in a different part of the registry and will not show up as an Open With entry in Windows unless there are two for an extension, but in WinXP there are probably a lot of FileExts entries which are not needed and are littering up your registry.

Please note that you may not want to undo all of these associations.  So please look through the list and only undo the ones that you do not use or are no longer valid.  The decision is up to you.

All associations are not listed here.  Only the OpenWith associations.

The Extension and Program that is associated with that extension is listed in the listbox.  To undo one select it and press the Undo Association button.


Bad Filename Finder
Bad Link Vac

Some Registry Cleaners only do what the Bad Link Vac does.  One user wrote me and pointed out that one of these registry cleaners listed more entries than RegVac.  When I checked it out, I found out that it only did what this Bad Link Vac does.  But that registry cleaner was also deceptive.  It listed some keys twice.  This is because all of the keys in the registry except those under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS are duplicate keys to keys in these two main keys.  When I compared the real numbers, the Bad Link Vac came up with more entries.

You can find out how many bad links are in your registry by clicking on the "Find Bad Links" button.  The Vac will find all filenames in the registry that refer to a file on your harddrive that does not exist, except for those which are in the software sections of the registry (the Software Vac will find them).  No changes will be made to the registry by just clicking this button.

Just because an entry is listed here does not mean that it is a bad entry, even though most are.  Some programs like to put future locations of files and directories that will only exist once you use one of its features.

This is why it is only for Advanced users.  To use this tool properly you must use the Show Key button at the bottom and check each entry out.  Then to really do it right, you will need to determine how much of the parent key should be removed.

When you click on the Clean Checked Items, the checked items are removed from the registry.

The Verified as Good button will remove the entries that you have verified from the list but not from the registry.  Once you have verified that an entry is good and should not be removed from the registry, select it and press this button.  This will remove it from this list and keep it off of this list.  When you click on "Find Bad Links" again, it will not list these entries.  These entries are kept in the verified.ini file.  You can modify that file with Notepad or you can delete it to once again list all entries with bad links.

The "Find and Clean Bad Links as part of Automated Scans" checkbox lets you include the Bad Link Vac in the automated scans.


Novice Mode

If you don't understand the complexities of RegVac and/or the Registry but you still want a clean Registry, the Novice Mode is for you.

The Novice Mode has only two controls on it, a "Clean Registry" button and a checkbox.

When the "Clean Registry" button is pressed, the Registry will be safely cleaned.  What this button does is run Classes Vac, File Lists Vac, Software Vac (removing Suspect Entries), Bad Links Vac, and Junk Vac automatically.

Checking the checkbox in Novice Mode will cause RegVac to be run daily when Windows starts.  At that time the "Clean Registry" button will be automatically run.

The "Clean Registry" button will clean most of the bad stuff out of the Registry.  To do more, you will have to go into Expert Mode which will require you to make knowledgeable decisions.  Making the wrong decision can cause problems with Windows (usually nothing drastic).

The rest of Help explains the options in Expert Mode.


Disable Certain Keys
Keep Bad Keys

Sometimes software improperly enters a key in the registry.  RegVac removes these improperly entered keys, as it should, but often in doing so the software that entered the bad key will not work.  To keep RegVac from removing the bad key follow the instructions below.

First you will need to find the offending entry.  To do this open Windows Explorer and find the undo files in the RegVac directory.  If you know which undo file has the offending entry in it, use the process below to figure out which entry is the bad one.

You will need to narrow down exactly which keys are causing the problems.  If the undo file is huge, you need to make a copy of the file, open it with Notepad, and remove half of the entries.  Then close it and double click on it (this will put those entries back in the registry if the file has an .reg ending).  If your software works, the bad key is in that file.

If the software still does not work, then the bad entry is in what you removed.  Put the removed entries in a blank file, give it a .reg ending, and remove half of its entries.

Keep doing the above actions until you figure out exactly which entries are disabling your software.

If the undo file is small, you may be able to figure out which entries are bad by opening the file with Notepad and looking at the names of the keys.

Once you have found the bad keys, copy them into a new file (they must have the same format that they had in the undo file) and call that file redo.reg.  Put redo.reg in the RegVac directory.  Before entries are removed from the registry by RegVac, RegVac checks this file and does not remove the entries in it.


Commandline Arguments
Automation

There are two ways to run RegVac automatically: at startup or with a scheduler.

To run RegVac at startup, either in Novice mode put a check in the "Check here to clean the Registry daily when Windows starts" checkbox or in Expert mode go to the Automated Scans section and select in the "Run Automated Scans after Windows startup" dropdown box something besides "Do Not Perform".  This will put a shortcut in the Startup folder which will run RegVac at startup.  When RegVac runs at startup, it will run in the mode that it was last in.  If it runs in Expert mode, it will run the processes checked in Automated Scans (see Automated Scans).  If it runs in Novice mode, it will do a safe cleaning (see Novice mode).

Or RegVac may be run by a scheduler by passing the parameter, "schedule" in the command that starts RegVac.  So the command to run RegVac would look like this:  "c:\regvac\regvac.exe schedule" (without the quotes).

Run Silently

To run RegVac silently during one of the above situations, add a space and the word, "silent" to the command that runs RegVac.  Running in silent mode, RegVac will display the initial white splash screen and then it will disappear and RegVac will run.  The only thing showing will be an icon on the taskbar.  When RegVac is finished, it will close.

If you want RegVac to run silently at startup, find the RegVac icon in the Startup folder of Start - Programs, right click on it, and select Properties from the popup menu.  In the Target textbox add a space and the word, "silent" after the word "bootup".  It should look something like this - "C:\RegVac\regvac.exe bootup silent".

To run RegVac silently with a scheduler, the command would look something like c:\regvac\regvac.exe schedule silent


Contact Us

If your question is not answered in these Help pages, please go to our FAQ website and leave a question there for us.  We check the FAQ website daily and answer any questions left there.  You may use this link to go to the FAQ website.

Due to the prevalence of spam emails (we receive over 1000 junk emails an hour) which strip email addresses from webpages, we have removed our email address from our website.  We are sorry for the inconvenience this may bring, but we can still be reached in one of the following ways.

Orders - Almost all orders are sent out automatically at the time of order.  If you did not receive your order, please reply to the Order Confirmation email which you received (if you didn't get an Order Confirmation email from us, either you did not complete the order process and your credit card was not charged or you did not give us the correct email address) or go to our Registered Users section and have it resend the key to you.

Telephone Number - We prefer that you contact us by email through one of the methods mentioned above.  If you must contact us by phone, you may contact Ray Geide at 785-472-8918.


Junk Key Vac
Junk Key Editor

Spyware and adware are notorious for putting entries in the registry.  The Junk Key Editor has a list of such entries.  It is very likely that none are in your registry.  If this is the case, at the top of the listbox it will say "0 Junk Keys Found in the Registry".  If it doesn't say 0, then some of these entries are in your registry.  The items with a checkbox are the ones found in your registry.

Use the Uncheck All and Check All buttons to uncheck or check all of the items.  Even though the item may not have a checkbox, it still is either checked or unchecked (even though it will not be visible).  This status is saved for future reference.  It is recommended to keep them all checked (this can be done by clicking on the Check All button), especially if you are running the Junk Key Editor in automated scans.  That way your registry will automatically be checked and cleaned for these entries.

The Show Key button opens RegEdit and shows you where the key is in the registry.

Click on the Clean Checked Items Above button to clean the checked items.

The "Delete checked Junk Keys as part of Automated Scans" checkbox lets you include the Junk Key Editor in the automated scans.


AutoComplete Editor

As you browse the internet, Windows keeps track of everything that you type into forms.  This information is put in the registry.  In order to edit the AutoComplete list click on the Edit AutoComplete button.  This will open your browser and put a form in it.  There are instructions at the top of the form.  Basically what you need to do is go through each textbox and check the words in the popup.  To get the popup to show, put the cursor in the textbox and press the Down key.  If you want to delete an item, select it and press the Delete key.  If all items in a textbox are deleted, that textbox will also be removed from the AutoComplete list.


Registry Backup and Pack
Backup and Pack

Backup Registry - this backs up all of the registry files and puts the backup in the Windows\System32\RegVac directory.  It is a good idea to make a backup periodically.  Backups can be large, so it is also a good idea to delete old backups.

You can use the Clean up Backups button to delete old backups.  After clicking on that button, a Browse window will open with the Backup folders in it.  Select a folder and click on OK.  The selected folder will be deleted.  If you click on Cancel, the selected folder will NOT be deleted.

Pack Registry - this defrags the registry.  Adding and removing entries from the registry can cause the registry to become fragmented.  This is because new entries are always added to the end of the file and old entries are simply blanked out.  If the registry becomes too fragmented, Windows will misbehave.  Packing the registry puts all of the entries in the registry in their proper place in the file usually making the file smaller and more efficient.  A Pack doesn't need to be done more than once a month.  Doing a Pack too often is of no benefit.  The Pack cannot complete until Windows restarts, so please be prepared to restart Windows after the Pack Registry process.

Restore Registry - this allows you to put the registry back to the way it was in one of the Backups.  Only RegVac Backups may be restored, so if you have not made a Backup with RegVac, this cannot be used.  This is to be used when you have problems and Undo does not solve them.

WARNING - Pack Registry uses a Windows procedure to complete.  Lately, certain programs either intentionally or unintentionally mess up this Windows procedure which results in a Windows crash.  So far I have only uncovered Recovery Angel and newer versions of Norton (to be more specific, the latest version of symevent) as having this bug.  If you have Recovery Angel, please do not use Pack Registry or Restore Registry.  If you have Norton, please disable it before using Pack Registry and Restore Registry.  Below are instructions for disabling Norton.

Instructions for Disabling Norton

1. Go to Run on Window's Start menu.

2. Type msconfig and click on the OK button.

3. Go to the Startup tab of the System Configuration Utility.

4. Uncheck every item for Norton or Symantec.

5. Restart Windows and make sure that Norton does not start.

6. If Norton is not running in the background, it is safe to run Pack Registry or Restore Registry.

7. Later you can go back to msconfig and recheck the unchecked items.


Ignore List

This is a list of all of the items that you have told RegVac to ignore.  It can be found in the More Cleaning Tools section of the Expert mode.  The items in the Ignore List come from four sources: the Permanent Ignore list, the redo.reg file, the Bad Link Vac, and the Software Vac.

The Permanent Ignore list is a list of registry entries that have been found to be invalid keys required by another program.  This usually happens when either the other program tries to hide its registration information (removing it unregisters that program) or when the program has a bug which enters an invalid key but requires that key to be there in order for it to run.  The Permanent Ignore entries cannot be removed.

Redo.reg is a file that is consulted by RegVac before it removes anything from the registry.  If the entry is found in the redo.reg file, it is skipped and not removed.  Redo.reg is set up in the form of a reg file.  For more information about redo.reg, please go to the Keep Bad Keys section.  All items in the redo.reg file are listed in the Ignore List with the word, "All", in the first column.

Items with "Bad Link Vac" in the first column were added to this list by clicking on the "Verified As Good" button in the Bad Links Vac section.

Items with "Software Vac" in the first column were added to this list by clicking on one of the "Always Skip" buttons in the More Options section of the Software Vac.  These entries do not show the full path in the registry but instead the relative path in the Software section is shown.

To remove any of these items, select the item from the list and then click on the "Remove selected item from the Ignore List" button.

To see where these items are located in the registry, click on the Show Key button.  This will open RegEdit at the location of the item (if it exists in the registry).

The bottom two buttons are disabled when an item is not selected from the list.


Safety Levels

Each of the tools of RegVac are labeled with one of three safety levels in RegVac: red, yellow, green.

The green safety level tools are identified by a green label with a green circle and the words, "Safe to Use".  These tools are basically mess-up proof.  All of the results that they find are safe to clean.

The yellow safety level tools are identified by a yellow label with a yellow circle and the words, "Use Caution".  These tools are mostly safe to use, but if a person just goes through and clicks buttons on these tools, they could cause some damage, so please use caution when using these tools.

The red safety level tools are identified by a red label with a red circle and the word, "Dangerous".  These tools must be used with the utmost caution.  If used improperly, they will mess up your computer.

The Automated Scans section has colored circles to indicate the safety levels of the corresponding tools.