RegFixUp

J.Christie · Sat 15 Oct, 2005 00.01

http://www.regfixup.com

Has anyone tried one of these registry fix things before?

Corin · Sat 15 Oct, 2005 01.04

Yes

<http://www.cleanreg.COM/>

Fireboy · Sat 15 Oct, 2005 21.43

Can anyone explain to me exactly why Windows has a registry? It's never really made much sense to me... it doesn't seem to do anything which couldn't be done in a simpler way.

Chris · Sat 15 Oct, 2005 22.03

Fireboy wrote:Can anyone explain to me exactly why Windows has a registry? It's never really made much sense to me... it doesn't seem to do anything which couldn't be done in a simpler way.

Well it's supposed to hold details of all the settings for Windows - I liken it to a big filing cabinet in which one throws all their papers in.

As a Mac user yourself, I'd be interested to know how a Mac does store its settings, and how can a user modify "advanced" settings to improve performance or disable extraneous features?

Sput · Sat 15 Oct, 2005 22.37

IIRC it's like unix and stores everything in a specific flat file for each app. It makes it a lot easier to edit settings for a specific program without having to worry about affecting others.

Pete · Sat 15 Oct, 2005 23.18

surely that's what ini files are for. why does the registry exist exactly? seems a waste of time

Sput · Sat 15 Oct, 2005 23.36

It's the way windows was built. Yes, ini files COULD have been used, but they decided to go this way. For backing up it's very useful at least.

Plus they'd have a hard time changing at this point as a hell of a lot of apps would have to be rewritten or a great API would have to run. There is, of course, a lot of legacy now.

Hardly rocket science

Pete · Sat 15 Oct, 2005 23.42

no - i should have asked someone other than you clearly.

talking of legacy. i noticed the add font thing in windows xp is still a windows 3.1 style panel.

there's a shocking amount of legacy code in windows so it's no wonder longhorn is so messed up.

if i were them i'd rewrite xp / vista from scratch to tidy the thing up and get rid of all the crap code before i even considered starting on blackcomb. if netscape 4 had to be scrapped before they could start mozilla the mess an entire operating system must be in after 24 years is frightening.

Sput · Sun 16 Oct, 2005 00.05

Hymagumba wrote:no - i should have asked someone other than you clearly.

Why stare at the mantlepiece...?;)

Apparently they got really sick of all the millions of modules cluttering up longhorn and have now rewritten it from scratch. Well not exactly scratch but they're entirely rethinking how it all fits together.

Jamez · Sun 16 Oct, 2005 00.28

Is it worth me buying a new computer now, or waiting until next year when Longhorn comes out?

Fireboy · Sun 16 Oct, 2005 21.25

Jamez wrote:Is it worth me buying a new computer now, or waiting until next year when Longhorn comes out?

It's called Vista (Longhorn was the codeaname). I'd wait... although I am buying a new PC because I need to be able to use MS Access, there's no Mac version, and the 2002 PC is buggered.

Slightly off topic here... but Office 12 (2006/7) has a very OSX-like interface... in fact, more OSX-like than office:mac! (see http://activewin.com/articles/2005/imag ... Shapes.jpg)