growing registry

[shiato storm]

I have been backing up my registry every so often and have noticed it growing in size over time. from 42mb in feb to 57mb today, is this normal? if not how do I stop it expanding?

[mike_w]

That's the problem with Windows - the registry just keeps growing. I think you can get tools that tidy it up, but I just do a format every few months - keeps things ticking over nicely, and gets rid of the stuff I no longer use/need.

[shiato storm]

if I reformat how do I maintain all the links to the programs I have e.g. office without needing me to reinstall those too? I have OS on one partition and programs etc on another, so in theory I should be able to format/reinstall windows without needing to mess with my programs...but I don't know how its done...?

[mike_w]

if I reformat how do I maintain all the links to the programs I have e.g. office without needing me to reinstall those too? I have OS on one partition and programs etc on another, so in theory I should be able to format/reinstall windows without needing to mess with my programs...but I don't know how its done...?

If you reformat, you'd need to reinstall all your programs. You can back up the registry and then plonk it back on, but that defeats the whole point of reformatting!

[shiato storm]

quite! what I need then is some form of program that removes unnecessary parts of the registry

[shiato storm]

awesome. tank yow!