Cleaned Registry Changed Text

  • Thread starter Thread starter Doug
  • Start date Start date
D

Doug

After using one of those free trial registry cleaners
(System Mechanic 4), some of my text is garbage (looks
something like wingdings ?). Of course I wasn't smart
enough to do any kind of backup before-hand. I've gone to
regional settings in the control panel to attempt changing
a setting or two, but had no luck.

Any suggestions?
 
Sounds like something deleted one of your system fonts. You can try boot
from the cd and repairing missing files
 
Hi Doug - Maybe what Richard suggested. For future reference:

In my experience all of these Reg cleaners, even the best, are fraught with
danger. I advise against using them except in one specific instance, that
is when you have one that is capable of doing specific Reg searches, and
you NEED (not just WANT) to remove the remaining traces of something that
didn't get uninstalled correctly. (and you didn't have foresight enough to
install it using Total Uninstall,
http://www.geocities.com/ggmartau/projects/projects.html, in the first
place.)

Lastly, if you must screw around with your Registry, then at least get
Erunt/Erdnt, and run it before you do the Reg clean. You'll then have a
true restore available to you. Read below to see why you might not just
using the Reg cleaner's restore:

Get Erunt here for all NT-based computers including XP:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/index.htm I've set it up to
take a scheduled backup each night at 12:01AM on a weekly round-robin basis,
and a Monthly on the 1st of each month. See here for how to set that up:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/erunt.txt, and for some
useful information about this subject.

This program is one of the best things around - saved my butt on many
occasions, and will also run very nicely from a DOS prompt (in case you've
done something that won't let you boot any more and need to revert to a
previous Registry) IF you're FAT32 OR have a DOS startup disk with NTFS
write drivers in an NTFS system. (There is also a way using the Recovery
Console to get back to being "bootable" even without separate DOS write NTFS
drivers, after which you can do a "normal" Erdnt restore.) (BTW, it also
includes a Registry defragger program). Free, and very, very highly
recommended.

FYI, quoting from the above document:

Note: The "Export registry" function in Regedit is USELESS (!) to make a
complete backup of the registry. Neither does it export the whole registry
(for example, no information from the "SECURITY" hive is saved), nor can the
exported file be used later to replace the current registry with the old
one. Instead, if you re-import the file, it is
merged with the current registry, leaving you with an absolute mess of old
and new registry keys.


--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In
 
Hi Jim,

I've read you with interest. Actually, I WANT to clean my registry on a
Windows 2003 server, since my installation of the .NET framework failed and
leave me in the middle of nowhere. Now, I can't install or uninstall this
component.

So what soft do you suggest for cleaning up my registry ?

Best regards

Oriane

Jim Byrd said:
Hi Doug - Maybe what Richard suggested. For future reference:

In my experience all of these Reg cleaners, even the best, are fraught with
danger. I advise against using them except in one specific instance, that
is when you have one that is capable of doing specific Reg searches, and
you NEED (not just WANT) to remove the remaining traces of something that
didn't get uninstalled correctly. (and you didn't have foresight enough to
install it using Total Uninstall,
http://www.geocities.com/ggmartau/projects/projects.html, in the first
place.)

Lastly, if you must screw around with your Registry, then at least get
Erunt/Erdnt, and run it before you do the Reg clean. You'll then have a
true restore available to you. Read below to see why you might not just
using the Reg cleaner's restore:

Get Erunt here for all NT-based computers including XP:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/index.htm I've set it up to
take a scheduled backup each night at 12:01AM on a weekly round-robin basis,
and a Monthly on the 1st of each month. See here for how to set that up:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/erunt.txt, and for some
useful information about this subject.
[...]
 
Hi Oriane - Well, what I use - when I have to - is a paid program called
Registry 1st Aid, here: http://www.rosecitysoftware.com/Reg1Aid/
Regardless of which program you use, please note my previous recommendation
to run ERUNT/ERDNT before making any changes. Good luck!

--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In
Oriane said:
Hi Jim,

I've read you with interest. Actually, I WANT to clean my registry on a
Windows 2003 server, since my installation of the .NET framework failed and
leave me in the middle of nowhere. Now, I can't install or uninstall this
component.

So what soft do you suggest for cleaning up my registry ?

Best regards

Oriane

Jim Byrd said:
Hi Doug - Maybe what Richard suggested. For future reference:

In my experience all of these Reg cleaners, even the best, are fraught with
danger. I advise against using them except in one specific instance, that
is when you have one that is capable of doing specific Reg searches, and
you NEED (not just WANT) to remove the remaining traces of something that
didn't get uninstalled correctly. (and you didn't have foresight enough to
install it using Total Uninstall,
http://www.geocities.com/ggmartau/projects/projects.html, in the first
place.)

Lastly, if you must screw around with your Registry, then at least get
Erunt/Erdnt, and run it before you do the Reg clean. You'll then have a
true restore available to you. Read below to see why you might not just
using the Reg cleaner's restore:

Get Erunt here for all NT-based computers including XP:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/index.htm I've set it up to
take a scheduled backup each night at 12:01AM on a weekly round-robin basis,
and a Monthly on the 1st of each month. See here for how to set that up:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/erunt.txt, and for some
useful information about this subject.
[...]
 
Back
Top