Control Set Entries -- Excessive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter amphi66
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A

amphi66

Doing some clean up on my Win XP Home SP2 laptop I see I have 5 Control
Set Entries (001-005) plus the Current Control Set and the
LastKnowGood. Haven't seen that many referenced before. Can (should)
they be rebuilt? Is so, how? Why so many?

Thanks,
--LarryS
 
Thanks Jesper.

No real problem here, just trying to understand how/why things work and
always looking for improved efficiency.

Sorry I picked the wrong newsgroup - can you point me in the correct
direction?

--LarryS
 
A control set contains system configuration information such as device
drivers and services. You may notice several instances of control sets when
viewing the Registry. Some are duplicates or mirror images of others and
some are unique.

There may be several control sets depending on how often you change system
settings or have problems with the settings you choose.

\ControlSet001
\ControlSet002
\CurrentControlSet

ControlSet001 may be the last control set you booted with, while
ControlSet002 could be what is known as the last known good control set, or
the control set that last successfully booted Windows NT. The
CurrentControlSet subkey is really a pointer to one of the ControlSetXXX
keys.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Select contains the following values:
Current
Default
Failed
LastKnownGood

Each of these values contain a REG_DWORD data type and refer to specifically
to a control set. For example, if the Current value is set to 0x1, then
CurrentControlSet is pointing to ControlSet001. Similarly, if LastKnownGood
is set to 0x2, then the last known good control set is ControlSet002. The
Default value usually agrees with Current, and Failed refers to a control
set that was unable to boot Windows NT successfully.

What are Control Sets? What is CurrentControlSet?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/100010

Information on Last Known Good Control Set
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/101790

How to start your computer by using the Last Known Good Configuration
feature in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307852

CurrentControlSet\Services Subkey Entries
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/103000

PART 1 CurrentControlSet
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102987

PART 2 CurrentControlSet SessionManager
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102985

PART 3 CurrentControlSet
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102986

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Thank you for the great information, Wesley:

My HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Select contains the following values
Current value 04
Default value 04
Failed value 02
LastKnownGood value 05

Does that mean that Current Control Sets 001 & 003 can be safely
deleted?

Then I can rename Control Set 004 to 001 and change the Select Value to
01 to reset the Current and Defaults?

What XP information is gained by saving the "Failed" set?

--LarryS
 
amphi66 said:
Thank you for the great information, Wesley:

My HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Select contains the following values
Current value 04
Default value 04
Failed value 02
LastKnownGood value 05

Does that mean that Current Control Sets 001 & 003 can be safely
deleted?

Then I can rename Control Set 004 to 001 and change the Select Value to
01 to reset the Current and Defaults?

What XP information is gained by saving the "Failed" set?
Click to expand...

Larry, I'm sure Wesley will be back with the answers you want but I'm going
to give you some very practical advice: stop tinkering with this. There is
absolutely no reason for you to be messing about in the registry like you
are doing. It will not make XP run better. In fact, there is a high
probability that you will quickly hose your system. The XP registry does
not work the same way as the registry did in Win9x/ME as far as dragging
down the system if there are "leftover" entries.

If you simply can't resist tinkering, then be smart and invest in Acronis
True Image or Norton Ghost and an external hard drive. Image your system
and then when you feel the urge to wipe out sections of your registry
you'll have a way to get back to a working system in a matter of minutes.

Malke
 
Thanks for the input, Malke. If not just exporting a copy of the
registry, that is in fact, how I protect myself when making changes.

As I study the MCSE materials (unfortunately for Win 2003 Server) I am
learning standard policy function and manipulation, but am trying to
get a deeper understanding of how this vast collection of code hangs
together in XP. I don't actually have a deep understanding of the
apparent duplicate levels of (apparently) duplicate coding in the
registry.

Seems to me that "tinkering" should be just as fun as use of the
machine as a tool (of course I took the vacuum cleaner apart as a kid,
too).

--LarryS
 
Does that mean that Current Control Sets 001 & 003 can be safely
deleted?
Click to expand...

No, I am not going to advise that you delete anything. I would leave them
alone and let Windows take care of them. That is my advice. Tinker with
something else. ;-)

<quote>
There can be as many as four control sets, but normally there are only two.
This mechanism is similar to the one used to create the Config.sys backup
copies for MS-DOS computers. Normally, there's one copy of Config.sys used
to start the system, and the backup copy. In our case, however, the whole
job of creating and maintaining the backup copies is performed automatically
by the system.
What XP information is gained by saving the "Failed" set?
Click to expand...

Failed refers to a control set that was unable to boot Windows NT
successfully.

I do not have a Failed control set, Failed is set to 0. I *think* Windows
just keeps track of it if one did happen to fail. Or, SWAG, to let you know
that whatever is listed as Failed could be gotten rid of. Maybe. Or so the
MS techs can do something with it. Beats me is my real answer.

If you have a limited amount of control sets, the Failed control set can
possibly be fixed. It would be a last ditch deal I would think.

<quote>
Leveraging the Failed Control Set
* When you use LKG the control set you avoid is saved as the Failed control
set
* Look at the Failed value in the Select key – this is the control set that
you aborted
* Export the current control set and failed control set to .reg files
* Massage the text so that there are no differences in the control set name
* Windiff or Fc to see what’s different
<quote>
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache..."Failed+control+set"&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
I appreciate the advice from everyone, and thank you for the link to
that UW document, Wes. It looks like many more hours of interesting
reading are in my future!

I'll leave well enough alone for now.

--Larry
 
Well Wes, in the "can't leave well enough alone" department (after
insuring I had a backup image on a removable hard drive) I changed the
values in SYSTEM/SELECT to 01 & 02 w/ Failed as 0. Then went on to
remove the existing 001, 002, & 003 ControlSets before renaming 004 &
005 to 001 & 002. Removing 001 went OK, but XP would not allow
removal of 002 or 003 or the renaming of 004. Perhaps I should have
tried in SAFE MODE. So I put all back where it was (with the exception
of the missing 001).

Rebooting went without any problem. Interestingly, when I returned to
the registry editor I found that ControlSet001 had been recreated -
still empty of values as it was previously.

Heading south (away from the snow) for 6 weeks or so in the AM. Will
address this more on my return.

Thanks again.
--Larry

PS - here's another question - I put it in networking, but it's still
registry oriented:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...browse_thread/thread/59f823ee0f6aee44/?hl=en#
 
Heading south (away from the snow) for 6 weeks or so in the AM. Will
address this more on my return.
Click to expand...

Larry, I am in Northern Colorado and am sick of the snow and ice. It is 3°
F here right now. -6 last night with a 60% chance of more snow tonight and
it doesn't look to even hit 28 until Wednesday.

..DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

THE COLD ARCTIC AIRMASS OVER THE PLAINS AND MOST OF THE FOOTHILLS
WILL REMAIN IN PLACE TODAY MAINLY UNDER 8000 FEET MSL. TEMPERATURES
WILL STAY COLD IN THESE AREAS TODAY WITH HIGHS UNDER 10 DEGREES.
LIGHT SNOW WILL BE SCATTERED AROUND THE MOUNTAINS TODAY WITH LITTLE
ACCUMULATIONS EXPECTED. ISOLATED VERY LIGHT SNOW IS EXPECTED FOR
THE PLAINS.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
A high of 28 here north of Seattle, but just a trace of new snow.
Looking forward to SoCal and Arizona.

Thanks for the input.
 
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