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Disclaimer: This is an older article and may contain outdated information or bad links.
Introduction
It has been a few months or longer since you last made a clean reinstall of your OS. The overall performance of the computer is beginning to suffer, a product of unused DLL's cluttering up the system folder, and the overall obesity of the registry files which Windows does a terrible job of managing. A feeling of dread is clouding over the workspace in which the computer resides. It's time to reinstall the OS. But wait! That painful process of deleting the Windows directory, reinstalling the operating system, and then having to reload all of the applications and games CAN be averted. What follows is nearly a miracle of nature, a renewal of life into a drooping computer.
The Miracle
This so-called miracle is a combination of several things. The first step in this process is a system directory cleaner called Clean System Directory. The way this program determines if a DLL is used is by scanning all of the programs on the computer and look for references to the DLLs. Because this is not a surefire way to make sure a DLL isn't used, the program simply moves the files to a subdirectory within the system directory, and recommends that the user wait several months before deleting them from the system entirely.
The second step entails moving or removing other useless files to speed up your system's boot time. Did you know that having extra files in the root directory slows down your boot time? Well, it does - and we're going to fix that problem.
The third step is a set of three - yes, I said three - registry cleaners. Why three? Well, each of these programs search the registry differently to determine which keys can be safely removed - and in some instances, they even remove different types of unnecessary keys.
The first, and most notable of the programs, is the new version of Microsoft's very own RegClean. This is probably one of the best little pieces of software that is in the "shoulda but didn't make it into Windows 98" department. It is a totally automated registry cleaner that allows the user to undo the changes if the removal of a key causes a problem with a program. As the (only) totally automated registry cleaner in this guide, it is also the least customizable. There is no way to choose which keys are and aren't removed. However, RegClean does such a good job of determining unused keys, that this shouldn't be a problem.
The next program in the guide is called EasyCleaner. This program is moderately automated; you have to select which keys you wish to delete, but you can use the shift and ctrl keys to select many at once, a feature that the next program doesn't have. However, there are a few bugs in the EasyCleaner interface, as the user may need to run the program repeatedly before it will clear out all the unused keys. Generally, it should be run consecutively until it no longer detects any unused keys.
The last program in the registry cleaning section is called Cleanreg. The least automated of the three programs, it is also the most comprehensive. It appears to catch 95% of the unused keys of the other two programs combined, and normally I would recommend to most users to only use this program; however, it has no automation at all, so each key has to be deleted separately. This takes a LONG, LONG time, so running the two other programs is definitely to the benefit of the user.
The fourth, and last step, in my miracle speeder-upper program, is compressing the registry. It removes duplicate keys from the system.dat, user.dat, system.da0, and user.da0 registry files. This can shave up to 2 MBs off of a computer's registry, which decreases startup time and generally makes the computer more responsive. It is during this step that the process for cleaning up the system differs between Windows versions. For the original release of Windows 95 and Service Pack 1 (denoted by an "a" in the version number) will need to go through one extra step to patch a bug in Regedit that does not exist in OSR 2.1 and above, or in Windows 98.
The First Part of the Miracle
Before attempting this process, reboot the computer to make sure there is nothing that will prevent your system from rebooting. If the computer boots properly, continue on to the first step. Of course, making a backup of your system.dat and user.dat files before continuing would also be intelligent. To make a backup, go into regedit within Windows (Start -> Run -> regedit) and choose Export Registry File from the Registry menu. To restore a backup, click on the Import Registry File selection and browse to the name of the file you saved your registry to. I recommend using backup.dat.
Begin by starting up the Clean System Directory program from the Start Menu. A box will appear with some checkboxes and three buttons at the bottom. Check the boxes that correspond with your hard drives and disk partitions (for me that was c:, d:, and e:). Then click on the "start scanning" button. After the program has gone through the entire system, a white dialogue box will appear with some buttons at the bottom. Click on the "Select All" button and then click on the "Move Selected Files" button. Then restart your computer before moving on to the next step.
The Second Part of the Miracle
The root directory (denoted by C:\ under DOS) is the directory that your computer boots from. It is important for this directory to be as clean as possible. However, this process is just as dangerous as screwing around with the registry - so make sure you have a backup of any files you delete and a convenient boot disk available in case your system won't start. The good news is that recovery is a snap. You just copy the files you removed back to your root directory and you're back in business.
Start by removing all of those old scandisk files and any program files that you might have copied into the root directory. The root directory on the C drive seems to be a favorite receptacle for all that junk people have downloaded (remember that Pinky and the Brain Win95 theme and those audio files of the platypus's mating call that you downloaded from www.weird.com?), particularly if one of the users is an old DOS hound (back in the day when everyone used a text based OS, the root directory was a great place to stash junk). Next, things get a little bit tricky. If you're sure you don't need them, you can delete the old backups of Autoexec.bat and Config.sys. But keep in mind, if you edited either of those files using the System Configuration Utility, don't delete any files with the .TSH extension - they are used by the SCU.
Other than that, what you can delete can vary from system to system. But whatever you do, make sure you don't delete the following files - because EVERYONE (or almost everyone) needs them to boot up. They are:
Command.com
Ffastun.ffa *
Ffastun.ffo *
Ffastun.ffl *
Ffastun.ffx *
Io.sys
Msdos.sys
Logo.sys
Suhdlog.dat
Io32.idx
Reboot the system and make sure it starts up before continuing on to the next step.
* - Deleting these files when Find Fast is installed on a system can cause the system to refuse to boot. You can, however, safely delete them if (1) you use the Find Fast applet in the Control Panel to do it, or (2) if you remove or disable the program before deleting them manually.
The Third Part of the Miracle
Begin by opening up the RegClean directory in Windows Explorer and run RegClean. Click on the start button and it will scan the registry files and determine which keys should be removed. After the scanning is complete, click on the Fix Errors button to apply the changes. After this process, you should reboot your system. If the computer has an error during the reboot, just double click on the undo*.reg file that is created to reset the computer to what it was prior.
Next, run EasyCleaner from the Start Menu. There are several parts to this program, but for this guide I will focus on the Clean Registry section. Click on the "Clean Registry" button and then click "Find". After the program is done scanning, delete all the entries shown and run the program again. Continue to run the program until no entries come up after a complete scan.
And finally, run Cleanreg using Windows Explorer, as this program doesn't create an icon on the start menu. Uncheck the "Update after Delete" box, select a key from the top window and click on the Delete Key button. Repeat this ten or so times, go up and select the update after delete box, and delete one more key. Then uncheck the update box and continue this process until all of the entries are gone.
Reboot the computer and continue onto the next, and final, part.
The Fourth Part of the Miracle
Note: If you are using Windows 95 Service Pack 1 or older, you may need to patch your regedit file. You can download it here.Windows 95 OSR 2.1 and above are not affected by this bug.
Begin by shutting down the computer into MS-DOS mode. Go to your Windows directory [generally C:\Windows] by typing C:\ at the command line and then typing cd\windows. Then type smartdrv. This will speed up the entire operation. Then type regedit /e all.reg. This will export the registry to the all.reg file. Next type regedit /c all.reg. This will compress and import the all.reg file, replacing the old registry with a compressed copy of it.
Next, type win to start up Windows. Open the FixReg program, point it at the all.reg file in the Windows directory, and open the file. It will automatically make sure that all of the necessary registry keys were imported. Once this is completed, delete the all.reg file and reboot the computer.
Conclusion
Congratulations, you have successfully cleaned out Windows. Soon I will be adding information to this guide about removing unnecessary files that Windows should have already deleted. Remember, if you mess up, I don't want to hear about it.
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