# delete empty registry keys?



## indigowindow

i'm using an interesting new registry cleaner called NBG Clean Registry. when i select the manual cleaning option, one of the choices is a search for empty keys....

is it ok to delete these empty keys in the registry?

so far i have only used the general scanning option and the CURE option. this tool definitely goes where no other registry cleaner has gone before. i ran the jv power tool and noticed the number of "ignored" entries were way down.


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## leem

I have used a number of Registry cleaners over the years though never the one you mention. The problem with deleting a Registry key you think you do not need is that a resultant problem may not become evident for weeks by which time the connection between your edit and the problem has become lost. What I would do is to manually examine each key recommended for deletion and try to determine if it is in any way relevant to a program in use on your system or to the system itself in which case I would not delete. I would export any keys I felt safe to delete, save them with a .txt extension and add a short notepad file to refresh my memory and save them in a special folder on my drive for a few months. This may be super cautious, but I have had Registry cleaners tell me more than once that something was safe to delete which I knew to be quite untrue. My most trusted Registry cleaner is the one which comes with the Fix-It Utilities package. It color codes entries marked for deletion for degree of safety. It has never lead me astray even in deleting or redirecting red code items. Norton is OK but much less informative and MS RegClean is a very weak one key johnny (HKCR).


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## jerricho

Generally we don't hear of registry cleaners creating any trouble. But registry is like the brain of Windows. So you never know what goes wrong. At the same time your computer might get slow if your registry turns to a junk box. So one has to take the risk to clean the registry.


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## Eigil

Spent a cupple of hours using NBG Clean programme ..
Deleted all entries that where suggested. Afterwards everything seem to work just fine. My machine (WIN 98 Pentium MMX200) boots up much faster than before the cleanup !!


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## indigowindow

i have thousands of empty reg keys that come up in the manual scan for global empty keys. i'm not about to examine each one. has anyone deleted empty reg keys before?

also is there a link to the Fixit Utility....

eigil - did you delete your empty reg keys, using the manual scan option?


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## Eigil

Indigowindow
'did you delete your empty reg keys, using the manual scan option?'


Yes i did a manual scan

Eigil
PS But now i have lost my sound !! Thats another story ..


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