Using Registry Repair Pro

Topic: Using Windows Registry Repair Pro

In a typical "out of the box" configuration, Windows Registry Repair Pro will scan, backup, clean and/or restore the Registry as you navigate the "Wizard" style interface or GUI. When the program is first launched, you're presented with one of two forms depending on the action of your last scan. If you previously scanned your Registry but had not Repaired it, the following Information screen is displayed:

In this case, the program is reminding you that you have uncorrected errors in the Registry. Clicking the Repair Now button is a shortcut to re-scan for errors and repair them. Clicking the Scan Now button will launch the GUI normally. Clicking Full Version will allow Trial Version users to visit the 3B Software website to purchase the Full Version of the program, and clicking Exit will close the program.

If now errors were previously found, or if the Scan Now button was clicked on the Information screen, the main form that contains the various actions you can take as shown in the screenshot below:

Each action is preceded by an option button - selecting a specific option button will "unselect" the others (only one action can be initiated at a time.) After selecting an action, click the Next button to move on to the next step required for that action. Windows Registry Repair Pro will guide you through each step to collect the information necessary to complete the selected action. During any step in the process, you may click the Back button to return to the previous step. Detailed below are the various steps involved to complete each action in the program:

SCAN THE REGISTRY FOR ERRORS

This is the core function of Windows Registry Repair Pro; this action will scan and clean the Registry to optimize it for you. To begin, select the Scan the Registry for Errors option and then click the Next button. The following step will be displayed:

Each item in the list is a checkbox that, when selected, will allow the program to search for the selected items. This list was carefully compiled based on common Registry errors that are experienced by all Windows users - we've "pre-selected" the most common ones that you will want to search for regularly.

Every item does explicitly what it's caption implies - for example, Invalid Paths will search every Registry entry that references a path or directory on your computer (i.e.; c:\windows) and then compare it with your hard drive to see if the path still exists. If not, it is flagged as an error and displayed in the results list.

Most often, the reason an invalid path exists is because a program was installed, used and uninstalled or deleted, but the Registry entry was not removed or updated to reflect this. The same holds true for all of the remaining items - as you use your computer you would be surprised how often this is occurring!

After making your selections, click the Next button and the program will begin scanning the Registry (see the screenshot below):

As the program is scanning the Registry, it's progress is displayed in the lower right part of the form. You may click the Cancel Scan button at any time to abort the scanning process. On the left side of the form you can see the current progress for each category of registry error. Clicking on an item (like Invalid Help Files or Invalid Shared DLLs) will open a corresponding list with all invalid registry entries found.

At this point, you need to decide which entries need to be fixed. Carefully look through the list and deselect the items that you do not want to correct. By default all entries that can be safely corrected are selected. In addition, you may choose a correction for selected invalid entry from the drop-down list of available corrections (see the screenshot below):

Default (No changes made) - This option, leaves the value "as is" in the Registry; in other words, no action is taken.
Delete Entry - This option will delete the selected value from the Registry when the Repair button is clicked.
Remove invalid substring - This option will only remove the link but not the registry key completely.

You can access more useful functions by right clicking on an invalid entry. Here is a list of all available functions:

Copy All to Clipboard - You can copy all the listed values into the clipboard and then have them pasted in a word processing program like MS Word.
Save All Registry Entries to a Text File... - You can use this to save a copy of the listed values to a text file for later reference; This will display an Explorer style dialog window for you to navigate to the correct folder to store the list and to provide a name for the file.
Print Registry Entries - Note that your system may contain a huge list of invalid entries, so printing may take a lot of paper. We recommend to save large lists as text files and then edit them in a text processor (decrease font size, split into columns, etc.) before printing.
Use RegEdit to open Registry key - This command runs the windows RegEdit utility and opens the selected Registry key.
Add Selected Entries to "error category" Excluded List - This command will add the registry keys of the selected entries into an excluded list. This will avoid finding those registry entries as invalid in the future scans.

After reviewing the list and changing any correction settings necessary, click the Repair button to continue. If changes are going to be made or values will be deleted, the next step (shown below) will prompt you to provide a name for the backup copy of the Registry:

Although you can provide any name you prefer, we recommend sticking with the default dated version - this will allow you to track revision histories easier. In addition, the number and types of changes being made will be listed on the form. Please, do a final review to ensure that you are ready to proceed with the cleaning. If so, click the Next button to actually clean the Registry - when the program has finished, it will display the following form:

Click the OK button to acknowledge the message and return to the Main form. Trial Users may click the Full Version button to visit the 3B Software website to purchase the full version.

Now that your Registry is fully optimized, you can exit the program by clicking the Finish or Exit buttons. We recommend performing a cleaning on a monthly basis to keep your Registry in peak operating condition!

RESTORE A BACKUP

Each time you scan and clean the Registry using Windows Registry Repair Pro, a dated backup copy of the Registry is made, in case you later realize that you deleted entries that were actually needed by other software/hardware components. To restore an earlier copy of the Registry select the Restore a backup option from the main form and then click the Next button. The following step will be displayed:

Each backup copy of the Registry is listed by the date it was made. To restore a backup, select the checkbox adjacent to the dated copy you wish to restore and then click the Next button.

After completing the restoration, the Wizard will display a status screen to indicate it's success/failure of restoring the Registry. Simply click the OK button and you will return to the main form.

In addition to restoring backups, you will find it desirable to delete older copies of the Registry, especially if you use the program frequently. To do so, select the checkbox adjacent to each copy you wish to delete and then click the Remove Selected Backup button. All of the selected backups will be deleted.

MISCELLANEOUS

Lastly, there are three additional buttons located at the bottom of the form that may be used as follows:

About - This button launches the About form, which displays version and copyright information. You may also access your System Information from the About form.
Exit - This button terminates the program and closes the window.
Help - This button launches this Help file; the Help file may also be launched by pressing the F1 key on your keyboard.

We hope that you find the program useful in optimizing and maintaining the registry on your computer. If you should encounter any difficulties, please refer to the Technical Support section of the Help file. For more information on obtaining support for the program please go to the 3B Software website.