Eudora software bug which CCleaner needs to watch for

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of rebuilding my Windows XP OS from scratch. I have done a fresh XP install on a second hard drive in my computer so that I can slowly install all of my programs and files while at the same time simply being able to go into BIOS in order to boot from the other hard drive which has my current XP installation, programs and data. Anyway, I came across a very interesting registry bug caused by Eudora's installer when I upgraded the new Eudora 7.0.1.0 installation to the more recent Eudora 7.1.0.9 installation. It is possible that the registry issue was caused by me immediately uninstalling Eudora 7.0.1.0 when I realized that I had chosen to install it to a different default directory in my new XP setup compared to how it is installed on my current XP setup. Anyway, and in a nutshell, Eudora's installer or maybe its uninstaller changed the Default value under:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDlls]

from (Value not set) to a dword value of ffffffff

When I ran CCleaner and scanned the registry for errors, CCleaner's only "error" was for HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDlls, but CCleaner didn't list any data -- only this registry key. CCleaner's error message was "Missing shared dll" or whatever. Needless to say, I figured that CCleaner might delete the entire key and all of the values under it which of course were present in the registry. So instead I deleted the Default value under this key so that Default was now once again showing (Value not set) in the registry. I then rebooted and scanned the registry again with CCleaner and CCleaner reported no errors.

So is this a potential issue which CCleaner needs to watch out for? Would CCleaner have blown out the above key and all the stored values of shared DLLs listed under this key?

I exported the key to a reg file. A condensed version of the reg file is shown further below. As you will see, Eudora's installer was the last thing to add info under the SharedDlls key and that apparently Eudora's installer is what also changed the default value for this key to ffffffff. Anyway, I figured that this and similar are things which CCleaner should watch for since installers, uninstallers, viruses or malware might do the same thing.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDlls]

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\Triedit\\dhtmled.ocx"=dword:00002710

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\Triedit\\triedit.dll"=dword:00002710

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\System\\OLE DB\\MSDAIPP.DLL"=dword:00000001

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\System\\OLE DB\\MSDAPML.DLL"=dword:00000001

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\Web Folders\\MSONSEXT.DLL"=dword:00000001

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\Web Folders\\MSOWS409.DLL"=dword:00000001

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\Web Folders\\PUBPLACE.HTT"=dword:00000001

blah, blah, blah ...

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\InstallShield\\Professional\\RunTime\\09\\01\\Intel32\\iKernel.dll"=dword:00000002

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\InstallShield\\Professional\\RunTime\\09\\01\\Intel32\\Setup.dll"=dword:00000002

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\InstallShield\\Professional\\RunTime\\09\\01\\Intel32\\DotNetInstaller.exe"=dword:00000002

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\InstallShield\\Professional\\RunTime\\09\\01\\Intel32\\iscript.dll"=dword:00000002

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\InstallShield\\Professional\\RunTime\\09\\01\\Intel32\\ctor.dll"=dword:00000002

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\InstallShield\\Professional\\RunTime\\09\\01\\Intel32\\iuser.dll"=dword:00000002

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\InstallShield\\Professional\\RunTime\\09\\01\\Intel32\\IGDI.dll"=dword:00000002

"C:\\Eudora\\LDAPinit.ini"=dword:00000002

"C:\\Eudora\\deudora.ini"=dword:00000002

"C:\\Eudora\\eudora.fts"=dword:00000002

"C:\\Eudora\\eudora.gid"=dword:00000002

"C:\\Eudora\\finger.ini"=dword:00000002

"C:\\Eudora\\ph.ini"=dword:00000002

@=dword:ffffffff

Apparently Eudora's installer, since its shared dll entries are listed last and since the new Default key value is ffffffff, is the culprit. I wasn't to keen on testing whether or not CCleaner would have blown out the registry key and all of the data under the key. :)

I still love using CCleaner though!

Thanks, we'll look into this.