message ?isdelete program not found?skipping autocheck

Windows XP Home, Sp 3. Recently I incurred the subject problem. It was solved by uninstalling AdAware, removing Lavasoft from the Windows/programs menu and disabling isdelete in Autoruns. After doing this I ran Ccleaner and found no references relating to isdelete or Lavasoft. I then ran Regedit and found several instances of isdelete and Lavasoft. Since the problem is solved, I don't want to risk messing around with the registry, but I am curious to know why Ccleaner didn't find them. Maybe I'm using Ccleaner in the wrong way??

Hi stu, and welcome to the forum.

To answer your question can I say that you will never find two registry cleaners finding the same amount of errors. Some cleaners go deeper than others, and also look for different kinds of errors.

How far to take this depth of cleaning is down to the developers of the various programs, and what they individually deem as safe.

Using Regedit to target a particular software is doing something scanning with a registry cleaner can't do. It scans for registry errors and not the names of software applications. It would be impossible to do that.

So as I alluded to above, it depends how deep a program deposits it's registry information, and also how those registry links may be tied to other files or settings.

With facts like this in mind, the developers of CCleaner have produced a relatively safe registry cleaner. Just out of interest, I always scan with regedit if I uninstall software known to dig itself deep into the registry, and then carefully.

My advice would be, whatever you decide to use, make a backup before deleting and/or cleaning, and as far as is possible with the knowledge you have, check what it is being deleted, and if in doubt, leave well alone.

A better precaution would be to make a backup of the entire registry with ERUNT. This application is a real life saver.

ERUNT with GUI: (At the bottom of the page)

Hope that helps.

Hi stu, and welcome to the forum.

To answer your question can I say that you will never find two registry cleaners finding the same amount of errors. Some cleaners go deeper than others, and also look for different kinds of errors.

How far to take this depth of cleaning is down to the developers of the various programs, and what they individually deem as safe.

Using Regedit to target a particular software is doing something scanning with a registry cleaner can't do. It scans for registry errors and not the names of software applications. It would be impossible to do that.

So as I alluded to above, it depends how deep a program deposits it's registry information, and also how those registry links may be tied to other files or settings.

With facts like this in mind, the developers of CCleaner have produced a relatively safe registry cleaner. Just out of interest, I always scan with regedit if I uninstall software known to dig itself deep into the registry, and then carefully.

My advice would be, whatever you decide to use, make a backup before deleting and/or cleaning, and as far as is possible with the knowledge you have, check what it is being deleted, and if in doubt, leave well alone.

A better precaution would be to make a backup of the entire registry with ERUNT. This application is a real life saver.

ERUNT with GUI: (At the bottom of the page)

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply. I guess if there are things in the registry that shouldn't be there but aren't causing a problem, then best to leave them alone. I'm not courageous enough to start deleting things even with a backup.

There should be two rules for software designers. 1. If the software has caused problems a fix should be announced and distributed. (McAfee update blew computers and cost me $180 to get it fixed. McAfee never notified or sent a fix. A fix was on the 'net but if the computer wasn't working then it was no good. Another case in point is the AdAware problem. Both AdAware and McAfee have just lost me as a customer.) And 2. Undelete programs should always remove everything. Can't understand why they don't.