Friday, December 05, 2008

How to Read a Windows Registry

The main challenge when reading the Windows registry is telling the difference between useful keys and malware and bloatware keys that can be - and should be - safely removed.

I have developed an easy system for making this judgment. If you are not sure whether a key is something useful or something that shouldn't be there, delete it! Then reboot and check the registry for that key. If it comes back, it shouldn't be there. If it doesn't come back, it's a useful key.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

NOTE TO MY NON-TECHNICAL READERS: This is a joke. Do not try this.

Anonymous said...

The same algorithm works for portions of the body and amputations.

Cut your hair off? It comes back....you don't need it.

Cut your finger off? Well, dammit.

Anonymous said...

If thine eye offends thee, set it free. If it comes back...um. Wait, what?

Seriously Raul, you're a menace for posting this. It's equivalent to getting rid of an irritating n00b in a technical forum by advising him to press Alt + F4.

And we laughed and laughed.