Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Personal Tech

Solutions: 'Registry fix'? Don't bother to pay for it

Q. While discussing my computer's slowness, a friend suggested that I download and use a "registry fix" to speed it up. Being a relative novice, I have always viewed the registry as untouchable. I have tried your "know what is running" help, but that leaves me more confused. Is running a registry fix a safe alternative? I have Windows XP Service Pack 2.

By John Torro, Times Correspondent
Published March 10, 2008

Q. While discussing my computer's slowness, a friend suggested that I download and use a "registry fix" to speed it up. Being a relative novice, I have always viewed the registry as untouchable. I have tried your "know what is running" help, but that leaves me more confused. Is running a registry fix a safe alternative? I have Windows XP Service Pack 2.

A. I have tested a few "registry fix" programs. Save your money. The benefits, if any, would be minimal. I realize that determining and understanding what is running on your system is not easy, even for the "experts." If you are a user of Microsoft's Windows Defender, there is a great built-in utility called Software Explorer found under the Tools section. This will list your programs Startup and currently running including information about their purpose from an automatically updated process library. This may help you make some progress, and the good part is it's free. Oh, and did I mention not to waste your money on a "registry cleaner"?

Q. I read your article every day and have found many answers to problems with this awful Windows Vista program. I went from Windows 98 right into this program, so you can imagine my frustration. I am logged on under the Control Panel as Administrator with password protection, but apparently that is not enough because I constantly get the message, "You are not currently logged on as Administrator. Please log out and log back in as Administrator," etc. Now just how do I get rid of this message?

A. If you're speaking about the various User Account Control prompts, then I recommend waiting until the free release of Vista Service Pack 1 sometime this month. This is supposed to dramatically reduce the number of UAC prompts. However, if you really want to get rid of them, go to Control Panel, type UAC in the search field and press enter. Then click the link for Turn User Account Control On or Off. Just take into consideration that disabling UAC will make your system less secure. My recommendation is to leave it as is and wait and see if the upcoming Service Pack will take away most of your annoyances.

Q. When I turn my computer on, I get a message that it cannot find a "sscommon/skins/minibcont/css" file. I am using Windows XP. I have tried to find this file but have had no luck. Any suggestions?

A. This is part of the Dell Support Center program. It is not an essential program and uninstalling would solve the problem. However, you may also try and call Dell Support (support.dell.com) and put the ball in their court.

Q. What is the best thing to do when we are having lightning storms? I turn off my computer every night. I have everything plugged into a surge protector.

A. Even most of the best surge protectors will offer little protection if it receives a direct lightning hit. The best thing you can do is just unplug it. If you have a phone line connected to your PC, disconnect it also.

Send questions to personaltech@sptimes.com or Personal Tech, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731. Questions are answered only in this column.

[Last modified March 7, 2008, 22:09:41]