messing with regedit

[我爱CSGO]

can i delete registry keys of my uninstalled games that i deleted years back?
should i leave it alone because i may risk killing my os?

[Electric Cupcake]

Manual registry tweaks are pretty much mandatory now, to unbreak all the ♥♥♥♥ Microsoft breaks with each antifeature update.

[N3tRunn3r]

critical registries, if deleted or badly modified, are automatically re-created by windows 10/11 as well ..

[_I_]

Publicado originalmente por N3tRunn3r:

critical registries, if deleted or badly modified, are automatically re-created by windows 10/11 as well ..

ok, delete hklm and hkcr

[N3tRunn3r]

Publicado originalmente por _I_:

Publicado originalmente por N3tRunn3r:

critical registries, if deleted or badly modified, are automatically re-created by windows 10/11 as well ..

ok, delete hklm and hkcr

what are you trying to do here. it is of course a difference if you mistakenly kill a critical registry which becomes restored by Windows or to "overkill" your whole system.. ridiculous..

[_I_]

Publicado originalmente por N3tRunn3r:

Publicado originalmente por _I_:

ok, delete hklm and hkcr

what are you trying to do here. it is of course a difference if you mistakenly kill a critical registry which becomes restored by Windows or to "overkill" your whole system.. ridiculous..

you said windows would recover, try it

mistake is mistake, regedit has no undo function
if you remove a necessary entry, and it bricks the os, there is no easy fix

parts of windows look for non existent entries, other parts look at keys for value names, ignoring data, others can look at key, value and its data

there are differences, if you find a key with no values in it, that key may still be called, and possibly break things that reference it

[A&A]

Publicado originalmente por N3tRunn3r:

critical registries, if deleted or badly modified, are automatically re-created by windows 10/11 as well ..

It will only fix them if the OS crashes immediately on boot and it will replace the current one with a copy of the last successful boot. If for some reason the operating system still works after a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, you will have headaches to restore them without reinstalling Windows.

[Shaggin'Wagon]

Publicado originalmente por N3tRunn3r:

critical registries, if deleted or badly modified, are automatically re-created by windows 10/11 as well ..

This is actually not true at all. It is entirely possible for a user to run regedit as administrator, delete critically important keys, reboot their computer, and have the computer be completely broken and unrecoverable without re-installing windows. A reboot will not fix it. Windows will not re-create the keys. Even in Windows 10 or Windows 11.

What most likely can and will happen is Windows 10/11 will restore a previous System Restore Point where those registry keys are intact as part of the recovery process if this situation happens (hopefully you have a system restore point that was created recently). This would lead you to think windows is recreating those keys even when it is not.

[N3tRunn3r]

Publicado originalmente por Shaggin'Wagon:

Publicado originalmente por N3tRunn3r:

critical registries, if deleted or badly modified, are automatically re-created by windows 10/11 as well ..

This is actually not true at all...

If I "delete" some special Edge Framework registry entries, those are automatically restored on next system boot.

If I "modify" some Desktop registries, those changes I made are reversed back to normal after next system boot.

[...]

Should I now list up 100k's of (critical) entries which work and dont work!?

All that kind of stuff can also be related on which Windows Edition and Release you use ..

10, 11, Home, Pro, .., Edu/Enterprise ..., OEM, Retail, ..

So please, try again to say "This is actually not true at all.."

[Shaggin'Wagon]

Publicado originalmente por N3tRunn3r:

Publicado originalmente por Shaggin'Wagon:

This is actually not true at all...

If I "delete" some special Edge Framework registry entries, those are automatically restored on next system boot.

If I "modify" some Desktop registries, those changes I made are reversed back to normal after next system boot.

[...]

Should I now list up 100k's of (critical) entries which work and dont work!?

All that kind of stuff can also be related on which Windows Edition and Release you use ..

10, 11, Home, Pro, .., Edu/Enterprise ..., OEM, Retail, ..

So please, try again to say "This is actually not true at all.."

Okay then. Since you seem to think you know everything why don't you do it yourself. Run regedit, browse to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\, and delete every subfolder underneath that then reboot your computer and see what happens. According to you Windows will automatically re-create the keys and boot normally as if nothing ever happened so you should be perfectly fine.

[_I_]

they are not re-stored to previous entries, non critical entries are re-created as defaults when a program asks or looks for them and re-creates them

big difference there

if you delete hklm you will need to reinstall windows

[N3tRunn3r]

Publicado originalmente por Shaggin'Wagon:

... Run regedit, browse to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\, and delete every subfolder underneath that then reboot your computer and see what happens. ...

Publicado originalmente por _I_:

...

if you delete hklm you will need to reinstall windows

you guys are ridiculous...

if you rip-off an arm of someone, this arm wont regrow... if you cut that arm, that wound heals itself.. if you burn down a structure, it will be rebuilt again. if you nuke that area, nothing regrows there..

you compare apples with pears.. and maybe you are simply not be able to comprehend.. or whatever your aim here is ..

i already mentioned, if you nuke your system by deleting whole regedit directories of course a fresh install can only fix it .. who sane being would do that?!

[_I_]

correct, it will not grow back when you reboot
with all the missing entries it will not work at all

your analogy is close, try with a leg instead of an arm, and try to run on the stump
it wont work

again, there is no 'undo' in regedit
and when windows re-creates entries it has no idea what the previous ones were and programs that look for keys, may just create new entries as defaults, and work, as default

but for stuff in hklm is specific to each system, no default will work for every os install, or hardware config
it tells the os what hardware is there, where drivers are and how they are configured and much more

[Shaggin'Wagon]

Publicado originalmente por N3tRunn3r:

i already mentioned, if you nuke your system by deleting whole regedit directories of course a fresh install can only fix it .. who sane being would do that?!

Actually you did not say that. I suppose I need to quote your own words back to you again since it seems you don't remember what you wrote.

Publicado originalmente por N3tRunn3r:

critical registries, if deleted or badly modified, are automatically re-created by windows 10/11 as well ..

Publicado originalmente por N3tRunn3r:

If I "delete" some special Edge Framework registry entries, those are automatically restored on next system boot.

Twice you told us that both Windows 10 and Windows 11 automatically re-create deleted registry entries when we boot the computer.

So go ahead and delete those folders I mentioned earlier and reboot your computer. You told us (twice even) that windows will re-create what you delete when the computer restarts. Windows will just re-create them on a reboot, according to you so go do it and see what happens.

[N3tRunn3r]

Publicado originalmente por Shaggin'Wagon:

Publicado originalmente por N3tRunn3r:

i already mentioned, if you nuke your system by deleting whole regedit directories of course a fresh install can only fix it .. who sane being would do that?!

Actually you did not say that. ..

read again, kid. this page even. and enjoy your report ..

[Shaggin'Wagon]

Publicado originalmente por N3tRunn3r:

Publicado originalmente por Shaggin'Wagon:

Actually you did not say that. ..

read again, kid. this page even. and enjoy your report ..

I did. I re-read everything. You specifically told us that any and all registry entries that we delete are restored every time we boot the computer with windows 10 and windows 11. Which of course is not true. I'm sure you know it's not true. The real question is why did you write that when you knew it wasn't true?