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OK so I don't know what I am doing. I like to create ActiveX EXEs etc and find the clutter of non-existent references in Project\References. And I cannot unRegester 'cause I screwed up and deleted a project that contained that registered reference. 1) how can I minimize it as I do development? 2) how can I clean out the registry safely? Me no want to edit. Reg Clean Apps? a) for free? links please. b) best Reg Cleaner at lowest price. links please. Running WinXP(latest) and Vista(latest). I am a retired individual who really enjoys the programming challenge but needs lots of input. MesNews rocks! In through news.aioe.org On Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:45:05 -0700, BeeJ <nospam@nowhere.com> wrote:
>So all this VB6 development has left junk all through my registry. Like everything else in programming there is no one answer.>OK so I don't know what I am doing. >I like to create ActiveX EXEs etc and find the clutter of non-existent >references in Project\References. >And I cannot unRegester 'cause I screwed up and deleted a project that >contained that registered reference. > >1) how can I minimize it as I do development? > Here is one: a) Get into the habit of always compiling a product (.exe, ActiveX.exe, ActiveX.Dll) into the project folder. Also create a folder off of the project folder called ".cmp" (name doesn't matter). This is your "compatibility" folder. b) Once an ActiveX product's 'interface' is relatively stable copy it into the compatibility folder, and change the extension to .cmp. This will serve as your "binary compability" component. c) If you need to test your product in an alternate location on the same box, always move it, don't copy it, to its new location. When done delete it, or change its name. (I often just use .xxx. You can do this with a simple bat file "copy *.exe *.xxx". d) I often use a simple .bat file to move files. If you move a component using the Explorer the registration will follow it. If you move a component using a .bat or .vbs file, you will need to re-register it (or it may be re-registered by running a RegCleaner. Also easy to include in script. [I create a .bat/vbs file everytime I make a new project. I have them boilerplated - ie, I just copy one in and change the names. Been playing with PowerShell lately. Fun but not really necessary.] e) This has the advantage of insuring you have one and only one true copy of a product on the developement box. If you have multiple copies of a Dll laying around - trouble is brewing. <g> So this first step is simply keeping copies to a minimum. Clean up is done by regular application of a Registry Cleaner. below >2) how can I clean out the registry safely? Me no want to edit. There are a few free ones on the web. All have a few nuances and> Reg Clean Apps? > a) for free? links please. > b) best Reg Cleaner at lowest price. links please. > hiccup over something, but in general all work well for your main goal - and that is check each "GUID" and "AppID/ProgID" entry that provides a file location and check to see if that file exists and it does in fact support that item. But like I said just about all will have an issue with something. For example, the original RegClean that came with Win9x/2k seemed to get confused with some Office versions - requiring one to re-register some components. (Others may care to expand.) But worked well otherwise. Currently I've been using a utility that comes with ZoneAlarm. In the past I've used PC Mechanic (Wal-Mart < $30) which is also handly for managing other Windows configuration issues. Personally I'd stay away from Norton (oops Symantec) and McAfee utilities unless you are already using their suites anyway. IMHO they are slow and bloated. But based on sales that is apparently a minority opinion. <g> A few friends really like TweakNow and the price is certainly right (free). http://www.tweaknow.com/ hth -ralph -ralph ralph expressed precisely :
Show quoteHide quote > On Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:45:05 -0700, BeeJ <nospam@nowhere.com> wrote: Thanks for the insightful advice. I do not mind paying a little for > >> So all this VB6 development has left junk all through my registry. >> OK so I don't know what I am doing. >> I like to create ActiveX EXEs etc and find the clutter of non-existent >> references in Project\References. >> And I cannot unRegester 'cause I screwed up and deleted a project that >> contained that registered reference. >> >> 1) how can I minimize it as I do development? >> > > Like everything else in programming there is no one answer. > Here is one: > a) Get into the habit of always compiling a product (.exe, > ActiveX.exe, ActiveX.Dll) into the project folder. > Also create a folder off of the project folder called ".cmp" (name > doesn't matter). This is your "compatibility" folder. > > b) Once an ActiveX product's 'interface' is relatively stable copy it > into the compatibility folder, and change the extension to .cmp. > This will serve as your "binary compability" component. > > c) If you need to test your product in an alternate location on the > same box, always move it, don't copy it, to its new location. When > done delete it, or change its name. (I often just use .xxx. You can do > this with a simple bat file "copy *.exe *.xxx". > > d) I often use a simple .bat file to move files. > If you move a component using the Explorer the registration will > follow it. > If you move a component using a .bat or .vbs file, you will need to > re-register it (or it may be re-registered by running a RegCleaner. > Also easy to include in script. > > [I create a .bat/vbs file everytime I make a new project. I have them > boilerplated - ie, I just copy one in and change the names. > Been playing with PowerShell lately. Fun but not really necessary.] > > e) This has the advantage of insuring you have one and only one true > copy of a product on the developement box. If you have multiple copies > of a Dll laying around - trouble is brewing. <g> > So this first step is simply keeping copies to a minimum. > > Clean up is done by regular application of a Registry Cleaner. > below > >> 2) how can I clean out the registry safely? Me no want to edit. >> Reg Clean Apps? >> a) for free? links please. >> b) best Reg Cleaner at lowest price. links please. >> > > There are a few free ones on the web. All have a few nuances and > hiccup over something, but in general all work well for your main goal > - and that is check each "GUID" and "AppID/ProgID" entry that provides > a file location and check to see if that file exists and it does in > fact support that item. > > But like I said just about all will have an issue with something. For > example, the original RegClean that came with Win9x/2k seemed to get > confused with some Office versions - requiring one to re-register some > components. (Others may care to expand.) But worked well otherwise. > > Currently I've been using a utility that comes with ZoneAlarm. In the > past I've used PC Mechanic (Wal-Mart < $30) which is also handly for > managing other Windows configuration issues. > Personally I'd stay away from Norton (oops Symantec) and McAfee > utilities unless you are already using their suites anyway. IMHO they > are slow and bloated. But based on sales that is apparently a minority > opinion. <g> > > A few friends really like TweakNow and the price is certainly right > (free). > http://www.tweaknow.com/ > > hth > -ralph > > -ralph something that is excellent. I will try to retrain myself as you suggest. I never knew that moving with W E would register. That has probably got me in trouble before. That must be the pay version of Zone Alarm. I tried the free version but it created more work than I could stand. Most of the time I never knew if I should or should not allow a process access. I kept getting those little popups whenever i just looked at the screen (seems like). I stay away from Norton. We had MacAfee virus scanner "take home" from work but now I am retired and do not have access. Now I use Avast for that. Sorry for the rambling. The bottom line is to reduce the possibility of conflicts. i.e. a different ActiveX EXE or .DLL running from the IDE vs running from the Main App EXE and reducing the clutter in Project\References. | The bottom line is to reduce the possibility of conflicts. i.e. a It's unfortunate that there's no option to wait| different ActiveX EXE or .DLL running from the IDE vs running from the | Main App EXE and reducing the clutter in Project\References. | on registration in the IDE. It's very difficult to avoid at least a few false listings, and they're tedious to clean out by hand. I just tried the TweakNow that Ralph linked. It seems to work OK, providing a list of what it finds before deleting anything. But the program is ridiculously bloated. 17MB on disk! For a program that should probably be less than 100 KB. I can't imagine what's in that EXE. | But the program That got me to thinking. Turns out it's a Delphi| is ridiculously bloated. 17MB on disk! For a program | that should probably be less than 100 KB. I can't | imagine what's in that EXE. | program with crap like this compiled into it: http://www.tmssoftware.com/site/advglowbutton.asp A few KB of functionality and 17 MB of fluff....almost as bad as .Net. "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> wrote in message So much for standard UI look and feel, eh?news:i31j40$gct$1@news.eternal-september.org... : That got me to thinking. Turns out it's a Delphi : program with crap like this compiled into it: : : http://www.tmssoftware.com/site/advglowbutton.asp : : A few KB of functionality and 17 MB of fluff....almost : as bad as .Net. What's with with MSFT's RegClean? I still use it (on XP) and it does the job. It event creates a backup reg file which I typically go through to see what was removed. If there is something I don't like, I put it back. | So much for standard UI look and feel, eh? Apparently TweakNow is supposed to look likeMS Office 2007. I don't know why people get so faddish about every little GUI change that MS makes. The layout looks clean and functional to me, but it's actually reminiscent of a webpage -- a bit cheap looking -- the kind of thing one would design as an HTA or online AJAX software. I don't mind if they want to get "webby", but I get irritated that people feel free to crowd my system with such useless stuff, adding a lot of unnecessary 3rd-party controls. | What's with with MSFT's RegClean? I still use it (on XP) and it does the Ralph says (above) that it can be problematic with MS| job. It event creates a backup reg file which I typically go through to see | what was removed. If there is something I don't like, I put it back. | Office. I used to use it years ago, but generally I don't bother with Reg. Cleaners. I figure that most bad settings are things that are never accessed and are therefore harmless. "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> wrote in message Other than bloating the Registry, which can marginally slow down Windows in news:i32sui$1re$1@news.eternal-september.org... > Ralph says (above) that it can be problematic with MS > Office. I used to use it years ago, but generally I don't > bother with Reg. Cleaners. I figure that most bad settings > are things that are never accessed and are therefore harmless. general. However, I don't think nearly as much as it used to. -- Mike | > are things that are never accessed and are therefore harmless. I'd be surprised if there's any effect. If I open| | | Other than bloating the Registry, which can marginally slow down Windows in | general. However, I don't think nearly as much as it used to. | Regmon and then open IE I see about 8,000 Registry calls in about 1 second. Oddly, the vast majority of what happens in the Registry seems to be Windows -- or MS software -- that just keeps repeating the same calls over and over again.
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"Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> wrote in message But that's my point. The Registry is not what you could call an optimized, news:i34aej$9d6$1@news.eternal-september.org... > | > are things that are never accessed and are therefore harmless. > | > | > | Other than bloating the Registry, which can marginally slow down Windows > in > | general. However, I don't think nearly as much as it used to. > | > > I'd be surprised if there's any effect. If I open > Regmon and then open IE I see about 8,000 > Registry calls in about 1 second. Oddly, the vast > majority of what happens in the Registry seems to > be Windows -- or MS software -- that just keeps > repeating the same calls over and over again. well-indexed, database. So, the more it's bloated, the more time-consuming it is to access anything in it. And as you pointed out, many programs and Windows itself access the Registry 10s of thousands of times (can't really put any kind of meaningful number to that because it depends on many, many factors). There used to be tools whose sole purpose was to clean and optimize the Registry. They claimed to re-organized the Registry files (there used to be 2 files, but I think now there's 3). I suspect all they really did was defrag the files, but that's just a guess because Windows' own defragger wouldn't touch these particular files (and still doesn't AFAIK). But again, I think this was mostly an issue with Win9x and perhaps Win2000 and became much less an issue with XP. One thing's for sure and that's that you don't see Registry *optimizers* touted like you used to, so that can really only mean it's not the issue it once used to be. -- Mike "BeeJ" <nospam@live.com> wrote in message Please try to remember to trim your quotes to just what's relevant to what news:i31ecd$g76$1@speranza.aioe.org... you're writing. Makes life much easier on everybody. > I never knew that moving with W E would register. That has probably got It DOESN'T register them. And if you recompile before setting binary > me in trouble before. compatibility (or have to break binary compatibility because you've changed the public interface), that's what causes all the orphaned entries in the Registry. Same thing can happen if you simply delete files. Easiest rule, IMO, to remember is to just always unregister before moving or deleting. If you're careful about always doing that, you won't end up with junk in the Registry. I always merge the following into the Registry to make this easier: **dllfile.reg** -- Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\Register] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\Register\command] @="\"c:\\windows\\system32\\regsvr32.exe\" \"%1\"" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\Unregister] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\Unregister\command] @="\"c:\\windows\\system32\\regsvr32.exe\" /u \"%1\"" -- **ocxfile.reg** -- Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ocxfile\shell] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ocxfile\shell\Register] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ocxfile\shell\Register\command] @="\"c:\\windows\\system32\\regsvr32.exe\" \"%1\"" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ocxfile\shell\Unregister] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ocxfile\shell\Unregister\command] @="\"c:\\windows\\system32\\regsvr32.exe\" /u \"%1\"" -- Copy and paste into separate files the text between the pairs of "--" characters. Make changes to the Windows path if necessary. You can use Notepad for this. Save the files with whatever name you want, but give them each a .reg extension. Double click each file to merge it into the Registry (must be an Administrator; under Vista, I think you must run these from an elevated command prompt window or have UAC off; under Win7, depends on how high a level you've set UAC). Now, you can right-click any DLL or OCX file and have Register and Unregister menu commands. One caveat of this is that under Vista and Win7 and WinServer2008, it won't work if UAC is enabled. For me that's not a problem because I turn UAC off. And of course you must be a member of the Administrators group even under XP/2000. > The bottom line is to reduce the possibility of conflicts. i.e. a It's actually very simple and is pretty much what Ralph outlined. One thing > different ActiveX EXE or .DLL running from the IDE vs running from the > Main App EXE and reducing the clutter in Project\References. he said that I don't really understand why is compiling into the project folder. There's nothing wrong with doing that if that's what you want to do, but personally, I compile all my production-ready ActiveX components into a "common" folder named "Distribution". I also use a common Compatibility folder too. For me, it's just more organized if they're all in these 2 common folders rather than scattered about in various folders. But there's really no right or wrong here. It's just whatever works best for you. And just to be clear, the files in your Compatibility folder should NEVER be registered. And unless there's a specific reason not to (for example, you always want to retain compatibility against a specific version), you should always copy (never move) your latest build to the Compatibility folder. The key point to remember is to manually unregister ActiveX files before moving or deleting them. -- Mike On Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:38:18 -0400, "MikeD" <nob***@nowhere.edu> I suggested compiling to the project folder simply because the OPwrote: > >It's actually very simple and is pretty much what Ralph outlined. One thing >he said that I don't really understand why is compiling into the project >folder. There's nothing wrong with doing that if that's what you want to do, >but personally, I compile all my production-ready ActiveX components into a >"common" folder named "Distribution". ... reported having problems and the most common reason for having problems is having multiple copies scattered all over, registered or not. Having one *place* firmly in mind helps to avoid that. But that place could be anywhere. So no disagreement on that. [Also a bit of supersition - VB5 used to have real problems compiling to 'removeable locations'. If the location disappeared compiles failed with memory violations. Old news - but some habits die hard. <g>] Second I tend to develop my install and build packages along side my projects using a Sandbox approach. Thus during later development if I need to test a product in a specific environment I install it and not copy. Overkill for a few components, but a handy habit for a suite. Fewer surprises come delivery time. > By controlling copies, I let the RegCleaner sort it out. But the>The key point to remember is to manually unregister ActiveX files before >moving or deleting them. result is the same, and there is certainly no harm in manually insuring the correct registration. Wearing suspenders with a belt has saved many a potential embarrassment. <g> -ralph "BeeJ" <nospam@nowhere.com> wrote in message One idea if you can't maintain binary compatibility for some reason is that news:i2vo61$223$1@speranza.aioe.org... > So all this VB6 development has left junk all through my registry. > OK so I don't know what I am doing. > I like to create ActiveX EXEs etc and find the clutter of non-existent > references in Project\References. > And I cannot unRegester 'cause I screwed up and deleted a project that > contained that registered reference. > > 1) how can I minimize it as I do development? before you compile, you must unregister the previously compiled file if it's present. This way you don't see multiple copies in Project\References. You can make a simple Add-in to always do that, so you don't have to do anything manually. You can use the following Add-in as a template, and it should take you 5 minutes to change it. Search the source for "gobjVBBuildEvents_EnterRunMode", then on the editor's list of events dropdown list, select "BeginCompile" event. One of the parameters for that event has a property called "BuildFileName". I am not sure if it has the full path or not. So in that event, check if the file exits, then shell to regsvr32 to unregister it. Other things that you need to do: - Change the project name from "ImmClear", to something else like "VBAutoUnreg", because this is the component name in the registry, and it needs to be different. - Change the project description to "VB Auto Unregister". This will be used as the Add-in name. - Delete "EnterRunMode" event code if you don't want the immediate window to be cleared when you run a project. This is what the Add-in originally does. - Compile after making your changes, and use the file name "VBAutoUnreg.dll" - Copy "VBAutoUnreg.dll" to the same folder and change the file name to "VBAutoUnreg.com". - Turn on "Binary Compatibility" and select the ".com" file. This is your binary compatibility copy. - Follow the ReadMe.txt file instructions on how to make the Add-in appear in VB. http://www.lockdesign.co.uk/immclear.htm One thing to remember is that when you run a project in the IDE, VB6 would register a special DLL file(VB6DEBUG.DLL), and use it as a gateway for whatever is trying to talk to the component. So the component user doesn't even know it's talking to the VB IDE as the details are hidden and unimportant to the user. When you stop the project or it ends, these registry entries are removed. When you compile, VB would auto register the component EXE/DLL/OCX file, so it's ready for use. It doesn't unregister it at all, so this has to be done manually if needed, or be using the Add-in above after the modifications. 
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