Some of my keys seem identical except for a ".1" or a "(1)" at the very end of the key name. Question - Are these real dupes? and if so, can one be deleted without damaging the registry? Does it matter which one is deleted? thanks in advance, clif

Registry backups are kept in c:\windows\sysbackup and are named rb0n.cab, where n can be a number from 0 to 99. I have seen some called rbbad.cab. In c:\windows the registry files are user, classes, and system, all with a ".dat" extention. I haven't seen any of these with a numerical part of the name or extension, although I have seen them with a ".bad" extension. Anything with "bad" in its name or extension I delete. I'm not sure about other numerical names or extensions. My guess is that they are duplicates. (I had lots of fonts with names like [fontname].001 or .002, which were duplicates, and I deleted them with no problem.) But wait for other posts; you can never be too careful when it comes to the registry. You could try (in Start/run) scanregw /opt/ fix.

I would suggest a registry cleaner if you are not very well experienced in playing with the registry! Most of them have a backup feature to undo the mess we make. My rule of thumb is never delete something in the registry, if I don't know exactly what it is. I have found that a lot of keys and values look like something that really aren't needed, only to find myself bboting up in safe mode and trying to remember what I changed. LOLIf you are going to play in there, you better have a good startup disk and install CD. What are you trying to accomplish?

I want to clean the garbage out of the registry. I'm pretty sure these dupes(?) were not there until i re-installed winme (without removing windows first), my foulup. I have a couple of reg cleaners but they dont touch dupes. Also, in reply to above - in the scanregw /opt /fix, what does the "w" tell windows to do? Thats a new one i havent heard of before.. thanks for the feedback, clif

The "W" in scanregw [space]/opt[space]/fix is for Windows. Scanreg (no W) is for DOS. If you invoke scanreg in Windows, it reverts to scanregw anyway. Why not move the suspected duplicates to a separate folder and see if anything happens? If there's a problem, you could always use your StartUp Disk to move them back. If everything's OK after a week or so, then delete them. MS RegClean is good, fast, and free. I also use System Mechanic and Norton's WinDoctor, and each one finds something the other can't.

I have the MS RegClean, run it at least weekly. The dupes(?) are scattered throughout the reg and there is a bunch of them. Here is an example of what i'm talking about. Mmedia.RadioBand "RadioBand Class" CLSID"{8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467}" CurVer "Mmedia.RadioBand.1" Mmedia.RadioBand.1 "RadioBand Class" CLSID"{8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467}" Sorry about the formatting but u can see that the first Mmedia.RadioBand just points to the second one and they both point to the same CLSID.... So, is one of them a dupe? While we are here, if i may ask one more question... I have had 3 modems in this sys (BCM, Creative, ZOOM). The ZOOM is in now. When i unstalled (removed the other two) everything seems fine, yet all three are still found in the registry. Is there some program that will remove these old registry references?? thanks for ur help, Renaissance Man,

There's a difference between duplicate RECORDS in the registry and duplicate COPIES of the registry files. I thought you were talking about duplicate COPIES. I don't think it's worth the effort (or the risk) to take out duplicate RECORDS. Use one of the Registry cleaners for that.