Hi there... I've recently cleaned my laptop ready to sell. I removed the programs, most of which have a user license as I make music as a hobby, and I removed my printer drivers, mobile phone drivers, etc from the add/remove programs within Control Panel. I also removed my old documents and any pictures etc. I went to sell the laptop and for some reason, there was no sound when a DVD or CD was played, a file seemed to be missing. So in my haste, I decided to carry out a system restore to a date before I deleted all of the software. Great, we have sound back again!! However, I'm now faced with more nightmares, when I re-boot the laptop, I get the Error message 'Unable to load resources' followed by another dialog quoting 'Some of the application resources could not be located. Please reinstall application' (I removed about 20 programs, and am not sure what program may be prompting this!) I then though, well, I have uninstalled programs, and really they shouldn't be there, but by carrying out a system restore, the computer has now replaced all shortcuts etc relating to the deleted software, and when I went into Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs, I realised they were all back in there, even stating how big the original files were. As expected, I tried opening a shortcut and a dialog appeared saying the 'Application could not be found'. I found a useful tip on a website saying if you go into Start>run and type:regedit, you can delete the files that are showing in Add/Remove Programs, that have previously been deleted, but even though I have done this, I still get the error messages everytime I start the laptop, which is annoying. Is there any way I can get a system scan of dead files/shortcuts not relating to anything, without having to re-install windows?? Any advice would be great, but I'm not very optimistic! Regards, Tim

Download CCleaner and use the registry tool included. I think it will remove the registry items not in use. http://www.ccleaner.com/

Thanks for that, seems to have solved it!! Regards, Tim.

You are welcome. I suggest you leave CCleaner on there. It is very useful to clean out temp files and cookies. I use it daily or more.

If you are selling the Laptop without a Clean install you are leaving tons of personal info on the HDD. Disable System Restore to wipe out any saved Restore points. Best to wipe the HDD and do fesh install of OS. There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

While I agree with Dumbob, I think how far you go is dependent on what data you originally had on the drive. If no information that could be used to steal your identity was on there then I wouldn't worry about it. Things like credit card #s, Bank account info, SS#, etc. Personally I never place anything like that on my drives so I am not worried if someone tries to run recovery software and finds some photos or such. In actuality the only sure way to keep someone from recovering data is to physically destroy the drive.

I'd reload the OS reformatting as well. Life's more painless for the brainless.