Registry in Vista

Could someone please tell me if my understanding of this is correct.

A)The registry is like the index of a book telling the computer where everything is.

B)"CCleaner" deletes old files from the registry that are leftover from uninstalls.

Question)I tried "Any DVD" from Slysoft some time back and just downloaded their new version. *Note I have not bought the programme. Anyway when I tried the new one I get the message that my trial period has expired.

I am assumming therefore somewhere on my hard drive there is a record that I have used "Any DVD" before and even the uninstall I did on the early version did not remove it. Neither did "CCleaner".

So where have I made an incorrect assumption?
Also is there actually a file somewhere called registry?

Cheers
Edward

 

A) The registry stores much more information than just the location of things, past and present and has some placeholders for the future for common additions, both hardware and software.

B) The registry does not store actual files as such these are stored on your hard drive! The registry stores references to program files, locations, settings, entry parameters, permissions to run ..........in short pretty well everything Windows needs to run the program or to disallow it and to control it.

C) The registry is not stored in one file but a collection, each housing different types of data. Program installation adds entries to one or more of these files.

D) Backup copies of the registry are held in System Restore.

E) Set a system restore point
Hold the Windows key down and press R
In the box which opens typein
regedit
give yourself all the permissions needed to open the registry editor.
under the edit menu choose find
do searchs for 'Slysoft' and 'anydvd'
use F3 to step from instance to instance.

I suggest you record what you find by going to file>export and saving the instance (not the whole registry) and post here for further advice, rather than changing entries yourself just yet.

Please note, Major Geeks does not condone hacking the registry to avoid paying legitimate fees., so we can only help if you are not doing this.

 

Thank you, you explained it well.

 

Yes, one of CCleaner's features is a registry cleaner. However, it's not as aggressive in it's cleaning as some other registry cleaners, which is, no doubt, why CCleaner is very safe to use. Users of some other registry cleaners sometimes encounter problems after running their registry cleaner because the cleaner has removed something that was actually still needed for some application installed in their computer.

And, I wouldn't be surprised if the bit of data in your system that's triggering that notice that your trial period has expired is something CCleaner and some other registry cleaners may not remove, by design. Doing so would be circumventing the rights of the software vender, such as SlySoft. You can't blame for that, can you?