Compressing the Windows 98 Registry
By: Arie SlobWindows 98 now compresses the registry by default. If there is more than 500KB of empty space in the registry, Windows 98 will compress the registry at the next restart. This is controlled by the line Optimize=1 in the Scanreg.ini file in your \Windows directory.
To compress the registry manually:
- As always we suggest you to make a backup of the registry before you begin. If you're running in Windows, restart in MS-DOS mode (click Start > Shut Down, and choose Restart in MS-DOS mode from the Shut Down Windows menu
- At the MS-DOS prompt type: scanreg/backup, this will backup your registry
- Now type scanreg/opt
- Scanreg will compress the registry
RegClean
Over time, your computer's registry may begin to contain corrupted, unused, and unnecessary registry keys, especially if keys are not removed when you uninstall a program. As a result, you may begin to experience problems when using OLE to embed objects or Automation to control other programs.
Microsoft's RegClean utility is designed to clean up unnecessary registry entries in your registry. For more information, read the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 147769 (This article seems to have been removed from the Microsoft Knowledge Base. However, I have a local copy for you to read).
The latest version of Microsoft's RegClean [781 KB - version 4.1a, build 7364.1] is safe to use with Windows 98.