The most of empty registry entries remain in the registry after removed programs and will never be used. But some entries without values (empty) may be needed for some programs that check settings trying to read these entries.
You may delete found empty entries and always create backup files. Backup files of deleted empty entries have the "empty_yyyy_mm_dd.reg" name format, where "yyyy_mm_dd" is the current date. If after the "healing" the registry you will meet a problem with running some program then first restore your last backup of empty entries. Then check for that problem again. If problem persists, you may need to restore all your backups of empty entries (in creation order) and backups of other modified entries.
If you discover a problem with one of your programs you may try to add a program's registry entry into the Excluded empty entries list. Usually entry looks like "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\your_program_name\....". Unpick the all found entries, pick this only entry and heal the registry (with creating an individual backup file"). Then run your program and check for problem. If it is running OK then restore modified entry and try to find another problem entry using the same way. When you will found the problem entry (after correcting it your favorite program will not work), add the entry to the excluded list. Then make the "full" healing of the registry (the problem entry will be excluded from the registry scanning) to be sure that your program works.
This problem finding algorithm is useful for all faultiness appeared after healing the registry using Registry Healer.
Please send the found problem entry to reghealer@fixregistry.com and we'll help you and other users to avoid this problem in the future versions of the program.
An example.
Problem: After "healing" the registry Adaptec's Easy CD Creator doesn't run.
Solution:
1. Restore the latest backup of deleted empty entries (for example "empty_2001_12_06.reg").
2. Run the program and be sure that the program run fine for now.
3. Scan registry for empty entries.
4. Look through the list of found entries for an entry with the program name "Adaptec's Easy CD Creator".
5. There five entries with the name:
6. Right mouse-click on the last entry and add it to the Excluded entries list. Don't add the previous entries - they are subkeys for the last entry and will be excluded from the search automatically.
7. Scan the registry for empty entries again (Registry Healer will not show Adaptec's empty entries now) and "heal" them.
8. Be sure that the program runs without problems.