Registry Editing Tools
Editing tools:
Regmon from SysInternals -- A simple program (free) that lets you see what's happening in the registry in real time. (It's a flurry of action in most PCs.)
Registry Detective -- A fast, multi-location Registry search tool (fee). You can search very rapidly and then jump directly to Regedit at the Keys you found.
Ashampoo Uninstaller -- Records the system state -- including the Registry -- before and after a change (like installing a program). Then it extracts and displays the changes. You can also use Ashampoo to reverse the changes, effectivelly uninstalling the program.
Configuration tweaking tools:
X-Setup Pro allows you to quickly and easily change settings that are normally hidden deeply in Windows. It can be dangerous though. :-)
Tweak UI is available on Microsoft's PowerToys for Windows XP page.
Registry cleanup:
If you never clean up your Windows XP Registry you'll still be OK if you're an average user. :-)
I've tried several Registry cleaners, and I only recommend two, which are essentially the same one. RegSupreme or the cleaner in the jv16 PowerTools utility package from Macecraft are the Registry cleaners that I trust. The predecessor of these cleaners has been around -- and highly regarded -- for years. First as free utilities, and now commercial.
