I've got several "big gun" reg cleaners as well as several lessor known
reg search and/or clean apps. They all completely fail to clean redundant
Start Menu registry entries.
Here's what I mean.
You do a fresh install of Windows. Does your Start Menu remain unchanged?
Of course not! Each time I add or remove an app I make some change to
my Start Menu. I might create a new category or subcategory. I'll move
whole blocks of Start Menu shortcuts to a new location within the Start Menu.
Sometimes I make minor or major changes to the shortcut name, even though
the target or command line remains the same.
Take a good look at the Start Menu in the Windows registry. The same shortcut
that was added to the Start Menu when you installed an app is still there, as well
as all the shortcuts you moved or renamed. The ONLY THING reg cleaners
check is the target or command line. If it's valid it will never be marked for
deletion. Why don't reg cleaners scan you current Start Menu arrangement
and list every shortcut that is no longer valid, even if the path name is still
correct?
Because I'm very comfortable working in the registry, I've managed to delete
many of these redundant entries manually. You can export the entire Start
Menu to a text file and attempt to clean it up. The job is overwhelming!
The only Start Menu shortcuts that are ever listed for deletion are orphans that
no longer point to an app. If there is a reg cleaner that will clear out all Start
Menu entries that don't correspond to your current Start Menu I haven't found
it yet.
