pls suggest any advantages (and disadvantages) of registry cleaner for vista and xp also..and best free registry cleaner i can download..

My girlfriend’s laptop had some viruses, and I removed most of them using some tools and tips I got off the internet. (The laptop had three-year-old virus definitions.). Windows 2000 has been corrupted: the cryptographic services are missing.

I’ve tried to reinstall Windows 2000 from the recovery CD, and it doesn’t work! I’ve tried to "repair this version of windows" and also to start with a clean install. I still get the same problems after each install: cryptographic services are missing from the Services under Administrative Tools. This prevents me from reinstalling MS Office or the software for the wireless card (which have both been corrupted as well). I’ve tried renaming the directory %systemroot%system32Catroot2, re-registering the DLLs associated with cryptography, renaming the EDB.LOG file and every other solution I’ve found on the web.

Is it worth it to pay 0 for XP OEM and try installing that, or is that $ better spent on a computer tech?

Windows (XP) Registry

I receive the following notice every time windows loads after
turning my pc on daily (for the past week or more).

"One of the files containing the system’s Registry data
had to be recovered by use of a log or alternative copy.
The recovery was successful."

I’ve read others who’ve had this issue before, but I’ve
never read where someone actually gave advice for how
to resolve this issue.

Does anyone have any idea how I may begin to track
down what file(s) may be causing this, perhaps a way
to review the log itself and determine what’s creating
this issue?

One side-note. I believe the problem began a few days
(therefore a few startups) after I used a program called
"Eusing Free Registry Cleaner". It’s a free version,
which finds problems in a registry and cleans it up.
I thought about using the old registry I
backed-up, but I’m afraid I may create
more problems since I’m pretty active
on my pc, and have created text files
and downloaded photos and other things
since that time. I wouldn’t want to lose any
data. I have downloaded "Registry
mechanic" also, used it once, that didn’t
clear the problem, although I didn’t really
think it would. So my question is, how to
trace the cause of the file or files
creating this issue?

By free, I mean totally free, not just a trial version.

http://www.regsofts.com/index.html (that’s the link I’m talking about)

How come everytime I use CCleaner or this software it fixes my issues but then i scan it after 2 minutes and it has new issues to fix? I reallly don’t understand that. What do you recommend?

ANd my system isn’t running slow or having any problems but Im concerned because everytime I run them even if its after 2 minutes new things to fix pop out..And which one would you recommend?

–thanks !