[Dark Age Iron Savior]

so, uh, somehow my windows\system32\config\system file got killed, probably as a result of...something, that's not the important thing.

What's important is that replacing it with a four-year old backup (also not important at the moment) seems to have screwed up some important stuff, like Avast and Spyware Doctor. Now, those I can just reinstall, but....there's a lot of junk on this system.

Is there any way to find files/programs on my system that want to reach out to registry entries that are no longer there? The basics seem to be functioning right now, but I have no idea when something essential may just crap out at the worst moment.

Help?
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[Baron Patsy]

Dear lord, what do you to do your poor computer to screw it up all the time? I take terrible care of my computer and I don't have anywhere near the number of problems you do.

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

I think this one had something to do with turning it off and unplugging it, then plugging it back in a few days later.

That is my expert analysis.
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[Talbain]

First of all, you probably don't need any security crap on your computer, as it's possibly what caused the problem in the first place. If you want security, use something like CCleaner to clean out your registry every once in awhile, and don't browse in places you shouldn't (which is to say, don't go downloading serial keys from random websites).

Actually, CCleaner does something like what you're looking for. Not quite, but close. It tells you which registry entries are no longer being used by anything (which is to say, no longer connected to external files). Might be a good place to start at least. Then again, if you're getting registry errors, as long as they aren't nuking your system (and if they are, you might be better off with a fresh install), you should probably just use CCleaner to remove them from your computer.
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