Registry Cleaner, minor bug in Error description
This line shows a rare and very minor bug in the Error description:
High, HKUS\S-1-5-21-2736614755-4186107725-1336004102-1010\Soft\MSoft\MPEG2Demultiplexer\, WriteCaptureDir, c:\dm.capture\c:\dm.cap
The directory c:\dm.capture\ actually does not exist
Probable cause: the dot in the directory name causes RC incorrectly to treat the name as a filename with a three character extension ...
tullik wroteProbable cause: the dot in the directory name causes RC incorrectly to treat the name as a filename with a three character extension ...
This is exactly what happens here. It's simply not possible to know exactly to where a filename (or a directory name, as in this case) ends.
The human brain does it fairly well and it works by probabilities (I think) and jv16 PowerTools uses a similar method. However, in this case the method doesn't work properly: a directory with a dot can be a valid directory name, but it's very unlikely and rare in your average computer systems. Therefore in this case PT uses probabilities and decides that "c:\dm.cap" must the be the file reference as it looks more probable.
However, this is a purely cosmetic problem, the PT's Registry Cleaner naturally checks the existence of both "c:\dm.capture" and "c:\dm.cap" in this case.
In short: this doesn't affect the way the Registry Cleaner works, nor is it possible to fix the problem 100%.
In this case, the ending backslash makes it a certainty, not a probability, that the string is a directory, and where its name ends. Doesn't it?
How can one check if a name or path exists if one cannot determine what it is?
Directory Finder lists 7236 directory strings in C:\Windows (on Vista); 6192 of the strings contain one or more dots. In C:\Program Files, it lists 1770 strings; 465 contain one or more dots.
If the name in the actual registry item does not exist, but the estimated name in the error description does happen to exist (however improbable that may be), does RC list the item as an error?
What about the inverse case?
... my head hurts
Oh well, as long as it doesn't affect the way the Registry Cleaner works ...
