I tried to find a chkdsk in windows 7 but have had no luck - even the search was ineffective.

the other thing I am wondering about cleaning the registry. Is there any good freeware that will do that automatically?

You see I am 60 years old, learned on a TRS-80, then switched to DOS and when I had to I switched to Windoze...

I don't like the way the registry just runs away getting bigger and bigger and I would like to keep it as small as I can without hurting the operating system.

My system uses an Intel dual core i5 processor running at 2.67GHz with 6Gb of ram. The OS is Windows 7 64 bit.

This old man thanks you for your help.

Paul

To run it go to computer select the drive, go to properties, tools and select check drive. Alternatively use the command prompt and type chkdsk x: where x is the drive.

Cleaning the registry is not as important under win7 anymore. ccleaner does a good job though (among other things).

I second CharonY's suggestion of Ccleaner's registry tool it's pretty safe, unlike many others. It's always a good idea to backup the registry though...I use this:

 

http://download.cnet.com/Mz-Registry-Backup/3000-2094_4-10882793.html

 

This Registry Optimiser from MZ is ok as well: http://download.cnet.com/Mz-Registry-Optimizer/3000-18512_4-10777657.html. This one will compact and replace a new Registry on reboot. Backup up first with the tool mentioned. Only use very occasionally. Ccleaner's tool is safer for keeping chaff down on a regular basis...and you can remove space hogging system restore points as well.

Thank you very much for the help. I downloaded the registry backup program and the Ccleaner software. I will run backup first and then the cleaner.

I am curious why it is not as important to run the cleaner program with Windows 7?