How can I compress the registry?

A. The following procedure can be used to compact the registry files,but also to restore the 'repair disk data' when you messed up the registry:

1) As always, make sure you have a backup of you're system, including theregistry

2) Run Start: "RDISK /S-". This automatically updates the repairinfo located under %systemroot%repair. The registry data are reorganized andcompressed.

3) Next step is to expand these files to a temporary location.

EXPAND %systemroot%REPAIRDEFAULT._ %temp%DEFAULT
EXPAND %systemroot%REPAIRSAM._ %temp%SAM
EXPAND %systemroot%REPAIRSECURITY._ %temp%SECURITY
EXPAND %systemroot%REPAIRSOFTWARE._ %temp%SOFTWARE
EXPAND %systemroot%REPAIRSYSTEM._ %temp%SYSTEM

4) Check your %temp% folder and %systemroot%system32config to find thedifference in size between the different files that make up the registry.Probably the SOFTWARE hive will have a remarkable difference. In my case itshrinked from over 10Mb to 3.5Mb.

5) The registry files in %systemroot%system32config should be replaced bythe reorganized ones in your %temp% folder. You can do this by:

When I performed these steps I notices a serious performance gain duringsystem startup.