Registry

I am a little leary on purchasing a registry cleaner, I did a free scan from XP Medic and it showed 106 invalid keys but can anyone tell me if it is safe to open "regedit" and just right click and delete trial versions of games I have played under the HKEY/Machine/Software

just right click and delete


The phrase "just right click and delete" does not belong in a sentence referring to "Registry".

Some phrases that might be more appropriate:

With great care
With caution after careful study
Only if you are absolutely certain what the object is that you are modifying
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Please also know that in most cases, if you are planning to remove games and application files from your machine, you should use Control Panel - Add/Remove if the game appears there, or use the game's own Uninstall protocol.

If you make the mistake of Removing a Registry entry referring to the game or any other application, prior to using Add/Remove to Uninstall the Program Files and System files involved with the game/application, that you "will not" be able to Uninstall the application/game from your File structure using Add/Remove or the applications own protocol.
The result will be that you will have various remnants of the program scattered about in Program Files, C:\Windows, C:\windows\(logs), c:\windows\System, C:\windows\System32\, C:\Windows\fonts, and a variety of other places. This situation can really cause "headaches".

Using the Registry Editor to remove items can be a great thing, if you understand what you are doing.
Using the Registry Editor to remove items can be disastrous and leave your machine un-operable, if you don't know what you are doing.

Note:
Having 106 "invalid keys" in the Registry can be thought of as: "No big deal".
Many of those "invalid keys" refer to Temporary Internet Files from web browsing, some from documents that you've printed, or rewritten, some from applications that you've uninstalled, some from Windows operating system that constantly creates and abandons various temporary files to accomplish a task, some are from program updates, etc.

I would not even begin to be concerned with 106 invalid keys.
It is not the "amount" but the "specifics"

One or two specific invalid Registry keys can cripple an application or even the operating system.
One hundred or even 500 invalid Registry keys of the type described above, is unlikely to be a problem.

Please be "specific" about what you want to accomplish here.

best regards

thank-you for telling me not to right click and delete in the registry. What I was trying to do is. Frequently I have trouble playing online games.I download a load of free trial versions of games at the bigfishgames.com site (buy lots too). I always uninstall the trials through Add/Remove, but lately I have been unable to play the online games there and I thought maybe because there was so many invalid registry keys from previously downloaded games, maybe that could be an issue. I know this is such a trivial problem but I really do like playing online games. Thank-you for your help, you told me what I needed to know

The bigfishgames(dot)com game site, is probably dependant on your machine having ActiveX components installed and operational in your JAVA Cache.

Files in the JAVA Cache sometime become corrupted, and even infected.
It's a good idea to Clear your JAVA Cache periodically (maybe one time weekly)
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to Clear your JAVA Cache:
Clear your JAVA Cache which may have corrupted ActiveX files.
Afterwards, when you visit back to online sites that require ActiveX components, they will ask you to accept a fresh copy of their ActiveX. (not all sites, nor all activeX components are SAFE.) Be sure you make good decisions about where you browse and what you click/allow.

To Clear JAVA Cache:
Control Panel - (double-click)JAVA <– This brings up the JAVA Control Panel
On the General(tab) - Click on - Settings (at the bottom, in the Temporary Internet Files section)
Then click on - Delete Files - the OK, OK to exit the panel and exit JAVA Control Panel
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Next:
Clear your TEMP and Temporary Internet Folders

Next Defrag your Hard Drive
(installing and uninstalling applications frequently, tends to fragment the Hard Drive, resulting in more frequent Errors, stalls, lag, and even BlueScreen Errors BSOD)

Next:
Now try your bigfishgames site again.
You will probably have to accept a fresh copy of an ActiveX download.

Keep us posted with your Progress.

Best Regards