DeviceClasses Buildup

[Wijono]

When we rebuild driver stacks, e.g., USB Driver Stacks, Windows 98SE unfortunately left a lot of mess in the so called DeviceClasses key in the Registry, following is an example of such an "orphan" set of Registry Keys:

- HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{1181f4a0-f284-11d2-9068-00609797ea5a}

- ##.#000000000000001b#{1181f4a0-f284-11d2-9068-00609797ea5a}]

DeviceInstance = USB\\VID_067B&PID_2517\\INST_0

RefCount = dword:00000000

- #

SymbolicLink = \\000000000000001b#{1181f4a0-f284-11d2-9068-00609797ea5a}

- Control

Linked = dword:00000000

When that happens, Windows 98SE not only leaving some junks, but also incrementing the Serial Number of the device, in the example above it is ##.#000000000000001b#.

That it is indeed an orphan can be seen from following two entries:

- RefCount = dword:00000000

- Linked = dword:00000000

furthermore similar set of keys are repeating itself as many times as we have rebuilt the driver stacks, each with different Serial Number though.

I have tried several Registry Cleaners to no avail. Finally I decided to just get rid of those orphan keys by manually deleting them.

Does someone know of a utility that can cleanup such orphan entries in the Registry? Or better still to find a way to prevent Windows from leaving such junks?