Can anyone recommend a  good registry repair tool for Win XP, preferably free?

Check out Ccleaner



http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

CCleaner is very good for temporary file cleaning, etc., but not very agressive with registry cleaning IMHO.

I like this one FWIW:

http://www.amltools.com/

ccleaner.

This  ..have it on 80 PC's and has not failed me

Just ran amltools on a whim since I was asking myself the OPs question the other day.
Took about 5 minutes, found 987 invalid entries.
My computer still works with no porn pop-ups.

Linux Mint 9


 
 
 

Play all Windows games?



 

I'm not a gamer but there are emulators and tutorials available to get them to work. Of course Linux has plenty of great games to choose from. Most distros have built in access to software repositories with access to tens of thousands of software titles.








If Micro$oft compatible gaming is a deal breaker, Linux Mint 9 has a Windoze Installer which allows you to install the OS as a program on your C: Drive. You can use the OS for all your work and safe web surfing without having to use Internet Explorer and only use Windows XP for gaming.
Gaming is Linux's Achilles heel but it is getting better every month. Used to be media playback was the big problem then it was wireless networking Both of those are effectively solved with multiple programs and solutions available and easy to use for Linux an00bsnd power users alike.
The advantages of the Open source Community is the sheer numbers of people across the planet constantly developing, tweaking and publishing improvements and software for the Linux OS. Micro$oft is limited by the number of developers on it's payroll and the proprietary nature of it's products.
Best part about Linux...IT'S FREE!!!
 
 
 

I'm hip - I'm a linux sysadmin.  But the mrs has a boat-load of Sims and other stuff, so at home, all I have is a linux partition - I am stuck with windoze for the forseable future....

I know people who have no problems doing it in arch linux if that is the only windows app. I guess running more than one makes wine or whatever unstable. I haven't used it yet since i can find linux versions alternatives for everything i've wanted. If you like ventrilo try mangler