How to clean up codecs ?

[machser]

Hi,

is there a way to clean up the installed codecs ?
I'm driving a long time WinXP installation and just seen my codecs list (see picture), and wondering if there is way to define the used/installed codecs and maybe delete one or the other...Is there maybe a 'codec cleaner' or so available ?

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/9255/codecsst8.gif (http://imageshack.us)

[Mazer Rackham]

Filmerit (http://paul.glagla.free.fr/filmerit_en.htm) cleans and repairs filters.

[foxyshadis]

Filemerit doesn't remove VFW codecs like these, though. They're actually a very small sample of your codecs, filemerit will show you lots more, and you'll want to be careful what you remove or you can really mess up video playback.

You can remove VFW codecs by deleting their registry entry in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32], most of them are superceded by ffdshow. The only ones you'll probably want to keep are Indeo 5, WMV9, TSCC, and maybe Huffyuv.

CCCP insurgent can help find and remove the detritus from old codec packs, as well.

[check]

'fixing' 'issues' with your vfw or directshow codec list is very much not recommended, because, as my quoting suggest, you will usually not end up with a better/fixed system. Unless you have a true error, the best advice I have is to leave it ticking over. This is especially true of vfw codecs, it's mostly impossible to get problems in there without serious insanity (either on your, or an evil filter's behalf).
If you still want to mess around with the dshow/vfw subsystem I can second foxy's recommendations. The cccp insurgent is good for directshow magic, while direct registry hacking will do good for vfw.

[clsid]

Almost all the codecs in that list are also present in a clean Windows install. The other few a pretty much harmless as well. The only one I don't know is tabdec.dll.

[unskinnyboy]

tabdec.dll is not a Windows default codec. It's a decoder and is part of the Zwei-stein 4 (ZS4) Video Editor package (http://www.zs4.net/downloads?PHPSESSID=378c45e54704a6bf66f280eb632cf544). So the OP must have installed that at some point in the past. Uninstall that and tabdec.dll should go away.

[machser]

hey guys,

thanks for your replies! Filmerit did the job quite good and cleaned the registry of many old empty entries! And I have a good feeling now! As long as I am not sure no codec will be wiped...