Orphaned COM/OLE Entries

COM objects (Common Interface Objects) are function libraries that are accessible to all Windows® applications. Orphaned COM objects reference applications or files that no longer exist. Sometimes the registry can contain an incorrect path entry so that it isn't possible to find the referenced file even though it actually exists.

The result is that the application can no longer access the COM object's functions, and the corresponding registry entry is effectively redundant.

The same basic situation applies for OLE objects (Object Linking and Embedding). The only difference is that these objects are used for exchanging data between applications. OLE objects are also files and if they are missing or stored in a different folder their registry entries become orphaned and no longer serve any useful purpose.

Activating this option makes Registry Optimizer find these orphaned entries referring to COM and OLE objects.