Two of my three Windows installations are now successfully working with TechTracker. With my Windows XP Pro 32, I used seven steps to fix the problem --
1. I logged into Cnet, being careful to unselect remember me next time. The I logged out of Cnet and then selected "login." As soon as I verified I wasn't automatically logged back in, I closed my browser.
2. Making sure that TechTracker was not running in the background, I went to "Start\Control Panel\Add or Remove Programs" and removed TechTracker.
3. Using the freeware, optional donationware, very fast NTFS search engine Everything by Voidtools.com, I typed the two strings "cnet" and "txt" separated by one space into the searchbox, selected every occurrence, and deleted them all. Then I did the same for "TechTracker" and "txt." This took out all cookies containing a reference to TechTracker's previous homepage.
4. After first creating a restore point, I used Registrar Lite, free for personal use by Resplendence.com to find the locations of all keys in the registry containing the string "TechTracker," double-clicked each one, and deleted it.
5. Then I searched for all value names containing "TechTracker," and deleted all of those value names that were contained inside a key called "MUICache."
6. Then I restarted the computer and used Search Everything again to find and remove any folders containing "TechTracker" except my backup installation folder.
7. Then I navigated to my backup installation folder and reinstalled TechTracker.
As soon as I agreed to let TechTracker run, I noted its behavior was different from before. First my browser fired up, went to the TechTracker home page, and said, "Welcome to TechTracker." Following was a helpful commentary that said first I needed to scan my computer using TechTracker and told me exactly how to do it.
Next, it explained to me that after the first scan completed, I would be taken to a webpage that would allow me to either register or login to TechTracker, and that after doing so, my computer name would be registered with TechTracker and the list of available updates would appear.
After running the scan and logging into TechTracker, I was immediately taken to the TechTracker update web page, but at first the same page said at the top that I was not logged into Cnet. But about five seconds later, the web page refreshed and I was greeted with "Welcome <username> to Cnet."
I repeated the seven step procedure with my Windows Vista Ultimate 64, and again the problem was fixed. So two of the three operating systems are once again registered and working with TechTracker.
I did find one specific entry in the registry that referred to TechTrackers old home URL and believe that stopping TechTracker from running and changing that old home URL to http://cnet.com/techtracker might be enough to fix TechTracker without having to take any other action.
I will try out my guess on my Windows 7 64 operating system, which so far has had no changes to its TechTracker installation, and thus is a perfect testbed for experimentation.