Hi everyone,

I’ve noticed that many of us using the Bob Dule releases (or similar "Add Library" tools) end up with a significantly slower Kontakt startup time. The culprit? These scripts often inject hundreds of registry entries for libraries we don’t even use or have installed.

When Kontakt 7 or 8 boots up, it tries to scan every single entry under the Native Instruments registry path. If you have hundreds of entries with empty ContentDir values (ghost libraries), Kontakt hangs while trying to resolve these paths.

I’ve put together a quick PowerShell script to automate the cleanup. This script scans your registry and deletes the entire parent folder (Key) for any library where the ContentDir is empty or missing.To give you an idea of the impact: Before I did this cleanup, opening Kontakt 8 took over half a minute. Now, it launches in just 6 seconds.

Spoiler: The fix

The Fix

1. Registry Cleanup: Run PowerShell as Administrator and execute the following:

$regPaths = @(
"HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Native Instruments",
"HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Native Instruments"
)

Write-Host "Scanning for ghost library entries..." -ForegroundColor Cyan

foreach ($root in $regPaths) {
if (Test-Path $root) {
$keys = Get-ChildItem -Path $root
foreach ($key in $keys) {
$contentValue = Get-ItemProperty -Path $key.PSPath -Name "ContentDir" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
# If the entry exists but the path is empty/whitespace
if ($null -ne $contentValue -and [string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($contentValue.ContentDir)) {
Write-Host "Removing ghost entry: $($key.Name)" -ForegroundColor Yellow
Remove-Item -Path $key.PSPath -Recurse -Force
}
}
}
}
Write-Host "Done! Your registry is now clean." -ForegroundColor Green
Hope this helps anyone dealing with a sluggish Kontakt! If you have other tips for optimizing NI's database, feel free to share below.
（I write this thread and Powershell script via Gemini）