The Windows Registry is a system of storing configuration information for computers running the Windows operating system. It keeps all of the settings information for the hardware, software, and user and system preferences for a computer. Using such a system deletes the random storage of INI files scattered throughout the computer. However, in spite of its usefulness, the Windows Registry causes some major problems for many users.
When you install software, uninstall software, or make any changes whatsoever to your computer that affect the control panel, system policies, file associations, or any of the software already on the system, an entry appears in the Windows Registry. So, the more you use your computer, especially if you're the type of user who makes a lot of changes, the more entries your registry will accumulate.
As with all information on your computer, registry entries require the use of memory. And, the more entries you have in your registry, the more space the registry takes up. A good number of the entries in the registry are unnecessary and even erroneous. All these entries can slow the system down to a snail's pace. Worse yet, they can cause the system to become unstable and crash.
While it is possible for users to manually edit the registry, it's far from advisable for all but the expert user. And, even the expert user needs to make a back up of the registry before making any changes. Making an error in editing the registry can render the system unusable, and possibly even irreparable.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to clean up your registry and speed up your system. There are many third-party registry cleaners available for cleaning up unnecessary and erroneous registry entries. In fact, for a short time, Microsoft even made an unsupported tool called Regclean available to users running any of the Windows 9x systems.
The older versions of Windows experience more problems with the registry than the newer NT and XP versions do. The newer versions don't crash as easily as the older systems did. However, they are still susceptible to slowing and, with severely affected registries, it is still possible for these versions to crash.
One situation in which NT and XP systems can benefit from using a registry cleaner is when a computer running Windows 9x is upgraded to NT or XP. When this occurs, the system keeps all the registry entries from the old system "just in case." Although this is meant to guarantee that the upgrade works, it does mean that the new operating system will run more slowly than it should.
Though there are many registry cleaners out there, they certainly aren't all equal. Some of them aren't even legitimate. There are some cleaners that don't accurately report the number of entries that could be removed. Some of them show numbers that just don't add up when the program is run back-to-back.
For example, you might run it the first time and come up with 600 errors, which the program will claim to clean up. If you then run it again immediately, it might report that there are still 300 errors, and the third time it might show 400 errors. In other words, it's either not cleaning up anything, it's not accurately identifying errors, or it's inflating the numbers to make you think it's doing some good.
To ensure you're purchasing a registry cleaner that's worth the money you're spending, take the time to do some research. Check out review sites and look for software sold by reputable companies. Don't be drawn in by free trials or outlandish claims.
About the Author:
My name is James Angell. I not an expert in technical knowledge on computers, but after using the "Regcure" program I could notice significant improvement. It detected and quarantined over 6,000 errors on my PC. Get a free scan at
http://www.easywayincome.com
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427
Date Published :
Dec 13 2007