Has your PC slowed downed? Are you getting strange error messages saying things like “Dll error”, user profiles not loading, programs not starting, or the worst of all – the blue screen. If you have got one or more of the above errors in spite of doing disk defrag and running all the anti-virus and anti-spyware utilities, then you need to clean up your system registry. Most people do this using a registry cleaner.
The system registry is one of the most crucial parts of the Windows operating system. It has been designed as a central hierarchical database where information regarding all the system’s hardware, installed programs, user profiles and their individualized settings are kept. Windows is constantly referring to this database to function properly.
Your computer can function at optimal speed and efficiency only when it receives regular maintenance. Cleaning the system registry is one of the most important but ignored part of computer maintenance.
The registry itself is made up of five keys. And each key has further subkeys. The five main registry keys are: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_USERS, and HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG.
When you add and delete user profiles, or install and uninstall various programs, this creates empty registry keys. Not shutting down the computer properly can also result in invalid registry keys.
You can modify and delete the registry on your own manually. But even Microsoft recommends that this is to be done only if you are an advanced user who is sure about the function of all the keys. This is because if the wrong key is deleted or modified then it can result in the very same kind of errors that you have been trying to fix. In fact, it can result in the profile becoming completely corrupted or the computer losing all data. So creating a backup copy of the system registry is a good idea before modifying it. You can either save the whole registry or save just the individual keys. To create a backup copy:
1.Click the Start button. Then type “regedit.exe” in the Start Search box and click on it.
2.You will see the five main keys.
3.Click on the File menu and then click on Export.
4.Select the location where you want the backup copy to be saved and then give the copy a name.
5.Click Save.
Another way to create a backup copy is simply to make use of the user-friendly System Restore feature available in Windows Vista and Windows 7. With this feature you can simply restore your computer to the state it was in before you made changes to the registry.
Now comes the hard part. How do you choose the right kind of registry cleaner? There are several registry cleaners on the market with websites that look almost the same. Each of them urges you to download their free scan tool which will tell you how many invalid and corrupted keys your system registry contains. Then it will keep urging you to buy their product.
The problem with this is that there are several unscrupulous software publishers who have registry cleaners that barely work. They also exaggerate the number of errors that your registry has or just do not offer enough features to justify the price.
Some of the websites will even tell you how many errors your computer has even without you downloading their scan tool. These websites are just outright frauds. A real scan tool will have to be downloaded and the .EXE file has to be installed on the system for the tool to do an analysis of the system.
There are registry cleaners that cannot differentiate between the severity of errors and will show a very high number of registry errors. This is again done to scare the user into buying the product or keep buying its updates.
There are also registry cleaners who are actually spyware, malware and trojans. The best way to avoid this kind of products is to download registry cleaner from reliable websites. One example of this is to download it from reputed software forums and websites. But if you want to buy it directly from the publisher’s website check to see if the website has a good BBB rating. Another logo which a good website will have is the McAfee SECURE logo. This logo means that the website has passed McAffe’s daily intensive security scan. Reputed companies like RegGenie even offer a 60 day satisfaction guarantee.
