Cleaning Your Computer Registry
It is generally agreed that with the newer Microsoft operating systems like Vista and XP, it is no longer necessary to run a registry cleaner. Since these operating systems are based on Windows NT, invalid keys in the registry should not slow your computer down.
From a practical perspective, you could still experience PC problems because of corrupt or bad registry keys. Even though your operating system relies on Windows NT, removing malware, spyware or adware could leave bad keys in the registry that affect your computer’s performance.
If your software takes forever to load or does not run right, it is worth your time to check out the registry.
Microsoft’s operating systems provide a program that is called ‘regedit’ that you can access from the ‘start/run’ command. When you access regedit, you will see the entire contents of your registry folder. This will give you direct access to your system registry, where you can identify and remove any bad or corrupt keys.
The non-technical computer user does not understand what the registry keys mean. There are some registry cleaner programs available for no cost or for a small fee that will take the mystery out of the registry file by identifying any bad keys. These programs will give you a choice of either allowing the software to automatically delete the bad registry keys or letting you choose which invalid keys should be deleted.
Be wary of downloading free registry cleaners or antivirus programs. Some of these programs include malicious code such as spyware or trojans that can cause a lot of PC trouble for you down the road. If your budget dictates that you use a free registry cleaner, then be sure to get it from a reliable service like cNet that verifies that the freeware is free of trojans and malware.
If your software programs are not running efficiently, visit the NotGuru blog‘s computer tips section, where you will find a step-by-step tutorial on how to clean your registry. For easy reference, the tutorial includes screen shots, and also recommends trusted registry cleaner software.
Tags: computer, PC, regedit, registry, registry cleaner, slow computer, Vista, XP