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What is a Registry Cleaner?

By Lisa Nobles

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 26Jan2008 Word count: 578 Viewed: 333 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

First of all, what is a Registry, and do you have one? For most people, the answer is yes. If you run Microsoft Windows on your computer you will have a Windows Registry. The registry acts as a storage database, keeping track of important information on your computer, such as information and settings for the hardware and software that is installed on the computer.

When upgrading, obsolete files will be carried over so doing a registry clean will help to speed up the system. Also, over time, with general use, the registry can become corrupted. Corruption signs include frequent freezing, errors and system crashes. If one or more of these are occurring, it is important to scan your computer for errors and repair them. In both these situations, this is where a registry cleaner comes in.

Registry cleaners look for errors on your registry, and then give you the option to 'remove' or 'repair' them. What this does is delete them from your computer system, freeing up room to help make the computer run at a faster rate.

To begin using, you first need to install a registry cleaner. This can be done by either downloading a free version (there are plenty to be found on the Internet), or by purchasing a registry cleaning program. In general, while the free versions will work fine, a commercial program will be able to detect more errors, and handle them in a better way. Over the long term, this is a much better solution.

Before installing the software, it is important to do a back-up of the system, in the event that using the registry cleaner causes problems with any of the programs or software you are currently using. Most registry cleaners are capable of creating a backup file for you in the event that something does go wrong.

Once installed, run a scan on your computer. A good registry cleaner will give you a total number of errors found, for example, 302 errors, along with a 'safe to remove' total, perhaps 112. If the registry cleaner states that all the errors can be removed, chances are you'll find you have problems with current programs, as it will delete files required for them to run. A good registry cleaner will recognize that there are files that shouldn't be deleted, even if it sees them as an error.

Some registry cleaners give you the option of choosing whether to do a regular or aggressive search, which will influence the amount of errors that are found on the system. Generally the registry cleaners that you purchase, rather than download for free, give you more options in terms of the settings you can use to scan your computer, but many of the free cleaners work very well, and shouldn't be dismissed.

Which one you choose will vary on the types of options you want. Do you want to be able to go through manually and choose which files to delete? Do you want descriptions of the errors? Do you want an 'auto' cleaner, which will delete the files with a single click of the button?

No matter which registry cleaner you choose, make sure to run a back-up prior to running the registry cleaner. Some of the cleaners automatically run a back-up before deleting files, but for your own peace of mind, it is best to do a manual back-up yourself to save any grief later on.

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