Why It’s Important to Clean the Registry

The Windows registry is a database that stores Microsoft Windows settings and options. It contains all the data for all hardware, operating system software, all other applications, and user settings, such as user profiles, installed software, the type of documents the users create, and much more.

The registry is the most vital and the most vulnerable part of a Windows computer. Different programs access the registry thousands of times per second and new registry entries are created whenever you install new software or hardware. All this makes the registry a very complicated database that, like any other complicated database, needs to be looked after.

When software is uninstalled, its registry entries usually get deleted as well. That’s the case with most programs. However, some applications don’t get uninstalled properly and leave you with a registry that is cluttered with obsolete entries pointing to non-existent software. As time goes by, invalid entries mount up and create a real mess. As a result, your system needs a lot more time to access the registry and your computer takes longer to respond.

There are other things that can cause problems with the registry, for example poorly written programs, bloated browser cache, and incorrect program uninstalls. All this can potentially cause system errors, freeze-ups, and even failures. That’s why it’s very important to keep the Windows registry free of junk and fix registry errors that have accumulated over time.

These days cleaning the registry became a lot easier than in the past when you had to open the Registry Editor (Click on Start - Run - type regedit) and identify invalid and corrupted registry entries. That required extensive computer knowledge and experience and was pretty dangerous, because one entry deleted by mistake could make your computer unbootable. Of course, you can still trust your knowledge and use Regedit, but it’s a lot safer and easier to use one of the free registry cleaners available on the market. There are a lot of good registry cleanup programs that do the job perfectly, for example RegAce and CCleaner. Both are reliable, come from reputable developers, are very easy to use, and offer you to backup the registry, so that you can undo any changes if there are any problem.

Clean the registry regularly, at least once a month, and you’ll notice a significant improvement in your computer performance.