Registry cleaning can be a tricky activity, particularly if you do not know what you are doing or if you are cleaning for the first time.
The Windows Operating System is the only OS that has a file called a registry. The Mac and Linux systems do not have one. There were rumours that Windows 7, coming in October 2009, will would not have a registry. Microsoft, however, has debunked that fervent wish, so and this nightmare of a file will continue to haunt us, for the time being.
The registry is a veritable smorgasbord of lines of code called keys. These keys are put there by not only by your operating system but also by newly installed programs installed as well as hardware drivers. These lines of codey typically help Windows to know how to load certain files and for whom they are.
Prior to any registry fixing, the very first thing to do isyou have to back it up. You can use the Windows back up program or the backup utility that comes with most registry cleaning products.
Another action to take prior tobefore running a registry cleaner, is to stop most of the programs that running. Close them and That includes the opened programs in your lower right task bar. The reason being that, any open programs will continue to write to the registry as they are open running, and that can which may create issues during cleaning or later on.
There isare a large quantity number of registry cleaners. A sound advice would be to download the shareware versions and test-drive them yourself. There are also some free versions that are very good. Many people use two or three brands of registry cleaners, as some are better than others and with 2 two or more, you are sure to clean some entries in your registry that one of them may have missed.
These programs have the backup utility as well, so use it! There are also options to compress the registry. This file has a tendency toof bloating itself to a ridiculous size and some believe this can cause your computer to become unstable. The jury is out on that one, but if the option is there, why not try use it?
One other issue to look out for with registry cleaners, are is the auto clean option. After running a thorough scan, they all offer you to auto clean, so you don’t have to, that is, you need not review all the ticked boxes besides the invalid entries. That may be a bad decision. If you are running a cleaner for the first time, at least spend some time to review what it has flagged for deletion. If all is ok, then click clean. Otherwise, remove the tick and then click clean.
Run the cleaner about once a week until you are satisfied that all is well. Afterwords, proceed to doing a thorough cleaning about once a month.
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