A Windows registry is a database that has all the information about the computer as well as the software that has been installed on the computer. The main purpose of this registry is to store the configuration of the different software programs that have been installed on the computer, the installed hardware or attached to the computer as well as any other special settings the user has implemented. The windows registry is an efficient way of monitoring the different software and hardware components. An example will be all the software programs will be organized based on user profiles.
This registry is also a delicate place to fiddle around for those who do not have proper knowledge, as an individual will need to be well equipped with registry handling information in order to modify it. The registry is also prone to spyware as well as viruses. It is also necessary to note that the installation and removal of software programs will mean that not all of these programs will remove themselves completely from the registry and this will call for the cleaning of the registry. There are two main ways of cleaning the computer's registry namely cleaning manually using the Windows Registry editor and the other is cleaning using registry cleaning software.
People who understand what the registry entries mean and this is because some programs may function incorrectly if some essential registry entries are tamperd with should do the manual cleaning. For those who wish to clean manually they will need to first create a backup of the registry and then proceed to remove unnecessary files. There are a few steps that one should follow when manually cleaning the registry and this will require you to go on the desktop and click on the Start button and then click on Run. While here, you should type "regedit" and click OK.
At the top of the window click on "File" on the menu toolbar. Proceed to go down and select "Export" where you should type a name for the backup file and click on "save". After creating the back up, you can go to the left side of the registry editor window and view how your computer has been configured. You can click on the plus sign to expand a section of the registry editor. While here click on "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" and make the necessary changes.
For those individuals who will rather clean the registry using cleaning software it will be necessary to do a research first because there are several software programs capable of this functions and this will include TweakNow Reg Cleaner, Registry Healer, and Registry Mechanic among other programs. All these programs function in a similar manner as they scan the registry and remove any errors such as missing references to files. It is necessary to establish first which registry cleaning software will work best for your needs before downloading any of them. Each of these programs will give you a list of results of what entries are safe or not safe to delete. Some of these programs are also designed to allow you to create a backup using their program.
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This article touched the basics of the topic. I have 2 more resources related to the above. They are how to clean registry and how to clean registry . They are worth a read.
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