The Windows registry is a big filing system that keeps a lot of vital files that keep the preferences and settings for your software and hardware
. It's almost like the central nervous system of your computer. Windows constantly references the registry as you use your computer, and so having a clean registry will positively impact the overall performance of your PC.
How The Registry Gets Cluttered
Unfortunately the Windows registry is notorious for becoming cluttered and corrupted by a lot of causes. The most common cause of problems is when there is a buildup of temporary and obsolete files. These are often "leftover" files from software that has not been completely removed from your system during an uninstall procedure.
Registry files can also get corrupted and damaged by faulty installation processes as well as spyware and viruses.
How This Causes Problems
Dealing with a cluttered registry is much like having a fan that is clogged up with dust. The fan isn't slowing down because it's "old" in a chronological sense. It just needs to be cleaned out. The same is true of your computer. Computers tend to slow down over time as they are used because they get clogged and cluttered with a lot of leftover junk and extra files.
Utilizing a registry cleaner software is a good way to clean out your PC from all the useless temporary and unnecessary files that are slowing it down. There is no way you could do this manually on your own. Even if you knew exactly where to look it would still take hours upon hours to remove all the files.
Recommended Software
There are a number of effective softwares available that can allow you to quickly and effortlessly scan your registry and clean out the useless entries.
RegCure is our favorite program because it's easy to use, fast, and isn't a memory hog. It is the most user friendly and streamlined program that we have tested.
Registry Mechanic is another good option, and has a couple extra features. However the only bad thing is that it tends to be a system hog, and slower machines might find it to be difficult to run.