subject: Would You Want Your Windows Registry Boot Time Cut In Half? [print this page] Would You Want Your Windows Registry Boot Time Cut In Half?
It basically might require more than one "registry cleaning tool" to kill almost all the unused items in your computer's registry.
The Windows Registry is "The database in all 32-bit versions of Windows that contains settings for the hardware and software in the PC it is installed in," according to the TechEncyclopedia. That is definitely a fairly decent thumbnail explanation.
Wikipedia has a somewhat more detailed definition, which starts this way:
" In computing, the Windows registry is a database which stores settings and options for the operating system for Microsoft Windows 32-bit versions. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, software, users, and preferences of the PC. Whenever a user makes changes to "Control Panel" settings, or file associations, system policies, or installed software, the changes are reflected and stored in the registry...."
Now this brought about the designing of a range of addition non-Microsoft software tools that purported to "clean" the Registry, discovering and getting rid of the extraneous, useless, or just plain phony data saved there.
Eventually Microsoft took action, providing a small-scale, unofficial, unsupported tool known as Regclean for the Win9x family of operating systems. Microsoft put together various half-hearted endeavours at enhancing Regclean over quite a few years, but Windows ME was about to be announced, and it's registry was distinctive from the previous Win9x family to require that Registry tools function in a different way; and Windows NT/2000/XP required entirely different software. Because of this, Microsoft silently deserted Regclean, never having formally released it as a supported tool.
Currently, third-party Registry cleaning tools are readily available, filling the void that Microsoft left abandonded. And that's most likely a great thing, simply because even though XP is substantially more difficult to crash and burn than was Windows 9x, it still can benefit from certain Registry cleaning. For illustration, when you enhance a PC from Win98 to XP, the new operating system will often carry along a considerable amount of Registry configurations from the previous setup, just in case they may possibly be required. Despite the fact that this can help establish that the new setup will function, it also almost guarantees that the new setup includes excess baggage from Day One.
Some users have found and ended up being able to eliminate some 2,000 plus additional phony entries in the Registry. That coupled with some other routine maintenance that was taken, cut PC's re-boot time was cut in half, and allowed the computer to run perceptibly faster and more dependable.
