subject: The Registry Cleaner - What It Is and What It Does [print this page] One means you have at your disposal to restore lost performance to your PC is to clean the registry. As attempting to edit the registry manually can not only be tedious but dangerous, a crop of programs called registry cleaners has appeared to do this work for you. Here we will describe what the registry is and how a registry cleaner streamlines it for optimal performance.
The Registry
In Windows, the registry is a central directory of system information which contains operating system and program settings, hardware profiles, user preferences, and other information which Windows refers to regularly. As an example, file associations which tell Windows what programs should be used to open which sort of files would be stored in the registry.
Registry Errors
In the same way that clutter on the hard drive(s) and other junk that builds up on a system over time can slow performance and cause errors, the windows registry can tend to become cluttered with errors which can not only slow performance but cause a number of system errors. Such errors include:
- Runtime errors, which occur during the execution of a program
- EXE errors, which relate to executable (*.exe) program files and often occur on system startup
- DLL errors caused by missing or corrupt DLL files
- ActiveX errors, which can be caused by improper browser settings
- Blue Screens of Death
- System32 errors, often caused by missing or corrupt system files
- Access Violation errors, which occur when a program tries to access storage which has not been assigned to it
- General Protection Faults, which occur when a program tries to use hardware in an improper way
- Windows Explorer errors which can cause Windows' user interface to freeze
- iExplore errors, which can cause Internet Explorer to crash (assuming you browse the internet using Internet Explorer)
- Windows Installer errors caused by third-party programs which can cause a system crash
Registry Cleaners
By scanning for and repairing faults in the registry such as references to files which no longer exist, missing or corrupt files, improper settings, and files which no longer serve any purpose, a registry cleaner can help to restore to your system performance which had been lost and prevent errors such as those listed above from happening. It is vital that any registry cleaner you use automatically back up the registry before making any changes so that any errors created by the changes can be undone; this is a precaution that even the most advanced experts take when editing the registry.
The Registry Cleaner - What It Is and What It Does
