subject: What Function Do Registry Cleaners Supply? [print this page] Some may notice a decrease in performance as time goes on with their operating system. When looking through the programs to uninstall, there may be falsely registered programs that the computer simply does not realize isn't there any longer. This is due to it finding false information in the Windows Registry, which information about programs, and other values on the computer, are stored. As time goes by and programs are installed and uninstalled - sometimes incorrectly - the registry becomes bloated and files become broken or just plain empty. Registry cleaners seek these files out and remove or fix them.
What Can It Do?
A registry cleaner can save the user a lot of time and effort by carrying out an automated search to find broken registry items. It can find redundant, duplicate, broken or simply useless files, categorize them in order of criticality, tell you what service it performs, then provide advice on what you should do; fix, delete or leave it alone. Work that could take hours or more to do is dealt with in minutes by a cleaner, increasing time for the user to do what they want. Furthermore, once the registry is clean, programs may begin to work correctly or programs falsely reported as still being present are now correctly reported as uninstalled.
Should any changes be made that caused system errors or break programs, many, if not all, cleaners come with a back up and restore function to revert back to a previous state. Such computers that may require frequent cleaning would be one that has many programs installed and uninstalled frequently.
Cons
Incorrectly used, the registry cleaner can be a dangerous tool. If the user does not make a backup ahead of time, he or she may find that they have accidentally deleted a system-critical registry item and the entire operating system might require a repair or even a reinstall.
Performance gains may only be noticed on system with exceptional registry bloating, where the system needs to load up numerous registries where they are not needed. Even so, performance gains are still marginal for more modern computers.
Last Thoughts
Registry cleaners should be used to keep system clean, but not for cleansing viruses or malware or for a performance increase. As such, it's advisable to look for tools specific to your scenario. Whatever you do, look for freeware cleaners as they can perform just as well and the task of cleaning is only as important as the system it's based on.
