What causes registry errors?
The Windows registry can be compared to the nervous system of a human body. This is because the registry is a central database comprising all configuration information related to hardware, software and user profiles on your computer. All software products need to refer this configuration data in order to perform various tasks. Therefore, information is continually referred, added, modified or deleted from the registry. All this activity not only makes the registry essential but also prone to a lot of problems.
What are the
main causes of registry problems?
Accumulation of a large amount of unwanted entries is
one of the most common causes of registry problems. These unwanted entries
cause the registry to bloat up to a very large size and thus become unstable
and prone to getting corrupt and fragmented. There can be several causes of
these unwanted entries making their way into the registry. Some of the most
common causes are:
·
Frequent installation and removal of programs. When you
install a new program, entries are added to the registry. Many security
tools and shareware/freeware products are known to add exceptionally large
number of entries in the registry. These entries cause the registry to grow
in size. What’s worse is that many times these entries stay behind even if
you uninstall the product from your PC - the stuff that gets left behind
eventually adds up.
· Incorrect methods are used to uninstall programs. You must always use legitimate methods to uninstall programs from the computer, or you're asking for trouble. These include using the Add or Remove Programs, Uninstall Program shortcut in Start menu, and uninstall tool available on the program’s web site. Failure to use these methods leaves behind several orphaned entries in the registry. If you just delete the files on your own, you're not getting rid of everything.
·
System crashes and incorrect system shutdowns. When your
Windows PC is functional, the registry is loaded in the system memory. All
changes made to it are written back to the registry on the hard disk during
the shutdown process. If for some reason, such as application/PC freeze up,
power failure, or system crash, the registry fails to update the modified
keys, then corrupt registry entries are generated. In more severe cases this
may cause great damage to the registry database.
·
Empty registry keys. Many times, when an application is
uninstalled or some other registry maintenance activities are done, the
place holder registry keys of the entries removed are left behind. These
empty registry keys (also referred as registry holes) are of no use.
However, they consume a lot space in the registry and unnecessarily
contribute to its growing size.
·
Obsolete or outdated entries. Ideally, when you reinstall,
update or upgrade your programs the registry entries no longer required
should be deleted from the registry database. However, in reality, this
rarely happens, giving rise to obsolete and outdated files in the registry.
Quite often, software reinstall, update, and upgrade activities generate
duplicate entries that further add to the growing registry size.
·
Virus and spyware entries. Just like any other software on
your computer, malware programs such as viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware and
adware also need to make entries in the registry in order to carry out
malicious activities. These malicious programs are notorious for not only
adding a large amount of entries, but also corrupt the existing entries by
making changes to them. These malicious entries generate several computer
errors by preventing your programs from working normally, and at times, lead
to total system failures.
·
Legacy entries. These entries, more
commonly known as the embedded entries, are used by software developers to
save licensing information on your computer. These keys cannot be deleted
manually and their main purpose is to prevent computer users from tampering
with the software license agreements. One bad thing about these entries is
that they are misused by a few spyware programs to add malicious registry
entries. These malicious entries help spyware to recreate and reinstall on
your PC as soon as you remove them, making them practically non-removable
from the system.
How can I fix registry errors?
The only way to fix these registry problems is to remove all unwanted accumulated digital junk from it. Your Windows PC comes equipped with the Registry Editor tool that you can launch by running the regedit command. You can use this tool to perform some amount of registry maintenance. However, most of the tasks using this tool are manual and the chances of errors are quite high - so it's not a good idea to mess with it if you're not a computer whiz.
Keeping the
problems associated with Registry Editor in mind, quite a few Windows
experts recommend the use of a good registry cleaner tool to do registry
cleanup. These tools are designed to perform a thorough scan of your
registry and weed out all unwanted information from it. Here's a few of the
benefits.
· Registry cleaner tools have a simple interface, which makes it quite easy to use them. So, even if you are not a technical expert on computers, you can use the tool to perform registry maintenance.
·
These tools are designed to
use complex algorithms to perform a through scan of the registry to identify
all the problems. This is the reason why you can use them to clean up almost
all unwanted information in the registry in just a couple of mouse clicks.
Effective registry clean up also helps get rid unwanted registry entries
including orphan, redundant, outdated and unwanted embedded program and
spyware entries.
· Most of the registry cleaners practice safe registry maintenance. For this, a good tool makes an automatic backup of the registry database before making any changes to it. This makes it possible for you to easily restore the registry in case the repair process fails.
·
Several
registry tools come with registry defrag feature. This feature compresses
and reindexes your registry to optimize it for better performance.
A fast and optimized registry is essential for your computer. As a vigilant user, you must take care to perform regular registry maintenance. One of the recommended methods is to use a good registry cleaner tool to scan and clean the registry on regular basis to keep it free from all undesired problems.
Return to the Registry Cleaners Guide