What problems should I be concerned about when using a registry cleaner?
Registry cleaners are useful tools that help you get rid
of clutter that gets accumulated within the Windows registry over time. You
must rest assured that using a reliable registry cleaner tool for registry
clean up is a great idea, and is entirely safe.
The registry is a centralized database on a Windows
system that contains configuration information related to anything that is
installed or configured on your PC. This includes your software, hardware
and different user profiles. The registry also processes each and every
action you take on the computer, right from the time you boot the system
until the time you shut it down. Every act of adding a file or deleting one
from the system; every action of installing software or uninstalling one
from the system; every single action you perform on the PC is recorded in
the Windows registry.
With regular usage, the Windows registry also gets loaded
with information which has become out of date and is of no use any more.
There are entries that are no longer required; links to the sites you may
have visited and are no longer needed; there may be a lot of other
information, which is now useless. These just lie there in the registry
filling up space and slowing down the whole system. Every time you boot your
system or shut it down, the registry processes these useless pieces of
information, too. This takes time, and every extra process
could lead to other problems. You
best bet is to remove these useless pieces of information from your system.
With all this information added to it continuously
causing the registry to bloat up and over time, the registry database
becomes disorganized, congested, and fragmented. This slows down the
registry data access speed and as a result slows down the performance of
your computer. At this stage, frequent system errors, freezes, and crashes
become a common affair.
A good and efficient registry cleaning application helps
you repair these registry problems and ensure you a healthy, error-free and
high performance Windows computer.
What Does a Registry Cleaner Actually Do?
Registry cleaners help you dispose of the garbage that
gets accumulated in the registry using safe scanning and removal techniques.
A good registry cleaner does a silent, but a systematic job to clean up the
registry and helps prevent the loss of all data that is important to you.
Let's have a look at some of the benefits of a reliable and efficient
registry cleaner tool:
·
Simplifies the registry
cleaning task by automating the entire process.
·
Uses complex and
thorough algorithms to perform a deep and safe registry scan and cleanup.
·
Ensures complete
removal of uninstalled applications and malware programs by getting rid of
all registry entries added by them—at times, deep within the registry tree.
·
Defragments the
registry database and compresses the registry files to optimize the registry
for better and much improved performance.
·
Follows safe scanning
techniques by taking a complete backup of the registry before any changes
are made to it.
·
Provides additional
system tools, such as Startup Manager, Privacy manager, and IE manager that
further help you enhance your computer’s performance.
Problems One Needs to Worry About While Using
Registry Cleaners
Although useful, if you don’t choose the correct tool,
you may be left with more issues on your computer than before. Let's have a
look at a few that may be a cause of worry when you choose to use a registry
cleaner tool.
May Cause Damage to the Registry:
A few critics believe that it is not possible for any
third-party party application to identify whether a given information in the
registry is essential or invalid. This may be a problem especially if the
tool you are using is not compatible with your version of Windows, is
outdated, or is designed poorly. So, to prevent registry damage by a
registry tool, always choose the latest version of the tool and also ensure
that it is compatible with your operating system. You must also opt for
tools that have a good market
reputation and are developed by experts in the industry.
Can be Malware: The power of the registry cleaners to work directly on the Windows registry is quite often exploited by malware manufacturers to infect your computer with malicious programs. WinFixer is one such piece of software that tops the list of malicious registry tools.
Scare techniques are used to make you purchase the
tool: You receive a pop up on your computer
claiming that your computer was analyzed and several problems were detected
in the registry. The whole idea is to unnecessarily scare you into buying a
tool that can fix all these problems for you. These tools are usually rogues
and are classified as "scareware." These tools, when downloaded, cause more
harm to your PC by infecting it with various malware programs, instead of
enabling you to repair any problems.
Inability to Defrag the Registry:
Just cleaning the registry and removing unwanted information from it is not
enough. More often than not, when the registry cleanup process removes
unwanted entries from the registry, it is likely to leave behind empty or
place holders keys. This prevents the registry size from going down in spite
of removing junk from it. Also, these empty registry keys add to the
registry fragmentation. So, to get the best out of your registry tool, you
must opt for a utility that enables you to defragment the registry. When the
registry is defragmented, all the empty registry keys are removed and the
registry is compressed. Defragmentation further helps enhance registry
performance by re-indexing the registry files and making them contiguous.
Unable to Remove Embedded Keys:
The main purpose of embedded (legacy) keys is to save licensing information
of software products on your computer. These keys cannot be removed manually
and many registry tools also. Embedded keys become a nuisance when they are
exploited by spyware programs to add their malicious entries. These
non-removable keys make spyware practically non-removable and at times,
force you to perform a Windows reinstallation. To prevent this situation,
you must always opt for tools that enable you to remove embedded entries.
Return to the Registry Cleaners Guide