Cleaning and repairing your windows registry is extremely easy to do with any of the commercially available registry repair software packages. All of the include a registry cleaner and will also make a registry backup each time you use the product or at set intervals that you can have the program run while your system is down or at night when you are not using it. There are literally hundreds of programs you can purchase or download from the internet at prices ranging from twenty dollars ($20) to over one hundred dollars ($100) for multiple systems and networks.
One of best registry repair software available is Registry Easy. You can see the registry easy review here. I have also used a free registry cleaner and defragmenter from a company called Auslogics and it puts a shortcut on your desktop to make access simple. It has one button start and runs an analysis and then a defragment function to streamline your Windows registry. When it is finished you can also access a log of what changes were made and the product also creates a new backup file for your system restore. You should check a variety of computer forums and see what other people recommend that they have used and like the results. There are a great deal of entries at CNET forums that will allow you to make an informed decision on finding a product that not only will perform registry repair but will serve as a registry cleaner as well.
Many freeware programs will offer limited scanning and repair and/or cleaning, but you need to buy the “Professional” version to get full functionality. With some research you can actually find free programs that will do the job. Your registry gets filled up with useless keys over time with the installing and uninstalling of various computer programs and files. The bigger your registry gets, the slower your system runs.
I run a program called CC Cleaner on my system daily that actually helps to eliminate and clean your hard drive of accumulated browser history, temporary internet files and more. It also contains a registry cleaner that has never caused problems with my system. Most people consider it a milder version because it does not go any deeper than most commercially available products, but it has done the job for me for well over a year.
Most registry problems can be handled by simple programs like CC Cleaner. If you have issues with the following, invalid ActiveX controls, Help Files, Paths, missing shared DLLs, obsolete start menu commands, sound and application events, invalid fonts, application paths, custom controls and Installer references, obsolete software keys and missing files and folders and unused file extensions,
You will need a more robust registry repair software which can be purchased online. I would recommend you to go through the Registry Fix Review as well as the Registry Easy Review before you buy a windows registry repair utility.
Are you having issues with system performance on your personal computer? Do your programs load slowly or not at all? Do you get numerous error messages during the day? If so you can blame registry errors and problems for the symptoms described. Before attempting any type of repair you will need to do a registry backup. You can find a numerous number of places that can counsel you on how to perform a registry backup on your system. The process is different depending on the operating system you have. The registry backup for XP is different than for other Windows operating systems like Vista.
Before attempting a registry backup you need to make sure you really know what you are doing. Microsoft has downloadable instructions for either Windows XP or Vista. You will need to have administrator level access to the computer you are working on to download their Guided Help. You also must be using an English language version of Windows to use the Guided Help. Once you have downloaded it, a window appears and takes you literally step by step how to access the downloaded Help Guide.
The “regedit” function is very powerful and if not used properly can create an issue that can not be handled by you, but only by a computer expert. Let’s see the exact step by step registry backup instructions.
Registry Backup Procedure
- You go to the Run prompt and type “regedit”. (Click on Start button >> Click on Run )
That will bring up a window that shows all of the registry files that you can choose and physically remove any files you have an idea that will fix your problem.
- Once you choose what file you want to backup, click on “Export” and then select a location for the registry backup in the “Save In” dialog box.
- In the File Name dialog box, enter the name for the backup and click “Save”.
When it is finished exporting you should save the .REG file to a safer location where you can get to it quickly. If you ever need to restore the settings, all you will need to do is double click on the saved .REG file and your system will restore to that previously saved configuration.
If you are not particularly adept at managing your system, every software package I have reviewed has an automatic backup provision that creates a registry backup when any change is made to your registry. See Registry Easy review, the Regtool review and Registry Fix review. They all also make it easy to restore the system from the application menu. You need to determine the types of problems you are trying to fix before choosing a registry cleaner. Some programs are better at fixing different types of registry errors than others. Some have greater depth of protection and monitoring to make sure your system runs at peak performance.
If you want a simple solution I suggest you to get Registry Easy which is a registry repair utility which got also got all you need in a registry backup software.
RegistryFix is a Windows registry repair program which will scan your computer for registry errors as well as other problems and repair your system to fix the registry. Registry Fux is a popular PC utility since the year 2003. According to the creators, so far over 13 million people downloaded Registry Fix. I think they are mentioning about the free Registry Fix download which will scan your desktop or laptop for errors. In this RegistryFux review we will go more into the features and see if this is a reliable windows error fixing program.
Ease of Use: Registry Fix is very easy to install and the interface is simple and extremely user friendly.
RegistryFix Features: Registry fix got all the features required for a windows registry cleaner utility. The scan function though bit slow is good at locating all errors. The Backup Controls utility creates registry backups to make sure that your previous settings are safe. However the advanced features section has nothing special to offer when compared to Registry Easy. RegistryFix is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, ME and Windows 200.
List of Registry Fix Features… | Buy Registry Fix
RegistryEasy is an outstanding windows registry cleaner program. Registry Easy can scan your PC or laptop for all registry problems and identify the errors, clean the registry and optimize your computer for best performance. During the Registry Easy review, I have found that RegistryEasy got the best system scan function which scans everything inside the system and detected maximum number of errors compared to all other registry repair programs.
Ease of Use: RegistryEasy is extremely easy to use and the interface really simple. Anybody who operated a computer once should be able follow the easy installation instructions, scan the PC and fix all the errors without any problem.
Features: RegistryEasy is a feature rich, complete registry repair software. It has got more features than any other windows registry cleaner. In addition to the all regular options this PC utility will backup your registry records, create restore points to ensure safety. The evidence cleaner removes the history data to protect your privacy. Scroll down for a more detailed feature list.
Registry Easy for Desktop | RegistryEasy for Laptop
Regtool windows registry tool is a popular software for scanning and fixing your PC. In this regtool review we will see the key features of this software as well the user rating, problems and customer reviews about this registry repair tool.
Regtool can run on all versions of Windows operating system which uses registry including Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. It will detect and remove all the corrupt paths, unnecessary entries, and obsolete file shortcuts which cause errors in your computer or laptop to run slow.
Regtool is rated 5 out of 5 at TuCows and is certified by Softpedia as 100% clean with no spyware or malware. However you should know that the free download of regtool.exe program will only scan your computer. If you want to fix the errors reported by the regtool free scan, you must buy regtool full version.
List of Regtool Features | Download Regtool Scanner
What are registry hives, registry keys and registry values?
You might have come across these terms before. Don’t get confused by the terminology of Microsoft. Let us find out about each of these terms.
Registry Hives
The windows registry is divided into a number of hives. The registry hive is a logical section which contains registry keys and values that has supporting files which contains its data backups.
Registry Keys and Values
Keys and values are the two basic elements in a windows registry. Windows registry keys can be considered as folders with values. Similar to folders each registry key can contain subkeys. The subkeys also may contain subkeys, kust like sub-folders can contain folders inside them.
Registry Values are data pairs stored within windows registry keys.
Do not get overwhelmed all these technical stuff. Let’s see examples to get a clear idea.
- HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG is an example of Registry Hive
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\ is an example of a registry key
The windows registry is a central hierarchical database used in windows operating systems which stores the settings and options for one or more users. The windows registry contains information to configure the system which includes settings for application software installed on the computer, hardware components of the computer, operating system software, individual user settings and ports that are in use.
The versions prior to 3.1of Microsoft windows operating system used text based .ini files and MS Dos configuration files to store these information. In fact when Windows registry was first introduced its function was to organize the large amount of per-program ini files that had earlier been used to store config settings for Windows applications. The windows registry in Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 replaces most of the ini files and DOS config files.
