“My computer seems to get slower and slower. A friend told me to clean my registry. Will that really help, and how can I do that?”

Cleaning the Registry

Yes, your computer will do way better if you sporadically clean your Windows system registry. But first, let’s classify unerringly what the registry is. The registry is a database in which Windows keeps track of relationships between hardware and software.

It stores all the settings and options for the operating system, hardware, software, users, and preferences of the PC. The registry manages your system startup options, and keeps track of all software that’s installed.

Before introducing the Registry in Windows 95, each software package had its own INI files to store configuration settings. These files tended to be scattered all over the hard drive, which made them hard to keep track of. The centralized registry does combine all that information, but it has its own problems. Since it is a single point of breakdown, injure to the Registry can render a Windows system unbootable, and in extreme cases can only be fixed by reinstalling the operating system. (That’s why backups are significant!)

Oh, That Waxy Buildup!

Particularly on Windows 95/98 computers, it’s ordinary for the registry to grow very big over time, which tends to slow down the computer’s startup and can make it unstable. And even on Windows NT, XP or 200x, you can end up with lots of needless registry entries that are created when you install or remove programs on your computer. Sometimes an “orphaned” registry entry can confuse Windows during startup and cause a holdup. And in general, slimming down your registry will make Windows run faster.

The REGEDIT command will allow you to view and edit the registry, but if you are not acquainted with what you’re doing under the hood, just put down that tug and back away slowly. Specialized programs exist to examine the registry, compare what’s in there to what’s really on your system, and either correct or erase flawed entries.