Benefits of Regular Registry Edits …
All information required to keep your Windows PC functional is stored in the Windows registry. This registry is basically a tree-like database, in which all information is stored in the form of keys, subkeys, and values.
To view the registry tree, open the Registry Editor window, by running the “regedit” command. When the Registry Editor window opens, you will see a Windows Explorer like folder structure with five main folders—HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY-CURRENT_USER, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_USERS, and HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG—displayed in the right pane. These five folders form the root of the registry tree and are further divided into subkeys and values that contain all information related to hardware and software configuration, system settings, and user preferences.
You can use the Registry Editor tool to perform several tasks that help in maintaining a healthy registry.
- You can use the Edit > Find (F3) option to search the registry for orphan keys left behind after program uninstalls, remove them to ensure complete removal of the software, and in the process, clean your windows registry.
- You can also search for malicious entries added by spyware and viruses and delete them to eliminate malware infections from your PC.
- Many websites provide you with information on how to edit or tweak the registry to customize your system according to your requirements. There are many tasks that you can do by performing registry tweaks, such as customize Desktop display, speed up system shutdown and startup processes, and modify the appearance of your system.
- You can use the File > Export command to take full and partial registry backups to ensure that you can restore the registry back to functional state if an irrecoverable error occurs
Note: Any wrong edits of the registry may completely disable your PC. Therefore, you must always backup the registry before you make any changes to it.
Although useful, the Registry Editor tool has limited features and the chances of user errors are high. Because the registry is very sensitive to mistakes, any wrong edit can leave your system unbootable. This is the reason why many experts recommend that you use a reliable registry cleaner tool to perform registry maintenance.
These tools, automate the task of registry scan and repair that makes it really simple-to-use even for new and not-so-technically-sound computer users. You can use these tools to easily perform full system scans of your Windows registry and perform customized registry searches to look for and fix specific types of problems, such as errors related to DLL, ActiveX, and drivers. The complex algorithms used by advanced registry cleaner tools, also help in getting rid of malicious and non-removable information added by malware such as spyware and viruses.
Registry cleaner tools also provide the registry defrag feature—which is not possible using the Registry Editor tool. Registry defrag enables you to reindex registry files and remove unwanted empty registry keys and helps you reduce the registry size to speed up data access, enhance the performance of your PC and fix windows freeze up problems.
A good registry tool also enables you to make reliable registry backups that can be easily restored in just a few mouse clicks. What’s more, a good tool also enables you to undo registry changes—an option missing in Registry Editor—which makes these tools especially helpful for users.
Leave a Reply