Friday, December 5, 2008

Cleaning Your Computer Registry

The common consensus is that with the newer Microsoft operating programs such as XP and Vista, it is no longer necessary to run a registry cleaner.  Because these operating systems are based on Windows NT instead of the registry, invalid or broken registry keys should not slow your PC down.

Despite the fact that you have an XP or Vista operating system, you could still have bad registry keys that are messing up your PC performance, particularly if you recently removed adware, spyware or other malware from your computer.

If your software takes forever to load or does not run right, it is worth your time to check out the registry.

A program called 'regedit' that you can access from the 'start/run' command is available on MIcrosoft's operating systems.  When you access regedit, you'll see the entire contents of your registry folder.  This will enable you to identify the bad keys and remove them directly from the registry, using the regedit program.

The average computer user does not understand the meanings of the registry keys.  Non-technical people will be glad to know that there are some free or cheap software programs available that will identify any bad keys.  Depending on the program, the registry cleaner software will either delete the bad keys automatically or let you choose which invalid registry keys should be deleted.

When it comes to free registry cleaners or antivirus programs, be wary.  A few of these free programs might have adware or other malicioius code packaged within them that will create trouble for you down the road.  If you prefer not to spend money on a registry cleaner, download from a trusted service like cNet that verifies that your freeware is free of malware.

If your software programs are not running efficiently, visit the NotGuru blog's computer tips section, where you will find a step-by-step tutorial on how to clean your registry.  This tutorial includes screen shots for easy reference, and also recommends trusted registry cleaner software.

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