Problems to computer's operating system come from two sources, offline and online. Offline problems occur from the software that you installed, attaching new hardware, or accidentally alter the system files. While online problems usually caused by virus, malware, or spyware.
Online problems can be prevented by installing antivirus or antispyware. There are a lot of free antispywares to protect your PC. In this post, I'm gonna focus more on how to fix the damaged to Windows registry, that caused by offline activities.
What is Windows Registry?Windows registry is a hierarchical database that stores configuration settings and options, including installed software, on Microsoft Windows operating systems.
The main purpose of the Windows registry is to store the configuration of the different software programs installed on the computer, the hardware installed or attached to the computer, and any other special settings the user has implemented.
In other words, registry of our computer is responsible for keeping all our information safe, and accessible to computers. It allows the computer to work properly, and matching our preferences.
Errors on Windows Registry
Windows registry is very prone to errors that cause our computers to manifest errors such as slowdown and program termination.
Windows registry can be damaged with continually installing and removing software, because not all programs will remove themselves cleanly and completely from the registry. The registry also duplicates much of the functionality of the file system. Besides that, Windows registry also can become corrupted by spyware and viruses from online activities.
That's why once in a while, we need to perform a registry cleaning operation on our computer, especially if it's running much slower than it's supposed to be. There are two main ways to clean up a Windows registry - cleaning manually using the Windows Registry Editor, or using registry cleaner software.
Manual Registry Cleaning
The manual clean-up is a process of cleaning the registry of your computer by manually scanning and deleting all the errors that are present in your registry. It requires a deep knowledge on the registry structure, and if you are not familiar with this, you should not touch it because a simple mistake can lead to more serious problems.
Below are the basic steps of manual registry cleaning. This is just to give you picture on how manual process can be done, not a tutorial for fixing your own computer.
- To manually clean your registry using the Windows Registry Editor, first create a backup of the registry, and then remove unnecessary files:
- On the desktop, click the Start button.
- Click Run.
- Type regedit in the new Run window. Click OK.
- At the top of the window, click File on the menu toolbar.
- Go down and select Export.
- Type a name for the backup file, and click Save.
- After creating a backup of your registry, you can go to the left side of the registry editor window and view how your computer is configured.
- Click on the plus sign to expand a section of the registry editor. A "well-used" area for anyone manually deleting registry files is "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE." This area is used to make registry changes to hardware and software.
- From this point on, the knowledge of computer coding, registry structure, binary and hexadecimal code, are necessary. There are a lot of repair can be done in this step, depents on what the problem of your computer is. It might need a thorough tutorial for each problem, that impossible to write in this post.
While for me personally, why bother with the manual clean-up if we can get the registry cleaner tool for free. You can search for freeware downloads site to find a good registry cleaner software. While at it, don't forget to download another tweaking tools, such as hard drive cleaner or PC booster. Just with a little efforts, your PC can feel like a brand new.