How To Clean Your Registry Windows 10

[Fito Coulter]

Thelonger we have our PC, the more frequently we add new downloads, installations, and updates to our machine. There is nothing wrong with downloading new programs or installing new updates, but it may eventually slow down your computer.

One of the most critical things to remember is that the registry is a very fragile component of your computer. If you mess with it too much or incorrectly, it can essentially destroy Windows. With that being said, it is essential to exercise caution while cleaning the registry in Windows 10 and 11, especially if you are doing it manually.

Another method that can contribute to a healthier registry is the DISM from Windows. According to Microsoft, Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM.exe) is a command-line tool that can be used to service and prepare Windows images and system errors. DISM helps to repair any issues that may be associated with broken registry entries and can significantly reduce registry issues on your PC.

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As I understand it, cleaning the registry is not going to really do much for your computer performance if anything. The registry contains thousands of keys and cleaning out a few dead ones won't really make much difference.

The registry is a huge database optimized for speed. It doesn't matter if some game left its config options in there. Other programs aren't going to care and Windows can handle the memory usage just fine by paging (i.e. only loading what's needed) and other techniques.

The only time a registry cleaner could be useful is if a program was not uninstalled properly; in this case you might have some specific problem such as a broken file association. But if you are not seeing problems and are just looking for speed you are probably wasting your time. Not only that, but deleting stuff from the registry can break things in subtle or hard-to-fix ways. Hopefully a good registry cleaner backs up all its changes so that you can easily restore your old registry... assuming your computer boots properly after the cleaning.

If your windows system has lots of strange bugs that are due to registry problems you might be better served by re-installing. Before XP I used to re-install Windows every 6 months. Now I almost never have to do it. I would avoid registry cleaners.

I have used CCleaner often, and in fact, also been suggested registry defragmentation tools.

Mark Russinovich, who I trust a lot with my Windows machines, also has a PageDefrag tool that works on registry hive defragmentation.

I also often use RevoUninstaller to cleanup after some uninstalls.

The warning from Mark and others on the risk involved with cleanup should be and is taken seriously.

I've used PC HealthBoost with success on a few slow PCs. I chose it because it does work as advertised and is in good standing with Microsoft. Microsoft, itself, also used to make a registry cleaner called regclean.exe.

Basically, uninstallers sometimes are poorly written, and that sometimes creates errors in your operating system that show popup errors or blue screens. Also, have you ever right-clicked the desktop and found it takes a long time because the context menu has extra menu options from a product (like Norton Antivirus) and one of those menu items is still there but the product has since been uninstalled? That delay is aggravating, and contributes to the slowness of the PC. Also, when a PC boots, it is looking for file paths mapped to keys where those files were deleted by an uninstaller but not the key.

Some may say it's only a marginal slowness, but I've seen it be a significant factor with nothing more than 4 poorly written uninstallers, where some of these programs may have created dozens of registry keys.

A word of caution, however -- not all registry cleaners are alike. You want one that can backup your registry first before making changes, and one that doesn't delete legitimate keys. Some of these companies are cagey, but I've been very pleased with PC HealthBoost.

I'm probably not a typical user, but I've never done so and never seen a need to do so. However, I do know that pretty much every program you've ever installed leaves some kind of junk lying around in your registry and/or hard drive, so it's still possible that such utilities might have a purpose.

CCleaner can find and remove hundred of invalid registry keys. If anything, I think cleaning the registry of invalid references can be good if you want to avoid having conflicts between software that is installed on the machine.

I agree, cleaning the registry risk vs reward is low, however tools to Registry defrag / compact the registry will increase performance. I use Registry Mechanic to just defrag and compact the Registry, not the registry cleaner options.

I believe it's better (effort and time wise) to just reinstall the whole system every 6 months or so, than spend every once in a while cleaning registry, "keeping the system clear" with anti virus, anti trojan, anti spyware, anti ... whatever you have left.

Practically everything you do in Windows is recorded in the registry. For instance, the URL for this article probably has an entry now, somewhere. The paths to the last dozen or so images or documents you opened are there, too, as are the details of the programs you have installed or uninstalled.

Compounding this problem is the fact that applications are usually too inept to uninstall all of the registry entries they create. Far too often, program updates and installers leave unneeded pointers in the registry, so the registry becomes bloated with unnecessary entries, slowing down your system.

To find out which registry cleaner catches the most errors, is the safest and easiest to use, and (just as important) creates the fewest hassles, we tested five popular registry cleaners, many of which came recommended by PCWorld readers. We examined two free products (Advanced Windows Care and RegSeeker) and three commercial ones (jv16 PowerTools, Registry First Aid, and RegSupreme Pro).

RegSupreme Pro, which costs only $20, is a basic, no-frills tool. It includes a registry cleaner as well as a registry compactor along with a few other administrative tools, and is essentially a scaled-down version of its bigger sibling, jv16 PowerTools (see below).

RegSeeker is free for personal use and has a handful of other registry-focused utilities. The tools include a keyword finder; a utility to examine installed application registry entries, assorted histories (for instance, browser and Start-menu items), and Startup entries; and a tool to tweak more settings.

Just as with any registry in real life, the Windows registry is susceptible to becoming cluttered if not maintained. After years of software installs (and uninstalls), hardware changes, and program upgrades, the registry can be littered with unused keys.

Having invalid registry entries can potentially cause erroneous missing file messages. These are often created during incomplete program uninstalls. A registry cleaning program can potentially help, but larger contributing factors are often at play. If a critical component of your registry is compromised, registry cleaning programs would be completely useless.

The Windows Registry is a storage place for a large compilation of details about your computer. All activities in your PC when you first started using it until this date are all recorded in your Registry.

Your PC always creates entries but sometimes does not delete them even if they are not in use any more. It will accumulate unused and junk registry entries which can affect the performance of the system.

Registry keys are important to the functionality of your computer and its installed programs. Accidental removal of an essential registry entry may damage the system of your PC. Having a backup allows you to recover accidentally deleted entries.

Installed applications create many registry keys that are essential for their functionality. It is important to locate and delete entries of uninstalled software if they have not yet been removed before.

Manual deletion of applications and programs will only delete the programs and their files, but it will not automatically remove their created registry entries. These entries will stay there until they are removed.

Every time you install apps or hardware on your Windows device, new registry entries are created. Even if you uninstall them, the corresponding registry entries are not always removed completely. Over time, you will get thousands of useless registry entries.

Although they only occupy a little disk space, your operating system has to run all of them, which will slow down your computer in the long run. Things will get worse if your device is attacked by malware. Malware will mess up the registry and make your computer vulnerable.

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