Best Windows Registry Cleaner

In many ways, computers are magic. Billions of electrons flow across a screen to create the illusion of a picture that we seem to control.

A magnet holds bits of information in place to indicate if a bit is off or on, and millions of those bits combine to form files that hold our information. Powerful graphics, sound and Internet capabilities combine to form powerful applications for work or video games for our amusement.

The vast majority of computers run on some version of Microsoft operating systems (OS), which brings the computer to life. Although Microsoft is sometimes criticized for its Windows OS, the task of creating a system that will run an unknown quantity of diverse software on an unknown combination of hardware created and compiled by manufacturers from all over the world is a daunting one at best. Frankly,

it’s amazing that computers ever work, given all the variables. It really seems like magic.

Of course, it isn’t magic, it’s the result of decades of development and the Computer continues to evolve. At the core of the Microsoft system is the Windows Registry,an amazingly simple yet complex assembly of information, codes and keys that control every aspect of the computer. The structure is simple, although the accumulated wealth of cress-referenced information can become quite big and complex.

The registry is basically made up of “keys” and “values.” The keys are essentially folders for information about a particular computer element and how it should run. The values are the information. Computer components receive their operating orders,so to speak, based upon the expected value in the keys.

The complexity comes from the ability to store subkeys — keys within a key – and subkeys within other subkeys. Values themselves can be as simple as a 1 or 0, or a word or a string of characters or words. All of which is grouped into logical sections within the registry known as hives. The registry controls who caswer-registryreviews.com/reviews/n log on to the computer,records Internet surfing settings and historical information, location of files and hardware, current settings and configurations, software and applications etc.

One drawback to the registry is that if something goes wrong, it can be extremely time consuming and practically impossible to trace the error manually. There is easliy too lot information to sift through. There is serious risk involved as well, in that one mistake can have extensive consequences to the entire system.

Not surprisingly, several software companies have developed programs for the non-expert to optimize the Windows Registry quickly and efficiently.

One website that reviews and compares registry cleaning software is Answer Registry Reviews The site offers relevant articles on the Windows Registry and compares various registry cleaning software products. The website even offers links to directly download and purchase products such as RegCure, Registry Mechanic and Registry Easy (among others) online. If your Windows system is running slowly or you suspect a virus, Answer Registry Reviews should be the first stop for information on what might be causing the problem and to download a product that would meet your needs to correct it.

Technorati Tags: clean, cleaner, computer, download, microsoft, PC, registry, slow, software, Windows

The most vital part of any Windows operating system (OS) is the Windows System Registry. The registry controls literally all of the configuration information for all of the various components throughout your entire personal computer.

Have you ever opened the Device Manager? Each device can have a myriad of configuration setting combinations – and there are much of devices.

Because it is so comprehensive, Microsoft deliberately hides the registry to prevent modification by inexperienced computer operators. Many of the most experienced Computer gurus will approach the registry with all the fear and trepidation of diffusing a bomb. One mistake and the computer (figuratively speaking) will blow up,

causing unpredictable, erratic behavior or even ceasing to boot altogether. This usually does not affect the stored data, such as picutre and documents, but that offers you little comfort if you can’t get to them.

If you have to perform a complete system restore, all the associations with those documents may need to be rebuilt as you also reinstall the programs that run them.

Because the System Registry is such a minefield, Answer Registry Reviews Online was launched to offer posts, advice and software. When you visit the site, you will quickly notice graphics that link to reviews and product comparisons.

The navigation buttons are large and obvious, which is good because they are not in a location you would expect. Rather than being at the top of the page, as is standard, they hover in a line about halfway down the page. Buttons include: Home, Reviews, Articles, and FAQ.

Home, of course, leads you back to the home page so that does nothing if you are already on the home page.

Reviews takes you to partial reviews of 5 of the most popular registry cleaning, optimizing and backup/restore programs for the Windows Registry. To see the full review, simply click where the link says, “Read the full review…” Pretty simple so far, right?

There is also a quick link box at the upper left of the page which offers one-click access to the full review for each of the products. Reviews include Pros and Cons of each product and customer ratings from one to five stars.

Compare offers a comparison of the top three rated registry software products. There isn’t too much to consider here, since they all do pretty much the same thing: clean, fix and backup the registry. The real details to look at are: program size, rating, and (last but not least) price.

Articles presents a number of interesting, well-written and informative articles on the Windows System Registry and compelling reasons for why you might want to keep it clean and running properly.

One of the most amusing of these is an article called, “Top Ten Blue Screens of Death.” It includes photos of crashed systems, such as a Sony Jumbotron proudly displaying the Microsoft Windows logo thanks to a crash.

the FAQ presents frequently asked questions and answers pertaining to the registry, how it affects the PC and how to maintain it

Technorati Tags: backup, cleaner, computer, keys, microsoft, PC, registry, restore, slow, software, values, Windows

New cars are known for that “new car smell.” New personal computers are known for their speed. Both seem to fade, however over the months and years after purchase.

Nearly all new personal computers come equipped with some kind of Microsoft Windows operating system. The operating system in the essential software that makes the computer run. Unfortunately, most computers also come with a wide assortment of “value enhancing” software, many of which has no value and no enhancement. In fact, many of this software can actually slow the performance of your computer.

Called “bloatware” by detractors, this additional software may offer everything from an introductory offer for a virus scanner or Web service to silly devices like an Internet-updated temperature report. The problem is, all of these little “nice to have” items cause a drain on the system. Even in an age where memory is measures in gigabytes instead of kilobytes, the amount of memory used to run programs is still limited and each of these programs is loaded into memory at startup. A lot of little items carving out small sections of memory for themselves can add up to a lot of waste, especially if many of them are hardly ever used.

Some programs load into memory just in case you might want to use them, patiently waiting for some event to trigger them into action. If such a device is a printer, this might make sense. However, if the software is hogging memory in case you might want to run a particular type of video that you use maybe once a month – or never – that memory is wasted.

The best thing to do is to simply cancel these programs when you are first asked if you want them to install. The second best solution is to uninstall them later. The problem with the second method is that these programs often leave files and entries in the Windows Registry even after you remove them. The files take up space on your hard drive and the registry entries cause Windows to run slower as the registry expands.

Removing entries and keys from the Windows Registry is not for the faint of heart, since even the smallest change if done incorrectly can being the entire system to a halt. Fortunately, several software solutions exist to carefully prune the registry, each with its own strengths and capabilities.

Answer Registry Reviews offers relevant articles on the Windows Registry, compares various registry cleaning software products, and offers links to download and purchase solutions to clean and repair your Windows Registry.

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The next time your change the oil in your car, think of your personal computer. You flush the oil in your car to get rid of the gunk and sediments that have slowly been deposited over time. Your computer tends to have many of deposits that come from a variety of sources. Each time a file is modified it can be moved or become fragmented (spread across different areas of the hard disk instead of remaining one intact whole). “Temporary” files are created that remain in the system, potentially forever. Keys and entries are added to the Windows Registry that are never removed. It all adds up to one slow computer, but there are several things you can do to fine tune your PC into top performance.

The quickest and easiest thing to do is defrag your hard drive. All Windows systems come equipped with Defrag.exe, a powerful little tool that rearranges the files on your hard drive for optimal performance. To “defrag” your drive, open up Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer) and right click on the drive you want to defragment (usually the C: drive). Click on Properties at the bottom of the drop down menu and then click the Tools tab at the top. Click the middle button that says “Defragment Now…” to run defrag.exe. Click the Defragment button and your off and running. Cclose all programs before doing this and don’t plan to do any work on your compute for a while. Running defrag could take up to a few hours or even overnight.

You should also open the Start Menu and click “Run…” Enter “msconfig” (do not use the quotes) and click OK to run the System Configuration Utility. Click the Startup tab and you will see a list of all the services and programs that load automatically every time you start Windows. Keep your antivirus program and any programs you use regularly, but if you see programs you don’t use, simply uncheck the box. When you restart Windows, you will be asked if you want to run the utility again, so you can undo any changes if you made a mistake.

It’s also very important to clean the Windows Registry. This is not something you want to try one your own, since one mistake could prevent your computer from booting or functioning properly. Several software companies offer programs to do this for you, each with its own strengths and capabilities.

One website that reviews and compares registry cleaning software is Answer Registry Reviews at  The site offers relevant articles on the Windows Registry and compares various registry cleaning software products. The website even offers links to directly download and purchase products such as RegCure, Registry Mechanic and Registry Easy (among others) online. If your Windows system is running slowly or you suspect a virus, Answer Registry Reviews should be the first stop for information on what might be causing the problem and to download a product that would meet your needs to correct it.

Technorati Tags: clean, cleaner, computer, download, microsoft, PC, registry, slow, software, Windows

The System Registry has been called the most important part of any Windows PC operating system (OS), but you probably didn’t even know it exists. There is really a good reason for that. Microsoft really doesn’t want you messing with it.

as so many another features in Windows, Microsoft chose to hide information considered too powerful to be left in the hands of mere mortals. Only the wisest of gurus can be entrusted with such knowledge.

Unlike silly decisions like automatically hiding the 3-character extension of filenames, however, this is one area where Microsoft had a good reason to keep the registry on the top shelf out of reach. The registry controls everything and a single mistake can have devastating consequences on the entire OS. Installed programs and applications will write important data into the registry.

User defined data and configurations are stored too.

The data is tracked through a tree of folders called ‘keys’ that branch off the registry nodes. Each key can have subkeys nested in multiple levels. Critical pieces of data known as ‘values’ are stored in the keys and subkeys. Groups of related keys, subkeys and values are known as hives.

Applications can modify the keys by changing the values, adding new keys or deleting existing ones. More recent versions of Windows will back up the registry and in the event of a problem, will ask you if you want to use the ‘Last known good configuration.This was an option that started on the old Windows NT days.

If you ever see this option, the correct proper response will most likely be yes, but that may also mean that recently installed programs will no longer operate unless reinstalled.

The good news is that such configuration issues related to the registry will not affect your important data: documents, photos, etc. The bad news is that many times the problem that caused the crash in the first place may also be saved in the backup versions of the registry. More than one person has been in the unfortunate position of having to completely reinstall their Windows OS, with many a prayer to the computer gods that the file and data associations will be restored as well.

It is not a bad idea to make your own back up onto a flash drive or make copies on the C: drive. Of course, if you backup your registry to the C: drive and your disk fails the backup will be not available.

If you backup to a flash drive but your computer fails to recognize the drive upon boot without the OS running, that won’t help either. Be sure to consult the documentation of your PC and OS.Or, just be sure to actually backup your computer regularly and have the backups always handy. With the size and speed of USB flash drives, you may want to consider saving all your data to a removable disk.

Before you have an issue, you should consider all your options. The greatest suggestion is to try to prevent such problems with proper maintenance of your Windows Registry.Many software programs exist to examine registry the keys and make any necessary repairs. These programs can even check your registry for unused keys that clog your system. Removing those keys can significantly improve performance.

For more information on the Windows Registry, check out the articles at Answer Registry Reviews.

There are reviews of well-known registry cleaning software products and you can even use links on the site to download and purchase highly effective registry cleaning software.

Technorati Tags: clean, cleaner, computer, download, keys, microsoft, PC, registry, slow, software, values, Windows

Nobody likes leftover night for dinner. Food that tasted good the first time is just never the same when reheated three days later. PC leftovers are no better, and they can slow your computer to a crawl.

What are Computer leftovers and where do they come from? PC leftovers are the results of running programs on your PC. The entire purpose of owning a computer is to run software. Unfortunately, every time you install software it makes widespread additions to the Windows Registry and adds “temporary” files to your computer that are anything but temporary. All of this adds to the clutter that clogs your computer when it multitasks. The system slogs its way through a ton of no longer useful information in order to find and execute what it needs.

When you surf the Internet, for example, many programs install themselves through Internet pages in order to track your Internet usage and transmit data back to their hosts. Such programs usually burrow into the registry as well, associating themselves with numerous keys and values. Some have multiple keys under multiple program names in multiple folders. It can be very hard to track and remove these infected keys and values without removing something important. No one wants to see the “blue screen of death” because they tinkered with the bad key in the registry.

Some programs do not have an uninstall feature, and even a lot that do leave more refuse behind than a Labor Day parade. Keys and subkeys often remain in the registry because they “might impact other programs.” Since the registry itself is really nothing more that a large repository, it has no mechanism to check its information with the installed programs – so it cannot determine by itself if information is needed or affects anything.

That is why software exists to make the comparison for you. It’s important to keep you registry clean as it can become quite bloated after weeks or months of usage storing Internet histories, temporary file information, and a ton of other useless information. In order to prevent elimination of potentially important information, it saves all information, no matter how potentially irrelevant.

For more information on the Windows Registry, check out the articles at Answer Registry Reviews . There are reviews of popular registry cleaning software products and you can even use links on the site to download and purchase highly effective registry cleaning software.

Technorati Tags: clean, cleaner, computer, download, microsoft, PC, registry, slow, software, Windows