Ever so often, do we see, here on the list, people who discuss the use of
Registry cleaning software. And sometimes, we read phrases, like 'maybe your
registry has got messed up', or the like. As I know, there is quite a few on
the list, who wouldn't even have a clue, first hand, what the registry is, it
is
my hope, this article will clear up some of their confusion. If you ever been
asking questions like:
- What is the Windows Registry?
- Why is it there?
- Do I really need it?
- Where is it to be found?
- Do I have to interact with it - and what would be the risk of doing so?
- Why do people talk that much about registry cleaning software?
This article will attempt to leave you some basic answers to these questions. I
will try my best, not to be too technical, in dealing with the topic. Be
aware, though, we are talking tech things, so the stuff ain't easily
understood. And, due to the fact of intending to be lightweighted, this article
might
seem rather basic, to those who are more deep into the matter. Such people
might wish the article would be far more deep, and may even disagree in the way
the material is presented. I am always open for any kind of feedback, and
willing to improve my articles. So feel free to write me.
The Windows Registry, is as the name might impose, part of Microsoft Windows.
It is an integrated part of all versions of Windows, and totally essential. If
you want to compare your new computer system with a car, Windows would be the
engine - and Windows Registry would be the key. As you know, there would be
little, if any, chance to start a modern car, without having the key.
Similarly, there will be no real way, to have a Windows-based system started,
without
the registry in place. Further, you well know, you couldn't just pick up your
car keys, and walk over to the nextdoor, and try open and start his car with
your key. Chances are rather high, that all you get from it, is that his car
alarm will make its best efforts to wake up the whole neighborhood. Back to
Windows, it is not possible to copy a registry from one PC, and then paste it
into another computer, hoping for the second computer to be acting fully
compatible with the first. The very best chances are, that it would make the
second PC crash.
So, why is the Registry there? What does it actually hold?
Likely, your keychain holds more than one key. You have one key for your car,
one for your front door, maybe one for your office, and could even be another
one for your safe at home. Many software developers these days, want to have a
certain amount of control over how many copies of their software is actually
in use. They might want to ensure you only run the software on a given system.
Or, they might want to make sure you only will have access to your software,
for the contracted period of time - quite common for software like AntiVirus
scanners. This is why, manufacturers provide a License code, or License key for
you. When installing your new software, the license key is added onto your
'electronic key chain' - Windows Registry - either automatically by the
software
installation process, or manually by you entering it. Next time you attempt to
run the software, it first checks to see if the license key is in the
registry, and is valid.
Another use of the registry is to save information, that is needed by the
software, through its process. Such things could be settings of different
kinds.
Also, if the software depends in any way on another file on your system, the
location of this file might be stored in the Registry. If we want to hang on to
the illustration of the keychain, look on this kind of information as tags for
each key. Just like you, on your literal keychain can attach a sticker to each
key individually, holding the name and address for where this key belongs -
same way, it is possible to 'stick' labels or tags to the keys in the Registry.
A few times, a software would make use of the registry, to share information
with other software. If your printer software has a setting, that has been
changed, and this will affect both your Internet Explorer, your text editor,
and your spreadsheet, it is far easier to save the setting in the registry, and
let each software look it up there. Otherwise, the setting would have to be
updated in several software packages, and that would slow down your system
somehow, and also include a certain risk of some of the software not being
updated properly, causing it to malfunction.
Depending on the way your software is constructed, it might make little use of
the Registry; or, it might be using the Registry quite excessively. Even
though you know Windows as One big software package, it actually consists of a
long line of software pieces. Each of these, have their related entries in the
Registry. This is why, it is not uncommon for your Registry to hold 5000,
10000, or even more entries. And the number will rapidly grow, as you keep
installing new software on your system.
To make the search for a certain key easier, your Registry, is divided into
'sections'. Let's illustrate it this way: If you want to keep an overview of
your
keys, you could put all the keys for home on one keyring, all the ones for your
workplace on another keyring, and your car keys on a third. Then to know,
where all your keys are, at any time, you hook all the keyrings onto your
keychain. Allright, each software has a certain set of keys. Either just that
software, or all softwares that are somehow related, are put into the section
(keyring), and then we hook all of it up on the keychain, the Registry.
OBSOLETE, BAD AND USELESS ENTRIES
Have you ever found yourself, with a keychain, loaded with keys from old stuff?
Your car key from two years ago, the key for your piggy-bank, which got
broken last decade, and so forth. These obsolete keys are no more usable, and
actually best could be called junk. Keeping them on your keychain, of course,
could make you look 'important'. On the other hand, a rather high chance is
that they will make your keychain heavy and bulky. It further would cause you
to
spend more time, each time you were to search for one particular key. In other
words, every now and then, you will want to clean up your chain for this kind
of 'junk' keys.
As we already have shown, the software you have installed on your system, will
need to look up its keys, and other stuff, in the Registry of Windows.
Naturally, the more keys you have sitting in the registry, the more time it
will take for the software to look up its particular key information. On a
modern-day computer, with the high-speed processors and hard drives, this
usually doesn't mean much. The software would look in the predefined sections
of
the Registry, and get its information, then do its job. But, we still want to
minimize the amount of keys it has to scan through. Another thing that often
happens, is that old keys might point to wrong places on your hard drive, or
even give the software wrong informations. If the software is written the right
way, it might be able to determine this situation, and search for the
information other places in the Registry, or on the system. Problem is that
this will
slow down the software operation. In most cases, this even could cause the
software to malfunction, in certain operations. Is your computer a year old?
All
chances are, that it has a rather cluttered Registry. Many people start to
complain about their computer being slow and sluggish. They decide to look
around
for yet a new computer, not knowing, or realizing, that it all is due to a
cluttered Registry.
Just like your literal keychain, we want to get rid of obsolete, useless, junk
keys. This could be done manually by the user. But that would require the user
knowing which keys to look out for, and which of them to remove, or modify.
Also, a software might have a rather high number of entries, hence the job
could
be rather exhausting. It might even call for a certain amount of technical
insight to do the job.
How easy our house cleaning became, the day they invented the vacuum cleaner.
Is there a 'vacuum cleaner' for the Registry? Yes, in fact, there are many.
They all are called Registry cleaners. By high-tech ways, they will scan
through your Registry, and determine if the information for each entry is still
of
interest for your PC. Some of them even hold a feature called Registry
Defragmenting. This means, basically, that the software tries to gather all the
information each software on your system needs, together - just like you would
gather all keys for home, on one keyring, all for the office on another, etc.
This way, the actual software (i.e your text editor) will find all the
information it needs, in one spot of the Registry, thereby reducing the time it
will
spend on search for its information. How does it happen, that your Registry
gets loaded with obsolete entries?
Many things could lead to this situation. Every time you install a software, it
makes new entries in the Registry. Unfortunately, not all software is
well-written, when comes to tide up their stuff, when you uninstall it. Other
times, you perform updates to your software, making old license codes, and
other stuff obsolete. If the updating process of your software is not handling
this correctly, you are left with a cluttered Registry. Still other cases, a
software installation fails. It might likely already have entered some
information in your Registry. On trying to install the software again, it will
make
new entries, leaving the ones from the first attempt, as mere junk. Even a
power failure, while a software is modifying its entries, could cause these
entries to be broken. Spyware, malware, adware, and viruses, that has infected
your system, might also leave traces (or useless entries) in your Registry.
How well your AntiSpyware and AntiVirus programs do their job, will by far
determine how much of these traces are left in your Registry.
REGISTRY CLEANRE - HOW DOES IT WORK - WHICH ONE TO CHOOSE
In the market, you will find several Registry Cleaning softwares. Why is it,
there has to be that many? Which one is the best?Why do one person tell a
certain cleaner to be the best one, whilst another tell me, that would be the
very worst one to go for?
Well, why is it that some people love their Bosch vacuum cleaner, others have
been using their good old Hoover for the last 25 years, and still others would
firmly claim, that noone could do the job, except from their Philips? Could it
be, that they like the way the handle sits in their hand? Or, is it because
this is the very vacuum cleaner they got from their old grandmother, before she
moved to the other side of the globe? Even just throwing down a new carpet on
your floor, might totally change your view, on your old vacuum cleaner. Did you
have a short-haired dog, and now got a long-haired one; it might just be the
time for you to walk into that mall and pick up another vacuum cleaner.
In a similar way, people might have many reasons, for telling one Registry
Cleaner, to be above the other. Some cleaners only do clean the Registry for
bad
and obsolete entries, while others are loaded with additional features, like
Registry Defragmenter, Spyware remover, and so forth. Some cleaners only work
under certain versions of Windows, while others deal with the whole range of
modern versions of the Operating System. And then there is the personal taste.
How much do you want to interact, with the way the software deals with your
Registry. Do you just want to have it do the job all automatically, or do you
want it to ask you what to do, each time it finds something suspect. And the
'cosmetics', or the way the software presents its information on the screen,
might play a role. Particularly, this is of importance to the visually impaired
user. Accessibility is a big issue, to be considered, when choosing your
Registry cleaner.
Recently, Microsoft released their Essentials package. They also have the
OneCare scanner, which is an online scanner, that among other things are
cleaning
up the Registry. These are free, and from what I have heard, quite accessible.
But they only do a certain amount of registry cleaning. A good third-party
cleaner, is encouraged. Why?
Mainly, this has to do with the fact, that third-party companies might be
focusing more on the task, putting even more resources into developing,
maintaining, and updating their software. Microsoft only offers their products,
as a small part of all the software they have available, causing them to
spend their resources on many different parts of the computing industry. In
most cases, if you choose a well-reputed Registry Cleaner, it is easier to get
technical support, with a third-party company.
"All that, is well enough!" Some might say. "But we did run a Registry cleaner,
and it sure did remove all the bad stuff. Unfortunately, it removed some
other stuff, as well, that should not have been removed. It caused some of our
software not to work properly any longer."
How could this be? To answer that, we have to know just a tiny bit, of how the
cleaner actually works. But, first, how selective is your vacuum cleaner, when
comes to coins versa dust? Some vacuum cleaners only sucks the very lightest
dust. Others, on the other hand, seem to 'eat' almost whatever happens to be in
their way, and small enough to go up that wand. The Registry cleaners,
similarly, might differ in how thorough they are in their job. But, how do the
cleaner
determine, if an entry in your Registry, is to be removed or not?
There is many techniques to accomplish this task. One way, could be to check to
see if the software that relates to the entry, would still happen to be on
your system. Another way, is to look more at the characteristics of the entry,
and compare that to a database, thereby determine if this is a malicious, or
useless entry. And there is many other ways of doing the job. A good cleaner
might even be combining a long range of techniques, in determining whether an
entry is good or bad. So, why is it that some cleaners would consider a certain
entry as bad, while others would leave it?
One way for a Spyware or Virus to sneak into your system, is to make itself
look like a nice piece of software. It would make its entries to look as
harmless
as possible. The developers of the Registry cleaners, are well aware of this
kind of sneaking. Hence, they might decide that all software that has a certain
characteristic on its Registry entries, will be considered malicious; and
therefore remove the entry, to stop the software from working. The way the
software
has placed its information, through installation, might also play a role. And
there might be many other technical reasons, why it was considered to be a
useless or bad entry. In the case, you are dealing with a cleaner that has a
good tech-support, it is worth to let them know of the fact, and which software
on your system was affected. They might investigate, and make adjustments in
their next update.
In still other cases, your Registry cleaner might not 'discover' an entry that
is bad, useless or obsolete. That is why, it might even be worth to run more
than one cleaning software. Recently, I had to run four different cleaners,
before I finally got rid of a malfunction on my system. Also, in certain cases,
removing one entry, will stop a certain process, thereby making other entries
not needed any longer. In such cases, it might be necessary to run your
cleaning software, several times, to get rid of all traces of a software.
Registry cleaning software comes in many ways. Some are pure Registry cleaners.
Others come as part of a package, that does a whole lot of maintainance on
your system. They are downloadable from the Internet, and come either as
freeware, fair priced software, or rather expensive packages. There also exists
a
few Online Cleaners, which require for you to be connected to the Internet, all
through the cleaning process. Some work fast, while others tend to spend
several hours on your system cleaning. Typically, the online cleaners, will
take longer than the ones you install locally on your PC.
HOW OFTEN SHOULD I RUN A REGISTRY CLEAN UP?
A good rule is, every time you have uninstalled a software. Another good answer
is, to run the cleaner regularly. The third rule is, whenever your system
seem to be exceptionally slow, with no good reason, acts sluggish, or
malfunctions in an unusual way. And, of course, if you don't have any other
things to
do, and just want to put your computer to work, you could always start the
scanner. :)
WHERE IS THE REGISTRY LOCATED? CAN I MODIFY IT, AND SHOULD I BOTHER?
PRECAUTION: Fooling with your Registry, might cause pieces of software to run
unstable, or the whole of your system to malfunction. It might result in
you having to reinstall the whole system, and loose all your work. I am NOT
RELIABLE for any such results, and offer no warranty, WHATSOEVER, for any
errors
caused by your playing. If you are not more than 100% sure, what you are doing,
leave the Registry for software that is written to deal with this kind of
material.
The Registry comes as part of your Windows. It is to be found in the Windows
section of your system. It can be modified manually, by using the RegEdit
software, that is delivered with Windows. How readable is the Registry? Here is
but one example. Choose for yourself, if you think it is readable, or makes
any sense to a non-tech person:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\OWS.PptUI\CLSID (Default) Reg_Z
{BDEADEB5-C265-11D0-BCED-00A0C90AB50F}
It would take a rather technical reason, if you ever have to modify the
Registry on your own, manually. I STRONGLY recommend, you leave the job for
software
that is written for this task. Even if you end up, having to pay for it, that
is well worth the money.
---End Of Article---
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