Registry Cleaners FAQ

A registry cleaner is a computer program that will help you improve your computer’s life quality – if used correctly. The older your computer gets, the more junk it amasses, and the bigger the probability of slowdown and instability becomes. With registry cleaners you can prevent all of the above: they have several different tools that can boost your computer’s speed by fixing or defragmenting your registry, freeing up disk space and deleting unnecessary files that are hoarded in your machine.

Before jumping right into the world of registry cleaners it is important to have some basic notions of what the registry is. A computer’s registry is where all the actions you performed over time are located. In other words, every time you do something an entry is created in the registry, making it like a record activity log. (In fact, if you’re reading this article it is most likely that there is an entry created in your registry recording this action.) But the thing with registries is that they accumulate unnecessary entries as well, which most of the time occur when you do the mundane task of installing, updating, upgrading or uninstalling programs. Speaking of the latter, no program is completely uninstalled using the regular method (the control panel), leaving behind the so-called leftovers. Regardless of how insignificant they may seem, they still contribute to what’s known as registry fragmentation. And last but not least, the older your registry is, the more superfluous entries it hoards, resulting in slowing down your PC even more.

A registry cleaner takes care of these unnecessary registry entries. After thoroughly scanning your computer and listing all possible threats, the program lets you decide whether you want to eliminate said threats, fix the problem causing them, or perform registry defragmentation. Regardless of the chosen action, the process needs to be done carefully, as the registry is so delicate deleting a wrong entry can turn your computer useless. So if you wish to fix your registry, always use registry cleaners with care. As for how often you need them: every once in a while or after you removed the biggest threats to registries in general, viruses or malware. Also make sure to have a restore point or backup file in case something goes haywire during the process.

Some registry cleaners also provide more tools that can be used more often and without any remorse, such as a disk cleaner, an uninstaller (running this can prevent the aforementioned leftovers) and a file shredder. With these extras you can successfully delete any superfluous files, manage computer startup programs and browser extensions, and many more, ultimately resulting in a faster and healthier computer experience.

Yes, it does. Although you don’t really need to continuously fix your computer registry, doing it from time to time can indeed help you optimize your machine.

Installing and uninstalling programs is responsible for the so-called orphaned entries (in other words, the leftovers) in your registry. The more times you repeat installing, the more leftovers are created, forcing your registry to hoard a ludicrous amount of unnecessary entries. Likewise, duplicate keys are also created when updating, upgrading or reinstalling software. And other aspects such as unexpected system shutdown errors (think power failures for example) can also cause registry entries and file/disk fragmentation. Truth be told, these problems inflict minimum harm on your computer by themselves; but over the years they can form an ugly mass, ultimately slowing your computer down.

Registry cleaners can prevent the above by eliminating those superfluous entries and defragmenting your registry, helping your computer run smoother. They can fix your registry after the removal of malware or virus too. In fact, it is mandatory to do so, since viruses are the major threats for not just your computer but your registry as well. In addition to that, a registry cleaner is able to remove any leftovers that prevent your PC from working at its fullest.

Registry cleaners provide a number of different tools for different purposes, but with a common objective: to optimize your computer. In this regard you can perform the following tasks: cleaning your hard drive (to remove any superfluous files), disable computer startup programs (the more you have, the longer it takes your computer to initiate), fully uninstall programs (and prevent the aforementioned leftovers), shred files (wiping them off your drive for good), manage your browser extensions and so on. Depending on your computer, running these can often be even more effective for improving your PC’s life than aiming straight at the registry.

Nonetheless, keep your eyes open for fraudulent providers: they can install harmful content on your computer so they can sell it to you as a critical threat, causing more severe implications than fixing the registry itself. To prevent running into a lemon, always go with the top registry cleaners such as the ones reviewed by experts and other users on our site.

Actually it can, and that’s why you need to be extra careful with this. Messing with your computer’s registry is a delicate process and should only be done if strictly necessary. Such an occasion is deleting a specific entry or “cleaning up” after removing viruses or malware, as these have deep impact on your registry. Other than that you should only perform any cleaning or defragmentation of the registry every once in a while.

The reason behind this seemingly too careful approach is that a computer’s registry is responsible for its overall performance; so a careless use of a registry cleaner might end up deleting necessary entries and killing off your computer. And besides being an extremely tedious process to say the least, tampering with your registry manually can be even more harmful and shouldn’t be an option to consider to begin with, especially for those with less IT knowledge.

Fortunately, many decent registry cleaner companies learned their lesson and improved their software in such ways they can’t harm your computer’s registry. In practice they only target non-vital registry entries and aim exclusively at those generated by the programs you manually install/uninstall. Furthermore, many other corporations add restore points and file backup features to their software that come very handy when dealing with items causing possible system failure. Another important feature many providers offer more and more these days is allowing you the chance to either get access to the scan log details or to edit the repair patterns. This, however, can be a rather tedious process if the scan ends up finding thousands of potential errors that you have to go through one by one. Nonetheless, you should never delete everything at once as this can wipe out necessary files, turning your computer into junk material.

In conclusion, if you use registry cleaners wisely, you’re safe from doing any damage to your computer. Nonetheless, we only recommend using such a radical solution from time to time or if you need to clean up the mess after your computer went through a big malware infection. Also, try to avoid free registry cleaners as they can not only infect your computer with dangerous malware, but they also blackmail you to buy the full software (for ransom money) to be able to remove those malicious files. The best solution, with which you can prevent yourself from performing any potentially harmful action, is to look for providers which offer you restore points and/or give you the chance of backing up your files before you commence the registry cleaning process.

Occasionally, yes. Although messing with your computer’s registry is a somewhat dangerous process and you should use it in only in case of dire emergency, doing so every once in a while can indeed be useful. Using a registry cleaner will allow you to assess the state of your registry, as well as other crucial parts of your system in minutes. Whenever you start experiencing major performance issues on your computer such as the programs taking too long to respond, apps crashing, general freezing etc., it is most likely that your registry may need a hand. Furthermore, anytime you get a virus or malware you should always run a registry scan too. After those threats are removed, the major damage caused by them will be located precisely in the registry.

Formatting your computer may seem a more viable solution as it eliminates all files, and consequently all the errors, leading to a fresh clean computer; however, performing such a task should only be considered a last resource. Since your system will return to a blank point, reformatting your computer can be a very exasperating process. If you don’t have a backup of your complete system and all the programs you had, you have to manually reinstall them once again. Whenever a strong virus blocks your computer, the Blue Screen of Death appears or a black screen doesn’t let the computer start at all, formatting your PC is indeed your only option.

Believe it or not, the biggest menace to computers is us, ordinary users. Viruses and malware are literally everywhere, often disguised as regular-looking programs, so catching one or a couple at a time is easy. Therefore, avoid sketchy, unsecure sites as they are most likely infected will all kinds of malicious content. Download trustworthy programs only, but before doing so, make sure to search online for the name of the program, read a couple of reviews thereof and learn everything about it. These rules particularly apply to those programs designed to avert dangers, such as registry cleaners, antiviruses and more. In fact, many registry cleaners, especially free ones, intentionally carry some kind of malware so they can later target it as a critical threat. Thus you end up in a catch-22 situation: either you invest money to remove those threats or leave them on your computer, slowly killing it.

You can consider your computer’s registry as an activity record log for every action you perform like visiting recently opened documents tab, going to websites, changing your desktop etc. In fact, there is already an entry for reading this article created somewhere in your registry.

Long story short, a computer’s registry is a hierarchy divided into a number of hives and inside these hives are the keys. Keys have one or multiple subkeys within them and inside those there are the values: incredibly small files that contain only numeric files and binary data. In other words, imagine this as a main folder containing lots of other smaller folders and so on until you reach the files.

Returning to the “surface”, hives can be categorized in 5 main ones, each representing the different contents of your machine. The first one is HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT which contains all the information used by programs for file associations and for sharing information. HKEY_CURRENT_USER is where the current user’s settings and configurations are placed, while HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE contains the keys for the same information, only regarding all users accessing the same computer. However, the latter two should not be confused with HKEY_USERS which is pretty much the same as HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, but the information present in HKEY_CURRENT_USER is copied from this hive whenever a user logs in the computer. Last but not least, there is HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG which contains all your hardware’s information about the resources and, as the name indicates, the configuration of the computer.

Every action you take creates an entry within one or more of the hives, meaning that the older the computer, the more flooded different hives of your registry become. Installing and uninstalling programs, upgrading or updating software always creates duplicate keys and invalid entries (values) either in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Depending on the quantity of the programs and how much disk space they need, these keys and entries slowly accumulate over time. Since there is much more to process before a program can respond to your actions, you encounter the much dreaded slowdown effect. Moreover, system shutdown errors could occur on a more regular basis and your computer’s registry gets fragmented, ultimately further contributing to the slowing down of your PC.

It’s not an easy question to decide on, as it depends on the situation. On one hand, altering any computer’s registry is a delicate procedure that should only be done if strictly necessary. On the other hand, if you have a decent registry cleaner solution and you are super careful all the time, you don’t have to worry too much when performing such tasks.

Registry cleaner companies are also well aware of the dangers cleaning your registry might bring. Therefore, most providers offer you a bunch of different safety measures in case something goes wrong when aiming at either your system files or your registry. Before investing in any software though, make sure to check on reviews of the registry cleaner of your choice to verify if the software is trustworthy and covers all of your PC registry’s needs.

Most of the fairly decent registry cleaners provide you such features as file recovery, restore points and registry backups. These are created prior to any repair/deletion you perform and can be used as soon as the task is completed. This is not only useful for going back to previous registry fixes, but you can also recover any important file you deleted by mistake. Nonetheless, there is some software that lets you undo other changes that not only work in the same measure as the aforementioned features, but have a common principle with them as well: to help you safely optimize your computer.

Despite all of the above, some companies opt for not creating any restore points as this can decrease the client’s performance and increase repairing time. Instead they give you access to the threat log where you can see the name of errors and either place a little tick box next to each one or list said errors by categories. This way you are given the option to manually edit what to fix/delete. However, special care is advised here as you might end up deleting something that is mandatory for the proper functioning of your computer. To avoid this, search the name of errors you wish to get rid of to see their severity and whether it is safe to delete them before proceeding with cleaning.

Last but not least, certain companies go to great lengths to tune their programs in such a way they only remove non-vital system files. Although this solution seems perfectly safe at first, you should always take a peek at the log details too (if accessible), because there’s always the chance of something going wrong if you have no way to return to previous saves.

Yes, they will, though you need to be careful when tampering with your registry. Whether you do it from time to time – after the removal of any malware or virus – or when you need to delete a specific entry, a registry cleaner can indeed bring the most out of your computer regarding speed.

A good registry cleaner is always useful and there is a good reason behind that. You see, whenever you do something on your computer, an entry is created in your registry. And whether you like it or not, over time your computer inevitably starts to hoard information. The more programs you install and uninstall, the more entries flood your registry, causing some slowdown effects. Furthermore, more entries lead to a more fragmented registry, or in other words; your computer needs more and more time to respond to your actions. However, this can be easily stopped by using a registry cleaner. In addition to that, it can also defragment or fix your registry after a virus or malware infection too (as these also have a deep impact on your system’s health), guaranteeing a faster and healthier computer.

Aside from the above, registry cleaners bring additional tools to the mix to help you optimize different parts of your computer. One of these features is the ability to disable programs that automatically launch when booting your computer. Due to the reason that the more you have of them, the slower your machine boots, accurately managing those programs is crucial for speed purposes. Unnecessary files you already forgot were there in the first place can also cause your system to slow down. Thankfully, most registry cleaner companies provide you the option to make an in-depth analysis of your disks to find said files and get rid of them for good.

Last but not least, there is the problem with uninstalling: unfortunately running the computer’s default uninstaller is not enough to eliminate a program, therefore many registry cleaners also come with their own uninstaller. And when combined with the power of the file shredder, another useful option provided by registry cleaners, you can successfully remove any program, prevent leftovers from causing fragmentation and eliminate all superfluous files your computer may hoard.