Windows Vista Registry Clean
Windows Vista Registry Repair
A Windows Vista registry clean should be part of the general “housekeeping” of your PC to keep it running fast and efficiently. A registry cleaner will scan the Keys and Values in the registry and report any problems which may affect the operation of the PC. You can then run a registry clean and delete this data.
In addition a Windows Vista registry clean will repair the registry and hopefully resolve problems such as the PC becoming unstable. Our recommended Registry Cleaners support both Windows Vista 32bit and 64bit (except Regcure which does not support Vista 64 bit) but if using a different program make sure it supports your version of the operating system.
The registry is the warehouse for all of Windows Vista’s configuration data, and that of most installed programs. All the information the operating system needs to handle data is stored here, from what file types are opened by what programs to what options are available on every single menu and toolbar. This database is constantly being updated whilst the computer is in use and when programs are installed/uninstalled and hardware added/removed. If the registry is damaged the PC might cease to function so it is far safer to use a registry cleaner than to try manual editing (see “What is the Windows Registry“).
Good Registry Cleaners will allow you to backup the registry and will also do this automatically before running a registry repair (i.e. before making any changes to the registry). This means that you can restore the old information if you experience problems afterwards but it is worthwhile manually creating a system restore point as well (see “Using a PC Registry Cleaner“).
Signs of Registry problems include:
- startup slow
- slow running
- freezing or crashing
- odd error messages
- unwanted pop-ups
- ‘Unable to load’ .dll errors.
If you were to just use a PC for, say, web browsing and word processing it is unlikely that windows registry problems would arise. But most users do more than this and often install new software packages and utilities and then maybe uninstall them and try something else. Whilst day to day activities will have an effect on the registry, it is installing and particularly uninstalling software that can cause problems. An installation may overwrite an existing registry entry and affect another program whilst an uninstall may delete an entry required by another program (especially if you don’t take care with any warnings). Some programs do not uninstall completely leaving remnants to cause registry problems. Registry problems can also result from partially installed programs caused by an interrupted installation.
In addition, there is also always the danger that installing free programs downloaded from the internet may result in malicious damage to the registry. A worse scenario would be malicious software that has changed your registry to a state where you face major problems.
A Windows Vista registry clean with a good registry cleaner should resolve these problems and repair the registry (see “Our Recommendations“)
