The Best Way to Fix a Corrupt Registry

If you are having problems with your PC, the chances are your registry has become corrupt. Symptoms of a corrupt registry include mysterious error messages, slow boot up process, programs that refuse to load, and your system running a lot slower than it used to. Before you take your computer to the local PC World, or even reformat your hard drive, there is another option to consider - cleaning the registry.

The Windows registry is like the computer's diary. This is where it keeps a note of all the programs that are installed, and all the configuration files which are associated with these installed programmes. The problem of a corrupt registry arises due to the sheer volume of these configuration files. When you uninstall or upgrade a program on you PC, unwanted registry entries should be removed by the uninstall process. Sometimes this doesn't happen, though, and as a result orphan files are left on your system. This can be a cause of error messages and the slow performance that you might experience.

Sometimes when you install a program it creates a flag in the registry which makes the program start when you boot up your computer. This sounds harmless enough, but when there are ten other programs all trying to start up while your computer is booting up, you can see where the performance degradation can come from. It can get rather frustrating when your computer takes five minutes to boot up every time.

There are basically two ways to fix a corrupt registry. Fixing it manually involves running a program called "regedit" from the Windows Start/Run command line. You would then remove entries in the registry which you knew were causing you errors. This way should only be undertaken by someone who knows their way around a computer, as it would be very easy to do some serious damage to your PC this way.

Undoubtedly the best, easiest, and safest way to fix a corrupt registry is by using one of the commercial software tools available on the market these days. There are a number of them available, and you should read up on them to find out which one is best for you. A commercial tool will scan your system for errors, fix any it finds, and record any changes it makes (so you can revert back, if need be). You can use one of these software tools to easily keep your registry clean and avoid any problems in the future.



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