Registry cleaner! Answer to a slow PC

Windows registry is an often heard of word. But few people fully understand the importance of it. Windows registry is the single most important thing in a windows based PC and of the windows operating system. It is the place where the Microsoft OS saves its settings about user options, hardware, etc. Registry is the place where information needed by the operating system for start-up, shutdown as well as normal functioning is saved. In fact, whole functions of the system kernel are determined by reading values from the registry together with actions performed by the currently active hardware and settings of the currently offline hardware. Every program installed in the OS feeds its values and other settings into the registry so that they can be fetched at a later time for use by the program. The registry uses keys as a method of saving information which has a particular value associated with it. This value is the actual unit of information.

When a fresh copy of the OS is installed, the registry size is at its minimum and there is less fragmentation so the system works smoothly. But as the system is used, many applications are installed and then uninstalled; these applications usually do not remove all keys from the registry. Same is the case with hardware like Pen Drives, etc. Hardware used once and then removed causes the registry to save their profiles. This useless information cause the registry to swell in size causing high read times for the system of the registry. As a result the registry also becomes fragmented by constant addition and deletion of information from it.

These ailments of the registry have an adverse effect on the PC. Computer's performance degrades and its run slowly. Applications take a lot of time to launch and in dire cases they hang, resulting sometimes in entire PC crashes. Some people also see the famous BSOD (Blue screen of Death).

These problems can be solved by using utility known as Registry Cleaners. These are special software written specially for the windows system. This software cleans up the registry by deleting unwanted keys and values from the registry. They also de-fragment the registry for greater efficiency. They usually work by matching the keys to the applications and the hardware and then delete those that do not have a match. These reduce the size of the registry thus causing an increase in performance and speed of the system. There are a wide range of registry cleaners available today on the internet each of which employ a different strategy. Some of them are paid while majority are free to use. But in my opinion freeware software can never reach the maturity that paid software do due to the research and investment that goes into making them. Fiddling with the system's innards is a risky thing so paid software are better as their development team provides support for any problems arising due to the use of their software. Using Registry Cleaners people have seen drastic improvements in their systems performance.