Registry repair basics

The registry is the vast repository where windows Operating System stores data in the form of single entries and its values. It is the single point of failure for the windows OS. It is the registry which is used by the windows system to maintain information about hardware present in the system and the applications currently installed. It also stores other titbits of the system which are essential for the essential functions of the OS. As simple as it sounds, registry is one of the most corruptible entities of the system. There is no optimisation program built into the windows OS that can periodically check the registry and does maintenance work on it.

This job is performed by third party utilities known as Registry Cleaners. These programs are usually freeware but paid utilities are also available which translates to a better feature set. The registry is such an essential part of the windows system that regular backup of it is essential. This is necessary so that if the registry gets fully damaged or corrupted then it can be restored using the backup otherwise no installed application will work and many other problems would also be created. This feature is provided by Registry Cleaner programs which backup the full registry and then provide recovery options so that if the registry gets damaged, it can be fully repaired or recovered.

Windows OS provides tools such as REGEDIT.EXE but these only provide the user with the whole registry in front of him and are very basic in functionality. An inexperienced user can get confused with all the nodes and other structures like hives of the registry. The naming convention followed is, although, simple but it is still confusing to the newbie. Here also Registry Cleaners help by providing an easy to understand interface for tweaking the registry values. All of these Registry cleaners work on top of the API's provided by windows system to manipulate the registry entries. The user is provided with all options needed for correcting common registry problems and also has the option to scan and fix the entire registry structure at once. Browsing the registry is also made easy by such software.

The registry controls major functions of the windows system such as hardware, software, network, security, etc. A healthy and clean registry is very essential for a system and even a minor error in it can seriously degrade system performance. Apart from manipulating registry entries, these can also be exported or imported in binary format usually in the REG file format. This is useful in backing up the registry either partially or fully. The windows registry has another feature that it can be edited remotely on a network which is very helpful in certain cases. Various user permissions are also set by using access control lists in the windows registry and hence user control can be exercised. In the end we can see how the entire windows OS can be controlled and tweaked just by manipulating registry keys.