The Windows Registry not only records information about the operating system, it also records keys, paths, links, registration info, user options and much more about each application or program that you install to your system.

Many apps even create notations in the registry each time they are used. For example, run Nero Burning Rom and burn a CD. After it has finished its job and the program is closed, there are now 2 new registry entries. Or run a batch render for several files in Tsunami video encoder or Photoshop and you’ve just added a registry notation for each file. They remain there ever after, and they add up very quickly.

Example: Immediately after making screenshots for this article, I see that I have just added 4 new useless registry entries.

If you decide to uninstall a program, almost every one of them will leave behind orphan registry keys. Shareware apps leave info in the registry to discourage reinstalling them for another trial period. Apps that “break” sometimes cannot be reinstalled because–you guessed it, old registry keys prevent it.

As the registry bloats larger and larger with useless entries, your system begins to slow down, simply because it must search through of all those useless entries in the registry before finding what it needs to launch an application, or even Windows itself.

The Solution

The obvious remedy to the problem is to safely remove all of the old useless entries from the Windows registry. There are several programs available that can be used for registry cleanup. Two free ones are Regcleaner and RegSeeker.

Regcleaner

Regcleaner has a myriad of features that I will leave you to master at your leisure. However, the following steps will illustrate the easiest method to clean up your registry using this utility.

Launch Regcleaner and click Tools. Select Registry Cleanup, then click Do them All. A search window appears, showing the progress as it searches the registry.

After the search process is complete, you will see a list of registry entries which are no longer needed.

Next, click Select, and choose All. Then click the Remove Selected button in the lower right corner. This removes all of the selected entries. If you wish, you can manually select only the entries that you know you don’t need. I personally have never had any problems when removing them all.

You’re Done!

Regcleaner creates a backup of the registry before each run, so if you have any problems you can easily restore the backup. Simply relaunch Regcleaner, click the Backup tab and select the backup date of your choice.

Now go clean up your registry. Your PC will love you for it