Why your computer gets slower over time

When you first picked up your computer from the store, any programs you opened or website you visited would load very quickly. Not only does your browser load faster during that time, but it seemed that your computer as a whole performed a whole lot better. It is a fact that the more applications you load and install on your computer, the slower your operating system becomes. Similarly, the more often you use applications, you will create more files. These additional files might eventually make your system sluggish. While your system will not completely grind to a halt, it may become slow enough for you to suspect that you're having hardware problems. A lot of this sluggishness can be traced to registry issues in your operating system. Every program that the windows operating system uses impact the registry system. The more software you install and use, the slower certain processes get and eventually, the whole system will become more sluggish.

Registry Repair Software to the Rescue

Registry repair software provides a tune–up for your operating system. It is just like a mechanic who looks under the hood and checks which part of the system is having a problem. The registry repair software gets into your system and tries to optimize all the files that your computer uses. While there are many software titles that fall under the category of registry repair software, there is a wide range of tasks that they do. Look for these following essential features.

Entire System Repair

The registry repair software eliminates duplicate files, looks for unused files, obsolete items, unused start menu items and temporary files and removes them so that your system could run faster.

Registry Diagnostics and Repair

The best registry repair software titles would look into the registry keys that your system uses and tries to see if all the pathways are valid. If it is not valid, they will try to fix these pathways so that the software which uses these registries operates more efficiently. It also hunts down empty registry keys or if there are partially uninstalled programs, it would try to fix these perennial problems. Another major concern which the registry repair addresses is the orphan references. Orphans references are references in your registry system that goes to the missing data, missing applications or updated applications and outdated references. Finally, registry repair also checks and eliminates spyware registry items, corrupted files and a whole list of other security issues or other hassles down the road.

Error Protection

This is the last essential feature. It allows your registry repair software to analyze your registry records and clean up potential errors in your system that might cause mistakes in file repair, application removal or registration removal. This diagnostic and cleanup process goes through all your registry items and cleans up potential issues. It also keeps you in the loop to help you make the right decision regarding the changes you would want to make in your registry system so that your operating system can operate smoothly.

Why do you need registry repair software?

If the reasons above don’t speak for themselves, you need to get this type of software for one particular reason: If you make a mistake in manually changing your registry, you can kill your system, simple as that. Fixing your own windows registry is not a matter to be taken into your own hands nor should it be taken lightly. There are so many things that could go wrong and considering how vital this information is, one small mistake can mean wiping out applications or worst case scenario is differing applications that refer to the same registry. It is much better to just use a specialized piece of software that would handle all these complicated matters for you but still keep you in the loop by prompting you regarding particular decisions to be made regarding specific application that could be streamlined, deleted, adjusted or optimized.

How to pick the right registry repair software?

As stated previously, there are many types of registry repair software with the three major functional headings listed above. However, within those categories of functions, there are many features that distinguish one registry repair software title from another. The rule of thumb here is to focus on your particular needs and select the software package that best mirrors your particular needs. In that way, you avoid the classic problem of buying software which has all the bells and whistles but you end up paying a lot of money for features you do not use. In essence, you are buying bloat. On the other hand, you could have many needs you are not currently aware of or you are not a very technical person and you might be using a different term for a particular feature set that you need and you end up not buying software that has that feature. It is important to match your needs to the particular features for the registry repair software you are considering.

Keep these questions in mind when evaluating software titles:

Does it support differing levels of proficiency?

Fiddling around with your system’s registry could be fatal to your system. The stakes are that high. That is why novices or people who are new with computers should be accommodated by the registry repair software. It should be streamlined enough that make it easier for them to use and figure out. You have to make sure that it accommodates a novice level of computer proficiency. On the other hand, it should also accommodate more advanced users. Whether you are just looking for results or you are interested in looking under the hood and being in the loop for every decision the software makes, the software must be able to accommodate that. In addition to these considerations, you should also determine if the software allows automatic removal of registry issues, which is great for novice users or if it allows manual removal (for more advanced users). Other elements to look for in terms of these considerations are the kind of progress display it has, that it should display an indication of the severity of the registry problem.

Does it offer protection from mistakes?

When you are doing a sensitive operation such as registry cleaning on your computer’s operation system, it is extremely important that there is a way that you could retrieve the last good configuration of your system. If a problem occurs during a registry cleaning, your computer will stop working or programs might work problematically or even freeze. The most common protection for this situation is having a backup system for the registry. Emphasize that the software title that you are considering must have this feature. If you do not take this into consideration, you are taking unnecessary risks with your system.

Undo Specific Tasks

Another protective feature you should look for is the ability to undo specific tasks. This feature allows you to individually undo a registration cleanup so that you can pick a particular program for undoing registry optimization instead of having to do it by batch. This is a great feature to have and you should insist on it because if you use particular programs heavily and you notice a change for the worse after the registry software “fixed it”, you could be able to undo just that particular program instead of having to undo all of the repair work that the software did.

Other protective features include the ability to export and import registry files. This is a great feature to have because it allows you to have a local back up which you can store in a CD-rom or a USB drive. Sometimes the problem with having just a regular back up is that if the problem is not really in the registry but with the hard drive, it may result in data corruption, lost data and this might affect your backed up data.

Does it offer robust program cleaning?

Program cleaning is different from a registry cleaning. Registry cleaning deals obviously with the registry, elements that are hidden and also references may not just involve one program but a cluster of programs. Program cleaning, on the other hand, deals with specific programs that are repaired and optimized by the software. The common feature to look for is the ability to manage or clean up the start up programs. This is important because the start up programs can weigh down your system’s memory and slow down your system’s boot up.

If you are not using many of the programs that are loaded automatically into your system, the “start up program management and clean up” feature will really shorten your system's start up time. The “obsolete start menu item checking” feature looks for old files or obsolete files that are in your start menu and deletes them. This is great for optimizing your operating system and for scanning for invalid program shortcuts. If you have reinstalled, upgraded or modified the program, sometimes, the shortcut is stored in the wrong place. This is a quick and easy feature that takes care of that. Another clean up feature includes cleaning unneeded, obsolete, temporary or junk files. This is a non-negotiable feature that you should insist on because there are many files that clutter operating systems and make them really bulky and slow.

Clean up of recently used files is also important and a great feature for both privacy reasons. You would not want somebody to check your most recently used files and have either embarrassing or sensitive information there. This feature comes in handy for cleaning that up. Other optional features include “cleaning up browsers” and the “windows ad remove software” list. These features involve more anti-snooping and privacy protection especially when you do not want other people to snoop around and see what kind of software you load or removed or what sites you have been checking out. They are not mandatory but are nice to have.

Does it clean the registry adequately?

This consideration addresses a whole series of features that you must keep in mind in assessing how robust of a registry repair software you would like. If you see yourself using a piece of software frequently and the differing features address your particular needs, then insist on all of them. However, certain people just need specific types of procedures done and they can dispense other features. You have to make sure that you pick carefully. The most common features that the registry cleaning process should have are checking for invalid shared dlls, invalid help files, COM/ActiveX elements, sound and application events, invalid paths, invalid class keys, application path keys or orphan references, invalid fonts and invalid file types or extensions, deleting empty keys, checking invalid CLSID/TypeLib/Interface entries, removing duplicate or copied files, checking shared folders and hidden traces of installed software, fixing or removing corrupted files, scanning you registry for known spyware and checking shell extensions.

These features are all important. However, the most important features that you should insist on are the following:

• Checking invalid shared or known dlls. This is the cause of a lot of bloat with many operating systems.
• Invalid help files. Sometimes, help files get updated or for some reasons they get copied into another location and they are not upgraded, making old files invalid.
• Checking COM and ActiveX elements
• Checking sound and application events. Many sound and application events turn into junk files if the underlying programs has been deleted or upgraded. Sometimes uninstalled programs are not completely wiped out.
• Checking for invalid paths. This is a very common problem. When the program is updated or patched, sometimes the paths change or there were problems with the installation. This feature cleans that up and avoids wrong calls to data.
• Checking invalid class keys. This is a non-negotiable item as well.
• Checking application path keys/orphan references. This is a very common problem wherein a program tries to call a certain location or a certain path and it is not there or the reference has been moved somewhere. This makes the programs perform in a weird manner and eats up unnecessary resources when they do. This is a key feature you must insist on because this is one of the central elements of registry cleaning.
• Checking invalid fonts. Font packages sometimes no longer match the application that they are packages with so this needs to be addressed.
• Checking for invalid files types and extensions. If a program uses only a specific file type and you have uninstalled it, however there are still traces in your system. This clutter might affect your system’s performance and this is a good feature to mop that up.
• Deleting empty registry keys. This usually stems from bad installations or faulty or incomplete uninstalled programs.
• Removing duplicate files. This is a very important feature that would not only save a lot of space but also processing time. And it will also help avoid potential data corruption in the future because too many copies of the same file might lead to a data error or a procession errors

Some optional features you could look for are checking for shared folders, checking for hidden traces of installed software, scanning the registry for spyware, fixing and removing corrupt files and checking shell extensions. These elements are not universally incorporated by registry repair software titles so if you see yourself needing these features, then look for the software that has all these elements. Registry scanning for viruses or spyware is a nice extra but if you have a robust anti spyware or antivirus software, it would most probably do a better job with that specific task.

Does it support Windows 7?

This final consideration is very important because as more and more people upgrade their computers to 64-bit support. Windows 7 compatibility is very important. Make sure that it supports this because there are still a lot of programs that support only XP. Windows XP is going to be phased out while Windows 7 is going to be here for a long time. It is the current standard so make sure that your operating system can run the registry repair software.

The Bottom Line

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is definitely true. But when it comes to registry repair, an ounce of prevention is priceless if the cure that you select involves you manually messing with the system registry. So, when it comes to mopping up old files and application keys and optimizing your system so that it runs faster, leave it to the pros. Just remember to pick the right registry repair software that will meet your needs.