How Do I Clean My Registry? My Computer Is Slow Because It Has Registry Corruption

There are three ways to go about cleaning a computer's registry. The first way is not so highly recommended. The second way is definitely not recommended at all. And the third way is the only way to fly when trying to get corruption out of the computer's registry.

The first thing we should do at this point is straighten out our terminology. A computer doesn't have a registry. So, the computer cannot have a corrupt registry. A Windows operating systems use a registry to direct all of its operations. When someone says he/she has a computer with a corrupt registry, he/she is really saying the computer's operating system has a corrupt registry.

Now, let's go back to taking care of the problem of registry corruption. The first and not so highly recommended way to clean registry corruption is by using a free registry cleaner. Yes, there are free registry cleaners available. However, they are anything but free. True, they don't cost anything at first, but they give you a limited amount of cleanings and then you have to pay to continue using them. If you don't, you'll get a pop-up on your screen every time you start your computer and at periodic intervals. This pop up is impossible to get rid of. Actually, you can get rid of it but it is a very difficult process.

The second the second method is one none of us should ever use. What we are talking about here is manually cleaning the registry. There are programs such as the Microsoft program Regedit that allows you to go into your registry, see all its files, and modify them. Doing so is a terrible idea. If you make just one mistake or your computer should happen to freeze or reboot during this operation it may be the last time you'll ever use this computer.

Yes, such things have happened. Even very knowledgeable technicians have made a slight mistake while making an adjustment to their operating system's registry and have paid for it by needing to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the operating system. It is important to note reinstalling your operating system means losing all your data files.

The best way by far and away, to clean your operating system's registry is by using a commercial registry cleaner. From my experience, I find they are very reasonably priced. Most of them seem to be at least fairly user-friendly, and I have never seen a commercial registry cleaner ruin an operating system.

The bottom line is, if you have absolutely no funds right now by all means use a free registry cleaner. Just remember there is a downside to using them. Also, if you have an old junkie computer and you'd like to experiment fooling around in the registry manually, go ahead. However, make sure there are no important files on this computer because you may lose all your files. It wouldn't be wise to experiment this way on a computer that is at all meaningful to you.