Behind the Windows Registry
Structure of the Windows Registry
Just like our brain controls our body, your Windows system is controlled by the registry. All hardware and software configuration information, user preferences, and system setup information is stored in the registry.
The registry has a tree-like hierarchal structure, which looks quite similar to the folder structure as viewed in Windows Explorer. To view the registry tree, open the Start menu, select Run, type regedit and select OK. This is will open the Registry Editor window. When the window opens, you will see that the basic registry structure comprises five main keys—HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_USERS, AND HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG. These keys are called the root keys and each has its own subtree containing multiple keys and subkeys, each comprising zero or more values.
Causes of Registry Errors
When you work on your PC, information is continuously added, removed, and accessed from the registry. In the process, a large amount of outdated and invalid data creeps into the registry. This unwanted information increases the registry size making it unstable. An unstable registry easily gets corrupted and causes Windows freeze up problems and generates frequent Windows errors. Some of the common causes of registry errors are:
- Too many software programs installed on your system.
- Incorrect program removal methods.
- System crashes.
- Orphan and empty keys left behind by removed software programs.
- Faulty program installations.
Tools to Fix the Windows Registry
In order to fix registry errors and optimize the performance of your PC, you may seek the help of registry cleaners. These tools are user-friendly and usually have a graphical interface that makes them quite simple to use. Many computer users, including computer professionals rely on registry cleaners to ensure optimal performance of their computers.
There are many advantages of using registry cleaners to perform registry maintenance.
An efficient and advanced registry cleaner uses complex algorithms to perform a thorough and deep scan of your registry and identify all errors within it. The scan enables you to identify errors related to many different entities on your system, such as system hardware, software programs, DLLs, Drivers, and other system related errors.
After the scan is complete you can either choose the automatic repair option to allow your registry cleaner tool to automatically repair all the errors, or you can perform selective repair by going through all detected errors and selecting the ones you want to repair. Performing selective cleaning enables you to ensure that you do not delete any important entry from the registry during the repair process.
The tool also offers easy registry backup and restore options. Using these options you can maintain regular registry backups. Experts recommend that users make registry backups before making any significant changes in system configuration, before installing a large application, before making direct edits to the registry, and before performing any registry maintenance activity including registry repair using a registry cleaner tool. In fact, many good registry cleaner tools are designed to back up your registry before they perform any changes to the registry. This way, if you are not happy with the registry repair process, you can just undo your changes and restore your registry to its original state.
Registry tools also enable you to defrag the registry. Defragging helps make registry files contiguous and enables you to compress the registry to make it easily accessible to applications. It is recommended that you defrag the registry after every registry scan and repair activity because by doing this, you can remove any registry holes or empty registry keys left behind by the keys removed during the repair process.