Why Microsoft Registry Repair Must Still be Part of Your Regular Routine

The need to carry out a Microsoft registry repair is going to be with us for some time, despite the best efforts of Microsoft’s programmers (or perhaps because of them!).

A corrupt registry can cause all sorts of computer errors; undertaking a manual register clean is a job for experts only. And you’re likely to have registry problems for a while yet, because the Microsoft Windows registry is not the neatest bit of coding the world has ever seen.

In fact, one expert (Bob Rankin) described it as “a hideously complex ball of string, rubber bands, duct tape and bailing wire”. (You can read the rest of his article here )

A little over the top, maybe, but you get the point.

So, what is the registry, and why is it important?

Well, the registry is a database that Windows uses to keep track of the way in which the PC operating system, your hardware and your software interact.

It is absolutely critical to the successful working of your computer; if the registry goes wrong, your computer goes wrong.

Unfortunately, over time the registry collects all sorts of junk as you surf the Web, download, install and remove programs, and generally use the machine as normal. The registry becomes bloated, orphaned entries multiply and you start having problems.

In extreme cases, your computer will die altogether and only a complete reinstall will get your machine working again.

No one wants to get to that stage, and many experts believe you should clean the registry once a month.

So that’s why most of us find that a Microsoft registry repair has be part of a regular maintenance program.

Of course, the problem is not always in the registry, but if you experience some or all of the following Windows errors:

• A sluggish system and a slower startup
• Your system complains about missing DLLs
• It freezes or even crashes
• You keep getting error messages such as “Invalid Registry Key” or “Cannot locate driver”

You may have a registry problem – but the good news is that a registry repair can be a relatively simply 3-step process.

If you suspect you need a registry fix, here’s what you need to do:

Step 1. Make sure the Registry is the problem

Close all open programs

Run a complete defrag of the hard drive.

Run a virus checker, an adware checker and a spyware checker to make sure you don’t have any unwanted visitors lurking in your system.

If none of these checks fix the problem, then move on to step 2.

Step 2. Make a Windows registry backup

This could be the shortest step – or it could be one of the longer ones, depending on your Operating system.

If you have one of the earlier operating systems (Windows 95, Windows 98, ME, Win2000 and Win2003) go the Microsoft site, find the correct tutorial, and back up your system. Unfortunately, it’s a lot more complicated than if you have a more modern operating system.

(Of course, if you have the right registry cleaner you can have the system backed up automatically).

Finally, if you have WinXP or Vista, you can create a system restore point.

For WinXP -

Go to Start > Accessories > System Tools> System Restore.

Select “Create a Restore Point”, follow the prompts and create the restore point.

For Vista –

Go to Start > Control Panel > System > System Protection.

Click “Next”, choose the correct hard drive, click the “Create” button and then follow the prompts until you’re done.

For all these operating systems except Vista, if you want an even greater level of protection, you could use the Emergency Recovery Utility NT (ERUNT), an excellent free utility available from a number of sites. Just Google ERUNT.

Unfortunately, you can’t use ERUNT for Vista; there have been reports of problems when using this utility with Vista.

Check to see if your registry cleaner makes a backup of the registry before starting work. If it does, then your registry repair can be a two-step process and you can go on to Step 3.

Step 3. Repair the registry

Here’s where you must decide whether to repair the registry by hand, or use specialized software to do the job.

The registry files consists of a number of “hives”. Microsoft's definition of a hive is: “a hive is a logical group of keys, subkeys, and values in the registry that has a set of supporting files containing backups of its data”.

The first registry had only one hive, called HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, that stored relatively little data.

Nowadays the registry has many more hives that rejoice in such user-friendly names as:

“HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESAM, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESecurity, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftware, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystem, HKEY_USERSDEFAULT”.

If all this is old hat to you, go ahead and have fun with Regedit. But if it’s not, and this information about hives is new to you, then I suggest it is just the sort of territory you want to stay out of.

Instead, start your registry cleaner and in a very short while the program will scan your system, find the problems are, ask permission to fix them, and do so once you give it permission to carry on.

Here is a link to Registry Mechanic, our recommended Windows registry cleaner.

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