When should I clean my registry?

What are the tell tale signs that show you need to clean your registy?

The registry is your operating system's record of who, what, where, when, and how. In the database, you will find information about the hardware and the software components on your system, as well as your preferences, settings and any other pertinent information needed to run and open any application efficiently.

The operating system registry updates every time you make system changes. But, the registry may become swamped with too much redundant, invalid or corrupt information over time. This corruption slows down your system and impacts it's performance adversely. If you decided to clean your registry now it would make a substantial difference.

Entire system failures have been caused by registry errors.

Sometimes, problems in the registry caused the computer to crash. The most common symptoms of corrupted registries include either the computer or programs starting with errors or not starting at all.

The first sign would be when starting up. if error messages are received during start up, or the booting is not as smooth as it was earlier, then it is an indication of trouble with the registry.

You also start experiencing a box which pops up informing you that you have an error. You will begin to experience error messages referencing DLL, Active X, and Windows Explorer. Errors are also commonly referred to as blue screens of death which was a common occurrence in older Windows versions. You urgently need to clean your registry if your screen occasionally becomes blue in color and full of language that is hard to read.

Another sign is a reduction in speed. Over a period of time, your computer operates sluggishly. A haphazard and bloated registry definitely shows this sign. This occurs because information in the registry is revised and updated every time you make some change to your computer system. Choosing to clean your registry will definitly speed this up.

While opening an application your PC will stop responding or all of a sudden, hang up or simply freeze while in the middle of a program.

You may need to clean your registry if you are having at least one of these problems. It is advisable to check your Windows registry as soon as you can.