Do Registry Cleaners Really Work to Improve Computer Performance?
Different people have different opinions about whether registry cleaners actually work. From all my testing (and I’ve done a fair bit) registry cleaners definitely have the ability to improve the performance of your computer. I say have the ability because while they are great pieces of software they don’t have the ability to fix every issue that can arise.
I’ve done a lot of testing and research, and even published a detailed registry cleaners comparison. What I found was that, not all registry repair programs worked the same, often the secondary features of the program was just as useful as the actual registry cleaner and programs that use Windows® restore for backup worked the best.
What Can a Registry Cleaner Do?
The Windows® registry is a grouping of files and data known as registry keys. Each key contains information about a particular part of a program installed on your PC. As a home computer user looking at the registry would leave you feeling a bit overwhelmed. If you care to take a peek you can do so by clicking the Start Button, then RUN then type Regedit. This will bring up the manual editor available in Windows® for the registry.
Even professional computer repair technicians use software to diagnose most registry problems since there is just so much information stored in the registry.
A registry cleaner can scan all that information, find out dated files and entries as well as information it doesn’t think should be in there at all. How would you know if you have any of these items in your registry? Frequent errors when using particular programs, missing .DLL or runtime file errors, freezing and crashing or sluggish performance can all be symptoms of corrupt registry information.
Of course, there are other causes of these errors as well such as viruses and adware. If you keep your PC protected with an up to date virus and adware scanner then you can probably count those causes out.
How can it Affect Performance?
The majority of the time after running a registry cleaner some if not all the troubles you were having should improve or be gone entirely. If you find that certain programs or errors are still persistent then chances are they are not being caused by a registry related error.
The next step would be to run your virus and adware scanner, and if that fails possibly backup and re-install the program(s) that are causing you troubles. Only do a re-install as a very last resort when you’re sure no repair utility is capable of fixing the issue.