What is the Windows Registry? Well as the name suggests, it is a critical registry of programs and settings that are stored on your computer. You can find the registry by running regedit from a command prompt (Start -> Run -> type regedit -> OK). Now be careful! Do not make any changes. Just back out slowly.Indeed changes made manually in the registry by people not knowing exactly what they are doing are the source of many a computer error. Even experts fear to tread into the registry and that is why specialist software exists to repair registry errors.

So why is it so important? Well, whenever you install software, hardware or make configuration changes in the Control Panel, various settings are stored in the registry. These settings are crucial to the smooth running of your PC. Manually amending these settings can leave your registry in an inconsistent state and can lead to computer malfunctions. The problem however is that regular registry maintenance is needed as it can become cluttered with superfluous entries and settings that are no longer required or have become corrupt. This tends to happen as software or hardware is added to your PC and for various other reasons such as if programs are uninstalled incorrectly. The resulting errors can be the cause of:

• screen freezes
• crashes
• slow computer startup and shutdown
• generally poor performance.

Give Your PC a Checkup In short, all computers could do with a check up every now and then. As mentioned above, registry repair software exists that have been specifically designed to operate on the registry by hunting down errors and extricating them. You would do well to run registry scans on your PC regularly.

Conclusion If you want to repair your system registry, manual changes are not recommended as you may end up with more errors than you started off with! You are extremely unlikely to find all the registry errors anyway. A software solution geared up to the task at hand will fix all errors and leave your PC in tip-tip condition.