If you own a computer with Microsoft Windows, you may or may not be familiar with the registry it contains. Many also believe the registry is to blame for many computer issues that may occur.
We’re going to show you how to attempt repairing a registry, but first let’s be sure you fully understand the situation at hand.
What is a Windows Registry?
The Windows Registry is a database that holds all configuration settings that are stored on your Windows system. The registry literally holds all information from each and every program, user preference, operation system configurations and more. These settings may vary from user to user and from stage to stage of a program. These settings and values are kept in the registry. An average user won’t mess with the registry as it can be very confusing.
Many sensitive operations of programs and systems depend on registry values and bad or missing values can totally knock a computer out of service.
What is a registry error?
Unfortunately, if you do have an error chances are you won’t know if it’s specifically a registry error. These can be caused by a number of things, including viruses and spyware.
The most common types of registry errors include the “blue screen of death,” .dll errors and registry start-up errors. It seems to be when an item is missing from start-up in the registry (or not configured correctly) a registry error will occur.
You may even notice when plugging computer problems into Google or Yahoo!, frequent answers of “repairing the registry” will be most common. Be sure to evaluate the issue before declaring it a registry error.
What programs can I use to repair a registry error?
The options are basically endless. There are so many registry repair programs out there; however some do more harm than good. From experience, two programs that you should stay away from are Regcure and Registry Mechanic. Regcure has been known to restore Windows to previous versions (Vista back to Windows 2000) and Registry Mechanic was criticized harshly by PC World.
One program recommended is Ccleaner. It is free and receives high marks.
What is the most effective way to repair an error?
It’s tough to even recognize a registry error, so be sure to take necessary steps to declare an error before fixing one. As many have found, fixing a registry problem can cause a lot more problems than you were trying to fix. If you’re at a loss, be sure to back up all files before completing a registry repair.
Since you may not be 100% sure that your computer issue is a registry one, using a general and intelligent tool is the best way to go. Find a program that can correct Windows errors and will work for all Windows operating systems.
Reimage is a powerful program that won’t just mess with your registry, but it will examine and fix all Windows operation system issues. From experience, Reimage is the way to go when it comes to the best solution to windows problems and registry repair.
