how to clean your registry manually

How to clean your registry manually

If you're a fairly tech savvy PC user, chances are that you already know what the Windows registry is and what it does.

You probably also know that it's important to clean your registry from time to time to ensure that your computer continues to provide you with the best possible performance.

There are a lot of registry cleaner programs out there, but if you'd rather not leave your registry in the hands of anyone but yourself or you'd just like to learn a little more about the nuts and bolts of your operating system, you might be interested in learning how to clean your registry manually.

Keep reading for a little more information on this page on how to take the DIY route (Do It Yourself) to manually clean your registry.

How to Clean Your Registry Manually - Not for Dummies

There's no point in sugarcoating it: cleaning your registry is complex and it can take a significant amount of time - and there are a lot of things that can go wrong if you don't know what you're doing. This database stores critical information about every file on your computer and it's all too easy to damage your system accidentally.

To begin, start up the built-in registry cleaner tool (it's called RegEdit.exe, you can find it in your C: Windows folder, start it from the "Run" option in your Start menu or from a command prompt window.

Before you do anything else, back up your registry by going to File and then Export. If something goes wrong, you'll be able to restore your registry from this backup. Don't neglect to do this, since removing the wrong registry entries can make your system unusable.

Once you've backed up your registry, you can navigate through the registry and remove entries for any programs you no longer have installed. There are a lot of files in here, so take your time and go one entry at a time to make sure you don't miss anything - and above all, be careful!