Free Registry Fix

For Windows XP and Windows Vista users, the computer's registry is the arguably most important, vulnerable, and intimidating file or subsystem. If your registry becomes corrupt, the best-case scenario is that your PC will become sluggish and non responsive. The worst-case scenario is that you will be greeted with an error message or blue screen of death and you will have a very fancy paper weight.

This guide is designed to give you some tools that can help you clean, fix, and otherwise rescue your computer's registry. I have three tools that I personally use, and I will rank them from superior to acceptable. While there are many tools that cost money, there are freeware products that equally or even out-perform the licensed products.

Warning: the registry of a Windows XP or Windows Vista PC is very important. You should never do anything with the registry without first making a back-up of it first. If you find anything wrong after you perform a registry cleaning, restore your backup immediately. Also, all of these programs should be ran with administrator rights or privileges. Failing to do so may cause complications.

What is the registry?

Simply put, your registry is a large directory or database that stores all of your important settings and options for your computer, each of the users, and all of the hardware and software that is installed.

Every time a piece of software or hardware is installed, registry entries or keys are generated. Many programs also keep system and user options set in the registry. Over time, the registry can become quite large. In fact, its only limitation is the physical hard drive and memory space.

Why does the registry need cleaning or fixing?

When you uninstall software or hardware, the install programs are supposed to remove all of their generated registry keys. This doesn't always happen. Over time, your registry can collect hundreds if not thousands of orphaned settings and keys.

Your registry is loaded into active memory when your computer boots up. If your registry is very large, it consumes valuable resources. If it is large due to missing and orphaned keys, you are simply wasting system performance.

What tools do you use to fix the registry?

Name: ToniArts EasyCleaner
Ranking: Superior
Download link

I have been using EasyCleaner for many years. Incidentally, it does much more than just clean and fix registries. It also can uninstall programs, clear histories, remove unnecessary files, and manage start-up programs.

One feature I love about EasyCleaner, is that it installs directly to a thumb drive or USB drive. This allows you to have the software with you at all times. You can even pop over to your friend's or family and give their computer a tweak. Once you download the software, choose to run it. When you install it, you can choose to install directly to your hard drive or to a USB drive. The subtext here is that EasyCleaner does not add to your registry size. It installs no registry keys. I don't want my registry cleaner making my registry worse.

EasyCleaner does allow you to back-up your registry before fixing it; make sure you do this. All you need to do is load the program, and choose the registry tab. Once the registry module is loaded, simply click find. The program will scrub your registry looking for orphaned and unnecessary keys. When it is done searching, you can choose to delete some of the bad keys, or all of them. EasyCleaner is very intelligent about not removing necessary keys; I have never had a problem with what it does. In fact, when using EasyCleaner, I have never had to use the backup I made.

Because it is such an effective, free, portable application, it is rated superior. I recommend it. Fixing your registry is no problem with EasyCleaner.

Name: CCleaner
Ranking: Average
Download Link

CCleaner is a very fine program, and I have used it on both my Virtual PC on my Macbook, as well as on a number of Windows PC's. Like EasyCleaner, it does more than just clean and fix a registry. I clears out browser caches, uninstalls programs, and various windows temp and log files. It is also free (donations are accepted).

The drawback of CCleaner is that I could not install it on a thumb drive or USB drive. It does install nicely and easily on your PC. Simply download the file install file and choose to run it. It will automatically install on your hard drive, create a program group, and icons.

When you run CCleaner, the first thing you should do is create a registry backup. Then, on the left hand of the screen, there will be a registry button. When you press it, you will have the option to scan for issues. You can then choose to fix the issues. EasyCleaner consistently found more problem keys than CCleaner, but CCleaner did quite well. As with EasyCleaner, I have never had to restore a back-up registry because a problem.

CCleaner does quite well, but I don't like the fact that I need to run it from my PC. A registry cleaning application should not make any registry entries.

Name: Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
Ranking: Below Average
Download Link

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner does its job well, but that is all that it does. It does not offer the wide range of features of either CCleaner or EasyCleaner. If all you are looking to do is fix your registry, then Eusing might be what you are looking for.

Simply download the program and choose to install it on your computer. Like CCleaner, Eusing Free Registry Cleaner needs to install locally. I could not get it to work from a thumb drive or USB drive. The program will create a program group and icons automatically.

When you run Eusing Free Registry Cleaner, make sure you back-up (are you seeing a theme here?). The interface is exceedingly simply and straight forward. The tasks of registry scanning, registry repairing and restoring your registry are down the side. You have to make choices as to what types of files or keys you are wishing to clean. This can be confusing for new users, especially if you simply want to clean your registry. The one button approach that CCleaner and EasyCleaner offer are much more effective for new registry cleaners.

Because it offers limited features and can be confusing for newbies, Eusing rates below average.