Slow computer? Clean, repair your registry with Registry Defender!

If the Registry is severely damaged, access to hardware and software may be drastically limited, and the system may not even boot. Even in a case of a minor problem, an application may not work as it was designed, or may perform erratically.

The Registry is protected while it is running, so it is not possible to copy, delete, or change the contents, except through a "certified" program (installation programs, registry editing tools, and security changes through User Manager for Domains and the Explorer). Because of this protection, the Registry is quite secure--but it is not bulletproof. Problems can and do occur, and you need to be prepared to recognize them so you can fix them.

• "My computer and Internet are very slow suddenly."
• "I can not remove these programs from my computer."
• "It worked yesterday, but it won't work today."
• "It worked until I added this software/hardware, and now I can't use it."
• "My system doesn't work the way it used to."
• "When I try to shut down the computer, it just keeps beeping and beeping."
• "My computer won't start up."
• "Eeeeeek! It's the dreaded Blue Screen of Death!"

• - Applications and drivers are added to the system
• - Hardware changes or upgradation
• - Regular adding and removing programs
• - Users make changes to the Registry

Adding and removing programs account for the majority of errors found in the Registry. Most users add between six and seven applications, and add or upgrade drivers, applications etc. four or five times per month. Then there are applications which are added to your computer without your information through the Internet. During initial installation and setup, the numbers are even greater.

Here are the most common reasons that applications cause problems with the Registry:

Poorly written application (bugs) - There are no applications without bugs or errors. In the best case, the errors that are there are minor, esoteric problems that you may never see, which were left alone because of time and money constraints. To a programmer, a problem may be minor, but it becomes a major problem to you if it crashes your system.

Driver incompatibility - The open architecture of the PC world creates significant risk because any type of eclectic combination of parts and pieces is possible. Testing all combinations and ensuring the compatibility of all the devices is impossible. The other challenge arises when the driver for wrong Operating System is used (like Windows 98 driver in Windows XP).

Incorrect entries added to the Registry by the application during installation - During installation, most applications use a file called SETUP.INF for detailed information about what disks are required, which directories should be created, where to copy files, and Registry entries that need to be made to make the application work correctly. If there is a mistake in the SETUP.INF file, the change will still be made, and there may be serious problems.

Incorrect associations set between applications and file types by an application - When an application is installed, default document types are recorded in the Registry. A user can then double-click to start the application and load the document. Many times, other applications use the same extension. For example, the last graphics program loaded will be the one launched when a TIF graphic is activated based on the settings in the Registry. Occasionally, completely different, non-compatible applications will use the same extensions on their document files, and the document-loading shortcut won't work.

Errors created during the uninstall process - Whether you remove applications through Add/Remove programs in the Control Panel, through a proprietary uninstall feature of the application, or through a third-party utility, you run a risk of damaging the Registry. Besides taking out the program, auxiliary, and data files, an uninstall routine may attempt to remove Registry entries as well. It may inadvertently remove required entries for other applications because it is nearly impossible for the system to know all the entries accessed by an application.

Errors in fonts - When the font ID in the Registry gets corrupted, you will see a different font than the one listed in the application. It can be annoying and may require you to remove some or all of your fonts and replace them. It mostly happens when user installs and removes fonts frequently.

Unfortunately, you may find out about these problems too late, after you have lost time, money, and/or data. Also, you are almost powerless to truly solve them, because someone else wrote the program, and most people do not have the expertise required to change the application itself. The best you can do as an administrator is to repair the Registry Using Registry Repair tools like Registry Defender.

If the computer system itself has a problem, the Registry can become corrupted. Usually, these errors can be prevented with proper system care and management.

Virus - Viruses are an insidious attempt to affect our systems by changing the nature of files and in whole corrupting the registry.

Electrical surges, spikes, or brownouts - Nearly all power problems can be easily avoided with good surge protectors and UPS devices (uninterruptible power supplies).

Disk problems - Most of the time you will replace hard disks because of capacity limitations far sooner than you would because of hardware failure. If the whole hard drive fails, of course, you will have to restore your Registry from a backup. The other concern is the failure of individual sectors or clusters on the drive. Although it is highly unlikely with today's systems, a fault in the surface of the drive media may make parts of the disk unreadable, including those where the Registry files are located. Regular maintenance is critical, and a good backup is vital.

Easiest way to take care of errors would be to regularly use tools like Registry Defender.

When people manually edit the Registry, they are prone to make errors because of the complexity of the data, and the errors may be significant enough to cause the system to quit working.

Copying other Registries is a very serious mistake many users make. Just because it works on the other machine doesn't mean it will automatically work on this one. Much of what is in the Registry is specific to the individual system, even if the hardware is the same. Copying the files that make up the Registry to another system will not work. Characteristically, if another system's Registry is used, most of the hardware will not work, and user and security issues may make the data and application information inaccessible.

The easiest and best way to avoid and fix registry errors is regular use of tools for registry repair. Tools like Registry Defender are available for free over the Internet.

Let's look at ways to determine the most appropriate solution to registry failure.

Registry Defender is a one stop tool to scan, identify and fix the problems and errors in your windows registry. The extensive research by the development team of TopPCTools ensures that Registry Defender scans, identifies and fixes all the errors in the system registry. The registry library has been divided in ten basic parts for the purpose of cleaning. The software scans the complete registry (or a part thereof depending on user choice) and presents a list of errors, if any, along with their description.

Much of the Windows Registry is stored in RAM. If that information gets corrupted, it must be re-read in order to get correct information. When you restart the system, the Registry pulls the data off the hard drive into RAM where it will be used by the system.

You should make it a rule that once an application crashes though system if recovers from that crash it is still unstable. Restart soonest possible to prevent further crashes and damage to data. If a particular program crashes too often there are chances of a bug in that program.

If a device is acting inconsistently, the Registry settings that control the device may be corrupted. In order to reset the Registry, you could remove and reinstall the drivers, or you could ask Windows 95 to redetect them. Many times, when a device is not working correctly, there will be a notification in the Device Manager i.e. with exclamation mark before that device.

NOTE: Obviously, if the device never worked, there can be other problems. But if the device was working, and now it is not, the Registry needs to be restored.

To redetect an item, select Add New Hardware in the Control Panel. The first question asked is "Do you want Windows to search for your new hardware?". If you choose Yes, Windows will do an exhaustive search for "new" devices.

Any device that is incorrectly configured, or whose driver is not found, will be detected and displayed.

Remove the old device and let Windows use the new one.

Depending on how you backed up the Registry, you can use many options to restore it. One is to use 3rd party programs to create a backup and restore point for your system registry.

Depending on the program, you may be given options regarding overwriting files that are newer, overwriting files that have not changed, and selecting individual files and file types that should not be overwritten.

The last resort is to reinstall the Windows. Usually, it only takes about a day or so to reinstall just about anything. If you reinstall it over the current files, much of the configuration information would stay the same.

Actually finding the cause and fixing it may take even longer than reinstallation, which is why reinstallation is a fairly common "solution" used by technical support. The main question is, "Do you want to find out what went wrong, or do you just want to make it work?" The answer to that may very well depend on who is asking the question, the frequency of the problem, and the availability of the software for reinstallation.

TIP: In most circumstances, you would remove drivers in the Control Panel. When you remove a driver in the Control Panel to reinstall it, do not click OK and exit between the processes of deleting the driver and reinstalling it. If you do, you will need to restart the system and reload the drivers from disk. If you simply take out the old driver and then add it back immediately (without leaving the dialog box), Windows 95 will reconfigure the settings and reload the information into the Registry without having to reinstall the driver.

There are several tools that allow you to restore the Registry in case of a failure. Your data will generally be safe, when you use such tools. A popular free trial based tool for recovery from such failures, or more importantly to prevent them, is Registry Defender.

The best way to feel confident about recovering your system Registry is to have good backups.