Files & Computers

Myths about proper PC maintenance abound on web forums. One of such is a misleading statement that a healthy computer needs a regular registry clean up. While being partially true, it often leads to wrong conclusions – sometimes made even by experienced IT professionals.

The controversy lies in the term "registry cleaner" itself. Supposedly such software cleans out unnecessary items from the registry, making it compact and faster to response to Windows queries. However, how does registry cleaner know which parts of the system registry are not necessary?

It is evident that programmers design the software to follow certain algorithms, which are same for all computers the software runs on. However, it is next to impossible to find two computers with identical registry configuration. Different users use computers differently, and with the time each registry is getting still more unique. Thus, a standardized approach to registry clean up is not perfect, to say the least.

This is where the big problem hides – we never know how a registry repair tool would affect the system stability and responsiveness. We can only count on programmers' skills and pray for the best each time leaving a powerful software face-to-face with the registry. Since it is a most sensitive integral part of Windows operating system, it is easy to foresee what consequences may follow such brutal force attack on the registry configuration which, in the eyes of the software engine, should be leveled to stick to some average norm.

Such consequences may shock you, but lots of people experience them daily after running various registry cleaners. From corrupt user's settings to blocked context menu, from misplaced file extensions to Windows unable to boot into desktop – this is a heavy price for doing a simple registry cleanup. In fact, if you look on the web for users feedback on any of the numerous registry cleaners, you'll be unpleasantly surprised by the number of distresses and disappointed people who expected to have their computer problems solved, but instead got into new, still worse troubles.

There's nothing strange in such experience, though. Not all problems that seem to be caused by errors in the registry, really come from there. Instable system and all kinds of error pop-ups may come from bad drivers, hardware incompatibility, malware intrusion, and software inconsistencies. These are cases when most intelligent registry cleaners cannot correct the cause of the system working slow.

However, your computer experiences RUNDLL or Explorer errors or unexpected program shutdowns, there's a good chance that a registry cleaner will be able to resolve the issues.
To learn more about the situations when a good yet free registry cleaner can help to solve your computer troubles, and which software is best at it, visit the link in my resource box below.

Find out about possible danger of using a free registry cleaner tool and when it can be really a timesaver.
Kelly Wright is a PC management consultant who writes articles about Windows maintenance and web security.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Free Registry Cleaners and Associated Risks