Using a free Windows registry cleaner, is it enough?

The Windows registry is essential for the operation of your computer. The registry is a central database of information needed to configure your system’s general settings and preferences, along with those of the software applications, hardware drivers and devices that run on it. As you continue changing preferences, or installing and uninstalling software and hardware, the registry expands, becoming more complex, and often fragmented, increasing the chance of erroneous, missing, corrupt, or obsolete, entries.

A free registry cleaner will only “clean” your registry, it won’t defrag or optimize it. Fragmentation is also a serious problem because certain processes continually, and incrementally, modify the same values within the registry. This fragmentation can, in some cases, be excessive and eventually registry file sizes may exceed the size limits imposed by Windows. This will then cause any subsequent modifications to the registry (for example when you install a new application, or change the desktop image) to fail.

Therefore we can see that keeping your registry in a good state of repair, and conducting regular maintenance, becomes imperative. However registries are complicated and physically identifying all changes, and then distinguishing between desirable and undesirable ones, is almost impossible. Editing a registry is daunting and rather confusing, even for experienced of computer technicians, simply because there are so many registry entries and detailed knowledge is required to effect appropriate changes.

What makes this process even more risky is that incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. This complexity has driven millions of users to look for specialist registry cleaning software online. For a more detailed assessment of what you should look for in a registry cleaner, check out the article “Registry repair software.”

However, an important point is that downloading a free registry cleaner can be a risky solution which may, in the long-run, cost much more than it saves you. To deliver a valuable product, for free, means that corners must be cut: for example there may be no customer support to help resolve your problems, alternatively the product may not have been thoroughly tested.