How to Keep Your Registry Clean | Software Tutorials

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How to Keep Your Registry Clean

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How to Keep Your Registry Clean

If you are like me before buying a product you will download and try lots of demo versions to find the software that suits best your needs. But with all this installing/un-installing your registry becomes cluttered with unneeded information - pointers to files that no longer exist, invalid font references, obsolete Start Menu items, unwanted auto run programs and unneeded shared DLLs.

All this useless information can cause your computer performance to continuously degrade and the incorrect registry entries can lead to constant system crashes and frustrating software lock ups.

By following the simple steps in this guide you'll be able repair any errors in your registry and delete all unwanted entries that clutter it up.

1. Download, install and run Registry First Aid. This program finds and removes invalid entries from the registry. Registry First Aid also scans for links to files and folders which may have been moved from their initial location, finds the new location of these files and folders on your drives and corrects the entries in the registry.

(Registry First Aid Download)

2. On the starting screen first select check the registry for errors option and click the Next button.

Check for errors

3. On the following page you may choose the error types you want the registry to be scanned for. By default all error types are checked, leave it that way.

Make sure that the Automatically create full registry backup option is checked. That way you are sure that even if you mess up something you can easily recover. You may also want to change the location of the backup file.

When ready click the Start button for the registry scan to begin.

Select error types

4. Now a registry backup will start, if you have chosen to make one on the previous step. A screen displaying the backup progress and estimated time remaining will appear.

5. Next the Registry First Aid will scan registry entries for the selected errors. Depending on you processor speed and free RAM, this may take a couple of minutes.

The progress of the scan will be shown at the bottom of the page and the found so far entries will be displayed in a list view to the right.

You can stop the scan at any moment by pressing the Stop button. If you stop the scan before it has finished you'll still be able to fix the found so far registry errors.

6. When the registry scan is complete a list of all found invalid entries will be shown. From the top of the screen you may choose how to navigate the registry entries - by category or by safety level. There are three safety levels:

Safe - these are errors that are safe to correct with the default suggested correction. Such entries are shown with green icon in front in the list.
Caution - these are entries which may cause problems if modified without reviewing. For these entries you must check the suggested corrections. Such entries are shown with yellow icon in front in the list.
Extreme Caution - these entries should be modified only if you are sure how to correct them. Such entries are shown with red icon in front in the list.

By default all safe entries - which can be corrected without any danger - are selected in the list. You may want to review the unselected caution entries and choose appropriate correction for the ones you want (and know how) to fix. You are better to leave entries with red icon in front of them untouched.

When you have made your modifications click on the Next button.

Select corrections

7. Now you will be once again asked if you want to make a backup of the registry before modifying it. You better do so. When you have made your choice click on the Fix It! button to have the selected errors fixed.

Make undo file

Tips

How to remove unwanted traces left after program un-installation?
If you have uninstalled a program and want to be sure that all registry entries belonging to it are also removed you may use the search feature of Registry First Aid. On the start screen select Search the Registry for Unwanted Entries and click the Next button. Now enter as search string the program name, its company name and its executable file name (if you know it) and click Start. When the search finishes you may choose what entries to remove (as previously the entries you can safely remove will have a green icon in front of them).

How to correct more than one entries at a time?
To select more than one items you may click on them holding the Ctrl key or select a block of entries by holding Shift and clicking on the blocks first and then last entry.

To select all items in the entries list right-click to bring up the pop-up menu. In Select for Correction sub-menu you can choose to select or deselect all items or to invert the selection.

When you have selected multiple entries you may choose a correction for all of them from Set Corrections For Highlighted Items to... submenu of the pop-up menu.

How to open a registry entry with regedit.exe?
Select the entry in the list, right click to bring up the pop-up menu and click Open the Registry Key with RegEdit.

How to open folder referenced by entries?
When an registry entry points to a folder you can open an Explorer window at with by selecting the entry and clicking Open the Destination Folder from the context menu.

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