by : Cynthia Blake

Conducting a Windows registry repair is easy thanks to special software called registry cleaners. Any mention of the registry tends to strike fear into the hearts of computer savvy people, but why?

The reason is that the registry is extremely important to the proper functioning of the Windows operating system. It stores all the crucial preference and settings files that are necessary for Windows to run the software and hardware on your PC. As you use your computer, Windows constantly reads from the registry. If it becomes cluttered with obsolete and "orphaned" files, then your computer will begin to get bogged down, run slower, and tend to freeze and crash.

How To Repair The Windows Registry

The first step is to make a hard backup of your entire registry. This is much easier than it sounds! Here are some simple steps:

• Go to Start - Run
  
• Type in "regedit"
  
• This opens the Windows registry editor.
  
• Click File - Export
  
• Chose a safe place for the registry backup
  
• Name the file (after the date is a good choice)
  
• Click Save
  

That's all there is to it! Now you have a hard copy of your old registry just in case something goes awry. Most good registry cleaners are very safe, so you shouldn't have a problem, but making a backup is an important precaution when performing any sort of PC maintenance.

Choose A Good Registry Cleaner

The next step in repairing your registry files is to choose a good registry cleaner. Most of these software programs aren't that great, so it's important to do some research. A good program will allow you to backup and restore files that you've deleted, as well as be easy to run and have a fast and thorough scan.

The Windows registry is an extremely important part of your computer, and you'll want to use the best software you can get your hands on when working on it.