Keeping your registry clean and free from errors manually is critical for the smooth operation of any computer system. However, it is a difficult task even to the most experienced of computer users.

The first step to keeping your registry free of errors is understanding what your Windows Registry is. The Windows registry is a central database of information needed to configure your computer system for general settings and preferences, software applications, and hardware drivers and devices. Problems with your registry will lead to application and operating system seizures and crashes.

As you continue changing preferences, installing and uninstalling software and hardware, the registry grows and becomes more complex. In addition, the chances of errors and missing, obsolete or corrupt entries increases exponentially. Registry is also a serious problem and usually occurs because certain processes continually and incrementally modify the same values within the registry. This fragmentation, in certain cases, may be excessive and eventually registry file sizes may exceed the Registry Size Limits imposed by Windows. This will cause any subsequent modifications to the registry to fail with resultant errors, slowdowns and crashes.

Keeping your registry in a good state of repair and conducting regular maintenance therefore becomes imperative because the registry contains important data that is used all the time during system operation. (for more details, read Understanding the Windows Registry)

Registries are complicated and physically keeping track of all the changes is almost impossible. The task is daunting and rather confusing simply because there are so many registry entries and detailed knowledge is required to effect any changes and not cause damage. Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on your computer.

This is where Registry Repair Software comes in! Using Registry Booster regularly (at least once or twice a month depending upon your computer usage) will help you keep your registry clean and in excellent state of repair.

If you keep your registry clean of problems, conflicts and errors, then you will dramatically improve system performance. Registry Booster allows you to maintain a clean registry regularly and automatically. In this respect, three types of scans are available:

Complete Scans

Complete scans are recommended upon purchase of Registry Booster and at least once a month when you do not perform partial scans.

To run a complete scan, start Registry Booster and click on the Registry Scan Tab to access the Registry Scan Screen.

Make sure that the check box next to the Complete Registry Scan is ticked:

Clicking the Start Scan Button in the System Overview Screen will immediately start the scanning engine of Registry Booster.

Once the scan results appear, click on the Create Backup Button:

Always create a backup before repairing your registry.

After your backup is complete, click on the Repair Registry Button:

For more details on Complete Scans, read What to Scan and Complete Registry Scans.

Partial Scans

Partial scans may be safely conducted to enhance your regular and monthly complete scans. The reasons for running partial scans may be various and relate to the particular situation at hand. For example, after uninstalling software you may want to ensure that all references in your Registry to this software have been removed.

Start Registry Booster and click on the Registry Scan tab.

Remove the options you do not want to have scanned automatically.

The following choices are available

ActiveX, OLE and COM Objects: Registry Booster performs complete heuristic analysis of ActiveX, OLE and COM sections as they are interlinked and interdependent.
User Software Settings: Registry Booster will search for the software settings of the currently logged user for invalid references.
System Software Settings: Registry Booster will search for all the system software settings for all users. Most Windows items are hidden within this section.
Shared DLLs Section: Registry Booster analyses your registry to detect entries that refer to shared control files or Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) that are not or were never on your hard drive.
System Drivers: Device Drivers are important software files that Windows loads into memory when it starts up to support specific hardware devices like printers. Registry Booster analyses and detects for any such errors arising.
File Extensions: Registry Booster fixes all the file extensions that are no longer associated with applications installed on your computer system.
Invalid File Associations: Registry Booster fixes all invalid file associations.
Application Paths: Registry Booster detects and repairs invalid or missing application path references that keep cluttering the registry.
Fonts Section: Windows store each reference to a font in the registry. Registry Booster cleans any references to missing or inexisting fonts.
Startup Sections: Registry Booster analyses the Windows Registry to repair missing references to processes that Windows has been configured to start up but are missing or inexisting.
Sound and App Events: Registry Booster repairs references to sounds and other events that are missing or inexisting.
Uninstall Sections: Registry Booster will report and repair all errors relating to incorrectly uninstalled programs or programs with problems during removal.
Help Section: All applications following Microsoft standards must register their help files to the Windows Registry. Registry Booster looks for missing, erroneous or orphaned links.

In our example of checking for invalid, missing, and orphaned entries and references after uninstalling a particular program, a partial scan would look as follows:

To repair your registry based on the above settings, click the Start Scan button and follow the same procedure as the Complete Registry Scan.

The main advantages of partial scans relate to the decreased amount of time required to scan and repair your registry and preventive maintenance. In the latter respect, performing such partial scans will keep your registry size and integrity in check regularly.

To learn more about Partial Scans, read What to Scan and Partial Scans.

Defrags

Registry Booster is designed to reorganize the fragmented data within your registry so that your computer runs more efficiently. By defragging your registry regularly, Registry Booster will create a more linear structure maximising application response times and registry access times, saving memory (smaller registries consume less memory), and enhanced boot-up times. This results in improved system performance and decreases the probability of registry corruption.

Start Registry Booster and click on the Defrag Registry Button in the Systems Overview Screen;

Once complete, Registry Booster will ask you to reboot your system to ensure that the affected changes take place.

To ensure the best results, please close all applications before you run your defrag.

During the defrag, your system may appear sluggish and to slow down depending on computer memory and the size of your registry. This normal - do not attempt to stop the defrag.

What's Next?

Configuring Registry Booster