Registry Cleaners and Tools

Registry cleaners are designed to keep your Windows registry in excellent working condition so that your system operates at peak performance. There are dozens of different registry cleaners and tools available for use with the registry, some of which are discussed below.

Registry Editor - An effective registry cleaner?
Registry Editor comes standard with your Windows installation and is sometimes used as a registry cleaner even though it does have its limitations. This program will allow you to make typical changes to the registry. While grouped within registry cleaners, cleaning the registry through this method can become quite tedious. You can add and remove keys and values, change values, or export entire branches of the Registry to a REG file and also import this file later. While the Registry Editor isn't considered to be among the more thorough registry cleaners, it is still a powerful tool capable of handling most jobs related to registry repair and management.

Registry Cleaners or Registry Checker?
Registry Checker comes installed with Windows 98 and this is quite a useful registry cleaner for repairing the Windows Registry. Primarily, the Registry Checker can handle the following:

• Backs up and restores the Registry
• Scans and fixes a variety of Registry errors
• Optimizes unused space in the Registry

Unlike most registry cleaners, Windows 98 actually starts Registry Checker every time you boot the system, at which time it backs up the Registry to what are called "CAB files" (compressed archive files). It is also useful for registry cleaning tasks because it also scans the Registry for errors. If it finds any registry errors then Windows 98 will restart the computer in MS-DOS mode and run Registry Checker to repair the file or restore the backup copy of the Registry. While not as thorough as most registry cleaners, it can be enough for light system users.

RegClean as a Registry Cleaner
Reg Clean is actually a freeware utility from Microsoft that helps to repair a number of registry problems that are somewhat common to Microsoft products. While Reg Clean isn't nearly as thorough or useful as some proprietary registry cleaners such as Registry Mechanic, it does serve the needs of millions of low-risk users. Click here to learn more about RegClean and how it compares to other registry cleaners.

Registry Cleaners vs. The Microsoft Windows 98 Resource Kit
Microsoft's Windows 98 Resource Kit comes with three MS-DOS registry cleaners and utilities that aren't available on the standard Windows 98 CD-ROM. There is also a resource kit for Microsoft Windows 95, which provides similar registry cleaning utilities. The program will enable you to compare branches from two different stored registries and then list the differences so that you can locate potential discrepancies and errors. Compared to most registry cleaners, it's a bit awkward for registry repair, but it also provides a number of additional functions. For example, you can query, add, update, delete, copy, save, back up, restore, load, and unload keys and values. You can also search for keys, value names, and value data in the Windows Registry. While not ideal for registry cleaning and repair, it does display the values so that you can work to determine the next course of action.

Registry Mechanic - one of the most popular registry cleaners available
With Registry Mechanic for Windows you can safely clean and repair Windows registry problems with a few simple mouse clicks! With this complete registry cleaner solution you can easily fix and prevent problems with the Windows registry that are often the root of sudden crashes, error messages, and performance degradation.

For some additional insight into Windows registry cleaners, registry repair, and how you can tweak your registry for peak performance, please refer to the following helpful links.

PC Tools Links

• Registry Mechanic

  With Registry Mechanic for Windows® you can safely clean and repair Windows® registry problems with a few simple mouse clicks! Fix problems with the Windows® registry that are a common cause of Windows® crashes and error messages.

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