You may have heard the term 'registry cleaner' before, or maybe this is the first time you've encountered it.
Familiar with the term or not, the majority of computer users do not understand the benefits of registry cleaning programs.
Here we will talk about what registry cleaners do, and more importantly, what they don't do.
To understand what a registry cleaner does, we have to understand the inner workings of the software side of your computer.
Every modern personal computer has something called the "registry".
Without a registry, your computer would simply not run.
Even corrupt registries can permanently cripple a computer.
You can think of a registry as a library.
A good library will have a well cataloged system, so books are easy to find, whereas a poorly cataloged library will create problems for the readers who are looking for books.
There are thousands upon thousands of registry entries which store specific data for the various programs installed on your computer.
These might be passwords, serial codes, authentication keys, or program settings.
The registry must be well organized to prevent any errors from occurring, or else your computer might not be able to locate the data it needs.
If you get "missing shortcut" errors, these are a direct result of a corrupt registry file.
When you click on the shortcut, it is referring to a program which the computer cannot locate in the registry, effectively preventing you from using the program.
This is why you cannot copy most program directories from one computer to another, or one hard disk to another.
To operate correctly, programs must be installed because the registry information is also entered at that time.
Of course, missing shortcut errors are not the only errors that result from a corrupt or inefficient registry.
All sorts of computer errors can be caused by bad registries, and can eventually lead to complete computer failure.
So how do we keep computer registries optimized? We do so with registry cleaners.
Registry cleaners look for the incomplete, missing, or invalid registry keys.
They scan your computer much like spyware scanners do, and will often have similar easy-to-use interfaces.
It is not uncommon to find several thousand registry errors on your first scan.
Registry errors are inevitable, but regularly using a registry cleaner can keep your registry optimized.
An efficient registry will allow your computer to find data faster, resulting in an overall increase in computer processing speed, which is something we all want.
Just to make it clear, registry cleaners do not scan for spyware, adware, or malware.
They cater directly to the computer's registry unless they specify otherwise on their official site.
Beware of free registry cleaners, as they will sometimes install spyware/adware on your computer.
Sadly, there is usually always some price to pay, so don't fall for downloading the 'free' registry cleaners without proper research.