Registry Editor tool comes with your Windows and you can use it to modify the registry. This utility is present in all the installments of Windows, including Windows 7 – it is essential for registry manipulation. This app does not have a desktop shortcut and it cannot be found in Start group of programs. The only way you can activate it is by typing “regedit” in search field (under Start button).
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Registry Editor interface is rather simple and it is similar to Windows Explorer look. On the left pane you have hives and keys. You can drill down to sub-keys (similar to sub-folder structure). On the right side you can see registry data for key that is selected on the left pane. This data can be values, configuration data, etc.
Modifying Keys and Registry Data Values
On the left pane of registry editor, is a directory-like structure tree representing subkeys. Once you find the subkey you want to change, highlight it on the left pane, and modify corresponding value on the right pane. But before you go and start changing and tweaking registry values/keys, make sure you know what you are doing. Once the value is changed, there is no going back unless you have created registry back-up.
You can add new values to subkeys by bring up the menu (right click). Select New Value and type in the Name and corresponding value, in Edit Value (or String) window. Similarly, if you want to add new subkey, bring up the menu with right-click (left pane) and select “New Key”. Just type in the key name and press Enter.
To remove a registry key or value, select the appropriate key/value and use “delete” button. Think twice before deleting, since this operation cannot be un-done.
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Just like the case is with previous Windows versions, Windows 7 registry system can be tuned up to maximize operating system performance. Registry gets updated whenever you make a configuration change, such as installing a new software or hardware, personalizing the desktop with new wallpaper, etc. Registry works in background for all the system functions and commands.
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Registry is massive and to make its operation more effective it is categorized in five sections, aka hives. 1) Classes Root – this hive contains data on all the installed software and file associations. 2) Current User – User’s customization of the computer system are stored here. 3) Local Machine – Hardware and system data. 4) Users – this is a sub-hive of current user section. 5) Current Configuration – System information and set up data that is loaded each time your PC boots up.
These main categories are further sub-divided. The particular registry values are stored as registry keys and data. Registry path is a directory line consisting of folders and sub-folders.
Even though you generally don’t see them, these Registry values and keys can be modified manually. The main purpose of registry is to operate in background and coordinate system functions. Windows does give you option to access registry manually and make changes as you see fit. For example, by changing specific setting you can accelerate your Windows 7. Before you make any modifications to it, make sure you back up entire registry. This way, if you make a mistake you can always restore it to previous/original settings.
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March 10, 2010 ( Comments Off )
PC users who are unhappy with certain aspects of Windows and its performance often resort to registry tweaking. The main goal is often to modify default Windows behaviour and settings to better suit user needs. Tweaking is a general term that refers to any manual changing of the registry. In practical sense there a many, many kinds of tweaks depending on what values you are changing and what you are trying to accomplish.
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Before you start editing the registry, make sure you create a backup of the same. If you are editing specific registry keys, create back up of those as well. Make sure you have a system restore point just in case things go the wrong way. If you have read about specific tweaks on the internet and you want to implement them, ensure that the source of the information is reliable and trustworthy. And if you are planning to implement a large number of tweaks, don’t do everything in one go. Make a couple of tweaks, reboot (for tweaks to take effect) and if everything is fine, proceed with implementing a couple of more, and so on.
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Manual Tweaking vs. Tweaking Utilities
For a beginner computer user there are lot of good resources on how to do specific tweaks. As long as you know what your goal is (e.g. better computer performance, improve the internet connections) you can accomplish it. This said, it is also normal that an average PC user, who does not know much about the technical aspects, is nervous about modifying registry. And this is a valid fear. If you make a wrong change you can incapacitate the whole machine, damage critical files, brake software applications, or even break connections with peripheral devices.
The good alternative to manual tweaking is to use Registry tweaking tool. There are many on the market, some are free, and others you have to purchase. Utilities such as Magic Tweak, WinBubble and Ultimate Windows Tweaker are easy to use with a self-explanatory interface. By using these tools you are certain that you won’t incidentally damage other registry sectors. Some of the options offered with these tools are icon changes, internet explorer settings modifications, computer optimization, and over a hundred other types of tweaks.
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Types of Tweaks
As a PC user you are probably wondering what kind of tweaks can you do and what is the final result. Ask yourself, what aspect of your computer experience you want to change. If you are using a lot of multimedia files, you might want to get a better, faster access to these (e.g. AVI) files.
The most popular tweak is the one that improves performance of your computer. Better performance means your application will be open and work more quickly, faster gaming experience, better responsiveness. Many users complain that it takes a long time for their machine to load and to shut down.
There are many other tweaks that we will mention in a future articles. Other tweaks that PC users are implementing are icon changes, menu edits, command console, search optimization, …
In the end, whether you are using tweak instructions from the internet or you are using registry tweaker utility, make sure that instructions/tool refers to your version of Windows.
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After buying a new PC computer, it is easy to fall in love with its speed and efficiency especially if your previous computer was slow. New machines have a fast start up — Windows loads quickly on boot up. Another feature of well-tuned PC machine is the ability to handle/run multiple operations and actions at the same time. Multitasking can be done without any lag or delay. These are the hallmarks of a system that performs well.
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Unfortunately, all the good things come to an end and the computers over time start suffering from decreased performance. There is a general system slow down and it takes longer period of time to load Windows and individual application. Even when simple programs are running at the same time, the computer becomes excruciatingly slow. In this post we will focus on a few major factors that may cause the loss of performance. Knowing the source of the problem will make it easier to find a fix and solution.
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Registry Optimization
This being a site dedicated to registry issue we will start with a short analysis on how the registry can affect your computer’s performance. Registry is a critical component of Windows PC computer. It manages and stores information on all hardware devices and software applications. More applications and devices you have installed the bigger the registry gets. Compounding the problem are the registry data remnants from the deleted applications and peripherals. Typically, when you uninstall something, the corresponding registry entry is supposed to be removed as well. But this does not happen always and you are left with a growing number of registry files that are obsolete and useless. Unfortunately the computer does not know that these registry values are outdated and precious memory and computing power is wasted by unnecessarily going through these files.
The clean up registry and fix any corrupted values you can use a registry cleaner utility. You can find free programs over internet, but if you would like to have one with more power and features we recommend you to do a proper research and purchase one that suits your situation best. Optimizing the registry will improve the performance of your machine.
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Memory Resources
Loss of performance can also be caused by the existing applications you have installed on your system. In the beginning of this article, we mentioned that multitasking on new computers is not a problem. You can have multiple applications running and they will all perform without any lag or problems. But what happens if you have many, many programs running simultaneously? It does not even have to be a large number of programs. If you have several resource-hungry applications running at the same time, your computer speed will drop significantly. What’s even worse is that you might not even be aware that you have these programs running.
Start Up programs load during the Windows boot up. Since they load automatically and they work in the background, there is a chance that you do not see it all. It can be an anti-virus software, Java updater or any other application (as described in our other article dedicated to Start Up programs). You can see the icon of the programs running in the lower-right corner of the Windows toolbar. You can also monitor the active processes by pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE once (Start Task Manager, “Processes” tab). This a great way to check how much resources each application eats up. We highly recommend turning-off start-up programs that you are not using on a daily basis.
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Defragmentation and Hard Drive Cleanup
We are going to finish by offering you a couple of other tricks to improve your computer’s performance. Do a defragmentation (defrag) of your hard drive. It is a simple command with which your computer goes through your entire hard drive connecting fragmented memory sectors. This will speed up your computer and positively affect your performance. Be aware that it might take a lot of time (over an hour) for computer to go through all the hard drive sectors.
Cleaning up your hard drive is another quick fix. Windows system comes with a little utility that can help you with deleting old and temporary files that you don’t need any more (e.g. recycle bin files, temporary internet data,…). By doing this you will free up more space and give your computer more breading room.
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It is one of the most hated and frustrating Windows error messages. Not only it is fatal and leads to the computer crashing but it is can also be difficult for non-professional PC user to diagnose the problem. Cryptic error code is the only clue to source of the problem. It affects all Windows system, even Windows 7 can show this error message if there is an issue.
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The Blue Screen of Death (aka BSOD) is a non-recoverable system failure. It is not specific to any part of your system, meaning that it is a general error caused by malfunction in your computer (software, hardware, registry,…). It is difficult to generalize on what can cause BSOD. There are many reasons why this fatal error might happen on your computer.
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Possible Reasons for Blue Screen Error Message
A virus can damage critical files on your system. The corruption of these essential files can cause a fatal system error. If a hardware device installation is not done properly, there can be a conflict with shared and installation files. The reason why we mention Blue Screen of Death here on our site is because this error can be related to corrupt registry. In some instances where critical registry files are invalid or corrupted, the BSOD will pop up.
You might ask yourself, how would you know if the Blue Screen error message is related to registry. If this fatal error was caused by the registry, the error message will contain text such as “The registry cannot load the hive (file)” and “Registry File Failure”. The easiest way to fix this is to optimize, clean and repair your registry. Microsoft’s support website contains detailed steps on how to take care of this situation. If you have a Windows XP, read this article for help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us
If a “device driver” is mentioned in the error message then re-install the affected hardware device (e.g. video or audio card). Or alternatively, you can go to the manufacturer’s website and grab the driver file yourself and install it. Other reasons for BSOD are high temperature of your computer (check your fan and if system is over clock), BIOS issues (try restoring default settings) and Windows system files issues (in most cases this is very serious, you can either replace the affected files or re-install Windows).
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Other solutions for BSOD
We recommend doing the memory test (sfc/scannow command) and check disk (chkdsk command) to check for the affected files. This test will tell you if any critical files are invalid and if they require fixing. If you are unable to type-in these commands since the system cannot load properly, we recommend booting up your computer in Safe Mode and once it’s loaded perform these check commands.
Earlier we also mentioned that virus can damage critical system files and cause BSOD to appear. But it is also possible for anti-virus software to create system errors. If this is the case, simply uninstall your current anti-virus application and install a different one, like Norton or AVG.
Blue screen of death is a popular term in IT circles. It is in fact so popular that some people have decided to have a permanent memento of this error message.
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To run various applications your computer frequently utilizes little executable files such as ActiveX and COM. This is a site about registry and you are probably wondering how this affects registry. Well, ActiveX and COM data is contained in class IDs (CLSIDs) which can be found in registry. CLSIDs are an essential part of a very effective cog machinery that is working behind the scene to make sure programs are able to run. But what happens when the COM object is deleted and CLSID is still referencing this inexistent object? This scenario is not unlikely. You would start a program which would call CLSID which in turns references erased COM object. This would cause a command conflict and as a result system error would occur.
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Invalid entries in COM section of Windows registry (i.e. CLSIDs pointing to deleted COM) can be a source of computer errors and crashes. Furthermore theyt may even destabilize your entire system. So how to resolve this situation? Simple deletion of invalid CLSID will do the trick. You can do this manually (be sure that you are deleting invalid CLSID and not an active one) or automatically by using registry cleaner utility.
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Most PC users have noticed that new computer run faster than older ones. It seems natural, normal. But why is this? Just like cars, even older PCs should run as fast as the new ones. But often this is not the case. The main reason can be summed up in two words: memory resources.
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More programs you install, more free memory is taken over. If these programs are working simultaneously then your machine slows down – multitasking is not an easy thing to do, even for your PC. Having this on mind, many PC users will try to use only one or two programs at the same time (i.e. having a Word document open while surfing the Web). But still your computer is slow, why?
One answer to this question may be the start up programs. Some applications that are installed on your machine automatically load when you start your computer. This can be very useful if the application is important for your everyday computer usage (e.g. ant-virus program). But in many other instances there really is no real need for these applications to load every time you turn on the computer (e.g. various update monitors that run constantly). An example for this can be a picture editing program. If you are only occasionally using this application then you can open it by double-clicking its icon or by locating it by selecting it from the list in Start menu (lower-left button).
More start-up programs you have, bigger the memory drain – which in turn slows down your computer. We recommend reducing the number of start-up programs to the minimum.
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When you double-click on a file icon you expect it to be open by the corresponding program. For example, if you have a file with extension TXT it should be open by text editor such as notepad and is compatible with most other text editors such as MS Word. Each file has to correspond with some application. This makes sense since you don’t want to have your spreadsheet opened in Photoshop.
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All the file associations (i.e. each file being associated with a specific application) are controlled by registry. One of the most common problems with file associations is that application that is supposed to open the program is missing. For example, imagine you have an application called “CDisplay” (this is a program similar to Adobe PDF reader) and you have a number of files with extension CBR that can only be opened with CDisplay. Now what happens with these files once you delete CDisplay from your computer? Well, files will still be there but you won’t be able to open them. If you double-click on the file, registry will point this file to an application that is no longer on your hard drive and as a result will not be able to one it (you will get an error message).
This would be an invalid file association. It is perfectly fine to erase this reference from your registry.
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In the last post, we listed top 10 registry cleaners that you can buy online. But if you do not want to spend any money you do have an alternative: you can download free registry cleaners. It is hard to compare all free reg cleaners to all paid cleaners, but generally speaking free cleaners are less powerful. Below is out Top 10 list of best free registry cleaners, in alphabetical order.
- Advanced System Care
- Auslogics Registry Cleaner
- CCleaner
- Comodo Registry Cleaner
- EasyCleaner
- Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
- Glary Registry Repair
- Little Registry Cleaner
- Registry Fix Pro
- Wise Registry Cleaner
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We have compiled a list of top 10 most popular paid registry cleaners. Typically cost of these products range from $20 to $50. We urge you to do a diligent research and find out which one is right for you. Here they are listed in alphabetical order.
- Advanced PC Tweaker
- Error Doctor
- Error Fix
- Error Sweeper
- Reg Defense
- RegCure
- Registry Easy
- Registry Genius
- Registry Mechanic
- Registry Smart
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