Eliminate Computer Errors and Crashes
Though there are many people who don’t yet believe registry corruption is an issue in Windows XP and Vista, the truth of the matter is registry corruption is a mortal enemy to these operating system. It can cause many problems for these operating systems and the persons who use the computers they are installed on.
A registry consists of a huge number of files and folders. Within these files and folders are pieces of code that show or point to the next place a command will find the information it is looking for. Of course, each operating system’s command will require several, maybe even millions of these pointers to find all it needs to carry out its mission.
Registry Corruption Causes Slowdowns
When pointers from no longer needed software still exist in the registry, they point to files an operation doesn’t need or worse yet, they point to a file that is no longer in the registry. This means an operation will be sent out looking for something that is useless for its completion. So, all an unneeded pointer does is waste time. These types of pointers are a form of registry corruption.
In the new, very large operating systems, one false pointer can lead the operating system hunting for a long time before it discovers the hunt will bear no fruit. Multiply this type of useless operation by thousands, maybe even millions and you will have an idea of the effect registry corruption has on your computer’s speed.
Registry corruption can make a computer slow down so badly it can no longer be used. Of course, this would take a substantial amount of corruption, but it can and often does happen. Registry corruption can also cause the computer to crash and be error prone. Even the blue screen failure has often been the result of corruption in the registry.
Registry Corruption and Viruses/Spyware Cause Similar Problems
Registry corruption may make a computer behave in a similar fashion to the way a computer operates when it is infected with spyware or a virus. Like registry corruption, spyware and viruses can also make a computer slow down and be error prone. However, where registry corruption makes the computer preform unnecessary operations, spyware and viruses steal the computer’s resources.
If all, or a high percentage of your computer’s resources are being used spyware and viruses, your computer won’t be able to perform any task, even an easy one like connect to a Web site. The way to check to see how many resources are being used is to press ctrl-alt-del, which will open up your task manager in Windows XP. If you have Vista, you will have choose “open task manager after you press ctrl-alt-del.
Even if spyware was using 80 percent of your computers resources and your computer needed to do an operation, such as connect to a web site which would require 40 percent of your CPU’s strength, your computer would react by slowing down very noticeably.
To summarize, spyware and/or viruses will make your computer slow and prone to errors and crashes. However, a corrupted registry will make a computer act in the same way.
It is not a matter of whether cleaning spyware and viruses is more or less important than scanning for and cleaning registry corruption. Doing both these things are of utmost importance for keeping your PC fast and error free. Yes, it is too bad we have to use registry cleaners and spyware/virus cleaners so we can keep are computers running well, but the fact is; we do have to.