Your computer is a complex beast, with multiple systems running side by side, coordinated by the operating system. Most of us use a version of Microsoft’s Windows, which keeps track of all the settings required for the smooth operation of a healthy PC in its registry.
In the normal course of things, an average PC user will rarely be aware of the registry. When you’ve just installed new software, you may have seen a message flash onto your screen: “updating registry, please wait”. That is about as much as you want to know: on a healthy PC the registry should work quietly in the background.
In its hierarchical database structure, it records all the hardware and software settings and parameters as well as all your personalized settings in main divisions called hives, each taking a different kind of information. One records the settings related to the actual computer, another the details of the various users of the machine, while yet another stores the preferences for each particular user.
The hives function like folders, gathering the actual information in what are called keys. The top level ones mostly function like folders as well, containing sub-keys – a structure which can be repeated until the final set of sub-keys, which actually carry the data.
Windows runs through the registry every time it starts up, conveniently finding all the settings it needs in one place. But every time a setting is changed or software is uninstalled, unused keys can be left behind. On a simple level, this means that there are useless bits of information to be read and processed.
More damagingly, conflicts can creep in and your PC can start to misbehave. This is where getting hold of a registry cleaner like Uniblue’s RegistryBooster becomes an important investment in your PC’s future health.
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