Signs Your Registry Needs Cleaning

Signs Your Windows Registry Needs Cleaning

This is the second in a three-part article series on the Windows Registry, the first article in this series discussed why it is necessary to clean the windows registry, this article helps to identify the signs that indicate the registry needs cleaning and the third takes a look at some commonly used registry cleaners.



System is taking longer than usual to bootup.

As mentioned, the Windows Registry is a database of hardware and software system wide settings. Many of these settings have to be accesed during the boot sequence, such as device drivers or settings for windows services. As the registry grows it takes increasingly longer for these settings to be accessed, thus the boot sequence is slowed down.

This is just one of the reasons why the system will boot slowly, but it should be one of the first things to check.


Applications fail with cryptic error messages.

Applications that suddenly cease to work, displaying error messages that make no sense and cannot be found in any troubleshooting guide or manual is generally a sign of a failing registry.


Installation of new software is slow.

If when installing new software, the file copying seems to go well, but finalizing the installation seems very slow and seems to cause your system to freeze, this is generally a sign that the installation program has difficulties in writing settings to the Windows Registry.


Uninstalling software is slow and unreliable.

If the Add/Remove Programs dialog shows programs that are no longer on your computer, this is a sign of registry problems. This indicates that the registry entries for uninstalled programs had not been removed, it is almost always a sign that the registry needs cleaning.


New settings are slow to apply.

When making changes in the Control Panel to system settings it seems to take ages before settings are applied, this is a sign that your registry needs cleaning. Many of the options in the Control Panel are stored in Windows Registry keys, and a huge registry can make applying these settings very slow.


In any of these cases, it is best to run a quick scan with a good registry cleaning program. Although registry cleaners can solve most problems, there are systems which are beyond rescue. It is strongly recommended that the wwindows registry be regularly scaned and maintained, at least once every week.