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Windows Registry Basics!
The Windows Vista Registry: Introduction
The Windows Vista registry is a large complex hierarchal database comprising keys, subkeys, and their respective values. These keys and values are used in combination to store configuration data related to hardware and software setup, user preferences, and system settings.
Just like the older Windows XP registry, the Vista registry is comprised of the following five root keys.
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM): Comprises configuration information of all hardware devices and software programs installed on your system.
- HKEY_USERS (HKU): Comprises information of all user profiles configured on your system. This key always contains a template that is used by your system to create new user profiles with default configuration.
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (HKCR): Contains information related to file types and extensions, protocols, and classes registered on your PC. This key is user-specific and is a mirror of the HKLM key. All information displayed in the HKCR subtree is extracted from the HKLMSOFTWAREClasses and HKCUSOFTWAREClasses keys.
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU): Comprises information such as desktop settings, environment variables, user folders, and other user-specific settings for the currently logged on user. Just like HKCR, this key is also not a real key but is a mirror of the HKU key. All information displayed in this key is extracted from the HKUSecurity ID key of the current user.
- HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG (HKCC): Includes information related to hardware configuration for the currently logged on user. This key extracts it information from the HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetCurrentControlSetHardware Profiles key.
- When you install programs, several entries are added to the registry to store the configuration information of the program. Now, if you install too many programs on your system, data in the registry will also increase causing it to grow to a very large size.
- Many large applications when uninstalled leave behind several orphan keys in the registry giving rise to obsolete and unwanted keys. These keys may also add up if you do not follow correct steps to uninstall program.
- Registry holes or empty placeholders get left behind when a key is removed during the program uninstallation or registry cleanup process.
- Malicious and corrupt entries added by malware programs such as virus, Trojans, backdoors, worms, spyware, and adware.
- System crashes, leading to corruption of registry entries in use at the time of crash.
- Damaged or faulty applications, device drivers, DLLs, ActiveX components and other files.
Although you can perform a certain level of manual registry fixes by using the “regedit” tool, this method is quite tedious. Moreover, the chances of errors and mistakes in manual cleanups are quite high. Therefore, the best and most popularly used methods to cleanup the registry are by using a reliable registry cleaner tool.
You can perform several registry maintenance tasks using a Windows Vista-compatible registry cleaner tool. The tool enables you to perform a deep and thorough scan of the entire registry to identify and remove all unwanted information. Repairing the registry this way helps you fix DLL errors, driver errors, runtime errors, and many other computer errors to optimize your PC and enhance its performance.
Registry cleaners also enable you to perform registry defrag to optimize the registry files by consolidating and reindexing them. A defragged registry is faster to access and improves your computing experience. Lastly, you can use your registry cleaner tool to create regular registry backups—that you can easily restore from in case your registry fails.
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