The Windows Registry is a place where you will find all the settings for your operating system. It contains information for all the hardware and software, along with user preferences. The Registry isn’t simply one large file, but a set of discrete files called hives, primarily located in the system32 folder.
Microsoft once offered their own registry cleaners like RegClean, RegMaid which were discontinued from Windows XP onwards. Later on its Windows Live OneCare too offered registry cleaning feature, which was also discontinued. Starting with Windows Vista, the Registry has been Virtualized, and hence unlike Windows XP or earlier versions, does not tend to suffer from bloat. Due to Virtualization, applications are prevented from writing to System Folders and to the ‘machine wide keys’ in the registry.
Microsoft’s old stand on Registry Cleaners and compressors
Here is Microsoft’s original take on Registry Cleaners on onecare.live.com (now removed): We had earlier mentioned a post at Mark Russinovich’s blog, which said: Discussing the problem of bloated registry hives in some earlier versions of Windows, Microsoft had earlier felt: So while Registry cleaners or compressors may have had some benefit earlier, in the recent versions of Windows its use is not generally recommended by Microsoft. Yet many Windows users, make use of Registry Cleaners and Optimizers in the belief that to clean up or ‘optimize’ the Registry is to make Windows faster and ‘better’. Whether such registry cleaners help or not, has always been a matter of debate. Then there are Registry Defraggers, which defragment the Windows Registry. Again – Is Registry Defrag good or bad – that is yet another question! Using a Registry Cleaner will not make your Windows run faster. It will at most delete or clean up, broken or orphaned registry keys in your Registry. But there is no denying that there is a large software ecosystem of Registry Cleaners who are doing very well, selling Windows users, registry cleaning software. There are some freeware too available, which are very popular. To be honest, I too use a registry and junk cleaner every week or so, to clean up my Windows 8.1, as I often install or uninstall new programs to check them out. Says Microsoft now: Microsoft, therefore, does not support the use of Registry Cleaners in Windows! Yes, this may come as a shock to some of you who use them, but this is their official position! The reason is clear. If a registry cleaner makes a mistake and deletes the wrong keys, it could make your operating system unbootable! A damaged registry can lead to excessive CPU utilization, longer startup and shutdown times, poor application functionality or random crashes or hangs, or even data loss! Moreover, some of the programs available free on the internet can even contain malware. For these reasons, Microsoft does not support the use of registry cleaners!
Microsoft’s official position on the use of Registry Cleaners
So there you have it! In spite of this, if you decide to use a registry cleaner, make sure you research the product and in any case, always remember to create a system restore point first or back up the registry before using it. Over to you! Thoughts? Observations? Comments? Recommendations?
