How To Clean The Windows XP Registry

By Cynthia Blake

The Windows Registry

The Windows XP registry is notorious for getting cluttered and corrupted with obsolete, outdated, and empty files and folders. The reasons for this clutter vary. Sometimes these files are left behind by programs that have been incompletely uninstalled from your computer. Other times they are the result of viruses and spyware programs.

Wherever they come from, there is really only one way to clean the registry thoroughly, safely, and efficiently.

Best Methods

By using a good Windows XP registry cleaner software program you will not only save yourself time, but you will also make the process much safer. It's not recommended that you go into the registry yourself and try to remove entries by hand unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Even if you did know precisely what you were doing, finding all the obsolete and empty files and folders could take hours upon hours, and you still might not get all of them. Registry repair software will allow you to scan your registry in just a few minutes and remove all the useless files with the click of a mouse.

Backup Safety

In order to make this a safe process, it's always a good idea to make a manual backup of your registry. This is a very easy process that takes about 30 seconds.


Go to Start / Run
Type in "regedit" (no quotes) and press enter
This opens the Windows registry editor
Click File - Export
Name the registry file and pick a good place to save it
Click save

That's it! Now you have a backup copy of your registry just in case anything goes wrong when you clean it out. Registry repair programs are usually very safe, however making a backup copy is a good idea before doing any sort of computer upgrade or maintenance.

Visit our site for information on the best registry cleaners available.

For a review of the top registry repair utility on the market, check out our RegCure review.

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