You must have observed that when your computer was still new, its performance was remarkably smooth and speedy. The applications installed in your computer all load up fast when you run them, and you do not experience a lot of lags. Most of all, error messages do not pop up as you work with your computer, and the system does not hang. The dreaded Blue Screen of Death does not show up to torment you either.

Why is it not possible to keep our computers running as smoothly and as quickly as they did when they were still new, when the constant wear and tear of being continually used has not yet taken a toll on them? You see, as you work on your computer, various data are stored away within your Windows registry.

If you are not aware of what your Windows registry is, it is the space where the configuration data of the hardware and software installed on your computer, not to mention the files that your hard drive contains, are all stored away. As you use your computer, more and more data is filed away in your computer’s Windows registry, causing it to become bloated, cluttered and fragmented. A registry that is bloated, cluttered and fragmented eventually has the data stored in it become corrupted, and it slows down your computer considerably.

But the slowing down of your computer is not the worst of your problems if your computer has a cluttered registry. If your Windows registry is not properly maintained and if you do not have anti-spyware and antivirus software, you run the risk of having your computer crash in the long run.

This is because without the proper protection that your computer needs, you may download harmful viruses and malware into your computer without your knowing when you surf the Internet. The viruses and malware can also come from files that you copy from external storage devices like CDs, floppy drives and USB compact flash drives without scanning them first. The data for these viruses and malware are stored in your computer’s registry, along with the other configuration data of your computer. If these are not detected at once, your computer can die on you without any possibility of being repaired anymore. That can lead to loss of data and the need to replace your computer with a new one. What a bother that can be.

To prevent all these from happening, you need to conduct a comprehensive scan of your Windows registry every so often. A regular scan of your registry will ensure that your registry is compact, free from errors and free from defragmentation. Moreover, a regular, comprehensive scan of your registry can catch whatever viruses and malware might be hiding in your system and can cause your computer some degree of harm. It will also speed up your computer and keep it running smoothly.

Do not attempt to clean your registry by yourself, however. You might end up deleting an important component of the registry and cause your computer to crash. Make sure that in scanning your registry, you use a third-party scanner that can identify and fix registry errors for you. One of the best around is RegCure. A third-party registry scanner such as RegCure will take care of your computer’s registry for you.