Does Windows 10 Have A Registry Cleaner

Though they aren't equally mutual every bit they one time were, you lot'll still see ads for Windows Registry cleaners effectually the web. These programs claim that they can speed up your computer by fixing issues in your registry, and ask for a payment in exchange for the service.

Don't believe this—registry cleaners don't make Windows any faster, and could even have the opposite effect by causing damage. Let's take a look at why.

What Is the Registry?

The Windows Registry is a big database that stores all kinds of information for both Windows and installed software. Every fourth dimension you install or remove software or brand changes to Windows settings, the registry is updated to reflect these.

You can edit the registry yourself using the Registry Editor tool. This is the but fashion to make a lot of avant-garde tweaks in Windows, since the settings they control aren't accessible anywhere else.

See our introduction to the Windows Registry to learn more.

What Do Registry Cleaners Do?

When you meet ads for registry cleaners or visit their websites, they'll brand bold claims near their usefulness to your PC. 1 cleaner, for example, says that it will "clean, repair, and optimize your Windows registry to eliminate errors and crashes, and to restore smooth and stable operation."

They'll also tell y'all that "the registry can go littered with old entries", which will "cause mistake messages and slow the estimator down." If you then proceed to install a registry cleaner, they'll scan your registry for "bug" and likely report hundreds of "critical issues" slowing your computer down.

Nigh of the fourth dimension, these tools let yous "fix" a few "problems" for costless, and then enquire yous to pay for a premium license to "fix" everything.

In reality, what registry cleaners claim are serious bug are not problems at all. Information technology's true that uninstalling software tin get out registry entries behind, or there could be unused file extensions that notwithstanding have registry keys. Still, these almost never cause Windows to tedious down or throw error letters.

Even hundreds of orphaned entries won't corporeality to anything more than a tiny amount of information on your PC. Thus, cleaning the registry will not have any noticeable positive issue on operation. However, running a registry cleaner could actually cause damage to your system.

The Negative Effects of Running a Registry Cleaner

While running a registry cleaner is useless at best, it'south dangerous at worst. As mentioned, the registry is home to lots of important values that both Windows and third-party programs use. If you lot delete, move, or damage these keys, critical organisation functions could neglect to work.

Since registry cleaners are automated, there'south a proficient adventure that their registry scan could tag something equally unnecessary when it'south actually important. And unless you lot're a registry good and check every entry before deleting them, y'all could crusade major harm to your system by deleting something inadvertently.

Deleting important registry keys could cause some software to finish working, requiring you to reinstall information technology. Corrupting important keys might introduce error messages when you try to utilize sure Windows functions. In the worst cases, doing this might even spiral up your system and require y'all to reinstall Windows.

There'due south no reason to risk these huge drawbacks only to remove a few hundred outdated registry entries—which will accept no noticeable effect on performance anyway. Most of these fly-by-nighttime registry cleaners are shady anyway, as they try to scare you with alerts and even bundle in more than unwanted software.

What About Microsoft's Registry Cleaner?

Microsoft used to offer a registry cleaner called RegClean. This was back in the days of Windows 9x, when having also much in the registry could really be an issue. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft doesn't offer RegClean anymore. It hasn't been supported since Windows 98, as it caused so many problems.

In that location's fifty-fifty an official Microsoft support page stating that the company does non support the use of registry cleaners. Consider how many utilities Microsoft has rolled into Windows over fourth dimension: Windows 10 includes a congenital-in firewall, antivirus, file cleaner, disk defragmenter, and more. If Microsoft thought that registry cleaning was helpful, it would include a tool for this in Windows.

We should also mention CCleaner, which nosotros once recommended as an OK choice if you felt you really had to run a registry cleaner. Nowadays, you don't need CCleaner, and that includes its registry cleaner.

There Are No Registry Cleaner Performance Tests

Computer geeks dear to squeeze every bit of possible functioning out of their systems. There are all kinds of benchmark tests when a new CPU or graphics bill of fare launches, and people will tweak settings but to make a game run a piffling flake better.

There are no serious, legitimate performance tests showing that running registry cleaners improve functioning. If they really worked, PC gaming enthusiasts would recommend running them for better game functioning.

If you see registry cleaner functioning tests, they are probably phony and either made up by the company or someone getting paid to sell one. The same goes for the "reviews" on registry cleaner sites.

How to Actually Speed Up Your Computer

Instead of running a registry cleaner, what can you do to actually speed up your PC if it feels slow? Thankfully, yous take lots of options that bring a noticeable effect.

You should offset past post-obit our guide to cleaning upwards your computer. This will walk you lot through cleaning up large files, deleting old junk y'all don't need, and uninstalling bloatware. Doing all this will costless up far more room than the fleck of space that running a registry cleaner reclaims.

Side by side, look into ways to make your computer run faster. These include steps that will really have an effect, such as disabling unnecessary startup programs and turning off visual effects.

Y'all might even consider upgrading your PC's hardware for better performance, if you're able. Don't waste money on registry cleaners that practice goose egg—that coin is much better spent on actual hardware boosts.

Don't Waste Time With Registry Cleaners

In the cease, running a registry cleaner does not bring any perceptible benefit in performance. At that place's a good chance that a registry cleaner volition break something on your system and crusade far more problems than it could fix.

And fifty-fifty if they don't ruin something, using a registry cleaner is a waste matter of time (and perchance coin). Companies that sell registry cleaners endeavour to deceive you into thinking these apps are a magic solution for PC performance bug. Don't buy the ophidian oil.

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