Let's face it, humans are absolutely the most procrastinating form of matter in the entire Universe. It's our very nature that makes us procrastinate with every task that is assigned to us, postponing anything we have to do, from shopping to computer maintenance. Indeed, surveys have shown that most computer users will usually not bother running anti-virus, anti-spyware or registry cleaning scans before the situation gets completely out of hand, a point where a scan is usually pointless anyway, because the entire system just has to be reinstalled.

The problem is that most users don't realize their system needs attention, because some symptoms are not exactly obvious. So when a system-wide crash comes along, most people just don't see it coming. This is what we are going to talk about today: common signs that your registry needs cleaning?

#5 System bootup times are unusually long.

There can be many reasons why the system takes a long time to boot, but think about this. The Windows Registry stores a huge set of system wide settings, many of them having to be accessed during the boot sequence. If the registry is very big, the settings cannot be accessed very quickly, and the boot sequence is slowed down.

Of course, a bloated registry is only one of the reasons why the system will boot slowly, but it should be your first suspect.

#4 New settings are slow to apply.

If any setting you change in the Control Panel seems to take ages before being applied, it may be a sign that your registry needs cleaning. Many of the options in the Control Panel have correspondents in a Windows Registry key, and a bloated registry can make applying these settings very slow.

Some settings are of course inherently slow to apply, such as networking settings. However, if you notice that all settings are slow to apply, and the system seems to freeze each time you click "Ok" or "Apply" in a Control Panel window, the Windows Registry can be at the top of your list of suspects.

#3 Installation of new software is slow.

This is one of the prime signs of worry, and in fact it is almost always linked with a bloated or corrupted registry. If copying files seems to go well, but the final stages of every installation are very slow and seem to cause your system to freeze, this is almost always a sign that the installation program has difficulties in writing settings to the Windows Registry. This problem is even more obvious nowadays, when hard drives, CD and DVD drives are fast enough to allow files to be copied extremely fast.

#2 Uninstalling software is slow and unreliable.

Directly linked with the slow installation problem are the various problems which may arise when uninstalling applications. A prime sign of registry cleaning being required is an Add/Remove Programs dialog which is full of programs that you no longer have on your computer. Their presence indicates that their registry entries had not been removed when you uninstalled the program. This is almost always a sign that your registry needs cleaning.

#1 Applications fail with cryptic error messages.

In the good old days of Windows 95, many users did not immediately realize what to blame for these failing applications. Indeed, the installation base was quite diverse back then, with some traits remaining up to this day: have you noticed how the installation wizard of every game seems to check for DirectX, despite not having the latest DirectX version is simply unthinkable? Well, a few years ago, having DirectX was a matter to check for itself.

Nowadays, almost any application which suddenly ceases to work, displaying an error you cannot make sense of and which is not covered in the FAQ is almost always a sign of a failing registry, especially if we are talking about a slightly older application, which still uses the Windows Registry to store almost every kind of option.

Summery

In any of these cases, it is best to run a quick scan with a good registry cleaning program, such as RegCure or ErrorSmart. Although such advanced programs can work wonders, there are systems which are beyond rescue even for the best of them, which is why experts desperately repeat their recommendation to regularly scan and maintain your registry, at least once every week. Just like a doctor would say, it's better to prevent than to treat. The easiest way to do this is by using a good registry cleaner.


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