In today's newer, larger operating systems, registry corruption is a very real problem. Because of this, the registry should be cleaned periodically. Some think registry cleaning is not a needed operation because in years past a PC's performance never deteriorated due to registry corruption. However, registry corruption in Windows XP and Vista cause a significant drop-off in performance.
A registry consists of a huge number of files and folders. Within these files and folders are pieces of code that show or point to the next place a command will find the information it is looking for. Of course, each operating system's command will require several, maybe even millions of these pointers to find all it needs to carry out its mission.
How Registry Corruption Slows Down Computer Operations
Much of what we know as registry corruption is nothing more than pointers or directors that should be showing the operating system's commands where to get their needed information, but instead these pointers, which are left over from no longer performed operations, lead the commands into the abyss.
In the new, very large operating systems, one false pointer can lead the operating system hunting for a long time before it discovers the hunt will bear no fruit. Multiply this type of useless operation by thousands, maybe even millions and you will have an idea of the effect registry corruption has on your computer's speed.
Registry corruption can make a computer slow down so badly it can no longer be used. Of course, this would take a substantial amount of corruption, but it can and often does happen. Registry corruption can also cause the computer to crash and be error prone. Even the blue screen failure has often been the result of corruption in the registry.
Viruses and Spyware
Registry corruption may make a computer behave in a similar fashion to the way a computer operates when it is infected with spyware or a virus. Like registry corruption, spyware and viruses can also make a computer slow down and be error prone. However, where registry corruption makes the computer preform unnecessary operations, spyware and viruses steal the computer's resources.
To get an idea of how much of your computer's resources are being used, open up your task manager. (Ctrl-Alt-Del in Windows XP) This will show you how much of your CPU is in use at any time. If your computer is idle but you can see much of your CPU's power is being used, it could be spyware is using this power. It could also be that you have many programs open in your system tray. If you do, closing them should be your first order of business. The point is, if your computer's resources are being used, you will not be able to get the computer to do anything, even open up your Web browser.
With a lot of your computer's resources being eaten up by spyware, your computer would be unable to perform such simple tasks as opening up the Web browser. It may eventually get your browser open, but you would notice it would do so abnormally slowly. This is the way a computer would act if it had spyware infecting it or if it had a corrupt registry.
To give a quick recap, we all need to keep our computers to be free of viruses and spyware. However, if this is all we do we still may have a computer that is slow and error prone and may crash on occasion. The reason a spyware free computer would behave like this is that it probably has a corrupt registry.
It is important, but not enough to keep your PC free of viruses and spyware. On occasion a computer's registry needs to be scanned for and cleaned of corruption. Doing this will insure your computer will run without producing errors and it will always run at its peak speed.