When you work on your computer and install or remove programs,there are quite frequently pieces of fragmentary data left in the computer's registry on your hard drive. Over time this will build until the registry becomes overloaded with excess material. This is a common reason for slow running,freezing and crashing.

Spyware or adware is installed on your computer, without your knowledge,by third parties who want to follow your computer usage and use this knowledge for their benefit. This puts more load on your computer's resources and is another major reason for slow running. Free antispyware programs such as Spybot and Adaware are available on the internet and do a good job.

Obviously viruses are a big problem if they get into your machine. Every computer which is on the internet should have an antivirus program running or infection is a certainty. A firewall is a help but is not sufficient on it's own. Free antivirus programs are found on the internet. Among these AVG antivirus and PC Tools antivirus are readily available and do a good job of protection.

When your computer registry becomes bloated and clogged,with excess data entries,the operating system finds it difficult to work through all the mess to find the data it needs to run your computer. This causes a slow running computer,freezing and occasionally a complete crash. If not repaired this can only become steadily worse.

The computer's registry is a database of information. The Windows operating system uses this to run the computer and programs. All Windows operated computers since Windpws 95 have had a registry. This is the most likely source for nasty computer problems such as slow running,freezing and crashing.

When your registry becomes corrupted,by excessive unwanted entries,the only thing you can do is to clean the registry and remove this unwanted material. You can use the regedit function which is installed on all Windows computers for this purpose. With regedit you can access the registry and delete any material you want to remove. Use great caution here however as many registry files are absolutely necessary for running your machine. Delete any of those and you will have problems.

Unless you know a lot about the registry and know the essential data,which should not be removed,you should not even try to edit the registry manually. Instead play it the safe way and use an online registry cleaner application. This will repair your Windows registry easily and safely.

There are quite a few registry cleaners available online. We have tested the several most popular applications and found that they can all clean your registry fairly well. However as with many things there are the good and the not so good. There is a considerable difference in ease of use, in safety and in quality and timeliness of email help,when you require it. We formed our own opinion about which was the best.