There are many questions that must be answered. Is it malware? Does it contain spyware? Read the reviews on independent sites like Cnet’s , they will usually tell you which programmes are just masquerading as malicious software that might potentially harm your computer.

The next few questions – What are the features of the product? Is it shareware or freeware? Does it do the job?

Cleaning your registry is a tricky business, mainly because of the fact that your registry is the single most important piece of information on your OS. If you lose it, you basically lose everything. I tend to stay away from online ‘live’ scanning of the registry because of two main reasons, scanning through the internet is slower than on site scanning, and alot of malware programmes often use the internet bridge created during the scan to fill your computer with harmful spyware or even viruses.

There are many freeware registry tools out there than can clean up and repair your registry within minutes. However, only some stand out. The most important thing to remember is that a cleaner must be full featured and credible. Again, I stress simply not to just download the first cleaner you see, but do a bit of sniffing online – and some prominent names will come out.

Everyone’s registry will be clogged up at one point or another. Invalid entries, corrupt embedded keys, fragmented registry entries are just some of the problems of an unkept registry. They contribute to massive slowdowns, programme crashes, rundll errors in Windows and system conflicts.

The first step is to download the registry cleaner. Here I will use Ccleaner as an example. It is one of the best registry cleaners on the market and is 100% freeware. Their website details you on how to download their programme.

After it is safely downloaded to your computer, install it and then launch it. Within minutes, the cleaner will do a sweep of your registry and identify the problems within its matrix. Identifying up to 15 different types of possible errors, you will be presented with a list of all the known issues in its easy to view screen. If you prefer, it can run a step by step confirmation on the various entries and keys it will change and delete, just in case you know something it doesn’t.

The best and most important feature on a cleaner, is an automatic backup utility, so that if anything goes wrong, you can restore your registry to its previous state.

Within a short period of time, your registry will be clean. Remember to do this often – maybe twice a week to ensure optimal performance.

With Ccleaner and other prominent free registry cleaners on the internet, it is easy to conduct the ultimate registry clean up, ensuring optimal system performance, using freeware.