Windows is an Operating System with its own share of problems. With all the viruses, adware, and spyware out there in the wild right now, it feels like it's just a matter of time before your Windows machine explodes. Even without malware, Windows machines are prone to sluggishness and slowdowns due to registry congestion. When you install or uninstall apps in your PC, it can leave a lot of broken entries that can damage the registry.

In days long gone, hacking the registry by hand was the only way to fix registry errors. Learning how to cleanup your registry like this can be very dangerous. Damaging the registry will cause your Windows PC to stop working. If you enter an invalid registry entry or if you delete important registry items, you can really screw up your Windows system. You will surely get something that is called a BSOD or the Blue Screen of Death. Repairing the registry by hand is very dangerous, I'm warning you.

So, is there a proper way on how to cleanup your registry? Luckily for us less technical people, we can fix registry problems using automated scanners. Some of these scanners are free and they are very easy to use. Here's how to cleanup your registry using these registry scanners.

1. Make sure that you save a restore point for your windows install before you scan your system. Most of these registry scanners have built in save and restore systems but it won't hurt you to make your own restore point before you do anything else.

2. Now comes the easy part. It's a lot faster to learn how to tidy up your registry using a registry scanner. Just set it on auto and scan away. Do not set any manual controls because that is meant for advance users only.

3. Make sure to reboot your Windows after the scan.

You might think right now that the process is simple enough, so how can a registry scanner help your Windows machine perform better? Since the registry was congested before the clean up, all processes in your system will respond slower and will take up a lot of time before they launch or turn off. After clean up, you will notice that invalid registry entries and orphaned registry entries are now deleted from your system. This frees up the registry.

A good analogy would be when someone has a cough. Once you take a mucolytic, a cough medicine, you will be able to clear the congestion in your chest. A chest without congestion can help the person breathe easier. This is how registry congestion acts in simplified terms. A congested registry looks like spaghetti. It slows down your Windows machine.

If you use a registry scanner, make sure that you use it in tandem with antivirus and anti-malware software. Remember that one of the main causes of registry congestion are adware and spyware writing invalid or malicious entries in the registry. Keep your PC in tip top shape by always scanning it with an antivirus. Avoid installing programs that you don't really need so as to prevent installation and uninstallation traces from clogging up your registry.