Everybody knows that the Registry is a vital Windows component. If it becomes corrupt, you are bound to start getting serious problems with your computer. That’s why it’s so important to keep the Windows Registry healthy and optimized.

1. First of all, make regular backups of the Registry. Just like any other backup it will offer you some comfort, because you will be able to restore the Registry in case something bad happens to it.

2. Keep the Registry clean. You don’t want it to get cluttered with empty keys and missing references, because that can cause problems, such as slow and freezing computer. You can use our free Registry Cleaner to do the job.

Also keep the Registry as compact as possible, so that the disk space taken up by the Registry is optimized too.

3. Another thing worth doing is disassociating the .reg file extension from the Registry editor. This will help protect you from malware. By default .reg files are opened by regedit.exe, so it’s quite easy for malware to mess up the Registry. On the other hand, if .reg files are opened with Notepad by default, you are safe.

In Windows XP:

1. Open Windows Explorer and go to Tools
2. Select the File Types tab and  find the .reg file extension
3. Select it and click Change
4. Select Notepad as the default program to open .reg files and click OK

In Windows Vista:

1. Click Start and select Default Programs
2. Select Associate a file type or protocol with a program
3. 
4. Find the .reg file extension and click Change Program
5. Open Other Programs and select Notepad
6. Click OK and then Close

Remember that keeping the Registry well optimized prolongs your computer’s life and makes it run faster and more stable.

Recently I’ve noticed a lot of people on the Internet asking what’s the difference between defragmenting your hard drive and defragmenting the Registry, and why one should defrag the Registry anyway. So here goes!

The Difference

When you defrag your hard disk, defragging software finds fragments of a file, that are scattered all over your hard disk. Then it moves the fragments and groups them together, so that the file is all in one place. So, basically, defragmentation puts the files back together.

Badly fragmented disk really slow down your computer, so you should defrag once a week if you download a lot of files and install a lot of software, or at least once a month.

Defragmenting, or rather compacting the Registry, is a very similar process. The difference is that this time files don’t get defragmented – it’s only your Registry.

How the Registry Gets Fragmented

Programs on your computer access the Registry thousands of times per second. That means that the Registry, just like disk drives, gets bloated and fragmented with time. And of course that affects your PC performance and makes your computer slower. That’s why it’s important to keep the Registry clean and as compact as possible.

Most of the time Registry entries that are not required anymore get deleted (for example, when you uninstall software). But sometimes bits and pieces are left behind and clutter the Registry. All this bloating eventually damages and fragments the Registry. The solution is to get rid of all the junk – just run BoostSpeed Registry Cleaner.

But now you have a different problem – with all unused entries deleted you have free space scattered all over the Registry. And that slows down your computer as well, imply because Windows needs more time to access whichever entries it needs. The solve this problem simply use Auslogics Registry Defrag after you clean the Registry.

Remember that the Registry is a vital component of any Windows system and it is important to perform regular Registry maintenance to ensure your computer stays stable and fast.