Registry Cleaner Articles

Knowing The Difference Between A Registry Cleaner And Spyware And What To Watch For

2010-05-16

A registry cleaner and a spyware program are responsible for doing two very different things within the computer's system registry or Windows registry. The system registry of a computer is probably the most important aspect of a Windows Operating System. Within the registry, the computer stores all of the information about itself. The registry serves as a database for information such as program settings, installed applications, hardware drivers, and anything else your computer runs. The system registry contains sections that can be modified so that software will run automatically when the operating system boots.

Spyware links itself to multiple locations within the registry. Spyware uses this design to continue to run on the computer and circumvent attempts at removal by continuing to restore any locations that have been removed. This allows spyware to insure it will continue to run even if some of the registry locations are removed.

To combat spyware, anti-spyware programs were created that both prevent and remove spyware. To detect and remove spyware, a program will periodically scan your registry and other places spyware installs for potential threats that the user can either delete or keep. A spyware cleaner works by removing or modifying the system registry to insure that the entire spyware infection has been removed. Both of these types of anti-spyware require the user to keep the program updated to detect the new types of spyware that are continually created.

A spyware cleaner may clean the registry, but it is not a registry cleaner. A registry cleaner is used to streamline the registry much like someone would clean up a database. The registry could be manually cleaned, but due to the sheer size of it, it would be impractical. Registry cleaners automate the process of cleaning and removing unneeded entries. It removes orphaned registry entries from the system. An orphaned registry entry basically points towards nothing which makes it useless to the computer. Examples would be information from programs that have been uninstalled, information that is no longer useful, or spyware or malware settings. A registry cleaner cannot remove spyware in the same way an anti-spyware program does because it cannot handle situations where spyware can re-infect from a different location.

Registry cleaners should only be used to streamline the operation of the registry and the computer.

Although both spyware programs and registry cleaners affect the computer's Windows registry, they both do very different things. The use of both of them can be very beneficial to a computer user, but it is important that computer users only use reputable software. Some software touted as an anti-spyware program or registry cleaner may simply be spyware.

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