Windows Operating Systems Overview
Over time, even the newest Microsoft Windows operating systems Windows 7 and Windows 8 can become sluggish and often unresponsive. This perceived slow down in responsiveness can occur even when there is plenty of hard disk space remaining and a comfortable amount of system RAM installed.

Since the introduction of the Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems, each successive iteration of the Windows operating system has kept its settings, information about installed hardware, and installed software information in a central database, known as the registry. Newer versions of Microsoft Windows, including Windows 7 and the recently released Windows 8, still utilize the registry as a central database for computer settings and software information. Prior to the introduction of Windows 95 and Windows NT, Windows system information and program settings were kept in various ini files. A limited precursor to the modern day registry known as reg.dat, was used to store system settings, along with the system.ini file and the startup files autoexec.bat and config.sys.

 

The modern day Windows registry combines these various files into one database now known as the registry.One way to correct any issues with a damaged registry is the use of a registry cleaner. A registry cleaner is a program that cleans the Windows registry by removing settings and invalid entries left behind by uninstalled programs, programs that crashed during installation, or any other information or hardware that is no longer available on the computer.

Using registry cleaner software can often help to correct issues with a computer that is slow to boot, unresponsive, or otherwise problematic due to corrupt or incorrect registry entries. Once any corrupted or incorrect registry entries are removed, the improvement in Windows operating system responsiveness is often quite noticeable. System errors and errors on start up are often eliminated as well.