Is your computer running at a fraction of the performance that it worked to when you first purchased it? Are you plagued by error after error? Have you been seeing too much of the blue screen of death.
Put the technical phone number handbook away and take a step back, it's probably time for a registry clean up.
A registry clean up? It sounds about as effective as switching the computer on and off in vague hope.
But rest assured, a registry clean up is one of the very best ways of regaining some of that lost performance and making Windows a much healthier place for programs and applications to live.
Every time you install a piece of hardware, a software application or even adjust your Internet settings, changes are made to the Windows registry that can have a lasting effect on how Windows performs.
Ideally, all these different applications should be able to coexist on the same platform, but that's not always the case.
They each rely on the registry for their core file paths and drivers, and if these references become corrupt or get lost in the mix, you can expect all kinds of problems to come your way.
Yes, blue screen of death sized problems! A registry clean up will remove the bad entries in your Windows registry, like a handy little garbage disposal if you will.
They're usually free to download and not hard to find.
Once you have a utility capable of performing the registry clean up, you'll want to let it scan your system thoroughly.
Prepare to be surprised at just how many errors the software detects.
This is because much of the problems with a Windows registry can be seen as "errors in waiting".
You might not be seeing the errors now, but give it a couple of months and they could soon be appearing.
The chances of receiving these errors are dramatically increased every time you uninstall or repair a current application.
If the Windows registry entries aren't appropriately addressed, they will begin to cluster and cause knock on problems whenever you run Windows.
The registry clean up process will sort these redundant files during its scanning process and fix them if you deem it necessary.
Always let the software perform as much as it can.
To go in to the intricacies of Windows and perform a manual registry clean up would be to massively risk the working order of the PC altogether.
There have been instances - and there will be many more instances - where people have gone in to the Windows registry, made a small edit, and sat back in stark horror upon the reboot when they realize that their Windows is now refusing to load.
Don't let it happen to you.
A registry clean up should always be taken care of by specialist software unless you're highly trained and no what you're doing.
So if you're sick to death of endless errors or if your operating system refuses to load without an enormous amount of lag - don't panic.
And certainly don't shelve the computer to go out and buy another.
Go for a simple registry clean up and with any luck, you'll notice a big improvement in operating standard.