What are Registry Keys?

To explain what registry keys are, let’s compare the Windows Registry to a cabinet. Registry keys are what

folders are to a cabinet. It functions as a storage medium for data that is to be stored in the cabinet. It

functions in such a way that it separates and categorizes the data being stored. Within each registry key, data can

further be separated by having each key contain subkeys and within each subkey, it can contain further subkeys to

further categorize the data being stored. Think of it as a folder having appendices and bookmarks. The windows registry

function in this manner, performing as your computer’s hierarchal database, serving as the reference point for

all programs, application, device drivers, and system operators.

However, within a cabinet itself, there are drawers. In the Windows Registry, these drawers are the main keys of

the registry, otherwise known as the root keys of the registry. The Windows operating system has six predefined root

keys, depending on the version of Windows you are using. They are the root key for the following: Local Machine,

Current Configuration, Root Classes, Current User, User, Performance Data (NT-based Windows), and DYN Data

(Windows 9x and ME).

Some of the drawers in the Windows registry don’t have associated files. Some of them are just temporary storages

that act as links for other drawers. Some of them are major file storage, and act as the initiator for the other

drawers to link up with each other. In any case, each of these drawers has their special function in the Windows registry.

Tamper with them at your own risk.

Editing registry keys

Sometimes, when there are programs or applications which just refuse to uninstall, there is only one solution: find

their registry keys and remove them from the Windows registry manually. But what if you are just some regular computer

user that has no knowledge of the Windows registry? How do you edit the Windows registry safely without harming your

computer?

Registry cleaner for the uninitiated

The simplest way to remove registry keys from the registry without getting a degree in Computer Science is to download

and install a registry cleaner and run the registry cleaner to do the editing for you. What the registry cleaner does

is simple. It runs a small program that goes through your computer’s registry and looks for all the bad registry entries

in it and removes them. Any registry key remaining from a removed or uninstalled program will be recognized and removed.

What is more, a registry cleaner is able to recognize and root out registry keys made by malware. These are registry

entries that are so malicious and so hard to remove that even antivirus programs have trouble removing them. Aside from

using a registry cleaner to remove them, only a complete wipe or a complete reinstall of Windows will remove registry

entries made by malware. Malwares are disruptive and destructive programs that you do not want running on your computer.

Remove them without pain by using a registry cleaner.