Content

• To step
• Tips
• Warnings

With your Windows registry growing over time, your operating system performance can start to suffer. Third-party cleaners don't always have the best logic and algorithms to effectively clean the entire registry. They perform cleaning tasks according to a fixed set of rules that do not necessarily work well for your registry, whether it is a healthy registry or one that is cluttered with junk or damaged. Fortunately, it is possible to manually clean the registry, to delete residual registry data of deleted programs, as well as unnecessary startup data. This article is intended for more experienced Windows users. If these steps are performed carelessly, it can cause problems with your computer.

To step

1. Click the "Start" button and select "Run."..’.
2. Type regedit in the text box.
3. Press "Enter" or click "Ok".
4. Click the "File" menu and select "Export".
5. Select "All" in the "Export Range" box.
6. Choose a location for the backup and give it a name.
7. Click on "Save".
8. Familiarize yourself with the registry editor. It is divided into two windows, with the left window showing the entire registry tree and the right window showing the individual registry values.
9. Open the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" (it looks like a folder) by clicking the plus sign (+) next to it.
10. Open the key "Software".
11. Look for keys that contain either the name of the application, or (which is more often the case) the name of the developer (the company name).
12. Select a key value from the application.
13. Press "Del" to delete it.
14. Press "Ctrl" and "f" to open a search box.
15. Enter the text you use to search for application mentions.
16. Click on "Ok" to start the search. The registry key or value should be selected when found.
17. Once you have selected the correct key or value, press "Del" to delete it. Press "F3" to find the next value and repeat.
18. Delete unwanted startup entries. Open the keys (as you did before) to go to the following location: My Computer HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows Current Version.
19. Select the "Run" key.
20. Look for values ​​in the right pane. These are shortcuts to executable files.
21. Select a value to delete. If you do not know these, or if it is not immediately obvious which values ​​correspond to which applications, Google them or use a search engine for processes, such as Process Library
22. Press "Del" to delete the entry. To delete multiple entries at once, hold down "Shift" or "Ctrl" while clicking.
23. Repeat this procedure for the same registry key path in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER location. When an application is installed for "all users", it will place these startup items in the Local folder of your computer. If the software is installed for the current user only or for a single user, these values ​​are placed in the folder of the current user.
24. Close the registry editor when you are done.

Tips

• If anything goes wrong, restore your registry with the backup you made. You can do this by opening the backup file directly (eg by double-clicking on it), or by using a Windows installation CD, booting into "recovery mode" so that you can manually restore the registry.
• Press the first letter of the software name to find it faster.

Warnings

• Editing the registry with the Windows registry editor can be a risky endeavor. There is no "undo" function if you accidentally delete the wrong registry key or value.
• Don't start editing the registry if you don't know what you're doing. If you edit it, make sure you've made a backup. When in doubt, it is better not to delete a registry entry. Research it online first to find out the purpose of each individual registry key or value.