They simply exist in a database and aren’t accessed anymore. Again, these values do not actively make Windows any slower or prone to crashes. Most of the entries that CCleaner will remove are simply leftover keys that were not removed when a program was uninstalled. The free version works great for most people, but if you end up using it a lot like me, I would highly recommend CCleaner Professional, which includes real-time monitoring, automatic updates and unlimited technical support for the one time price of $24.95. I’ve already debated the worthiness of system cleaning software before and concluded that basically, yes, some tools do actually work in these cases.

CCleanerĬCleaner is actually a free system cleanup utility that happens to also include an option for cleaning the registry.

I always do this before running any cleaner on my registry even though the one I will mention is extremely safe and has never caused me any issues. Making a backup is as simple as creating a new system restore point. Before we get to that, however, you should always make a backup of the registry before you run any type of cleaner software. If you’re still certain that you need a registry cleaner, then I do have one recommendation. The programs will then pop up ads all over the place, steal important data and worse, so there is a bit of risk in using this type of software unless you stick with a reputable brand with a reputable website. In addition, a lot of registry cleaners are simply malware or spyware programs that trick users into thinking they have serious problems with their computers when in reality they don’t.

This way you’re fixing the problem without clearing out a bunch of stuff you’re not sure what is being used for. Instead, you would Google and hopefully find an article like mine that shows you how to troubleshoot a slow right-click context menu. However, it’s still a better idea not to use a registry cleaner. In this type of case, removing the registry entries would help. That means when you right-click on a file or folder, it could take a very long time to load the context menu. Sometimes the list of items becomes very large and some items in the registry no longer exist on the system. One example that comes to mind is right-click context menu in Explorer. There are some rare cases where removing entries from the registry may help. You’re also going to see much bigger performance benefits by disabling useless startup programs in Windows or by uninstalling junkware or crapware from your system. With Windows 8 and Windows 10, you can fix a lot of problems by resetting or refreshing your PC. The reality is that registry cleaners were popular back in the days of Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me and maybe even Windows XP, but the newer operating systems like Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 are far more stable, well-coded and advanced than their previous counterparts.

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