If you encounter a problem when you want to install a program, but your operating system gives an error: “this program is already installed.” This often happens because you already installed this program and then uninstalled it, but the registry entry remained. If you have had a similar incident or just want to clean the registry, then read on or watch the video. It will be useful for you to know how to clean the registry manually.
Hello. On this page I will tell you how to clean the registry manually. This will help you not only when the program is not installed, it will be useful in keeping the registry clean. That is, you will learn how to delete unnecessary entries in the registry. Begin.
How to clean the registry?
To clean the registry you can use third party programs. There are a lot of similar programs, for example, “CCleaner”, “Reg Organizer” and the like. I talked about these programs in these notes: and.
These programs are good, but they do not always completely clean the registry. And in order to better clean the registry, we will use the manual method.
Manually cleaning the registry
While on the desktop, press the Windows key combination + R. The Run utility will open. In the window of this utility, enter the following inscription “regedit” and click “OK”. The Registry Editor will open. This is where we will work.
While in the registry editor, press “Ctrl+F” and a search window will open. In this window, enter the name of the program whose entries you want to delete. Please note that you must enter the exact name of the program. But, be careful! There are programs with similar names, for example, you have installed the program “ Microsoft Office", and the program "OpenOffice" is installed.
If you simply enter the word “Office” into the search, you can ruin the performance of the wrong program whose entries you want to delete. Therefore, in such a case, I would enter the exact name of the program, for example, “OpenOffice”, then you will not affect the entries for the “Microsoft Office” program.
I also do not recommend specifying too long names in the search, for example, “Apache OpenOffice”, because not all registry entries will contain the word “Apache”. In the worst case, the search will not find records for such a request. I hope everything is clear here.
We figured out how to enter the name of the program whose entries we want to delete. Enter the name and click “Find Next.”
Registry Editor will now search for files that contain the word you specified in the search. Once it finds a similar file, the search will stop and you will see the highlighted file that you need to delete.
Just click the "Delete" button and confirm the deletion. To continue the search, press the “F3” button. Then the next file will appear, which you also delete. Do the same until the registry editor writes that the search is complete “The search in the registry has been completed.” Just in case, you can check everything remotely by pressing “Ctrl+F” and “Find Next”; if the same message appears that the search is complete, then you can close the registry editor, you have completed your task.
Now about possible “extraordinary” situations. It happens that during deletion they will write to you that you cannot delete this file. What to do in this case? In such a case, you need to delete it in Safe Mode. That is, you need to restart your computer and enter safe mode in the way that you know. For example, if you have a Windows 7 operating system, after rebooting, as soon as the first picture appears, press and hold the “F8” button and select “Safe Mode” from the menu that appears.
In safe mode, do the same as you did before. Open the registry editor and delete files with entries. That's all. As you can see, everything is very simple! But, if everything is not completely clear to you, watch the video below; in the video I showed manually cleaning the registry using the example of a remote program.
Try it, you will succeed. I wish you success!
Video: Manually cleaning the registry.
In this article we will look at the process of removing a program entry from the Windows registry. The registry is where records are stored operating system settings, as well as settings of the installed application software.
I’ll say right away that when you work with the registry manually, you need to be extremely careful, since incorrect manipulations with the settings can put the operating system out of order.
In some cases, manually editing the registry can be very useful, for example, if a program is incorrectly uninstalled, entries may remain in the registry that will prevent the re-installation of versions of the same program. In this situation, installation error messages may appear like: “An earlier version of the program is already installed on your computer,” etc., although in fact you seem to have “uninstalled” it. In order to delete an entry about a program, you need to open the registry editor, Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Run(Win7), or just Start -> Run(Win Xp), you can also use a keyboard shortcut Win+R. In the program launch window that opens, enter "regedit" and press Enter, (Fig. 1)
Fig.1
After we have carried out the above-described manipulations, a registry editor window should appear in front of us, with the help of which we will delete the entry about the Win Rar program. In Fig. 2, you can notice various registry branches: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_USERS, HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG. Of these five registry branches, in in this case we will only be interested in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE branch contains records about programs that are installed on your computer.
Fig.2
In order to delete an entry about a program, you need to go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE (opening each tab), (Fig. 3) After you have moved to the SOFTWARE subsection, you need to find among the list of programs the one for which you need to delete entries. Next, simply delete the folder with the name of the entry about the program. But again, I repeat, when working with the registry you need to be extremely careful, as this can lead to failure operating system.
Fig.3
You can also use the search by name, to do this you need to go to: Edit -> Search.
Hello admin! Question, how to clean the registry from accumulated garbage: remaining keys, parameters, values remote programs, but I want to do it correctly, since I have a sad experience.
Just recently I installed one program on my computer and was surprised to find that another one was installed along with it, some kind of operating system and registry cleaner. The most interesting thing is that this program began to run along with Windows, constantly offering to clean the computer of various debris. Just for fun, I decided to try it and clicked OK, the process of cleaning the registry from unnecessary entries began, after a minute the check ended and the program issued a report, 1024 errors were found, which the utility offered to fix, I agreed and clicked OK again, the registry errors were deleted and the computer rebooted and didn't boot anymore!
The next time I booted, the error Windows\system32\config\system... and something else appeared on a black screen. With great difficulty, we managed to restore the operating system using your article.
I also found an interesting article on your website where you can clean the registry of keys left behind by a virus without resorting to any programs. That's why I decided to write to you and ask how to clean the registry from garbage, and is it even necessary, because many users never clean the registry at all and don’t think about it.
How to clean the registry
1) What is a registry!
2) Is cleaning the registry really necessary?
3) Did you know that if a malicious program leaves its keys in the registry, then no registry cleaner will find them. How to find unnecessary keys in the registry manually without resorting to any programs.
3) How to clean the registry with EnhanceMySe7en
4) How to clean the registry with CCleaner
Hello friends! A good question has been asked and to answer it, I will tell you in a nutshell what the registry is and how it is used by Windows.
The registry, an essential component of Windows, appeared in the ancient Windows 3.1 as a file Req.dat.
The registry contains a huge database or repository of configuration information of all programs installed on the operating system and Windows itself. Information about all users, file extensions, drivers, connected devices, activations, and so on, all this is stored in the registry.
Any application, when installed in the operating system, leaves its configuration data in the registry, and also any application does not delete all data from the registry when it is uninstalled (removed) from the computer. This is a well-known fact.
For example, I will delete from the computer Adobe program Photoshop, and then I will check the registry for the presence of keys for this program and they will be there,
The same will happen with Download program Master.
And if you remove a more serious program from Windows, for example, then pay attention to how much garbage it leaves behind in the registry. And if you imagine that we have been using the operating system for a year!
It becomes clear that quite a lot of this junk left by programs after being removed from the computer remains in the registry, but here’s another question, my friends - does all this junk interfere with the performance of the operating system? No one has been able to prove what is preventing it. Isn’t this proof that the well-known Microsoft developer of Windows himself never created a special tool for his brainchild that would automatically clean the registry. yes, it is also present, but you can clean the registry only manually using the special regedit editor built into Windows.
In what cases do I clean the registry myself?
Friends, at one time I experimented ad nauseum with various registry cleaners, but never came to a convincing result. I believe that there is no great need for constant automatic cleaning of the registry, since no automatic cleaning is as good as you think. If you deleted a program and it left its keys in the registry, then Windows will never access these keys and because of these keys there will in no way be a drop in system performance or any errors. Garbage in the registry can amount to several tens of kilobytes of unnecessary sections and have no noticeable impact on system speed
But you should still know how to delete unnecessary entries in the registry, and here's why.
As an example, I will give a real case. A friend of mine picked up a malicious program that ran executable file from the folder C:\Windows\AppPatch\hsgpxjt.exe. We successfully removed the virus, but the entries created in the registry by the malicious program remained, since the following window appeared when the system booted.
None of the existing automatic registry cleaners helped me then; they simply did not find malicious entries.
I had to manually find malicious keys in the registry located in the registry hives
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Windows
Keys added
Load REG_SZ C:\WINDOWS\apppatch\hsgpxjt.exe
Run REG_SZ C:\WINDOWS\apppatch\hsgpxjt.exe
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Key added
userinit REG_SZ C:\Windows\apppatch\hsgpxjt.exe
I wrote a detailed article about this case "" you can read it. From this article you can learn how to find unnecessary keys in the registry using the built-in Windows editor regedit.
Well, what can we wish for users who want to have an automatic tool for cleaning the registry at hand?
How to clean the registry with EnhanceMySe7en
Before using registry cleaner programs, I advise you to create a system restore point (let’s lay down a straw before we fall)
At one time I used the EnhanceMySe7en program, it is a very good tweaker for Windows 7, it includes two dozen convenient tools for Windows management 7. EnhanceMySe7en also contains a startup manager, defragmenter hard drive, a hard drive monitoring tool and process manager (some tools are only available in the paid version). This cool program is unfortunately not English language, but everything will be clear to you anyway.
Official website of the program http://seriousbit.com/tweak_windows_7/
Click Download v3.7.1, 12.6 MB and download the free version,
It does not contain some tools, for example hard defragmenter disk.
To start cleaning the registry you need to go to the Tools tab and click just one button Registry Cleaner.
Then you can view the Details or immediately click on the Delete button to Delete errors.
That's it, the registry is cleared.
How to clean the registry with CCleaner
Even more simple program CCleaner, which is used by the vast majority of users. It is installed on literally everyone who needs it and doesn’t need it. Sometimes it seems to me that it is part of a set of standard Windows programs. No matter what kind of computer they bring to me for repair, it will always be installed there.
You can download the program on its official website
http://ccleaner.org.ua/download/
Can you use a portable one? CCleaner version, working without installation and carrying it with you on a flash drive. There is even a version for Mac.
Downloaded, run the program as administrator.
First of all, go to Settings and select Russian language.
Registry tab. Click on the Search for problems button.
The first time the program finds a lot of errors.
Click Fix.
And select a location to save the backup.
Then you can view all registry errors or simply click the Fix marked ones button.
You will need this backup copy if something goes wrong after cleaning the registry. What could go wrong? For example, some already activated program will ask for activation again, but don’t worry, this happens very rarely. In this case, press double click right mouse on backup file registry
Answer Yes
Sooner or later everyone Windows user 7 experiences a noticeable decrease in operating system performance. As a rule, this problem is caused by the registry being filled with various garbage such as empty keys, links to deleted shortcuts, etc. Another sign of this kind of problem is the occurrence of atypical system errors. If such troubles occur, it is necessary to clean the registry.
Automatically
Automatic cleaning involves a procedure that does not require direct user participation and is carried out using special programs. This method is considered the safest, since its use does not affect files important to the system.
You can find many Windows 7 registry cleaning programs on the Internet. However, it is better to use proven, proven utilities, including CCleaner and TuneUp Utilities.
Optimization with CCleaner
CCleaner is a very popular application for cleaning and optimizing values. The program is available for free download, but it also has a paid Professional version, which is recommended for use in business. Suitable for all versions of Windows.
To properly optimize the registry with the CCleaner utility, you need to perform the following algorithm of actions:
- Download and install the application. Launch it.
- Select "Register". In the “Registry Integrity” tab, check all the boxes and click “Search for problems”.
- Click on the “Fix” button. If the program prompts you to save a backup copy, agree - this file will help you restore your data if something goes wrong during the correction. You can save the backup copy anywhere, as long as you don’t forget which save path you chose.
- Now you can move on to the correction. You can view detected problems and fix them individually, or remove them all at once using the “Fix all selected problems” button.
- When the removal is complete, click the “Close” button and search for problems again. If they are found, repeat the correction procedure. Do this until you see a message stating that there are no problems when checking.
Cleaning with TuneUp Utilities
TuneUp Utilities, or AVG PC TuneUp, is a multifunctional utility for configuring and optimizing the operating system, the functionality of which includes options for cleaning and defragmenting the registry. The program is shareware- the user is offered an introductory trial period, after which a license must be purchased to access all functions. Like CCleaner, it is suitable for all versions of Windows OS.
To fix registry problems using TuneUp Utilities, do the following:
To complete the registry optimization, you can defragment it, thereby eliminating defects and structural errors. This is done very simply:
- Click the Registry Defragmenter button on the Optimization tab.
- Click “Next” to perform the analysis. The utility will warn you that for the process to complete successfully, you need to close other programs - follow this advice and click OK.
- Wait for the process to complete. After that, select the appropriate one from the proposed options (“Run again and optimize” or “Optimize the next time the system starts”) and click “Yes”.
With TuneUp you can not only fix errors in the registry, but also perform many other useful functions, from optimizing PC performance to customizing visual design.
Manually
You can only resort to this method if you are a fairly experienced user, since inept handling of the registry can seriously harm the operating system. In some cases, it may even be necessary to reinstalling Windows. Therefore, if you do not fully understand what exactly you are going to do, it is better not to even think about how to clean the registry in Windows 7 manually.
If you are unshakable in your decision, before editing the registry, be sure to make a backup copy of it or create a system restore point (preferably choose the second) - this will allow you to return everything to its place if something does not go according to plan. To perform all the steps described below, you need to have administrator rights.
So, for manual cleaning you need to do the following:
- Create a restore point. To do this, click on the Start button, go to Control Panel and select “System and Security”. Go to the "System" section. On the left side of the window, select “System Protection”. In the dialog box that opens, click “Create”, enter the name of the recovery point and click OK. When the process completes successfully, click “Close”.
- To get into the registry, open the Start menu, type regedit in the search bar and press Enter.
- Find the HKEY_CURRENT_USER branch and open the Software section.
- Find out-of-date information about uninstalled programs and remove them.
- Open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE section and go to Software, and then repeat step 4.
- Confirm the changes and restart your PC.
This instruction will be useful primarily for users wondering how to clean the registry of viruses - after all, most often malware cannot be completely removed from the system in the usual ways. In the event of a virus infection, perform all operations from safe mode, otherwise you are unlikely to be able to destroy all records left by malware. By the way, pay special attention to the startup sections - most often viruses are written there so that they can be reintroduced into the system again and again when it is rebooted.
The described instructions will help you improve system performance, remove traces of virus activity and avoid errors. However, don't forget to do backups modified files to avoid unplanned system reinstallation.
During long-term operation of the computer, data about various actions is stored on it, which is recorded in the Windows registry. In addition to the necessary records, the “garbage” remaining after deleting programs is also saved.
The registry was created to organize information stored on a computer. If it overflows, it can become a serious problem, due to which further interaction with the computer will be limited. Let's take a closer look at how to clean the registry in Windows.
Windows 10 Registry - what is it
The Windows registry is a kind of database that stores information about OS settings, its user, file extensions, program settings, and computer configuration. It has a tree-like data storage system where system files to organize information.
The main disadvantages of using the registry in Windows are:
- Low resistance to failures.
- Registry fragmentation.
During system operation, all data in the registry is fragmented, which leads to a slowdown in computer speed. - Data accumulation.
Storing all the information leads to a gradual increase in the size of the registry. - Complex data transfer.
Transferring files with the settings of a particular program cannot be done by regular copying. It is necessary to copy the entire section, which will also lead to the movement of all the information contained with it.
In order not to overfill the registry and not slow down the system, it is necessary to carry out timely cleaning.
Manually cleaning the registry
In this article we will look at two ways to clean the registry - deleting unnecessary files manually or using specialized software. Both methods are suitable for operating versions Windows systems 7, 8, 8.1, 10.
This process takes a long time and consists of deleting the remaining application files or information about system errors. Let's look at cleaning the registry using the example of residual files after deletion antivirus program Avast.
At the end, when the registry is cleared, reboot the computer.
Important! Cleaning the registry yourself in this way is dangerous; if you accidentally delete a system fragment, your system may stop working. Restore deleted file impossible.
Clearing data on USB flash drives
You can also clear all information about devices ever connected to your computer, such as flash drives. After all, as a result of connecting and identifying new devices, the data is stored in the registry and fills the computer’s memory.
Important! Only experienced users can clean the registry manually, since a beginner does not know what needs to be deleted. The most correct solution would be to use special program, which will solve the congestion problem.
How to clean the registry using programs
There are many distributed on the Internet software products oriented towards working with the registry, two of the most popular are: “Wise Registry Cleaner” and “CCleaner”. As you already understood, this article discusses the work of the first program, because it is more advanced in terms of working with the registry.
Wise Registry Cleaner
The utility is designed to quickly and safely clean the operating system registry, as well as speed up computer performance. The main advantage is that the utility is completely free; you can download it from the official website.
Let's look at how to use it:
- After installing the program, run it. A program window will appear and you will be asked to do backup registry, click yes. While in the “Registry Cleaner” item → click “Deep Scan” for a complete cleaning.
- After scanning, information about problems, garbage and registry errors will be displayed → to fix it, click “Fix”.
- The program will correct all errors, remove garbage and display information about it.
- Also, for high-quality operation of the system, it is advisable to carry out “Optimization” and “Registry Compression”, which are done by analogy.
Avast Cleanup
This program is designed to remove temporary files from the system, garbage remaining after uninstalling programs, browser cache and other unnecessary data that only takes up disk space and slows down the system. Let's look at how to use the utility.
In addition to cleaning the system, using the utility you can optimize it, which consists of changing system settings, searching for dangerous applications, and removing unimportant elements from startup.
This utility easily copes with cleaning and optimizing the registry, but the main drawback is the lack free version. This program You can buy it on the official website by following the link.
Using specialized programs will save your time and thoroughly complete the task without negative consequences. By cleaning your computer in a couple of seconds, the utility will help you forget about the problem of registry congestion and problems associated with it. Your computer will start working much faster.