It can be a very frustrating problem: A computer that you spent quite a bit of money on is suddenly not working right. It's either very slow, or spitting out error messages, or just flat out crashing and freezing on you.

What Causes A Computer To Slow Down?

You see, Windows allows for the dynamic use of your PC. This means that you can add and remove programs, change settings, and generally do whatever you want. Many people use their computer for all sorts of things: downloading music, playing video games, editing photos and movies, and lots more.

This is where problems arise. One of the biggest causes of a computer's "slowness" is a cluttered registry. Every time you install or uninstall a new program, the registry undergoes quite a bit of renovation as entries are created or removed. Sometimes when you uninstall something it doesn't get removed completely, leaving behind old registry entries.

So How The Heck Did This Happen?

The reason the Windows XP registry is prone to multiple problems is because it's stored just like any other file on your computer. It's not exactly more "secure" than any other file.

Every time a program is installed or uninstalled, or a piece of hardware is added, removed, or upgraded, the Windows registry gets changed around. Too many changes and the registry starts to get cluttered with entries that have been left behind by incomplete uninstall processes. This is where things get ugly, and it's a common reason why people have computer problems.

The Windows registry is like the central nervous system of your computer, storing important preference and settings files for hardware, software, and even Windows itself. Windows constantly reads from the registry as you use your computer.

The registry can become cluttered with old, broken, obsolete, and corrupted entries rather easily. For example, when you uninstall a program it sometimes doesn't remove all its registry entries. These leftover files and folders build up over time, causing problems when Windows tries to read the registry.

The Best Way To Speed Up A Slow Computer

A registry cleaner can scan your registry and clean out all the broken, corrupt, and obsolete files, streamlining the registry and allowing Windows to have a much easier time reading it. It's a great way to fix the Windows registry.

Recently we tested a great registry cleaner called RegCure on our IBM Thinkpad Laptop. We wrote about it in our RegCure review. The laptop had been taking a very long time to boot up. After running RegCure, 726 errors were found and removed, and the boot time of the laptop was cut clean in half.