Manually backing up windows vista registry:

1. This is done with the help of system’s registry editor utility that comes with every operating system. This tool lets you manually edit and even backup a portion of registry. To do a backup, click on start button > Run > type regedit > File menu > Export > Enter file name > select the required Export range – partial, specific or complete backup > save the file.
2. You can also use system restore tool which is available in windows vista. Restoring is enabled on default once your PC meets all its required specifications. This lets to take your computer back in time, like a time machine, to the latest known working condition. This is helpful when the system fails. This is another way to manually backup and restore your registry in which that, you can only backup the registry wholly and any changes that made after that time you decided to travel back is not available to the registry. That is the only pitfall of this method. Using the system restore, if you are a technical person, you can get into where the system restore saves its file and then find where the registry is saved and take a copy for backup, although this is only recommended for advanced users.
3. If you have a windows vista Enterprise or ultimate or business version of the OS, there is a utility called “Windows Complete Backup and Restore”. This like the method 2 will only take a full backup and there is no way to partially backup.

Automatically backing up windows vista registry:

You can do this with a registry cleaner tool. There are many registry cleaner tools available in the internet that will let you backup your registry automatically. But make sure you invest in a commercial registry cleaner to get the most of it. Commercial tool will have a sophisticated one-click automatic registry backup feature that lets you backup before each scan or just whenever you want it. You can also schedule the backup just like scheduling the scanning. You can do all kinds of backup with a registry cleaner tool – partial or whole without any hassles!

So I recommend you to schedule the backup regularly or do it periodically.  When you do that don’t just save a copy of the backup file to your hard disk drive alone, but also a copy in USB drive and another copy in external Hard disk drive like I do! Make sure you have multiple copies so that if one copy gets lost or corrupted, you can always use another one.

To open a registry editor, called the Regedit.exe, go to start menu > Run > Type “Regedit” without quotes, and press the enter key!

Upon opening of a registry editor, you see 5 basic root keys, where other configurations are organized under them. These 5 root keys are all prefixed with “HKEY” and the names are separated by underscore “_” and not space. For example, they look like,

1. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER
3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
4. HKEY_USERS
5. HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

Why taking care of registry is vital?

As a computer takes its toll upon frequent installation and un-installation of software’s and hardware’s device drivers, their registry entries are also frequently modified or deleted or become obsolete and invalid. Overtime, the registry gets bloated up with all these entries that are of no use and gets cluttered up. This gets in the way of normal and fast operation of software and hardware. Thus taking care of registry is vital!

How to take care registry?

You can take care of registry by periodically checking it and re-organizing it, by removing the clutter. This is called scanning the registry. Scanning the registry will boost up your PC performance. This is difficult if you don’t know how to do it. Even registry experts are not fully confident about the outcome of a manual scanning process. It messes up even for them! A wrong editing can disable the performance of software or hardware completely since scanning is the last resort for PC technicians to restore a compromised or malfunctioning computer!

Since manual editing of each and every entry of registry is impossible, imagine tens of thousands of entries that are need to be scanned! You can use registry cleaner software to scan and fix the registry automatically. With the in-depth scan technology these programs dig deeper into the core of registry for every possible entry in every nuke and corner. You need to get commercial software to get the job done efficiently, as the freeware utilities fail to stand up in par of the commercial versions.

Other applications of a registry scanner!

Scanning the registry will keep windows registry organized thus speeding up your computer. But there are also other applications. When your computer is infected with virus, Trojan, worms or spyware, it’s necessary that you scan the registry. Because these malwares attack the registry and modify entries and even corrupt them! So after clearing them with antivirus program and antispyware program, it’s vital that you scan your registry too!

In this information age, with every household has a computer, the crime is focused on computers! The cyber crime happens with a virus, spyware, Trojan, and worm attack. And those crimes can be small like just to steal your instant messenger password to big ones like hijacking your online bank account! So don’t leave any chance of these threats happen to you. Keep your PC clean, especially with the registry; make sure it’s clean and safe. Invest in a good registry cleaner. You can do a free scan of your computer’s registry just above this article. Thus scanning the registry is vital for smooth, efficient and safe computing experience!

Windows registry can also save potentially harmful tweaks, so it must be well secured. It becomes corrupted as a resulted of these threats and must be fixed in order to get it back working well. Thus backing up the windows registry then and there is significant. It must atleast be backed up after the purchase of a computer before installing all the programs and software packages. It must also be backed up when important files are to be preserved, because if anything goes wrong you can’t revert back.

How to backup windows registry?

If you area new windows user, you must know where the registry is located. You can go to startmenu > run > type “regedit” without quotes. You then get a registry editor where you can take a backup.

Editing the windows registry (Manual Registry Fixing):

Editing is vital as it can re-organize and compact the registry which later on improves the system performance. Editing also solves the problem if you have a missing font, icon or wallpaper. It’s necessary that you be aware of the files of the programs you are working with while editing. When the registry is big you can use the search function to search for the keywords that represent your program to quickly access it. Because naturally navigating to the program file entries is tiresome. After you have selected a file entry to edit, its contents are displayed in the right side of the registry editor. Be cautious that you know what you are doing so as to not mess up with the program configuration. After the editing is done save and close the registry editor. Restart the computer for the change to be effective. This is manual fixing of the registry. For example you have uninstalled limewire, and need to remove the invalid entries in the registry. You can search for limewire and then delete all the file entries manually. Thus fixing the problem connected with limewire if you have one.

Automatic Registry Fixing:

You can do that by using a windows registry cleaner. It is a third party program and not available by default with the windows OS. You can find a registry cleaner in the PCworld.com site and PC forums. Go through the expert reviews of each registry cleaner, and get the opinions of different PC users from the forums. There are also free registry cleaners but it’s always what you get for what you pay for. The paid ones are not that expensive. So better consider investing into one. But before making a purchase make sure that the registry cleaner is compatible with your windows OS. For example if you use Windows Vista or Xp make sure it’s compatible. You can also use the free scan above this article, where we give a free trial download of our best recommended registry cleaner available in the market.

Though advanced it in its process, it like its predecessors still uses a registry as its vital information manager while kernel being the core. Thus it’s obvious that the registry issues experienced with the older versions like Windows Xp, Windows Me… are also observed in Windows vista too! Since registry is still the heart of this enhanced version of the MS OS family, the problems in the registry such as file corruption, invalid entries and being bloated is still a threat to the PC!

Thus regardless of the versions, the concept of understanding the core of the registry problem is helpful in resolving modern registry errors. With the good comes the bad too, the windows vista registry is more advanced and sophisticated but still it has more potential threats, and before you start to worry, the tools that fixes problems are intelligent as well.

If you are not well aware of the structure of the registry or what it did so far in the windows operating system, let me give a quick overview of that. Registry is like said before is the heart of the PC. It registers and stores the mandatory component of software, hardware, device drivers and other system components. All the information about any program you name it, the settings are registered in the registry. All programs use windows registry to save its user, application and process settings. Even your windows user profile data is also stored in this big registry.

Why the system still suffers from slow execution even with this enhanced version of OS?

The registry cannot stop accepting entries from wide variety of programs. Likewise it can remove all the invalid entries on its own when a program removes and ceases to use the registry anymore. Thus in overtime the registry is cluttered without proper management. The house keeping is unfortunately not automatically carried out. Thus the registry bloats up with too many entries that are invalid and no longer active. This may even induce conflict with other working entries. Just imagine that there are lots of invalid and useless files in your office room that are just collecting dust and only occupying space and troubling the easy access of needed files. It’s the same scenario with this registry too. With large and unorganized registry the system has to spend more time sorting out to get the information it wants, thus the more system processing time and slow PC!

Despite that, the infiltration of malwares such as virus, spyware, Trojans, worms, adware… only creates garbage in the registry. Let alone be the invalid and useless entries, how about an entry that harms and creeps into your valuable file infecting it without your notice? Even antivirus and antispyware doesn’t clean all the mess made by these malwares!

So what is the solution or the bottom line?

Registry re-organization and fixing is the call! This is where a tool like registry cleaner or optimizer comes into the picture. It makes sure that the registry is organized, compact and easy to access thus speeding up the computing time that it takes accessing the registry. Since the softwares and hardwares always keep communicating with the registry, imagine what a compact and optimized registry can do? It not only improves the PC speed but it also keeps the system error free and hassle free. Thus it’s vital that you invest in a registry cleaner if you haven’t yet already! The registry cleaner is fully automated, with a push of a button it’s programmed to re-organize, clean, and fix the registry clearing all the invalid and corrupted entries. By scheduling the registry cleaner to run atleast once a day the system health is good. It just won’t be fast but also error free and safe. But before you buy just any registry cleaner, make sure its Windows Vista compatible. The registry cleaner we recommend in this site already meets all our requirements!