clean windows registry

The registry is the blood/backbone/heart/brain of your computer’s software. Actually, whatever metaphor we use, it is exactly as important as it sounds for Windows computer. Windows registry contains all the configuration settings for Windows system, drivers and applications. In other words, everything you do on your Windows is recorded in the registry.

Just like the broken dishwasher at your grandma’s garage, Windows registry doesn’t clean itself up automatically and efficiently. It consistently creates new files but barely ever deletes old or useless entries, which won’t have the same obvious effect as removing bloatware, or free up disk space does on PC performance. However, invalid or corrupted registry keys could potentially cause a blue screen with error messages, failure to run certain programs or more.

Before we start to explain how to clean your Windows 10 registry, keep this in mind: be extremely careful when you delete or change anything. Always backup your registry first.

How to clean your Windows 10 Registry safely

Letting a registry cleaner remove the registry keys it finds as problematic or invalid is perfectly safe. Running a registry clean with Windows registry cleaning tools is the easiest way which just needs a two-click move in most. Take Neptune SystemCare for example. There’re two ways to clean registry with the help of this utility.

One Click PC-Checkup

1. Download and Install Neptune SystemCare.

2. Launch it and click PC Checkup at the first screen.

3. Wait a few seconds. This process will scan and find out problems like the errored registry keys, browser cookies, invalid system files and more on your computer.

4. Click Fix to solve the problem the tool just found out.

Registry Cleaner

1. Download and Install Neptune SystemCare.

2. Launch it and go to System Cleaner tab > Registry Cleaner on the left-side bar.

3. Click Scan to start checking up.

4. Problem solved.

Removing Registry Entries Manually

If you’re sure that certain registry key is the root of a problem, you can remove it using the windows regedit tool manually.

1. Access to Registry Editor.

Press Windows + R on your keyboard to open Run command box.

2. Type regedit.exe and press enter. If a user account control window pops up and requests for admin permission, click Yes to proceed.


3. Now you get in Windows Registry window. You could click the arrow beside the main registry folders and delete it by right-clicking on it and choose Delete.

One more tip: one of the best ways to find out the invalid registry keys is to search for registry entries of software that you have uninstalled. Using the left side navigation panel, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER and then to Software.

It is not recommended to mess around with registry keys in any Windows version unless you clearly understand what exactly you should do and the impact of your gesture. Create a registry restore point first is always a good idea just in case something wrong occurs.