How to Use Regedit to Make a Registry Backup
It‘s a good idea to make regular backups of all your important computer data and a registry backup is no exception. The registry is an integral part of your Windows system, which stores important information about your computer and installed software programs.
Therefore, it makes sense to make a backup once in while in case something goes wrong with it. Making a registry backup is therefore essential because every program that you install will mean changes to the registry and badly written software can cause major problems with it.
Making a backup of your registry is a great idea if this happens to you.
- You install a malware program that takes control of your web browser.
- An installed application is causing problems now but was working fine when you created the backup.
Making a regular registry backup (say once a week) could save you many problems along the way and it is easy enough to do with a commercial registry cleaner, which will do it automatically.
If you don’t have a registry cleaner program though, you can use a program called Regedit, which comes installed with Windows tself.
To start Regedit this is what you must do;
- Click on the Start button, which should be on the left of your Windows taskbar.
- Click on Run…
- In the box that appears type regedit and then press the Enter key.
- A window will now appear with the title ‘Registry Editor’.
- Click on the File menu, and select Export.
- Choose the location where you wish to save the registry backup file.
- Type in a name for the file.
- Click on the Save button.
You now have a backup of your Windows registry! Easy wasn’t it?
By the way, registry backups can be many megabytes so after a while delete some of the older backups to save disk space.
Now you might be asking; “How do I restore the registry from a backup?”
Once again, this is quite simple.
- Find the backup file you saved earlier.
- Double click on it.
- You will then be asked if you are sure if you want to add the data to your registry.
- Click on Yes and the registry will be restored automatically.
As you can see, making a registry backup with Regedit is safe and requires no great knowledge of using a Windows PC.
Final words about the registry…
Many people have no idea what the registry is or even how to view its contents, which is good in a way because it stops them from making changes to the data held inside. One little mistake in editing the registry could stop your computer from starting up so don’t make manual edits to the registry unless you know exactly what you are doing.
If you want to keep your registry in optimum condition at all times consider using a reliable registry cleaner program instead which will also make a backup for you.
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Cleaning the Windows Registry is Easy With the Right Software
Remember when you first bought your powerful new Windows PC and how programs just popped up onto the screen in an instant? Ah, those were the days. But have you noticed that for some time that initial zip seems to have gone to be replaced by sluggish and frustratingly slow performance?
Unless you have a serious problem is not the hardware that is usually slowing our PC down, but useless digital data from programs that have been loaded since you first bought your PC.
Is your PC clogged with digital dust?
One of the main culprits for slow PCs is the registry that resides deep inside your computer settings which helps Windows to keep track of thousands of bits of data that are vitally important for your PC to operate at optimum efficiency. Some of these bits of data are unfortunately left behind when you make changes to your software and begin to clog up the registry.
Just like the carburettor on a car, when the registry is clogged with digital debris then the machines performance suffers dramatically. Like most things though, DIY registry repairs can leave you in a worse mess than you started with and you need the services of a real expert to tune up your PC properly.
Get an expert to clean your registry.
No, you don’t need to shell out for a computer expert to clean your registry - just get an easy to use software utility called a registry cleaner. Much cheaper too.
A registry cleaner is a bit like a highly trained mechanic; it can diagnose problems such as application runtime errors, slow application startup times, slow Windows start-up, extremely slow shut down, inability to resume from computer sleep and more.
No need to get your hands dirty editing the registry manually.
With a good registry cleaner you will find the difficult and highly technical process of cleaning up your registry a piece of cake. With a quick scan and the click of a button, a registry cleaner will automatically remove all the leftover data clogging up your computer’s registry.
The result is a fully optimized registry that will make your computer run faster and less prone to computer crashes.
How do you choose a good registry cleaner?
The problem with registry cleaners is that there are so many to choose from.
Some are great, some are good, some are OK and some are downright dangerous fakes that are Spyware in disguise.
Not only will these Spyware fakes change important computer settings to stop you removing them, but they might also collect personal information such as credit card numbers.
They don’t call it Spyware for nothing.
Leaving Spyware in the digital dustbin where it belongs, let’s look at what features a registry cleaner should have for it to do a first-class job of cleaning up your registry.
A good registry cleaner should find and fix these registry problems...
Invalid paths
Missing fonts
File types
CLSID
DLLs
Sound
Help files
Shell extensions
AppEvents
Class Keys
It should be easy to use
The best registry cleaning utilities should have a user-friendly interface that keeps you informed at all times during a scan. It should be easy to understand even for users who know little about computers.
It should be safe to use
Many people will be understandably nervous that, by using a registry repair program to alter the registry, they might mess things up. Thankfully, the best registry utilities will allow you to make a registry backup before any changes are made. This means that the registry can be restored in the highly unlikely event that something goes wrong.
It should have good help documentation
(The less computer jargon the better it is for us humans to understand.)
Good customer support if problems arise in use.
(Easy to contact and quick response to all user enquiries)
Recommended Registry Cleaners
With so many registry cleaners available it is difficult to test every single one of them. In fact, many of them are basically the same software but simply rebranded under another name. The best ones, though, are stand-alone products designed with quality and effectiveness in mind.
The following ones fit most of the important criteria with some having a few more features than the others have, but all will do a good job of fixing your registry. They use the most advanced repair technology and are generally safe and easy to use.
Read reviews of these registry cleaners right now, with the rest coming soon.