Why do registry errors keep coming back

Determine which registry hive section is growing. If it seems that the problem in the registry hive is growing too large, you may be able to determine which section is growing and to trace this back to a process that is writing to the hive. Feedback will be sent to Microsoft: By pressing the submit button, your feedback will be used to improve Microsoft products and services.

Privacy policy. Skip to main content. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Contents Exit focus mode. Applies to: Windows 10 - all editions, Windows Server R2 Original KB number: Summary If your computer does not restart, the registry hives may be corrupted. More information There are many reasons why a registry hive may be corrupted. Power Failure A power failure or some other unexpected shutdown event may cause a corrupted registry hive. File Corruption and Faulty Hardware Other files may be corrupted.

This hardware may include anything that is involved in writing to a disk, such as the following: The random access memory RAM The cache The processor The disk controller If you suspect faulty hardware, the hardware vendor must thoroughly investigate the condition of all computer components.

The Registry Is Written to at Shutdown If one or two registries hives consistently become corrupted for no reason, the problem probably occurs at shutdown and is not discovered until you try to load the registry hive at the next restart. Troubleshoot To troubleshoot this issue, follow these steps.

I removed the product name from the question because I did not, in fact, recommend it. My assumption is that the reader misinterpreted an ad which is provided by Google as a recommendation on my part. Long time readers may recall my somewhat controversial position that the best registry clean is no registry cleaner. By that I mean that I do not recommend regularly running registry cleaners at all.

The registry is nothing more than a managed database; a very simple loosely structured database into which programs including Windows can store and retrieve information on a system-wide or per-user basis. In reality, there are very few rules as to what goes into the registry. And that, in turn, leads to the most egregious problem with registry cleaners: they make assumptions about what is and is not an error, and what is and is not dirty or clean.

The bad news is that a lot of those assumptions are often at the very least questionable, and frequently wrong. Now you exit Word, and later delete the file you edited. Some applications choose to leave behind your settings and customizations so that information is not lost should you re-install the application. Even then, it simply is what it is. One may call it an error, another may warn, and a third may ignore it all together.

And yes, for the record, I do believe that the entire concept of the registry, while initially a laudable approach to solving several different problems, has gone far, far astray. Like most geeks, I now much prefer the Linux -style approach of using plain text files in specific ways for keeping the same kinds of information currently kept in the registry.

Subscribe to Confident Computing! Another problem with the way that the Windows registry has evolved is that even Microsoft keeps changing where system settings are stored from one version of Windows to the next. Now CCleaner keeps deleting my quick launch toolbar.

Do an online search to investigate any that are unfamiliar. When you open the tool, the the registry scan process will start automatically. In a few easy steps, you will be able to find and clear invalid entries, references and links in the registry. It provides a list of the errors found, and you can choose to repair particular items or automatically repair them all.

It also offers automatic registry backup before making any changes to the Windows registry, which helps mitigate risk. Also, whenever you clean the registry, a corresponding Undo file is generated, so you can easily revert any changes.

This free tool can be upgraded to Glarysoft Utilities , which offer features such as registry cleaner, shortcut fixer, spyware remover, disk repair, track eraser, temporary file cleaner and startup manager. This Piriform product is probably the best registry repair tool.

The tool asks you whether to back up the registry before making any changes. With CCleaner, you can also perform a quick or in-depth analysis of your files, disk and registry; remove any program leftovers; and choose which applications to run at Windows PC startup. Moreover, you can manage all your browser plug-ins, find unnecessary duplicates, clean your drivers and more. The CCleaner software also comes in a paid version CCleaner Professional , but the freeware version is sufficient for most Windows registry cleanup tasks.

The paid version provides automatic browser cleaning, real-time monitoring and technical support, which can greatly improve system performance.

This registry cleaner is refreshingly simple; you use checkboxes to choose which types of registry entry to scan for. The registry is backed up by default before you make any changes, and can be restored using the Rescue Center option.

You can drill down and see exactly which registry keys will be deleted before committing to anything. Any registry entries can be added to an ignore list to exclude them from the current scan and future scans. Nevertheless, Registry Cleaner remains a solid free Windows registry repair application. This good tool to repair the registry has minimalistic interface that looks rather dated. It includes several buttons and a panel where the results are displayed.

Free Windows Registry Repair had the longest scan time of all the registry cleaners tested, but the results of the scan look decent. You should occasionally confirm that your Windows computer is devoid of broken items in the registry.

The point is: You stand to benefit more from removing or fixing broken registry files than leaving them to bloat the registry. Windows has a number of built-in tools that can help diagnose issues with registry files. Proceed to the next section to learn how to use these tools to fix broken registry items on a Windows PC. Note: The Windows Registry is a database of sensitive files and settings. Damaging any registry file may corrupt the Windows OS and cause your computer to malfunction.

Creating a backup serves as your insurance should anything go wrong. This guide on backing up and restoring the Windows Registry has everything you need to know. The Disk Cleanup tool that lets you remove unnecessary files from your computer, this includes broken registry items. To access this tool, type disk cleanup in the Windows Search box and click Disk Cleanup in the results. These are redundant temporary files that your computer can do without.

You can click on a file type and check the Description section to learn more about the file and what it does.