Computer Protection: Computer Registry

Re-optimizing your computer after the theats have been eliminated

An example of what your computer registry looks like (pardon the spanish!)

All computers running Windows have something called a registry. You can think of your computer registry as a living archive, constantly updating and keeping track of everything. Its knowledge ranges from everything about what you installed, ran and scheduled to all of your user accounts and passwords needed to log on to your machine.

We read something about the computer registry a while ago, and the author used a great analogy that we would like to share with you: if we think of computer infiltration as a game of capture-the-flag, there is no doubt that the computer registry would be the flag. As you may have already guessed, the computer registry is one of the primary places intruders go to learn about your machine and figure out its weaknesses. Not only this, but with the appropriate privileges, intruders can modify your computer registry, which could lead to a variety of things such as removing evidence of their presence on your computer to corrupting programs or even your entire operating system.

With the above in mind, the first thing you should do is the following:

BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER REGISTRY BEFORE YOU DO ANY MODIFICATIONS TO IT!

To backup your registry, do the following:

• Click Start, then Run...
• In the new box that opens, type "regedit" (without the quotes) and click OK. If by chance regedit doesn't work, try typing in regedit32 for older versions of Windows.
• You are now in the registry. Now click File, and then Export...
• Enter a name and directory where you want to save your registry and click OK.
• Go to File and Exit to exit out of the registry.

We will not describe how to manually do anything with your computer registry because it is a very sensitive and dangerous thing to mess around with if you do not know what you are doing. The best thing to do is use automated tools that have been specifically designed to modify your registry without damaging it. Make sure to check out our recommended tool for fixing and optimizing your computer registry.  It will take care of everything automatically!